Mānoa Chocolate

Today I'm looking at a new-to-me company inspired by a trip home to Hawaii: Mānoa Chocolate. While picking up a few groceries I found several Mānoa bars, and more or less went all-in on this pricey chocolate, selecting three to take back home with me. 

Corporate Info: Mānoa Chocolate is new new new. Though the "history and mission" link on the site only brings up a brief "about" page, the oldest blog post on the site is from April 2012, when they were still building the factory in Kailua, Oahu and sourcing beans from Hawaii and abroad. Here you'll find a great video interviewing Mānoa's young founder, Dylan Butterbaugh, and taking you on a tour of the very small operation. The company has a great mission--among other things, to expand Hawaii's locally-grown cacao industry; thus, Mānoa makes its chocolate bean-to-bar, though as I said, only some of the cacao is from Hawaii. It also uses other Hawaiian ingredients like sea salt and coffee beans, and while the focus here is not crazy flavors, Mānoa makes some bars with goat milk, which I don't think I've seen elsewhere. An intriguing start for a young company! Oh, and in case you're wondering why Mānoa comes out of Kailua and not, well, Mānoa, supposedly it's not about the location.
 
Today's Bars: 

• 72% Bolivia Goat Milk: Cacao nibs (presumably Bolivian), cane sugar, goat milk powder, cocoa butter. 
• 66% Goat Milk Hamakua Hawaiian Crown: Cacao nibs (presumably from Hamakua, on the Big Island), cane sugar, goat milk powder, cocoa butter. 
• 60% Dark Milk Breakfast Bar: Cacao nibs, cane sugar, whole milk powder, cocoa butter, coffee beans (Hawaiian).

Note: Mānoa Chocolate's product line changes continuously. It routinely uses Hamakua cocoa beans, for example, though based on the website, as of this writing it's only in a 72%, non-milk bar. The Bolivian bar seems to be the current incarnation of the 72% single-origin bar, though I think it always includes goat milk. And the listed goat milk option is still 66%, but with (at least in the photo on the site) Peruvian beans. Either way, you get a fun blend of different milks and non-milks, Hawaiian and non-Hawaiian cacao, and so on.

Appearance: All three are shiny and smooth, in a rich red-brown, and the reverse of the Breakfast Bar is densely sprinkled with nibs and whole coffee beans.

Smell: 

• 72% Bolivia Goat Milk: Wow that's good, full and rich and beany and fruity, with some rawness, a little sourness, and no bitter or "off" odors.
• 66% Goat Milk Hamakua Hawaiian Crown: Not unlike the above in terms of the description, but slightly muted and with a higher, nutty note.
• 60% Dark Milk Breakfast Bar: Even more muted, less raw, with something thin and bitter underneath, though still rich and full. No clear coffee scent.

  
Taste:

• 72% Bolivia Goat Milk: Texture is a little chalky, then melty. Flavor is bright and rounded and a little sour, not goaty at all, but with a little of milk chocolate's smooth, easy-to-eat character and plenty of dark chocolate's punch. 
• 66% Goat Milk Hamakua Hawaiian Crown: Texture is only slightly chalky and thicker. Flavor is not nearly as strong, with some freshness in the back of the throat and a smooth, sour cream vibe, not as interesting as the 72% Bolivian by my taste but pleasant and still somewhat raw.
• 60% Dark Milk Breakfast Bar: The texture of the chocolate is, again, chalky and thick, with the soft crunch of the nibs and brittle crunch of the coffee. Flavor is nice, dark but not strong, nutty, without the sourness of the other bars, and just a little coffee from the beans (roughly one bean per rectangle). Not bad, but not my favorite.

Conclusion: To focus on one standout feature: Goat milk complements dark chocolate with the mellowness of dairy but also meshes its sour flavor profile with cacao's raw, sour, beany notes. For that and other reasons, Mānoa Chocolate is a neat addition to the Hawaii chocolate scene.

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

Corporate Info: (Copied from 1/12/13) 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. Today I'm looking at Coffee & Cocoa Nib and Chili & Cinnamon.

