Chapter Thirty-Four: Equal Exchange Chocolate

An errand to Laura's favorite coffee supplier brought us a serendipitous find! Ten Thousand Villages is a local fair trade shop offering unique goodies and interesting wares from across the globe. We happened upon another bar from Divine (that we're saving for a future post) and this week's Equal Exchange Chocolates: Panama Extra Dark 80%. The packaging was what initially drew us because it is biodegradable and produced with sustainably harvested wood and renewable materials.  We love that!

Tasting No. :32
Equal Exchange Chocolates: Panama Extra Dark 80%

Initial Impressions:
This bar is much thicker than base bar leading to a very firm snap; it was rather difficult to break. It was lighter in color than base bar with an extremely firm bite.  We found the aroma to be mild and sweet, almost like vanilla blossom. 

Flavor Profile:

Initial – straw

Middle – raisin, vanilla, olive

After – rum, soil, walnut

Texture:
This texture was so odd to the point of being almost distracting. It was dry, and crumbly.  We would have preferred a smoother transition into melting instead of having to manipulate it so much in our mouths.

Overall:
At first, it was quite difficult to draw the flavors out. We found that we needed to work on a piece, sucking on it for a while. This is indeed the preferred way of tasting chocolate as is allows the flavor profile to develop while chewing does not. We'd like to pair this with a hot drink in the future (the package actually suggests this and specifies coffee) as it would allow the chocolate to melt. Ultimately, although this bar was work, we found it to be supremely satisfying with a well-rounded and gratifying flavor.

Rating: 9 /10

*Notes:

Purchased at Ten Thousand Villages

Price range under $4

Join us next week as we delve into the intrigue of a chocolate bar delivery gone awry!

For now savor: "Chocolate is a perfect food, as wholesome as it is delicious, a beneficent restorer of exhausted power...it is the best friend of those engaged in literary pursuits." - Justus Leibig

Remember, fairly traded chocolate is a responsible way to support farmers by ensuring that the chocolate that you consume has been bought for a fair price. By choosing to purchase fair trade chocolate, you can honor the cocoa tree growers and support their way of life which in turn leads to better chocolate.

Chapter Thirty One: White Christmas Part Two

With the holidays upon us we wanted to try something a little different. We will be tasting white chocolate bars from brands we know and love and new ones we are just discovering. We’re so glad you could make it!

We know what you may be thinking: white chocolate isn’t really chocolate! However, did you know that cocoa butter is a by-product of the chocolate making process? So while the cacao bean or solid is not included in the white chocolate itself, it technically does have cacao in it. :P Here’s another fun fact: the cocoa butter is what smells like chocolate, not the cacao beans! We hope you enjoy our little segue from dark chocolate bars as much as we did. Our tasting method will be a bit different for the white chocolate reviews. As we have no base bar, there will be no comparison. Instead we will be focusing on the color, texture, flavor profile, and aroma individually.

Finding a white chocolate in brands that we have previously tasted has proven to be quite the undertaking! We finally settled on this bar from a brand that we have yet to sample. We look forward to tasting their dark chocolate offerings in the future. This particular bar is from Venezuelan cacao and though it is not fair trade certified, their website does have this to say about their beans:

“I think I can confidently say that my form of direct trade goes beyond certified fair trade. Being both a cacao farmer and a chocolate manufacturer naturally means that I put the ethical sourcing of my beans at the heart of the way I make chocolate. I source all my beans directly from the farmers. I visit the farms and get to know the farmers, the challenges they face and the production methods they use. All the farmers I source my cacao from receive incomes well above average and well above the fair trade minimums because I use only premium beans. The world has two types of cacao. 85% of the world’s beans are the standard beans on which the Stock Exchange price is based – fair trade simply guarantees a fixed $ amount per tonne amount more than this price. The other 15% is made up of the Criollo, Trinitario, and Porecelana type premium beans that I buy – these command some 50% to 200% more than the terminal market price for standard beans.”

It’s a captivating philosophy to say the least. Let’s get to tasting.

Tasting No. :29

Willie’s Cacao El Blanco

Initial Impressions:

The snap of this bar was firm, as was the bite. It was a brown-toned color, and smelled faintly like eggnog.

