Hu Kitchen - Hazelnut Butter Dark Chocolate bar - Sept. 10, 2018

Chocolate of the Day: 

Hu Kitchen / Hu Chocolate
Hazelnut Butter Dark Chocolate bar
Good + - Good ++
Weight: 1.05 oz. (30 g.) / 2.1 oz. (60 g.) in total bar
Calories: 170 calories in 1/2 bar
Cost: $5.99 for 1 bar
Purchased from: Piazza's Fine Foods, Palo Alto, CA


Welcome to Day #7 of Chocolate and Hazelnut Theme Week.

Today's Hazelnut Butter Dark Chocolate bar was from Hu Kitchen (New York, NY).

Hu Kitchen is a paleo-oriented restaurant in New York City. The founders and their team also make and sell their own chocolate bars and coffee.

This filled dark bar had a smooth, fairly creamy texture and melt. And the paleo vegan chocolate (made with organic house-ground cacao) had aroma and flavor notes of true dark chocolate, roasted hazelnuts, and very faint roasted coffee.

Tony's Chocolonely - Milk Chocolate Hazelnut 32% bar - Sept. 9, 2018

Chocolate of the Day: 

Tony's Chocolonely

Milk Chocolate Hazelnut 32% bar 

Good ++

Weight: 1 oz. (28.3 g.) / 6 oz. (170 g.) in total bar

Calories: 160 calories in 1/6 bar

Cost: $4.89 for 1 bar

Purchased from: New Leaf Market, Half Moon Bay, CA

Welcome to Day #6 of Chocolate and Hazelnut Theme Week.

Today's generously-sized, Milk Chocolate Hazelnut 32% bar was distributed by Tony's Chocolonely Inc. (Amsterdam, Netherlands; and Portland, OR).

The company's mission is to make slave-free chocolate the norm.* This is a big, worthy goal. I can't speak to the results they might be achieving. (They've sold more than 28 million bars and helped raise money and awareness. And they talk more about results on their website.) However, I did sample their chocolate and enjoyed it.

The bar had a warm milk chocolate and hazelnut aroma and flavor. Bits of hazelnut added light crunchy texture to the smooth chocolate, that had uniformly pleasing taste from start to finish. (European chocolate companies know how to produce great chocolate and hazelnut offerings.)

*Journalist, Teun van de Keuken, after finding out that child slavery still existed on cocoa farms, publicly declared himself a chocolate criminal, and decided to continue doing more research, which eventually led to the founding of Tony's Chocolonely and the selling of slave-free chocolate.

Primal Kitchen - Chocolate Hazelnut bar - Sept. 8, 2018

Chocolate of the Day: 

Primal Kitchen 

Chocolate Hazelnut Bar with Grass-Fed Collagen

Good - Good +

Weight: 1.7 oz. (48 g.) in total bar

Calories: 230 calories in 1 bar

Cost: $3.79 for 1 bar

Purchased from: Country Sun Natural Foods, Palo Alto, CA

Welcome to Day #5 of Chocolate and Hazelnut Theme Week.

Today's Chocolate Hazelnut Bar with Grass-Fed Collagen was created by Primal Kitchen (Oxnard, CA), and is part of the company's line of Collagen Nut and Seed bars developed by founder Mark Sisson.

In this refreshingly un-sugared* (thank you!) bar, unsweetened chocolate and organic fair-trade cacao powder were paired with a generous helping of pumpkin seeds, toasted hazelnuts and almonds, along with the aforementioned grass-fed collagen.

Why collagen? Collagen is an important protein in our body. It seems our ability to produce collagen diminishes with age; and there is evidence that ingesting collagen may help skin, hair and nails. (I can remember people drinking gelatin many years ago, hoping to achieve similar results.) Today's chocolate hazelnut nutrition bar seems like a tastier way to get your collagen.

*This Chocolate Hazelnut bar contained 3 grams of sugars (honey was #7 on the ingredient list); and total carbohydrate count was 13 grams (includes Cassava Root fiber).

Trader Joe's - Nothing but Fruit and Nuts: Date - Hazelnut - Cacao - Sept. 7, 2018

Chocolate of the Day: 

Trader Joe's
Nothing but Fruit and Nuts - Date - Hazelnut - Cacao
Good
Weight: .88 oz. (25 g.) / 7.04 oz. (200 g.) in package
Calories: 80 calories in 1 piece
Cost: $3.99 for 1 package of 8 pieces
Purchased from: Trader Joe's, Mountain View, CA

Welcome to Day #4 of Chocolate and Hazelnut Theme Week.