Trader Joe's Dark Chocolate Chocolate Bar 70% Coffee & Cocoa Nib

2oz (57g) bar

Ingredients: Chocolate liquor, sugar, cocoa butter, soy lecithin, vanilla, cocoa nibs, coffee beans

17g sugar/57g serving (29.8% by wt.)

Appearance: Straight brown, i.e. not reddish or orangey, and mostly matte. The back shows a few small, raised pieces of what I'm guessing is cocoa nib.

Smell: Sweet and nutty, with barely a hint of coffee.

Taste: That's pretty good! The texture is more chalky than waxy, but with the intriguing grit of coffee grounds and crushed cocoa nibs. Flavor is sweet (note: I haven't been eating much sugar lately) and nutty, not especially complex, with the fatty flavor of cocoa butter and and a light, lingering coffee taste. More latte than espresso.

Conclusion: Trader Joe's Dark Chocolate Chocolate Bar 70% Coffee & Cocoa Nib offers some grit for texture and a light, creamy coffee flavor.

Trader Joe's Dark Chocolate Chocolate Bar 70% Chili & Cinnamon

2oz (57g) bar

Ingredients: Chocolate liquor, sugar, cocoa butter, soy lecithin, vanilla, ancho chili powder, cinnamon, guajillo chili powder, cayenne pepper

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

Appearance: As with the coffee bar, the base used for this chocolate is a deeper, more purply brown than the also-common reddish or orangey, and has little gloss. The back surface is mottled with very small raised bumps.

Smell: Ooh, I totally get both chili and cinnamon! Not strongly, but still. Again, the chocolate is light and nutty.

Taste: Again, a little chalky, with chew. Then I get the prickle of the cayenne, a low level of the other chilis (I'm not sure I could tease out the flavors), and finally a surprising amount of cinnamon compared with other, similar bars I've tried. I don't know if they used ground cinnamon or if it's just the chalkiness of the chocolate itself, but overall it's a little too powdery for my taste. On the other hand, it's still pretty neat to taste serious cinnamon flavor in my chocolate, and along with the lasting heat of chili in the back of my throat.

Conclusion: Trader Joe's Dark Chocolate Chocolate Bar 70% Chili & Cinnamon has prickly, lingering heat, significant cinnamon flavor, and a texture that's a bit too powdery for me.

All My Sins Peppermint Mischief 70% Cacao Dark Chocolate Peppermint Coffee Beans

5.5oz (156g) bag

Ingredients: Fair trade unsweetened chocolate, ft. sugar, ft. cocoa, soy lecithin, ft. vanilla, ft. coffee, gum acacia, medium chain triglycerides, peppermint flavor, confectioner's glaze

8g sugar/35g serving (22.9% by wt.)

Corporate Info: Pop Quiz. Q: What's weird about All My Sins? A: The brand doesn't have a website, or any other identity as far as I can see. According to the package it's distributed by John B. Sanfilippo & Son, Inc., which according to this site filed a for trademark on the name (All My Sins With None of the Guilt) earlier this year. JBSS was founded in Illinois in 1922 and sources nuts commercially, for store generics, and as the brand Fisher. I found the All My Sins product at Whole Foods.

Today's Confection: This is All My Sins' dark chocolate item, which is why it's the one I bought!

Appearance: Shiny (that'd be the confectioner's glaze) and dark.

Smell: An appealing mix of chocolate and heady roasted espresso, with a light burst of mint.

Taste: Quite nice, if more or less what you'd expect. The chocolate coating isn't too thin or thick, and it holds up with its rich texture and dark but mild flavor to the crunchy, roasty coffee beans. The mint is kind of an afterthought, but I have to admit it adds a layer of refreshment to the dark and somewhat bitter (just because it's coffee) confection. I can't wax poetic about these—they don't have the gourmet texture or complexity of, say, Pacari's chocolate covered cacao beans—but there's nothing “off” in the balance of flavors, the thickness of the coating, or the beans.

Conclusion: All My Sins Peppermint Mischief 70% Cacao Dark Chocolate Peppermint Coffee Beans are a satisfying snack for those who like their candy caffeinated or coffee with their chocolate.