Flavor Profile:

Initial – fruity

Middle – goat’s milk

After – caramel

Texture:

The texture was buttery smooth and thick, much thicker than the Milkboy.

Overall:

Surprisingly, this bar was not sweet, with the sweetness developing as we ate more of it. Willie’s Cacao attributes the lack of sweetness and depth of flavor to using 20% less sugar than other brands by incorporating natural cacao butter. With the rich, burnt caramel notes, it evoked childhood memories of spoonfuls of cajeta (a Mexican confection of caramelized goat’s milk – popular in parts of Texas). It was also reminiscent of custard or eggnog. We both found this bar to be scrumptious, thus it made it on to Gaby’s Favorites and Laura’s Favorites lists.

Rating: 9/10

*Notes:

Purchased at Central Market

Price range: Under $4

We will be taking a break until mid-January so that we can enjoy the holidays with our families. We hope that you enjoy yours and stay tuned for another post!

For now savor: “I want to stay curled and cosied and chocolated…forever in my mother’s arms.” – Sanober Khan, Turquoise Silence

Remember, fairly traded chocolate is a responsible way to support farmers by ensuring that the chocolate that you consume has been bought for a fair price. By choosing to purchase fair trade chocolate, you can honor the cocoa tree growers and support their way of life which in turn leads to better chocolate.

Chapter Twenty-Nine: La India Mexican Style Sweet Chocolate

We are rounding out our hot chocolate series this week with a bar sold by a company Gaby is connected to. Don't worry! We are still consuming chocolate bars often; if you missed our first post about hot chocolate, we suggest reading it to understand our tasting methods, ingredients, and tools. You can find Chapter 26 here.

Our selection this week is from La India Packing Company, a spice and herb packer and distributor located in South Texas. It is owned and operated by Gaby's stepmother, whose grandparents opened for business in 1924. A specialty of La India is their Mexican Style Sweet Chocolate, and we have been eager to try it. It was one of the first products sold by La India, when the original owner would grind the cacao by hand. The recipe for this chocolate has been unchanged since then. We're not sure of the cacao content, but there was already sugar in the bar and a few spices that were not mentioned on the package. 

Tasting No. :27

La India Mexican Style Sweet Chocolate

Left: Guittard Base Cocoa Right: La India Mexican Style Sweet Chocolate

Guittard Base Cocoa

La India Mexican Style Sweet Chocolate

Initial Impressions:
This chocolate had an instant complexity which we both loved. There was an explosion of flavor present from the first sip. It's almost difficult to compare to the base chocolate because they differ so much. The Guittard has mega chocolate flavor. The Mexican Style chocolate is almost like a spiced and sweetened milk because the chocolate flavor is much more mild. This is most likely due from the addition of spices and sugar to the Mexican chocolate. The sweetness level was excellent and we came across  a lot of cinnamon and vanilla in this chocolate. The color of this chocolate prepared and in solid form was much lighter than the base. There were visible sugar crystals in the bar. We concluded that this chocolate was reminiscent of Cinnamon Toast Crunch! Near the end of our first mug, we added some vanilla bean paste (we used Neilsen-Massey) and it was not a great addition; it made the chocolate too sweet and didn't add any extra complexity.

Texture:

In comparison to the base cocoa which was thick and smooth, the La India was thinner and was more textured with bits from the cinnamon (already in the bar) and the grinding process of the chocolate. This made the chocolate bitey and enjoyable to drink as it seemed remarkably rustic and true to form in Latin American drinking chocolates. Read our posts on Taza's Cacao Puro and the Dominican Republic Raw Cacao for more information on this. 

For a bit of fun, we made ourselves a second cup and mixed the two to try to highlight what we liked from each chocolate: the chocolatey flavor of the Guittard and the complex spiciness of the La India. It was delicious! The intensity of the Guittard's chocolate flavor was amplified by the complex flavor profile of La India.  We highly recommend trying this mixture.

