Chocolove Raspberries in Dark Chocolate

3.2oz (90g) bar
Ingredients: Cocoa liquor, sugar, cocoa butter, soy lecithin, vanilla, freeze dried raspberries
13g sugar/30g serving (43.3% by wt.)

Corporate Info: (Altered from 10/15/11) I have a soft spot for Chocolove, having lived in near its hometown of Boulder, Colorado and enjoyed the company's samples in my local Whole Foods. It's a relatively young company (Wikipedia says 1996; Chocolove's website indicates similar), hasn't yet been bought by a giant conglomerate, and claims it has taken or is taking several steps toward "sustainability & social responsiblity." On the other hand, Chocolove produces only three organic, fair trade bars and is rated a C by the Better World folks (same as Hershey's, much better than Nestle), so I don't want to give them my unconditional Choco-love (ha ha, I crack me up). But it's cheaper than most premium chocolate—$2-2.50 a bar—and reliably tasty. 

Note: Chocolove's flavored dark bars are in 55% cacao, which I know I'll find too sweet, but I can't help but be enticed by all the flavor options.

Today's Bar: Raspberry, as in freeze-dried raspberries as an inclusion.

Appearance: Red and grey undertones in Chocolove's usual quilt-like pattern. The back is covered in bumps of raspberry coated with chocolate.

Smell: Mild but fresh, with a hint of raspberry and nuts.

Taste: Okay, yes, this is sweet, but the freeze-dried raspberries retain their tart flavor, so I get a hit of sour freshness to cut the mild, sweet, and creamy chocolate. The creaminess is a good match for the sugar, too, because while it might be sweeter than I like, it's evened out by a rich flavor and texture. Raspberry seeds add to the textural variation--not that there are tons, but there are enough to crunch a little and stick in my teeth, which is actually a boon in that it provides a lingering sour counterpoint to the chocolate. Success.

Conclusion: Chocolove Raspberries in Dark Chocolate's sweet, thick chocolate and crunchy, tart freeze-dried raspberries balance each other well.

Cachet Blackberry & Ginger

3.5oz (100g) bar
Ingredients: Cocoa mass, sugar, blackberry granules (inulin, blackberry flavoring, blackberry powder), cocoa butter, butter oil, ginger granules (inulin, ginger flavoring, natural flavorings), soy lecithin
14g sugar/38g serving (36.8% by wt.)

Corporate Info: (Copied from 2/23/13) Cachet is a subsidiary of Kim's Chocolates, a Belgian company founded in 1987 that makes bars and confections under the Cachet name as well as a line called KC Chocolatier. I'm not sure what the difference is in terms of branding, other than that Cachet is "available in supermarkets and at many confectioners," while KC Chocolatier is in "specialist chocolate shops, delicatessens, Duty Free shops and on board aeroplanes." Cachet offers a fairly large assortment (click through to see groupings), including a few sugar-free varieties, though I notice that no ingredients are listed on the site.

Today's Bar: Blackberry & Ginger, one of Cachet's "fruit tablets," in 57% cacao.

Appearance: Medium brown with pale flecks beneath the surface.

Smell: Fake-fruity, sweet and candy-like berry rather than fresh or tart or dried. Chocolate is mild under the fruit scent.

Taste: Too-sweet berry perfume, then the crunch of the "granules," then a sweet, slightly chalky, but generally pleasant very mild chocolate. I'm not getting ginger almost at all, though since I'm looking for it I think I can pull it out just a touch. I've decided I don't like "granules"--this isn't recognizable dried berry, or candied ginger, or hard candies flavored with either, it's some sort of unholy creation that's supposed to taste like them, and it only does in a broad, not-real-food sense. Ugh, and now I taste lingering "natural flavoring blackberry type" (the actual text in the listed ingredients)...blech. A letdown after last week.

Conclusion: Cachet Blackberry & Ginger is redolent of fake berry, with the odd texture of industrial "granules." I don't like it.

Trader Joe's Takes Flight: A Dark Chocolate Tasting Odyssey, Part II

 

Corporate Info: (Altered from 10/6/12) Quirky-gourmet grocery store Trader Joe's tends to be hit or miss, with some products being regular purchases for years, some becoming favorites and then disappearing from shelves, and some straight up disappointing. I've had similarly mixed results with their chocolate, but there's constant turnover, they contract with a whole assortment of manufacturers, and they aim for reasonable price points, so it's worth it to keep trying. There isn't much else to say aside from a fun fact: The US's beloved Trader Joe's is owned by Germany's ALDI, which operates discount supermarkets all over Europe—and that explains why we saw packages of dried fruit and nuts labeled Trader Joe's in an ALDI in Osnabrück.