New Zealand Chocolate: Scarborough Fair

Corporate Info: Auckland-based Scarborough Fair offers a small range of fair trade coffees, teas, and chocolate bars, so when I saw the brand's espresso and peppermint chocolate bars in a grocery store, I snatched them up. Turn-offs: The chocolate has silly names like “Decadence” and “Enigma” (not to mention “Sinless,” “Adore,” and “Sublime”); Scarborough Fair is actually owned by corporate-sounding Lighthouse Ventures Limited, for whom the bars are produced by some unnamed manufacturer; and the website is pretty drab. Turn-ons: I bought fair trade chocolate for a reasonable price while visiting another country. So hey.

Decadence Dark Espresso Chocolate 70% Cocoa

120g (4.23oz) bar

Ingredients: fair trade cocoa liquor, ft. organic cane sugar, ft. cocoa butter, soy lecithin, vanilla, espresso flavor

6.8g sugar/20g serving (34% by wt.)

Appearance: Dullish, grayish brown.

Smell: I can't smell any coffee here. There's a slight roasted beaniness that could be either chocolate or coffee, but it's not distinct or strong. Most of what I get is sugary and a little musty.

Taste: Texture is creamy and slightly chalky, which isn't a bad thing. The flavor is weird, though: mostly over-sweet and creamy with just a hint of coffee, like cheap coffee ice cream.

Enigma Dark Peppermint Chocolate 70% Cocoa

120g (4.23oz) bar

Ingredients: fair trade cocoa liquor, ft. organic cane sugar, ft. cocoa butter, soy lecithin, vanilla, mint flavor

6.8g sugar/20g serving (34% by wt.)

Appearance: Redder and a little glossier than the espresso bar.

Smell: Mint extract, distilled and thin, and a musty, saccharine sweetness. It doesn't appeal to me.

Taste: Texture is great, first with some bite but then creamy and melty. But the taste is still weirdly over-sweet, which surprises me since this is all cane sugar. The mint doesn't merge well with the chocolate, as though the chocolate is too sweet, the mint is too sweet, and the two kind of co-exist in the bar rather than melding. The aftertaste is similar, with a thin, menthol-y flavor predominating.

Conclusion: I like Scarborough Fair's fair trade goals, but the chocolate feels like an afterthought, with a thin, sweet, and not very chocolatey taste. If customers are spending more for a fair trade product, I think they'll be disappointed.

New Zealand Chocolate: Whittaker's

So I haven't posted for the last couple weeks, and the reason is that I was in New Zealand! I brought home several chocolate bars, and today I'm reviewing three varieties of Whittaker's, a brand found in seemingly every supermarket and service station in the country. This chocolate is cheap, doesn't contain any weird fillers (except maybe “flavor”), and makes some crazy huge bars: The 72% and Mocha bars are 250 grams—most of the bars I review are 85 or 100g—the Peanut Slabs came in a pack of three chunky 50g bars, and if I recall correctly each item was under $5. Because I'm discussing all three varieties in one go, the photos and reviews appear after this introductory section.

Corporate Info: The original Whittaker started working with chocolate in 1896, and Whittaker's final product is made in Porirua, near New Zealand's capital of Wellington. But yes, as with other chocolate companies it sources its ingredients all over the world: Ghana (cocoa beans), Southeast Asia (cocoa butter), South Africa (peanuts), and so on. With the exception of one fair trade milk chocolate bar, you've still got the usual chocolate industry stuff to deal with, though they do say they're trying. In addition to what I've reviewed here, Whittaker's produces an intriguing assortment of studded slabs, flavored “blocks” (the giant bars), toffees, and single-sized servings.

72% Cocoa Dark Ghana

250g bar

Ingredients: Cocoa mass, cocoa butter, sugar, soy lecithin, vanilla flavor

8.3g sugar/25g serving (33.2% by wt.)

Appearance: Big. Also glossy and medium in color.

Smell: Pleasant, nose-filling, chocolatey. Like hot cocoa and raisins.

