Theo 70% Nutcracker Brittle

3oz (84g) bar
Ingredients: Organic fair trade cocoa beans, oft. sugar, o. corn syrup, oft. cocoa butter, water sea salt, baking soda, o. almonds, o. hazelnuts, o. ground vanilla bean
12g sugar/42g serving (28.6% by wt.)

Corporate Info: (Copied from 12/15/12) I've written about Theo Chocolate many times, and in short, it's a great Seattle company making bean-to-bar chocolate and creative, often seasonal confections (you'll see more in-store than online) that are organic and fair trade. You can visit Theo's retail store, order online, or find a selection of Theo's bars at upscale and health food stores nationwide. My only beef with Theo is that I tend to find its usual 70% dark chocolate base too sour as a match for flavorings, but that's a personal taste issue.

Today's Bar: 70% Nutcracker Brittle, another holiday bar that sounds like a slightly darker, non-milk, nutty version of last week's 62% salted toffee.

Appearance: Actually, compared to last week's, this is exactly what one might think: a little darker, with less white in the color and still a reddish, non-uniform base.

Smell: Really lovely--aromatic and beany/raw but not harsh.

Taste: First, the brittle is totally different from last week's salted butter toffee, more like tiny, crunchy nut pieces with just a hint of candy's crystalline texture. There's also not as much salt, which I think this could have used; the nut flavor is muted compared to the strong, sour and raw flavors of Theo's intense cacao. The most successful bites I get are those with larger brittle pieces, which stand out against the lower proportion of chocolate. 

Conclusion: Theo 70% Nutcracker Brittle is fine, but the nutty brittle's subtler flavors are dwarfed by the intense cacao.

Theo Milk Chocolate 62% Salted Toffee

3oz (84g) bar

Ingredients: Organic fair trade cocoa beans, oft. sugar, oft. cocoa butter, o. milk powder, o. butter, o. corn syrup, salt, o. vanilla

15g sugar/42g serving (35.7% by wt.)

Corporate Info: (Copied from 12/15/12) I've written about Theo Chocolate many times, and in short, it's a great Seattle company making bean-to-bar chocolate and creative, often seasonal confections (you'll see more in-store than online) that are organic and fair trade. You can visit Theo's retail store, order online, or find a selection of Theo's bars at upscale and health food stores nationwide. My only beef with Theo is that I tend to find its usual 70% dark chocolate base too sour as a match for flavorings, but that's a personal taste issue.

Today's Bar: Milk Chocolate 62% Salted Toffee, a seasonal blend from this past winter. It's not listed on the site right now, but in my experience, Theo's holiday chocolates tend to be repeated in one way or another in succeeding years.

Appearance: As with most of Theo's chocolate, this is a rich, orangey brown with a slight gloss and minor variations in color and texture (i.e. probably not super smooth and creamy).

Smell: Warm, bright, fruity, beany but not challenging.

Taste: Texture is a little chalky and chewy, with the candy crunch of the toffee. Flavor has Theo's usual sour notes, and they linger for a very, very long time, along with a little astringency and some rawness. During the eating, though, the milk softens the sour impact just enough to make this an easy chocolate to munch. The salt is a great addition to the toffee, as I think that without it, the toffee wouldn't stand up to the chocolate's strong flavors.

Conclusion: The milk and salt in Theo Milk Chocolate 62% Salted Toffee works well with Theo's strong chocolate base.

[Note: As you can see, I was intrigued enough to start in on this bar before I'd photographed it!]

Theo Dark Chocolate Peppermint Stick

3oz (85g) bar

Ingredients: Organic fair trade cocoa beans, oft. sugar, oft. cocoa butter, o. peppermint oil, o. vanilla, o. corn syrup, water, sea salt, baking soda

11g sugar/42g serving (26.2% by wt.)

Corporate Info: I've written about Theo Chocolate many times, and in short, it's a great Seattle company making bean-to-bar chocolate and creative, often seasonal confections (you'll see more in-store than online) that are organic and fair trade. You can visit Theo's retail store, order online, or find a selection of Theo's bars at upscale and health food stores nationwide. My only beef with Theo is that I tend to find its usual 70% dark chocolate base too sour as a match for flavorings, but that's a personal taste issue.

