Category: Chocolate

Chocolate Reviews: Dick Taylor 72% from Belize

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Appearance
Dick Taylor 72% Belize chocolate comes in a beautiful envelope. It feels classy, like a friend from abroad sent you this by parcel post and steamship. Upscale chocolate is a treat, and it’s lovely to have a chocolate packaged in a way that feels like it was thought through.

The front of the packaging for Dick Taylor 72% dark chocolate from Belize

The backing also has useful information: origin, expected flavors, and a bit – just a snippet – of their story, dropping all the usual signifiers of small manufacturers’ chocolate, including a map of its origin in Belize, down to the region, a mention of being crafted from the bean, etc. In fact, the wonderful website Chocolate Noise has a fascinating article on the conscious decisions leading up to this packaging.

The back of the packaging for Dick Taylor 72% dark chocolate from Belize

Opening
A handy pull strip opens the package. Again, someone actually seems to have put thought into this.

Inside, gold foil keeps the chocolate from smearing the envelope. I’m opening this already anticipating trying a piece and then putting it conveniently back in its envelope, where it can continue to look smooth and put together In the cupboard rather than turning into a folded or wadded mess of wrapper and falling out chocolate.

Opening the foil….unfortunately, just like Raaka chocolate, Dick Taylor has a great pattern but no easy way to break it.

Dick Taylor 72% dark chocolate from Belize

I’m struck by a heavy, lush chocolate smell upon opening the foil. Almost too lush for my preferences, but the proof will be in the tasting.

Taste
At a first bite, the fruitiness is almost overwhelming, but it’s just a different goal – and the label did promise dried plum and cherry as major flavors. Bitterness is almost nonexistent except towards the end of each bite – and even then it’s an undercurrent.

The texture is thick, almost chewy. No chalkiness here – it’s fully flavorful, with a notable but not unpleasant aftertaste.

Overall
A chocolate that is distinctly itself. I think “lush” is the best word overall to describe it- thick, fruity and smooth with superior packaging. I was skeptical at first, but found myself really enjoying the experience. Well worth it!

Raaka virgin chocolate: Maple & Nibs 75%

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Raaka chocolate’s unique claim appears to be that it doesn’t roast the cacao before making it into chocolate; instead they balance it out with maple sugar and cacao nibs to create a “deep fudge flavor” and “addictive crunch.”

Appearance
A pretty wrapper and an informative one, providing good detail about what actually makes their product unique (and worth the price premium), including taste profile, origins and sustainability info. I’m a chocolate information junkie. Tell me what you want me to know and taste. Maybe I won’t be able to taste it (I make no claims to have an unusually discerning palate) but at least I know what to expect and what ideal to weigh it against.
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The downside is that the bar doesn’t wrap up well – once you’ve torn it open, it’s open and you might as well eat it all.

Opening
I will always complain about chocolate that doesn’t break conveniently. This Raaka bar has a beautiful pattern on it, but the beauty of it quickly vanishes as it starts getting broken into irregular chunks. The texture to the touch is a little melty, even at a mild 72 degrees – my fingers always felt smudged.
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Taste
I expected a raw and strong taste reflecting the unprocessed nature of the chocolate. However, it was overall smooth, cool and mild. The cacao nibs blended well: in some past cases I have found them to be overly dry and an unexpected burst of bitterness amid a bite, but this chocolate blended them well to draw out their fruitiness without unbalancing the overall flavors. A clean, cool finish/aftertaste wraps it up.

Overall
Not raw-tasting at all, Raaka’s virgin chocolate is a smooth and delicious chocolate bar with an unusual coolness to it that I quite enjoyed. Crumbly nibs mix up the texture a bit.

Chocolate Reviews: Meadowlands 70% Cacao

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It’s always surprising how little the actual cocoa percentage can mean on a chocolate bar. I’ve had 85% chocolate that was fruity and mellow, and 85% that was (to me) so bitter as to be barely eatable. While they’re both technically the same percentage, that percentage includes both cocoa butter and cocoa solids. Since cocoa butter is basically the same as any other fat – it doesn’t have a chocolate flavor, as anyone using it in their personal grooming products likely knows – a bar can be a high percentage of chocolate without actually being very full of the cocoa solids that give it its deep, rich flavor.

Love this simple blue wrapper.

So whenever I get a new 70% bar, I never quite know what to expect. Meadowlands’ 70% cacao from the Dominican Republic  promised (in an unfortunately well-concealed description on the side) to be “dark and earthy, hints of rum, fruits and spice.”

Packaging

Opening it up, it looked great. Simple and appealing robin’s egg blue packaging, a similarly simple and useful foil wrapping, and easily breakable & snackable squares (though I do wish the flavor profile description had been easier to find).

