Siamaya Chocolate - Thai Tea Milk Chocolate (bar) - Sept. 8, 2020

Chocolate of the Day

Siamaya Chocolate (aka Siamaya Craft Co., Ltd)
Thai Tea Milk Chocolate (bar)
Good 
Weight: 2.65 oz. (75 g.) in 1 bar
Calories: 375 calories in 1 bar
Cost: $9.00 for 1 bar
Purchased from: Chocolate Covered, San Francisco, CA

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

Today's Thai Tea Milk Chocolate (bar) from Siamaya Chocolate (Chang Mai, Thailand) had subtle and uniform, milky, sweet tea aroma and flavor notes throughout the tasting experience--with a fleeting hint of star anise and a light sweet, authentic Thai tea finish.

Ingredients: Cacao nibs, organic cane sugar, powdered milk, cocoa butter.

Fu Wan Chocolate - Taiwan Charcoal Oolong Tea Chocolate (bar) - Aug. 7, 2020

 Chocolate of the Day

Fu Wan Chocolate
62% dark Taiwan Charcoal Oolong Tea Chocolate (bar)
Good ++ 
Weight: 1.59 oz. (45 g.) in total bar
Calories: 283 calories (per label) in 1 bar
Cost: $16.00 for 1 bar
Purchased from: Chocolate Covered, San Francisco, CA

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

Today's 62% dark Taiwan Charcoal Oolong Tea Chocolate (bar) was from Fu Wan Chocolate (Formosa (Taiwan)). This chocolate was flavorful, middle ground blend of cacao and tea.

Oolong teas have a flavor in between a spring green sencha and a heavier, malt-ier black Assam tea--just like a Trinitario cacao usually falls between a mild heritage Criollo cacao and a deep, dark Forastero cacao variety. In tea and chocolate, a tea master/maker or chocolate maker coaxes different notes (e.g. fruit, floral or nut) out of a batch of leaves, or cacao beans--employing different roast profiles and other steps in the process.

Fu Wan does use cacao grown in Taiwan, and cacao from other locations. (I was unable to determine the exact cacao origin(s) for this bar.) It tasted like it may have been made with Trinitario cacao.

My tasting notes are below: 

Aroma: honey, raisin toast 

Flavor: honey, raisin toast, fleeting sweet "Dragon Eye*" oolong tea notes, and a faint hint of dried fruit (date, peach, dried longan fruit) and nut. The cacao added a richness to the tea experience. 

Maker's tasting notes read as follows: "Almond, cashew, black sesame, fennel, licorice, mint"

Ingredients: Cacao bean(s), cane sugar, cacao butter, Charcoal Oolong tea.

*The tea flavors in today's Fu Wan Taiwan Charcoal Oolong bar reminded me of the "Dragon Eyes" oolong tea I've enjoyed in the San Francisco Bay Area. Dragon Eye tea is sometimes described as somewhere between a green and black tea, with light smokey and dried fruit notes. This is the closest to today's charcoal oolong tea that I've experienced here in the U.S. And, after this week's Fu Wan flavorful oolong bars, I'll be exploring more of the wonderful "middle ground" world of oolong teas soon.

Fu Wan Chocolate - 62% Taiwan Tieguanyin Tea Chocolate (bar) - Sept. 6, 2020

Chocolate of the Day

Fu Wan Chocolate
62% Taiwan Tieguanyin Tea Chocolate (bar)
Good +++ - Very Good
Weight: 1.59 oz. (45 g.) in total bar
Calories: 284 calories (per label) in 1 bar
Cost: $16.00 for 1 bar
Purchased from: Chocolate Covered, San Francisco, CA

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

Today's 62% Taiwan Tieguanyin Chocolate (bar) was from Fu Wan Chocolate (Formosa (Taiwan)). The tea used in this bar is a rolled oolong made with a Tieguanyin cultivar from Fujian, China. (Many Taiwan residents came from this area in southeast China across the Taiwan Strait, which helps explain the tea's popularity in Taiwan.)