Overall:

We thoroughly enjoyed this cup of cocoa, the chocolate was not as highlighted as we would have liked but the spiciness and delicious combination of flavors left us sated and happy.  We definitely recommend giving it a try if you can find it in a store near you.

Rating: 7.5/10 

*Notes:

This bar was gifted to us but is available for purchase at select HEBs and Walmart in Texas as well as online orders.
Price: $4.25

Next week, we'll start ringing in the holiday season with a new series for the month of December.  Curious what it will be?  Check back for the big reveal!

For now savor: "Chemically speaking, chocolate really is the world's perfect food." - Michael Levine

Chapter Twenty: Strawberry Bits

Even though we’ve tasted chocolate purchased from World Market, this is our first tasting from the World Market brand.  We should note that the Dark Chocolate Dried Strawberry Bits with Pink Himalayan Sea Salt bar’s cocoa content is not listed on the packaging but we wish that it were.  This is something that we always like to know.  The box also has almost no information regarding origins, which is disappointing.  It seems that the mystery of an “exotic bar” is the main selling point, leaving you with little information about the bar.

Tasting No. :18

World Market DarkChocolate Dried Strawberry Bits with Pink Himalayan Sea Salt

Initial Impressions:

The first thing we noticed was the visible bits of freeze dried strawberry followed by the aroma of strawberries.  It smelled as sweet as the base bar, but did have a softer snap and lighter color in comparison.

Flavor Profile:

Initial – Pure strawberry

Middle – Salt, strawberry

After – Salt

Texture:

This bar had a rough texture, because of all of the added strawberry bits and sea salt.  However, the bite of it was softer than the base bar, even with the crunchy texture.

Overall:

This bar, like the TraderJoe’s Coconut Caramel and other World Market filled bars, left us disappointed on the chocolate front.  We found it to be very sweet, and would have liked larger fewer bits of strawberry in larger chunks instead sprinkled throughout so that you could differentiate between the strawberry and the chocolate.  With the ratio of chocolate to strawberry as it was, we found the flavors too overwhelming to enjoy the bar slowly. We enjoyed this bar with a very dark black tea to combat the sweetness.

Rating: 5/10

*Notes:

Purchased at World Market

Price range under $4

Next week, join us for another Trader Joe's bar.  This one is a Belgium chocolate bar. Yum!

For now savor: "What you see before you, my friend, is the result of a lifetime of chocolate." – Katharine Hepburn

Chapter Nineteen: Dark Chocolate Truffle

This week’s tasting is Dark Chocolate Truffle and it is yet another bar from our Trader Joe’s shopping spree, we were drawn to the “truffle” component.  We noticed that the back of the package states that it contains a minimum of 57% chocolate.

Tasting No.: 17
Trader Joe's Dark Chocolate Truffle

Initial Impressions:
The truffle bar was darker and browner than the base bar and the snap was notably soft, probably due to the truffle element, and yet, the bite was firm. The aroma was similar to the base bar, but slightly less acidic - almost a dry straw scent.

Flavor Profile:
Initial – dry straw
Middle – jasmine
After – blackcurrant, blackberry

Texture:
The truffle made this bar ultra-creamy, almost like a firm ganache or a thick chocolate syrup.

Overall:
We noticed that our base bar was very earthy after tasting truffle bar.  This bar tasted more expensive than it really was and we would recommend it cost-effective organic alternative to other bars that you would commonly find at a grocery store.  Although it was only 57%, we still enjoyed that it was not overly sweet and the chocolate flavor was present.

Rating: 7/10

*Notes:
Purchased at: Trader Joe’s
Price range under $3
This is a good bar that will satisfy with a single square; it’s rich but not overwhelming and is delightfully creamy.

Next week, we're excited to be tasting World Market's house brand, a dark chocolate with dried strawberry bits and sea salt.  See you then!

For now savor: “A dark-chocolate truffle melts in my mouth, and I forget about everything else...even the fact that I'm on a diet.” - Barbara Brooke

Remember, fairly traded chocolate is a responsible way to support farmers by ensuring that the chocolate that you consume has been bought for a fair price.  By choosing to purchase fair trade chocolate, you can honor the cocoa tree growers and support their way of life which in turn leads to better chocolate.