Pretty breakable chocolate in a standard wrapper.

Tasting

Where I expected a dark and earthy flavor, rum and a little bitterness, I found vibrant fruitiness. Not cloyingly fruity, but clearly so. Each bite had a smooth mouthfeel, though the texture could have been a little snappier and cleaner-breaking. And each had a clean finish, one that encouraged the next bite without demanding it (many chocolates linger, with a tactile stickiness or a regretful aftertaste that requests the next bite to cleanse the palate from the last).

In short, Meadowlands’ Dominican Republic 70% is different than described, but still delicious. Worth having again!

Chocolate Reviews: Cacao Prieto Double Feature

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While in Seattle for Thanksgiving, I came across a shop in Pikes Place Market that sold a wide range of chocolate brands that I hadn’t seen before – just as one might find new craft beers when traveling to a different part of the country. I picked up two bars by Cacao Prieto: their Vanilla & Cassia (cinnamon ) and Mandarin & Bergamot flavors. I’ll admit that the vanilla and cassia was particularly interesting to me; while I love both flavors in general, cinnamon chocolate has often seemed to me to be a harsher flavor, not the subtle, light flavoring it can be in other foods.

Cacao Prieto front

Packaging

As the artisanal chocolate movement has grown in the US, brands are having to work hard to distinguish themselves (and to validate their pricing, which can often be $8-$9, 2-3 times as much as one might pay for a traditional gourmet chocolate bar by Lindt or Ghiradelli. Part of making that case to the customer is quality packaging that showcases the brand’s message. So I’m going to obsess a little over the packaging here, because it really did make a difference in which brand I chose to buy.

Cacao Prieto does a great job of creating beautiful wrappers for its chocolate. While the patterns don’t specifically indicate the flavors – they are intricate and floral for both bars – they’re elegant and just plain beautiful to look at. The paper feels heavy and slightly rough, with a slightly raised band for the product information – again indicating that care was taken in the packaging and leading to the follow-up assumption that similar care was taken with the chocolate.

Cacao Prieto back
I also liked how the “Certified Organic” sticker was positioned over one of the seams of the wrapper –s o you’d have to notice that brand message when slitting or tearing it open.

The Chocolate Bar

Cacao Prieto vanilla & cassia
These bars are visually striking as well, particularly the Vanilla & Cassia. When I opened it up, I thought for a moment that something had gone wrong with it in transit; it was a swirl of white and brown shades. However, this was clearly an intentional visual effect, and it was quite impressive.

The Orange & Bergamot, however, had a line of little white dots. Possibly these were the flavoring inclusions? This came across as a little odder – more like a quirk than a design decision.

Both broke easily and were tempered well to not melt in one’s hands.

Tasting
The Vanilla & Cassia was a very subtle flavor – just as I was hoping. It started soft with a hint of vanilla, than followed that with a swirl of cinnamon.

Orange & Bergamot was certainly serviceable. A clear, clean orange and citrus flavor, with maybe a hint of almost lime-like tartness from the bergamot.

Both had a clean finish, with minimal aftertaste. Very enjoyable, and a brand I’d pick up again if I found myself in the right store.

Chocolate Reviews: Taza 70% Dark Chocolate

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Taza labels

I’ll be honest and spoil the conclusion up front. This is pretty much the best. Taza is a little company out in Somerville, Massachusetts, and they make a fantastic line of stone-ground chocolate products (and assorted accessories). There’s everything from vanilla to orange cinnamon to salted almond and salt-and-pepper (though not, I am sorry to say, any straight-up sea salt chocolate like Madacasse makes – more on that in a later post).

Packaging
The wrapper is a pretty standard red label. There’s 60%, 70% and 80% options, and each one is clearly colored so you always know what you’re picking up at the checkout counter. Opening the foil is actually one of the little pleasures of this bar, though. I’m a huge fan of bars that don’t assume that you’re going to eat the whole thing in one sitting. That means being able to close it back up reasonably well, which in turn means:
-Not having to rip the packaging to get it open
-Not so stiff that one cannot re-fold the foil around the leftover chocolate

This one succeeds on both counts. It’s easy to have a bit, then keep the rest to enjoy later. Plus it breaks easily and cleanly, and the divisions between pieces are distinct enough that a little summer heat won’t make everything mush together into one undifferentiated chocolate blob.

Flavor
Starts dark. Then bright. A little fruity. Melts in the mouth, but slowly. There’s a transformation that each piece goes through as it changes from a crisp and rough texture to smooth, a transformation that mirrors the changing flavor notes.