Today's package of individually-wrapped "Nothing but Fruit and Nuts: Hazelnut - Date - Cacao" pieces were from Trader Joe's (Monrovia, CA).

Dates tend to impart a distinctive fruity sweetness and moist, dense texture. The cacao and hazelnuts took a back seat to the dates.

These flavorful snack rounds were "nothing but" three ingredients: dates (date paste), hazelnuts and cacao. Refreshing (and unusual for packaged foods).

Larabar - Chocolate Hazelnut Bites - Sept. 6, 2018

Chocolate of the Day:

Distributed by Small Planet Foods, Inc.
Larabar Bites - Chocolate Hazelnut
Good
Weight: 1.06 oz. (30 g.) / 5.3 oz. (150 g.) in total package
Calories: 130 calories in 1 serving (4 pieces)
Cost: $8.99 for 1 package
Purchased from: Country Sun Natural Foods, Palo Alto, CA

Welcome to Day #3 of Chocolate and Hazelnut Theme Week.

Today's Larabar Chocolate Hazelnut Bites were distributed by Small Planet Foods, Inc. (Minneapolis, MN).

These soft, flavorful Bites had a distinct date* flavor and subtle chocolate and nut notes. They were gluten free, non-dairy, vegan and Non-GMO Project Verified.

*Ingredients: Dates, Almonds, Semisweet Chocolate Chips (unsweetened chocolate, sugar, cocoa butter, vanilla extract), hazelnuts, coconut flour, cocoa powder, vanilla extract. 

Trader Joe's - Nothing but Fruit and Nuts: Date, Hazelnut, Cacao - Sept. 7, 2018

Chocolate of the Day: 

Trader Joe's
Nothing but Fruit and Nuts - Date - Hazelnut - Cacao
Good
Weight: .88 oz. (25 g.) / 7.04 oz. (200 g.) in package
Calories: 80 calories in 1 piece
Cost: $3.99 for 1 package of 8 pieces
Purchased from: Trader Joe's, Mountain View, CA

Welcome to Day #4 of Chocolate and Hazelnut Theme Week.

Today's package of individually-wrapped "Nothing but Fruit and Nuts: Hazelnut - Date - Cacao" pieces were from Trader Joe's (Monrovia, CA).

Dates tend to impart a distinctive fruity sweetness and moist, dense texture. The cacao and hazelnuts took a back seat to the dates.

These flavorful snack rounds were "nothing but" three ingredients: dates (date paste), hazelnuts and cacao. Refreshing (and unusual for packaged foods).

Loving Earth - Berry Crunch Hazelnut Mylk bar - Sept. 5, 2018

Chocolate of the Day: 

Loving Earth Inc.
Organic Bean to Bar - Berry Crunch Hazelnut Mylk bar
Good
Weight: 1.25 oz. (35 g.) / 2.5 oz. (70 g.) in total bar
Calories: 190 calories in 1/2 bar
Cost: $2.99 (estimate) for 1 bar
Purchased from: Grocery Outlet Bargain Market, Palo Alto, CA

Welcome to Day #2 of Chocolate and Hazelnut Theme Week,

Today's Berry Crunch Hazelnut Mylk Chocolate 30% cacao bar was from Loving Earth Inc. (Upper St. Clair, PA).* The company specializes in raw, Organic chocolate.

This vegan bean-to-bar, "mylk" chocolate had a different melt and mouthfeel than traditional dairy milk chocolate. The "fat" was provided by organic cocoa butter and raw creamed hazelnuts. These two combined with other ingredients gave the bar a quicker melt and and slightly more granular texture.

Two other things influenced the texture: sugar and temperature. The bar was made with coconut sugar (no cane sugar) and it was relatively cold (about 65 degrees F.) when I ate it.

The raw cacao used to make the bar was sourced from the Ashaninka community in the Amazon; and the relatively low percentage (30% cacao solids) made the cacao flavor relatively faint. There was also no identifiable hazelnut flavor from the raw, creamed hazelnuts. (Hazelnuts often pick up a lot of their characteristic flavor when roasted.)

Berry Crunch was the right name for this bar. The emphasis was more on the berries and sprouted buckwheat. The tart-sweet (apple juice sweetened) cranberries provided an occasional spike of pleasing dried fruit sweetness. And the buckwheat provided some soft crunchiness in the background.

*The bar was made in Melbourne, Australia.