Today's Bar: An assortment! This “Dark Chocolate Tasting Odyssey” is in the same line as the bar with toffee, walnuts, and pecans and the caramel-filled bar with black sea salt, but it includes seven separate and interesting bars! Two are 2oz versions of full-sized products, the salted caramel bar I've already reviewed and a coconut caramel one I still intend to review, so I won't cover them here. Further, you can buy each of those separately, and I've seen both in stores off-and-on for the last year, so you can probably find them if you want them. In contrast, I've only seen this assortment once, so I'm going to cover it in a two-part mega review rather than stretching it out over five posts.

So what, then, are today's bars? Every bar in the assortment is in 70% cacao, and aside from the two caramel-filled ones discussed above, all are regular chocolate with inclusions. Last week I looked at coffee & cocoa nibs and chili & cinnamon; today is even more interesting, with Almond Ginger, Orange Hibiscus, and Salt & Pepper Potato Chip!

Trader Joe's Dark Chocolate Chocolate Bar 70% Almond Ginger

2oz (57g) bar

Ingredients: Chocolate liquor, sugar, cocoa butter, soy lecithin, vanilla, almonds, ginger, cane sugar, salt

18g sugar/57g serving (31.6% by wt.)

Appearance: Again, plain, slightly purply chocolate, with raised almond pieces on the back and flecks of white almond in cross-section.

Smell: I get the ginger, actually, in the form of something spicy and fragrant within the light, nutty chocolate.

Taste: Saltier than I expected, with crunchy almond slivers and tiny bursts of bright crystallized ginger. All three come in separately, so each bite varies in terms of texture and flavor. The chocolate is still reasonably bland, a little chalky, and sweet, but this bar is more about the inclusions so it works out.

Conclusion: Trader Joe's Dark Chocolate Chocolate Bar 70% Almond Ginger has varied flavor and texture within okay chocolate.

Trader Joe's Dark Chocolate Chocolate Bar 70% Orange Hibiscus

2oz (57g) bar

Ingredients: Chocolate liquor, sugar, cocoa butter, soy lecithin, vanilla, hibiscus powder, orange oil, tea: elderberry, apples, hibiscus, rosehip, kiwi, strawberry, sunflower petals, rose, corn flower, raspberry, passionfruit, natural flavors

18g sugar/57g serving (31.6% by wt.)

Appearance: Again, plain, slightly purply chocolate.

Smell: Cohesive but complex fruit, ranging from fragrant and perfumey to sweet-tart.

Taste: Hm. The chalkiness of the chocolate base doesn't work here, as it contrasts poorly with the fruit flavor. Aside from that, very fruity and sweet-tart, leaning toward sweet, with tiny crunches, probably the hibiscus powder. I think I can taste the exotic spice of the orange oil, and aside from that it very much reminds me of the sorts of fruit teas that use hibiscus as a foundation, bright and tart and layered. It also works well with the mild chocolate, though I do think it could stand up to a darker, more sour-bitter-beany variety. Unfortunately, the contrast with the texture is awfully weird, and that's what gets to me in the end.

Conclusion: Trader Joe's Dark Chocolate Chocolate Bar 70% Orange Hibiscus is complexly fruity, with a chalkiness that contrasts oddly with the flavoring.

Trader Joe's Dark Chocolate Chocolate Bar 70% Salt & Pepper Potato Chip

2oz (57g) bar

Ingredients: Chocolate liquor, sugar, cocoa butter, soy lecithin, vanilla, organic clarified butter, sea salt, potatoes, safflower and/or sunflower oil, rice flour, black pepper, white pepper, yeast extract, garlic powder, onion powder, citric acid, black pepper oil, jalapeño powder

18g sugar/57g serving (31.6% by wt.)

Appearance: Again, plain, slightly purply chocolate.

Smell: Salty and savory on top of light, nutty chocolate.

Taste: Neat! There's the crispy crunch of the potato chips, along with their light, savory flavor (these are “salt and pepper” potato chips, which also means other flavor punchers like yeast extract and garlic and onion powders), a nice amount of salt and pepper...it actually works really well. Again, this chocolate has some unpleasant chalkiness, but it can be overlooked with this inclusion and the mild flavor works much better than would something more “chocolatey,” whose bitter and sour notes would probably contrast poorly and/or overwhelm the savory notes.

Conclusion: Trader Joe's Dark Chocolate Chocolate Bar 70% Salt & Pepper Potato Chip is surprisingly full of potato chips, and their texture and savory flavor works well with the mild chocolate.