Today's Bar: One of Theo's “holiday” bars, its 70% with peppermint candy.

Appearance: Theo's usual long, simply molded bar, in a very dark reddish brown.

Smell: Simultaneously dark and fruity and bracingly minty.

Taste: Chocolate combined with with tiny crunchy crystals of varying size. And it's not as minty as I thought! According to the ingredients list, the chocolate is what contains the peppermint essential oil, while the “brittle” is just sugar, corn syrup, cocoa butter, water, salt, and baking soda. Looking at the candy cane on the wrapper, you expect a rush of strong mint candy when you bite into the very distinct crystals, and it doesn't happen—they're just sweet and crunchy within a somewhat minty and fruity chocolate. That's not bad, especially if you don't want your chocolate to taste like a breath freshener, but it's jarringly counter to expectations. On the other hand, it's sweet but not too sweet, and not a bad match with the mint flavor or the candy's crunch.

Conclusion: Theo Dark Chocolate Peppermint Stick is a medium-mint, fruity chocolate with small, irregularly shaped, flavorless candies within.

Theo Organic Fair Trade Salted Almond Dark Chocolate 70% Cacao

3oz (84g) bar

Ingredients: Organic fair trade cocoa beans, oft. sugar, o. almonds, oft. cocoa butter, sea salt, ground vanilla bean

12g sugar/42g serving (28.6% by wt.)

Corporate Info: I've reviewed and discussed Theo many times before, so I'll just direct you backwards for company info. I review Theo often for many reasons: It's a good company, it's local here so I see the bars around a lot, it does a lot with dark chocolate, and it adds new bars from time to time so there's often something new to try. Today's bar is new, but not too long ago they came out with a version in 45% milk chocolate and I highly enjoyed it, so I'm anxious to try this one! My fear is that I won't like it the way I don't like many of their 70% bars, in that the base is too sour for me personally. I keep coming back to Theo's 70% bars in part because I love the company and in part because I hold out hope that one of these days, the inclusion and the tart base will turn out to be a perfect match, at least to my taste buds. One more go-around...

Appearance: Low-gloss, very reddish brown with lighter flecks visible under the surface.

Smell: Tangy like red fruit and yogurt, a little nutty.

Taste: The chocolate is indeed somewhat tart, but as I chew it, somehow only parts of what I'm tasting register as sour! The rest of each bite is more balanced among sour, bitter, and tannic, as in a light-bodied red wine, and there's just enough sugar to meet those flavors. The mellow flavor of the small chunks of almond doesn't come out much at all in comparison to all that, but their al dente firmness provides some low-contrast texture. Finally, the tiny flakes of salt contribute a flavor that's less saline and more like centers of heightened chocolate intensity, which add to the general sense of complexity. This wouldn't be a favorite for me, but for those who like this complex flavor profile, it's pretty interesting.

Conclusion: Theo Organic Fair Trade Salted Almond Dark Chocolate 70% Cacao has a lot going on: the sourness, bitterness, and tannins of a light red wine, the texture of almond pieces, and heightened flavor around salt crystals.

Theo Organic 91% Dark Costa Rica

[Note: This is the re-post of a review that should have appeared (and did?) on May 12.]

3oz (84g) bar

Ingredients: Organic cocoa beans (Costa Rica), o. sugar, o. cocoa butter, o. ground vanilla bean

4g sugar/42g serving (9.5% by wt.)

Corporate Info: I've discussed Theo many times before. It's a bean-to-bar chocolatier here in Seattle, some bars are available nationwide, everything is organic and fair trade, Theo has an A rating from the Better World folks, etc etc. I've loved the confections but not always the dark chocolate. What will I think of this single-origin bar? (Note: I'm assuming this is the same as the one on the site, but with different packaging.)

Appearance: Orange-brown, and not as dark as you'd think.

Smell: Bitter and tannic, with some tropical banana.