This bar was made from a blend of (Trinitario) cacao sources. (Fu Wan does use cacao grown in Taiwan, and some from other locations. The exact cacao origin(s) were not found on labeling (or at least that I could read/translate). 

The cacao added a richness in flavor and fat (cocoa butter) to the tea experience, and yet was mild enough that the cacao and sugar helped highlight the fruit notes and complemented the tea notes.

My tasting notes are below: 

Aroma: dried fruit (goji berry), guava

Flavor: dried goji berry, black oolong tea, guava and very subtle warm herbal (naturally sweet fennel, allspice, clove) and refreshing green (faint green tea, mint) notes. This bar was well balanced, with an appealing tea flavor and a mild tannic tea astringency.

Today's offering was another elegant medium-dark chocolate bar with fruit and oolong tea notes from Fu Wan Chocolate. The company's choice of a 62% cacao chocolate base (dark, but not too dark) allowed the subtle tea flavors to shine through. 

Maker's tasting notes read as follows: "Bayleaf, fennel seed, clove, mint, guava, orchid"

Ingredients: Cacao bean(s), cane sugar, cacao butter, Tieguanyin tea.

Fu Wan Chocolate - 62% Taiwan Red Jade Tea Chocolate (bar) - Aug. 5, 2020

Chocolate of the Day

Fu Wan Chocolate
62% Taiwan Red Jade Tea Chocolate (bar)
Good +++ - Very Good
Weight: 1.59 oz. (45 g.) in total bar
Calories: 283 calories (per label) in 1 bar
Cost: $16.00 for 1 bar
Purchased from: Chocolate Covered, San Francisco, CA

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

Today's 62% Taiwan Red Tea Chocolate (bar) was from Fu Wan Chocolate (Formosa (Taiwan)). The tea used in this bar is a hybrid black tea developed in Taiwan that has red branches (and color), thus the name.

This bar was made from a blend of (Trinitario) cacao sources. (Fu Wan does use cacao grown in Taiwan, and some from other locations.)

My tasting notes are below: 

Aroma: dried fruit (goji berry)

Flavor: dried goji berry, delicate black oolong tea with rose petal and very subtle herbal/warm spice (star anise) notes. Well balanced, lightly layered flavor complexity. There was a faint, nicely balanced, tannic tea astringency in the finish, and perhaps a ghost of red raspberry leaf.

Please do to sit down with this chocolate and savor slowly, as one would a cup of of high quality tea. Elegant floral fruit tea notes from this blend of dark chocolate and Taiwan Red Jade Tea. The choice of a 62% cacao chocolate base (dark, but not too dark) allowed the subtle tea flavors to shine through, and yet it was not too sweet (thank you).

Maker's tasting notes read as follows: "Bayleaf, bergamot, cinnamon, star anise"

Ingredients: Cacao bean(s), cane sugar, cacao butter, Red Jade tea.

Siamaya Chocolate - Masala Chai Milk Chocolate (bar) - Sept. 4, 2020

Chocolate of the Day

Siamaya Chocolate 
Masala Chai Milk Chocolate (bar)
Good + - Good ++
Weight: 1.325 oz. (37.5 g.)/ 2.65 oz. (75 g.) in total bar
Calories: 180 calories (estimate per label) in 1/2 bar
Cost: $9.00 for 1 bar
Purchased from: Chocolate Covered, San Francisco, CA

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

Today's Masala Chai Milk Chocolate (bar) was from Siamaya Chocolate (Chiang Mai, Thailand). The company produces handmade chocolates using Thai cocoa beans and sugar, blended with Thai flavor inclusions (Thai tea, coconut, chilies, durian fruit, etc.), in Thailand.

This sweet milk chocolate bar was suffused with an Indian-inspired (star anise-forward) masala spice mix aroma and flavor, and had a thick, creamy melt and smooth texture accented with micro-particles of ground spices.