Madre Chocolate Hibiscus Dark Chocolate

 

1.5oz (43g) bar

Ingredients: Organic fair trade cacao beans, o. cane sugar, o. cocoa butter, Mexican whole vanilla, o. hibiscus, o. bergamot oil

Corporate Info: (Altered from 8/11/12) Madre is basically brand new (circa early 2011), the brainchild of a traveler working on social justice in Central America and a botanist with a focus on food and medicinal plants. There's a lot of passion behind everything written about the company: the “About Us” page of their website, the focus on ecology and direct contact with cacao farmers, the now-funded Kickstarter, and even reviews by fans of their chocolate and their shop in Kailua. The cacao is grown organically, some on the Big Island (in the only U.S. state in which this is possible) and some in Central America, and they make the chocolate bean-to-bar in Hawaii. Madre has already been talked up in Saveur and, at greater length, by food personality Aida Mollenkamp after she visited the founders in Hawaii.

Madre currently produces two lines of chocolate, one inspired by Latin American cacao and flavorings and the other using Hawaiian cacao and flavorings. As you might imagine, this is not cheap chocolate: All bars are 1.5oz (half the size of most common chocolate bars) and range from $6 to $10 each on the website, and they may cost slightly more in stores. The bars are sold all over Hawaii, but they look to be spreading quickly to high-end and specialty stores in the U.S. and abroad.

Today's Bar: Hibiscus in 70% cacao, which I picked up from Madre's booth at the Northwest Chocolate Festival back in September. This bar is made with Dominican cacao, and includes not only hibiscus but also bergamot oil as a flavoring. I expect the hibiscus to impart a bright, sour note; I'm less familiar with bergamot outside of Earl Grey tea, but Wikipedia says that it's the bitter, sour, fragrant skin of the citrus fruit that is used as a flavoring. Here, I assume it will add complexity to the clear tartness of the hibiscus.

Appearance: Madre's usual funky mold, semi-glossy, in a pleasant, creamy-looking orangey brown.

Smell: Slightly acrid, fresh, and spicy.

Taste: I tried this bar at the festival and liked it, so though I didn't remember the nuances, I knew I would enjoy it. The chocolate itself is crunchy melting to waxy, rich, and not too sweet. I can definitely sense the bergamot in here, as the flavor is layered, with the bitter, fragrant citrus rind oil, the straightforward, fruity sourness of hibiscus, the fresh, tropical cacao, and the sweet sugar to anchor it all.

Conclusion: Madre Chocolate Hibiscus Dark Chocolate is a well-crafted layering of fresh, sweet, sour, and bitter flavors.

The Tea Room Chocolate Fusion Raspberry Rooibos

1.8oz (51g) bar

Ingredients: Organic cacao, o. cane sugar, o. cacao fat, o. red raspberry rooibos tea, soy lecithin

10g sugar/25.5g serving (39.2% by wt.)

Corporate Info: The Tea Room is a small, California-based company started by a Swiss chef and later hotel manager. I can't find much more information about the company itself, including in the press, but it seems pretty small and focused on tea, imported macarons, and tea-infused chocolate treats. All of the cacao is organic and non-GMO, and it's sourced with farmers' quality of life in mind while consciously avoiding the Fair Trade label. The Tea Room's bars and some other items are sold nationwide, mostly at gourmet and health-food-type markets; I found mine at an upscale, local chain pharmacy.

Today's Bar: Raspberry Rooibos in 60% cacao. I drink a lot of rooibos tea, so I wonder if I'll be able to identify it in the chocolate.

Appearance: Again, The Tea Room's blocky bars. Surprisingly, this 60% isn't significantly lighter than last week's 72% cacao, though this particular bar looks a bit glossier than the other one.

Smell: Definitely raspberry, with a light chocolate scent.

Taste: Okay, there's a lot of raspberry in there, which I think overwhelms the rooibos. I find rooibos in general to be distinctive but subtle, and chocolate might be too much for it—or maybe it's just the fact that the raspberry stands out so much. Texture is thick and rich, but otherwise just okay.

Conclusion: The Tea Room Chocolate Fusion Raspberry Rooibos offers mostly raspberry flavor and thick texture.

B.T. McElrath Super Red Chocolate Bar

3oz (85g) bar

Ingredients: Chocolate liquor, sugar, cocoa butter, butter, soy lecithin, vanilla, tart cherries, strawberries, raspberries

12g sugar/43g serving (27.9% by wt.)

Corporate Info: [Copied from 5/26/12] Minneapolis's B.T. McElrath was founded by a chef, and accordingly seems to focus on creating unusual flavored bars and interesting seasonal confections. No organic/fair trade here. B.T. McElrath's Chile Limón Bar is one of my favorites, and while I was less enamored with the seemingly popular Salty Dog, I'm always up for more of the company's fun flavor combos.

Today's Bar: 70% cacao with cherries, strawberries, and raspberries. I'm not hugely into berry bars, but that's just a matter of personal taste, and it's always interesting to see how different companies approach the fruit in terms of size, sweetness, consistency, etc.

Appearance: Semi-glossy with yellow undertones and, on the reverse, bumps from chocolate-covered fruit pieces.