Taste: Enjoyable. A little sour but not too much, kind of chalky but not weirdly, a little fatty but not unpalatable. The experience is like eating a Hershey's Kiss—it's mild but not impressively creamy or unpleasantly neutral, and if I weren't paying attention I could eat this all day.

62% Cocoa Dark Mocha

250g bar

Ingredients: Cocoa mass, cocoa butter, sugar, soy lecithin, flavor, roasted ground coffee beans

9.4g sugar/25g serving (37.6% by wt.)

Okay, yeah, for this review I did cheat on the sugar level. I was in another country, people! The Peanut Slab below would be even worse if the sugar weren't drowned out by peanuts.

Appearance: Darker than the 72% above, dark like medium-roast coffee.

Smell: Coffee, but again nose-filling and pleasant. There's nothing challenging about this chocolate, but also nothing “off”--it smells like a coffee shop, like coffee beans that aren't too dark-roasted. Nice.

Taste: The coffee grounds give the chocolate a uniformly gritty texture, which is fairly fine and therefore interesting rather than annoying. Flavor still reminds me of walking into a coffee shop; if you like that sensation, you'll like this bar.

Bittersweet Peanut Slab

50g bar (three per pack)

Ingredients: Sugar, cocoa mass, cocoa butter [47% total cocoa solids], soy lecithin, flavor, roasted peanuts

17.1g sugar/50g serving (34.2% by wt.)

Appearance: These stubby little bars are the size of an outdated candy bar-style cell phone, the size of the palm of your hand (my fairly small hand, anyhow) and thicker than what you're used to, but they're totally packed with whole roasted peanuts.

Smell: Mmm, chocolate and peanuts, a classic.

Taste: A great ratio of chocolate to peanuts. Lots of textural interest with the whole nuts and slightly chalky chocolate. At 47% cacao this is definitely sweeter than the 72% bar above, but eating them separately they don't taste all that different: Same Hershey's Kiss texture and quality, and I suspect a less dark chocolate works better with the peanuts. Again, I could eat the whole 50g (nearly 2oz) bar in one go.

Conclusion: Whittaker's is good mass-market chocolate: Simple, cheap, and addictive. There's nothing virtuous about it, and if I lived in New Zealand I'd be searching out the fair trade options (I've got some for next week), but for now I'm enjoying my Whittaker's.

Green & Black's Organic Espresso

3.5oz (100g bar)

Ingredients: Organic chocolate liquor, o. raw cane sugar, o. cocoa butter, o. coffee, soy lecithin, o. vanilla extract

10g sugar/40g serving (25% by wt.)

It's no secret that I'm a fan of Green & Black's chocolate. The company produces USDA organic chocolate with a complex flavor at an affordable price point (I regularly find it on sale for $2.50 a bar), including several bars that have relatively low sugar content. And it's one of the few companies that offers multiple dark bars with flavor variations that go beyond terroir and a touch of vanilla.

Green & Black's espresso bar is one I buy occasionally, in part because it's a fun reminder of how natural a pairing coffee is with chocolate: Both are tropical, bitter beans made more palatable with sugar and maybe milk. Green & Black's does its coffee bar creamy throughout rather than crunchy with pieces of the beans, a choice I can take or leave depending on what I want at the moment.

The nitty-gritty (or not so gritty): This is a medium dark brown bar with a soft luster and a punchy coffee aroma. It hits the tongue with a thick richness like a strong espresso and the complexity that I expect from Green & Black's—here fruity, winey, and tannic. The chocolate is inseparable from the coffee, to my mind reflecting both the similarities between the two products (not that they're biologically related) and the skill with which they're blended, in terms of both flavor and texture. It's intense, dark chocolate flavor and lots of coffee, with no fooling around. I like my chocolate to commit.

Granted, coffee isn't my favorite chocolate mixer. It's fine, but a combination I only want once in a while, and often I like the added interest of bits of espresso bean crackling between my teeth. Regardless of my personal taste, this is a good bar.

Conclusion: Green & Black's Espresso bar is potent, well balanced, and super-smooth.