Overall

If I had to describe it as an experience – It’s like sipping wine on the porch at sunset. Thoughtful. Something you consume a little bit at a time and savor as a quiet evening slips away.

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Chocolate Reviews: Dolfin Pure Chocolate with Lavender

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Chocolate – good chocolate – should be a memorable experience from beginning to end. It’s a question of both branding and product quality (with a strong dose of the power of expectation) so that a particular bar will transcend the obvious taste blessings of a highly sugary food and become enjoyable for the sake of the deep, rich chocolate.

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Opening
From the moment I read the label, this Belgian chocolate bar was memorable.

Lavender? An unusual choice…

Here’s the label. I cracked it open in the company of a group of engineers and chemists, so the mention of “kilojoules” on the nutrition label caught everyone’s attention, beyond just the usual calories number. One wonders what more it provides to the average consumer. Perhaps this is the product of Belgian regulations, per the lower left of the label?

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Presentation
You can’t just tear this bar open. No, you have to flip it over, unseal the plastic pouch, and then unwrap it until you can get the actual bar (in its own wrapper) out. I suppose if I was planning a backwoods expedition and wanted to keep my chocolate well protected, this would be handy, but it seems a little much for an everyday snack.

It did build the anticipation of something special, though, as we steadily unwrapped – almost like opening a Christmas present.

Opening it up
Breaks crisply into long rectangles. Nothing particularly notable about the texture.

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The first bite
Well. When they said “Lavender,” they weren’t lying. This is seriously lavender.  I think there’s chocolate in there somewhere, but mostly it’s overwhelmed by the flavor.

Look, I’m a little biased. I have lavender hand soap in my apartment, so maybe it’s just hard to get away from that association. But if chocolate is even bringing soap into the equation, something is seriously wrong. I tried this with three others, and we all gave up after a bite or two.

Good for nibbling? No.
Good for devouring? Don’t even start.

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Chocolate Reviews: Seattle Chocolates’ Orange Appeal

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There’s a lot of orange chocolate out there, from the ubiquitous Christmas chocolate oranges (in my household, it used to be a regular orange until we realized that chocolate was a) tasty and b) more likely to last more than a day) to bars with various-sized chunks of orange peel. Those can be problematic if they’re too big. Chocolate is not a food you should have to pick out of your teeth like celery.

This isn’t my first go-round with Seattle Chocolates’ orange bar; I get them every Thanksgiving from my fiancee’s family, since it’s their local brand. Does familiarity breed contempt? Or is this a delicious regular treat?

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Presentation

A pretty classic bar with a simple wrapper that slides off and then dark foil around the chocolate itself. Each bar comes in four thick rectangles, and breaks easily. I’ve found the foil to be great at keeping mess under control – it breaks cleanly without being opened, and then you can pull out the piece or two you want and wrap it back up easily. It’s not silver foil either, which helps if you (like me) have a candy box full of a half-dozen silver-wrapped in-progress bars and face the impossibility of telling which is which. On this one, the shape and the color make it easy to distinguish.

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The first bite

The orange peel is well-distributed throughout the bar, so you get a good balance of orange flavor and chewy orange bits. The chocolate itself (53%) is fine as a base but unmemorable (it has a dark chocolate shell on the outside and a milk chocolate (33%) inside.

Texturally, this is hard to take a little bit of, because the orange peel gets in the way and the chocolate itself comes off in big chunks when you bite into it. They’re thick sections, too. The orange peel adds some chewiness and interesting variation to each bite, and also makes you want to eat it in large amounts.

Overall

It’s all about the orange. This is a delicious orange chocolate, and although the chocolate part considered by itself is pretty unmemorable, it’s absolutely worth eating. I’m always happy to get these around the holidays!

Good for nibbling? Not really. The shape and taste don’t lend itself to savoring in little bits. I found myself looking for orange segments as the key flavor element.
Good for devouring? Absolutely.

 

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What do you think about chocolate?

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Chocolate

I like good, dark chocolate. Chocolate that makes you want to savor it one tiny bite at a time because it has the depth and complexity to make each one interesting. Chocolate that does something interesting with its flavor, chocolate that breaks down the lines with a sharp “crack.” Chocolate that brings a savory spice, a clean fruitiness or a deep bitterness to the end of a meal or a late-night snack.

Flavored chocolates are fantastic (or those with caramelized orange, ginger, etc.), filled chocolates seldom so (if I wanted nougat, I would have bought nougat).

I don’t promise you’ll like what I like, but I hope you’ll understand why I like it.

Image is “Mmmmm Chocolate [274/366]” by Tim Sackton, available under a CC BY-SA 2.0 license. ©2012