Smell: Mild, though a broken bar reveals the scent of light, dried raspberries and strawberries, with the freshness of freeze dried fruit (a la Just Tomatoes) rather than than fruit that is sweet and moist or artificial and overpowering. I should note that I opened this bar long before I had a chance to review it, and sometimes that means a lot of the scent is lost.

Taste: The chocolate is B.T. McElrath's usual, mild and creamy (see the extra fat in the ingredients). The small, copious berry pieces add a punch of tart, fruity flavor and a slight crunch and chewiness, and the red flecks look nice in a broken bar, as you can see accurately on the box. As a co-taster said as he grabbed for another square, “This is such good chocolate!” Because berries aren't my thing I won't go out of my way to buy this bar again, but if the description sounds good to you, you probably won't be disappointed.

Conclusion: B.T. McElrath Super Red Chocolate Bar is mild and pleasant, with tiny punches of flavor from fresh-tasting fruit.

Leysieffer Berry (Beeren)

100g bar

Ingredients: Sugar, cocoa mass, dried berries (cranberries, sour cherries, blueberries), cocoa butter, soy lecithin

Corporate Info: (Copied from 6/9/12; see that post for more) Leysieffer was founded in 1909 and began making chocolate truffles in 1936. The company is still family-operated, but it now includes 19 confectionary shops throughout Germany as well as a half dozen “bistros” serving cake and whatnot. And if you're really curious, you can order its products online.

Today's Bar: Berry. Ordinarily I wouldn't have selected this from Leysieffer's more intriguing choices, because we in the U.S. see so many “mixed berry” drinks, yogurts, candies, and so on. The difference is that this bar isn't our lovely but common strawberry-raspberry-blackberry; instead, it's blueberry, which is popular here but not in chocolate; cranberry, which we mostly associate with Thanksgiving and plain “craisins”; and sour cherries, which we usually see only in pies but are very common in German jams and desserts. That hit my “novelty” button, so I went with it.

Appearance: Unlike the other Leysieffer bars I brought home, this one has large, irregular chunks visible under the chocolate on the back and revealed in cross-section.

Smell: Basically just plain chocolate, which makes sense given that the berries are intact.

Taste: Flavor is sweet chocolate plus sweet, just slightly tart berries, and texture is Leysieffer's smooth, slightly waxy base with chewy, moist chunks of whole berry; individual bites are likely to be mostly chocolate with a little fruit for additional texture and flavor. As I've said before, I think Leysieffer's 55% cacao base is a fairly ideal match for more ethereal flavors like elderflower and lavender, but here it doesn't work for me, and there's a lot of it. The dominant, sweet chocolate and rather sweet berries prevent me from appreciating the three particular fruits included here, reminding me of why I love Green & Black's cherry bar, with its darker chocolate and plentiful, sweet-sour fruit. I'd like more fruit here, but mostly this is an issue of what the eater considers “balanced”: For me, the sugar here is getting in the way of the rest of the experience, though for others it may be exactly right, making this a satisfying bar they want to return to again and again. So it goes.

Cranberry + sour cherry + blueberry + chocolate conclusion: Inconclusive, since I couldn't get past the sweetness to really appreciate the fruit.

Anthon Berg Lingonberry

100g (3.53oz) bar

Ingredients: Fair trade sugar, ft. cocoa mass, cocoa butter, whole milk powder, dried lingonberries, canola lecithin

47% sugar (labeled)

Today's lingonberry bar is another item I brought home from my trip to New York's Sockerbit. I've had sour, juicy lingonberries in other Northern European products (mostly jams) and thought they would be fun in a chocolate bar.

Corporate Info: Denmark's Anthon Berg was founded in 1884 and is now owned by TomsInternational, a chocolate and candy company operating in Scandinavia and the UK (though the subsidiary site avoids mentioning Toms). Anthon Berg produces assorted chocolate items including flavored fairtrade bars, chocolate-covered marzipan, and those little foil-wrapped chocolate bottles filled with branded liquor.

Appearance: Euro-style thin and flat, slightly orangey brown, semi-glossy, and stamped with Anthon Berg's A logo.

Smell: Much more chocolate than berry, light and tart.

Taste: While this is sweeter than most chocolate I eat, it actually works pretty well even for my taste buds. The chocolate is light but has sour and slightly bitter notes, so it's not super duper mild, and the lingonberries provide tiny little centers of brief sour flavor that interrupt the sweet chocolate for just a moment. Texture is firm, with good chew and those little crunchy-chewy berries to break it up. None of it is intense or challenging, but this bar is way more interesting than it might have been.

Conclusion: Anthon Berg Lingonberry is sweeter than my usual, but the decent-quality chocolate and tiny, sour lingonberries make it all work.