Tasting this (gluten-free and vegetarian) bar was an immersion in warm, rich masala* chai-tea spices mixed with smooth, sweet and creamy drinking chocolate. It offered balanced, flavorful blend chocolate and spice, without being too spicy.

Ingredients: Cacao (50%), organic cane sugar (34.7%), powdered milk (14.5%), spices (0.5%), organic sunflower lecithin (0.3%). 

*What many Americans call/know as "chai" tea would be known as masala chai (tea) in other countries. Chai often refers to just black tea and milk, whereas masala chai would have (what we (Americans) call) "chai spices" added. We've managed to conflate the two here in the U.S.

Fruition Chocolate - Harney & Sons Tea Bar - Hot Cinnamon Spice (bar) - Sept. 3, 2020

Chocolate of the Day

Fruition Chocolate
Harney and Sons Tea Bar - Hot Cinnamon Spice 46% Milk Chocolate (bar)
Good ++
Weight: 2.12 oz. (60 g.) in total bar
Calories: 325 calories (estimate) in 1 bar
Cost: $9.99 for 1 bar
Purchased from: Rainbow Grocery, San Francisco, CA 

Welcome to Day #2 of Chocolate and Tea Theme Week.

Today's Hot Cinnamon Spice 46% Milk Chocolate bar was a collaboration between Harney and Sons Master Tea Blenders (Millerton, NY) and Fruition Chocolate (Shokan, NY). 

This chocolate possessed a warm cinnamon tea aroma and flavor. (The spiciness implied in the "hot" cinnamon name may have been mellowed a bit by milk powder, cocoa butter and sugar.)

The bar had a satisfying, very creamy milk chocolate melt and texture, and a light lingering sweet cinnamon spice finish. 

The cacao (beans) used to make this bean-to-bar milk chocolate were from Chuno, Nicaragua.

Ingredients: Cocoa beans, cane sugar, cocoa butter, whole milk powder, Harney and Sons Hot Cinnamon Spice (tm) tea (black tea, orange peel, natural cinnamon flavor, cinnamon, clove), orange oil, cinnamon.

Rococo Chocolates - "Big Smoke" with Lapsang Souchong Tea - 65% Cocoa Dark Chocolate (bar) - Sept. 2, 2020

Chocolate of the Day

Rococo Chocolates
Big Smoke with Lapsang Souchong Tea - 65% Cocoa Dark Chocolate (bar)

Good ++ - Good +++

Weight: 1.235 oz. (35 g.) / 2.47 oz. (70 g.) in total bar

Calories: 187 calories in 1/2 bar

Cost: $7.99 for 1 bar

Purchased from: Rainbow Grocery, San Francisco, CA

Welcome to Day #1 of Chocolate and Tea Theme Week. Most teas are light and refreshing and impart subtle flavors to chocolate. We've had several wild fires in Northern California this past month and the hazy air lingers. So, the "Big Smoke" seemed like a perfect bar to kick off this tea theme week.

Today's Big Smoke - with Lapsang Souchong Tea - 65% Cocoa Dark Chocolate (bar) was from Rococo Chocolates (London, UK). 

This bar had smooth, creamy texture with occasional crunchy (powdered tea leaf) bits and a pleasing, subtle smoked tea and salt aroma, with a dark chocolate flavor with faint hints of dark fermented fruit (plum) and smokey Lapsang Souchong and sweet licorice teas. Who said smokey flavor was a flaw? Not I. For those who enjoy a subtly crafted flavor ride, and who like a deft touch of umami with their chocolate, try this bar.

Tasting notes from Rococo founder Chantal Cody read as follows: "Something for the more sophisticated palate, this is made with a fine Lapsang tea and has hints of resin, paprika and peaty Islay whiskies accompanying the wood smoke."

Ingredients: Organic cocoa mass, organic cane sugar, organic cocoa butter, cocoa powder, Lapsang Souchong smoked tea, emulsifier (soya lecithin).