Taste: In order of experience: Quite bitter, almost charred flavor I taste in the middle of my tongue. Texture is very smooth. Tart. I taste sweet on the very back and sides of my tongue. Basically, the flavor is stronger, weaker, or just different depending on the moment and where in the mouth we're talking about. Interesting.

Conclusion: Theo Organic 91% Dark Costa Rica is very dark and challenging, but it certainly isn't boring!

A Chocolate Tour of Seattle, Part I

This past week we hosted some visitors who asked me to take them on a tour of local chocolate shops. I took into account our home location, the amount of time we wanted to spend, neighborhoods that might be interesting, and Seattle's hellacious rush hours, and we ended up making a nice loop through town. I had fun, and I think they did too.

Considering the city's fancy bar shops, confectionary stores, and numerous small chains, add a car and a good relationship with Google Maps and any visitor or resident can make his or her own tour. This week I'll cover what I consider must-visits and bonuses for bar lovers; next week I'll list specialty shops and those I haven't seen myself as well as a few additional tips.

Must-Sees

These stores are must-visits because they fulfill one or more of the following criteria: meaningful to Seattle, easy to fit into your route, generous with samples, or a way to break up a bonbon-heavy tour.

Theo Chocolate produces its chocolate from bean to bar right here in Seattle. (Most companies buy elsewhere and blend with flavorings or use to coat confections.) It's fair trade and organic, which are a taste of Seattle in and of themselves and simply good besides. Theo holds inexpensive factory tours several times daily; if you're interested, make reservations well in advance. Whether or not you're going behind the scenes, the shop displays most of its bars with a pile of sample pieces, so you can taste as much as you want before you buy. Don't ignore the small case of confections: They're high quality, the flavors are interesting, and some are vegan. On your tour, Theo is the best place to fill up on samples.

Fran's Chocolates is a local institution best known for salt caramels. Flavors are not especially unusual but are all high quality. There are three locations, two in Seattle and one in Bellevue, and one of the Seattle options is downtown near Chocolate Box (below) and tourist mainstay Pike Place Market, inside the Four Seasons—very swank. Visit because it's local, everything you get will be good, and it's a good place to buy gifts for the folks back home.

Oh! Chocolate is a familiar-feeling confectioner: big glass cases filled with chunky chocolates, a large assortment of fun fillings, and whole chocolates as samples. There are three locations, one in Seattle, one in Bellevue, and one between the two on Mercer Island. (There's actually a fourth in Georgia, but that's neither here nor there.) Not every flavor is a standout, but there's something for everybody, they're cheaper than many others, and the experience will make you smile.

Chocolati and Dilettante both sell chocolates that I think are just okay, but they're on this list because of their hot cocoa and number of locations, Chocolati's mostly in Seattle and Dilettante's also beyond city limits. Some of the other stores I'm mentioning also offer drinks, but I appreciate the café style of these, and between the two I prefer Chocolati's more relaxed feel and especially its dark hot chocolate with cayenne. With 11 locations between them and as a break in the bar/confection monotony, I think it's both easy and worth it to work at least one hot-chocolate-focused stop into your chocolate tour.

Good Bars

These stores are my reliable sources of fancy bars—those other than the ones at Whole Foods or random finds around town and elsewhere.

Chocolopolis is where to be if you want serious high-end bars. They shelve their stock by origin, so you can look at separate sections for Africa or the Caribbean and so on and another section for bars with inclusions. It's not comprehensive or anywhere near cheap, but like a well-edited wine shop, it'll help you find the good stuff. At the counter, peek behind the glass at the shiny confections (unlike in the shops above, most of these aren't house-made) and take a couple home with you.

Chocolate Box is kind of a hodgepodge store, but it's fun and the location makes it super easy to combine with a visit to Fran's or Pike Place Market. They have tons of confections from a wide variety of regional brands and a bunch of high-end bars, some of which I haven't seen elsewhere in the area. They also have gelato, cookies, and mini cupcakes, and they recently incorporated the wine bar next door, so this is a great place to indulge. Note: Tourist-friendly also means higher prices, as I've seen some of the same confections at Chocolopolis for less. Chocolate Box apparently offers a AAA discount that might make purchasing more attractive, though I haven't tried it yet myself.

