Chocolate of the Day
Divine Chocolate Inc.
Exquisitely Rich Dark Chocolate 85% Cocoa (bar)
Good
Weight: 1.5 oz. (42.5 g.) / 3 oz. (85 g.) in total bar
Calories: 255 calories in 1/2 bar
Cost: $ missing information
Purchased from: missing information
Divine Chocolate Inc.
White Chocolate with Strawberries (bar)
Good
Weight: 1.75 oz. (50 g.) / 3.5 oz. (100 g.) in total bar
Calories: 275 calories in 1/2 bar
Cost: $ missing information
Purchased from: missing information
Welcome to Day #6 of Ghana and Ivory Coast Theme Week.
Today's 85% Cocoa Dark Chocolate and White Chocolate with Strawberries (bars) were made in Germany and distributed by Divine Chocolate Inc. (Washington, D.C.).
The company is partly owned (44%) by cacao farmers--who also share in the profits--and has focused on fair trade practices. They offer a variety of bars, many with flavor inclusions.
Today's two Divine chocolate bars were both swaddled in shiny foil wrappers and had outer wrappers adorned with West African traditional Adrinka symbols.* And both contained cacao from Ghanaian farmers. But, the similarities ended there.
Dark Chocolate 85% (Ghana)
This ultra-dark bar had an aroma with bold, dense dark chocolate, slightly bitter roasted cereal grain, and faint brown sugar spice notes.
Biting into this ebony-colored bar revealed a very creamy, smooth nut-butter like melt and mouthfeel (think finely ground, very creamy peanut butter). A generous amount of cocoa butter helped coat and tame any bitter flavor notes. The slightly muted, bitter dark chocolate was fairly uniform (in texture and flavor) throughout the tasting experience.
White Chocolate with Strawberries
The first two ingredients in this bar: sugar, followed by cocoa butter. (No cocoa solids that give the dark brown color to chocolate.) Happily, this white chocolate confection of a bar was made with real cocoa butter (and not cheaper oil substitutes as is often the case in the industry).
Whereas the first 85% cocoa bar was densely dark--almost austere--with very little sugar, this white chocolate bar was downright effervescent: ivory embedded with dark pink bits. It smelled and tasted like vanilla and strawberry cake or, perhaps more accurately, like the thick layer of thick, buttercream vanilla and strawberry frosting that might top such a cake.
The sweet "cake" finish lingered a bit after the last bite. While some may find today's first Divine 85 percent bar too severe and may delight in this white confection of a second bar, the latter was too sweet for me. Or, perhaps it was just too much of a contrast between the two bars.
*West African Adrinka symbols are pictorial representations of conceptualized objects. For example, the symbol known as a reconciliation knot symbolizes reconciliation, peace and harmony; and an Adrinka fern symbol stands for endurance, perseverance and peaceful coexistence. For more information about Adrinka symbols, go to www.divinechocolate.com/adrinkas.