Theo Organic Fair Trade Nutcracker Toffee Dark Chocolate 70%

3oz (84g) bar

Ingredients: Organic fair trade cocoa beans, oft. sugar, o. almonds, o. hazelnuts, oft. cocoa butter, o. corn syrup, o. vanilla bean, sea salt, baking soda

12g sugar/42g serving (28.6% by wt.)

I'm a sucker for seasonal bars. Their novelty gives me a reason to revisit familiar brands, and it's just fun to spot something new on the shelves. This winter Theo offers tasty-sounding milk chocolate bars, seasonal caramels, and two dark chocolates: Peppermint Stick and this review's Nutcracker Toffee. Okay, so it's just another toffee-nut inclusion, and I haven't been so enamored of late with Theo's 70% mix, but I like toffee and I don't see it too much in dark chocolate, so there you go.

The bar looks and smells like Theo's other 70% bars: medium-dark, simply molded, and almost pungent. Will it taste like the others too? Verdict: Ehhhh. It's not bad, it's just that I don't get much toffee and nuts in there. I can see them, tiny beige (nuts) or shiny (toffee) pebbles in the solid brown of the chocolate, but as with spring's coconut bar, the inclusions are simply drowned out by a strong, vividly flavored chocolate. I know this is a matter of personal taste, but I really wish Theo would come up with a milder chocolate for its flavored 70% cacao bars. For now, I'll just have to resist the pull of those seasonal novelties.

Conclusion: Theo Organic Fair Trade Nutcracker Toffee Dark Chocolate 70% tastes like the rest of Theo's dark chocolate.

Chocolate Shops: Theo Chocolate Factory Tour

Today I took the factory tour at Theo Chocolate, one of the few American chocolate companies that makes its own chocolate from scratch. Years ago the founder worked on an organic cacao plantation; today he maintains relationships with the cacao growers who supply the company and makes sure the farms are up to organic and fair trade standards.


Here in Seattle, Theo's warm factory floor is home to a variety of large machines and tanks where the beans are roasted and ground and the chocolate is conched, tempered, and molded into bars. The cooler kitchen next door was busier while I was there, as employees were washing marble slabs in preparation for making some of Theo's confections: ganaches, caramels, and pralines.


The best part, of course, was eating the chocolate. I cheated a bit on my low-sugar diet, trying the excellent milk chocolate bar (at 45% cacao, darker than most milk bars) along with a number of other bars I'd had before. My favorite items were both limited-time-only ganaches, one flavored with lime and coriander and the other with citrusy Earl Grey tea. Both were tart, not too sweet, and worth straying from my dietary path.


If you're visiting Seattle, Theo's factory tour is a light activity you can squeeze into a longer day of sightseeing or a few hours walking around and dining in the charming neighborhood of Fremont. The tour costs only $6 (reserve ahead), and even if you don't want to take the time, you can still stop in the shop and try most of the bars before you buy.

Theo Organic Fair Trade Toasted Coconut Dark Chocolate 70% Cacao

3oz (84g) bar

Ingredients: Organic fair trade cocoa beans, oft. sugar, o. toasted coconut, oft. cocoa butter, o. vanilla bean

13g sugar/42g serving (31% by wt.)

I know I’ve talked a lot about Theo lately, so I promise I’ll take a break after today! I first noticed this toasted coconut bar on Theo’s website and kept an eye out for it for a few weeks, then finally spied the pastel pink wrapper in my local bookstore’s Theo display. It’s one of their seasonal offerings for spring, though other than the wrapper color I’m not sure what makes coconut particular springy. Regardless, I was pleased to find such an unusual combination. Okay, yes, coconut is a common (if divisive) ingredient in mass-market chocolate candy bars, but I’ve rarely seen it in such dark bar form, and it seemed like fun.

First the good news: The coconut contributes an interesting shredded texture, almost crispy at first bite, that is also fine enough to mostly avoid post-chew stringiness. Now the bad news: The bar seemingly uses Theo’s usual 70% cacao blend, which has a long, sour finish. The coconut flavor is subtle, and I think it would’ve been better paired with a much milder chocolate—not less dark, just with some of the tart edges shaved down. I love the texture, but I don’t think the flavor pairing works.

Conclusion: Theo’s Coconut 70% cacao bar has a fun texture, but the sour chocolate overwhelms the more delicate coconut flavor.

Theo Organic Fair Trade Spicy Chile Dark Chocolate 70% Cacao

3oz (84g) bar

Ingredients: Organic fair trade cocoa beans, oft. sugar, oft. cocoa butter, o. pasilla chili powder, o. guajillo chili pepper, o. cayenne chili powder, o. cinnamon, o. orange zest, o. orange oil, o. ground vanilla bean

11g sugar/42g serving (26.2% by wt.)

As I’ve written before, I’m a big fan of Seattle-based Theo, from its tasting room to its creative flavors to its ideals. Thus I tend to pick up any new-to-me Theo bar that fits my low sugar requirement, like this chili-flavored bar with orange and cinnamon background notes. In the last few years I’ve seen a lot of chili and cinnamon chocolate, and I’m assuming the trend has to do with food lovers’ embrace of “traditional” foods--in this case, the way the Maya, Aztecs, and later Spanish conquistadors consumed chocolate.

So how does it taste? It’s a smooth, creamy, mild bar with a nice sugar content that at first just tastes like chocolate. After a second or two the pepper begins to reveal itself slowly, until it reaches a pleasantly medium level of heat: mouth filling, but not the sort you’d only submit to on a dare. What I’m assuming are the pasilla and cayenne provide much of the spice, but there’s an interesting bit of texture from the tiny flakes of guajilla (the only chili ingredient not listed as “powder”). The orange flavor is present only upon reflection and I can’t taste the cinnamon at all, but I suspect they’re both there mainly for balance and complexity, which is why the bar isn’t called “Spicy Chile, Cinnamon, & Orange”. My personal taste would prefer a real hit of cinnamon along with the chili, so I don’t think I’ll go out of my way to buy this bar again (and at $6 it wasn’t cheap either), but the flavor profile was obviously well thought out and for lovers of chile chocolate it’s a very good bar.

Conclusion: Theo’s Spicy Chile 70% Cacao bar is well balanced, with a predominant chili flavor that is complex and neither meek nor overwhelming.

Theo Organic Fair Trade Mint Dark Chocolate 70% Cacao

3oz (84g) bar

Ingredients: Organic fair trade cocoa beans, oft. sugar, oft. cocoa butter, o. mint oil, o. ground vanilla bean

11g sugar/42g serving (26.2% by wt.)

Theo is one of my favorite chocolate companies. It’s based right here in Seattle, and while I haven’t yet been on the tour of their Fremont factory, one of my regular stops in that neighborhood is the storefront where visitors can sample most of their bars. (Most local stores carry a decent selection of Theo bars, and several are available nationally.) In addition to the bars the company makes delicate truffles, caramels, and other confections in a wide variety of interesting flavors. Most of their ingredients are certified organic and fair trade, they’ve partnered up to produce a vegan line, and they change some flavors seasonally. (Again, this is Seattle.) All those credentials do come at a price, but it’s a relatively reasonable $4 for the 3oz. bars in their Classic Collection, which includes the mint bar.

The reason I’m reviewing Theo’s mint bar this week is to compare it with last week’s Endangered Species dark mint. That bar had a similar cacao and sugar content, but otherwise the two diverge. Recall that the Endangered Species chocolate was very middle-of-the-road, a little chalky, and with only a touch of mint. The Theo chocolate is rich and creamy. Its darkness isn’t the sort of depth you get lost in but rather a sweet-tart juiciness like rose hip or hibiscus tea. The mint is much brighter than that in the Endangered Species chocolate, though it’s not at all overwhelming. The large, thin, smooth bar breaks up easily without bending or shattering, and all the flavors linger for a while, which isn’t necessary but is interesting. This isn't my favorite chocolate ever, but it's a very good mint bar.

Conclusion: Theo’s dark mint bar is an excellent option when you want your fix of mint.