Trader Joe’s The Dark Chocolate Lover’s Chocolate Bar 85%

3.5oz (100g) in two individually wrapped 1.75oz bars

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

6g sugar/40g serving (15% by wt.)

I don’t have the best track record with Trader Joe’s chocolate. On second thought that’s not entirely honest, as I’ve only had trouble recently. Even when they’re not especially high quality, TJ’s candies are often addictive (try the mini peanut butter cups!), and for a short time when I was experimenting with 100% cacao bars—in very small doses—TJ’s carried a particular baking bar that I enjoyed to a surprising degree. It’s with my current diet’s very dark bars that I haven’t been so impressed. One memorable disappointment was the 73% cacao bar with almonds, the one in the pink foil wrapper, which sat partially eaten in The Chocolate Basket for ages before I finally tossed it. I couldn’t bring myself to review it because I’d have to eat it again, and I began this blog for fun; suffering for journalistic integrity is a somewhat lower priority. Thus, despite Trader Joe’s relatively low prices I’ve gravitated toward other brands, and this 85% cacao bar remained unopened in the basket until this week, when I decided to bite the bullet (and the bar--har har).

The good news is that it’s pretty decent. Inside the cardboard box are two smallish, flat bars, so you can open one and leave the other in its airtight plastic wrapper. The texture is as creamy and  smooth as 85% cacao bars tend to get, without any distracting chalkiness or brittle flakes. It has a sort of thin, nutty sweetness that might appeal to some, and it’s fairly bitter, a bit too much for me but interesting nonetheless. Both of those flavors aren’t quite my bag, so I don’t think this bar will be giving any repeat performances here, but I suspect there are chocolate lovers who would really enjoy it.

Conclusion: Trader Joe’s 85% bar is interesting but not to my taste.

P.S. I'm labeling this origin: Colombia, but since it doesn't explicitly say "single origin" on the box, it's possible they mean that it includes chocolate from Colombia. No promises.

Green & Black’s Organic Dark Chocolate with Whole Cherries 60% Cocoa Content

3.5oz (100g) bar

Ingredients: Organic chocolate liquor, o. raw cane sugar, o. cherries (o. dried cherries, o. sunflower oil), o. cocoa butter, soy lecithin, o. vanilla extract

12g sugar/40g serving (30% by wt.)

As I’m generally a fan of Green & Black’s products I’ve tried most of their dark flavored bars too, and this is one I pick up every so often. It is exactly what it says: chocolate with whole cherries. The plentiful cherries are bracingly tart and chewy, the sweeter chocolate is creamy and dark enough to hold its own, and the two play off each other beautifully. The whole cherries add greater textural interest than smaller pieces would, and the flavor is more inspired than similar but tired cranberry.

Personally, I would prefer a slightly darker and less sweet chocolate, but I realize that others might not feel the same way, and as it is the pairing is well balanced. This is the bar I end up eating most quickly—not because it is necessarily better than others (though it is very good) but because it is tasty, interesting, and not so dark and intense as to overwhelm after a few bites. It’s a good thing I don’t buy it regularly!

Conclusion: Green & Black’s Dark Chocolate with Whole Cherries is simple yet inspired and well balanced.

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.

Endangered Species Chocolate Dark Chocolate with Deep Forest Mint 72% Cocoa

3oz (85g) bar

Ingredients: Bittersweet chocolate (chocolate liquor, beet sugar, cocoa butter, soy lecithin, vanilla), mint flavor

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

For me, Green & Black’s 85% is intense, perhaps too much in large doses but also loyal and worth returning to again and again. In that context I’ve found the Endangered Species bars to be affable filler: appealing at first glance, easy to keep around, a pleasant diversion, but never delivering more than expected--and sometimes less. To their credit they are available all over the place and at a reasonable price point (often on sale), come in several strengths and flavors that fit my requirements, and taste good enough. I often buy two or three at a time and keep them around for when I want to choose from a variety of flavored bars. Where they fall short is simply that there’s better out there: more interesting, more vivid, more whatever.

The mint flavored bar is a typical example. It’s sweet but not saccharine, a bit chalky, with a mild but not faded chocolatey-ness. There’s only a hint of mint, barely enough to cool your breath. I’m not saying a bar should wallop you over the head with its mix-ins--if you’ve read my other posts you know I’m sensitive to balance (albeit based on my personal tastes)—but there’s something to be said for having a mint bar taste of mint, you know?

Still, it’s perfectly fine, and I think sometimes it’s okay to pass on the challenging and passionate and fill out your dance card with the ready and amiable.

Conclusion: Endangered Species Dark Chocolate with Mint 72% Cocoa is over-mild, but it will do.

Blanxart Dark Chocolate origin Ghana 80% Cacao

1.7oz (48g) bar

Ingredients: Chocolate liquor, sugar, cocoa butter, vanilla, lecithin

10g sugar/48g serving (20.8% by wt.)

[Note: Blanxart’s website isn’t the most user-friendly, so most of the links here are to outside sites (none of which I necessarily endorse).]

I’ve found Spanish chocolatier Blanxart’s products intriguing in the past, so I bought three different bars to review. One, the Chocolate a la Taza bar intended for making hot chocolate, turned out to be clearly mislabeled in terms of sugar content (among other things), so while I like it, it will have to be eaten by someone else. Said Someone Else polished off the entire bar of Dark Chocolate 85% with Nibs before I had a chance to taste it and then asked me to buy another.  Take from that what you will, and I’ll officially review the bar another time. I did still have most of the small Dark Chocolate origin Ghana 80%, which also comes in a full 3.5oz (100g) size, so by default it’ll be my first review of Blanxart’s chocolate.

Unfortunately, the fat little 1.7 oz bar presents a problem right off. It’s a dense, hard chocolate molded into what are essentially scored blocks (rather than thin tiles), so how do you eat it? You could chip away at it with a knife or chocolate chipper, as from a big block for baking, but it doesn’t seem like that was what this bar was made for. It’s not waxy, so you can’t bite through it cleanly; it fractures and comes off in crunchy chunks. I did resort to this option (trying to avoid the alternative, sloppy gnawing), but “crunchy” isn’t an ideal texture for plain chocolate, and with each brittle bite I got little chocolate crumbs on my shirt. I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt and consider that perhaps it’s just too chilly now, and this bar might soften up in the summer heat.

Flavor-wise, I want to be a fan, but I can’t. To my taste buds this bar is just too sweet, even given the relatively low amount of sugar on the label. Bars with milk, or perhaps a different balance of flavors, seem to meld chocolate and sugar well. Here the two seemed separate, with a thin but sickly sweetness hitting me right away, staying throughout, and even hanging around minutes after I’d swallowed. The chocolate underneath tastes like it must be interesting, not de-fanged ersatz chocolate, but I had a hard time appreciating it because the sugar was so dominant. Adding to the problem slightly is the texture: Once crunched, the chocolate at least melts quickly in the mouth, but it’s very creamy in a way that adds to the sense of syrupy sweetness.

I’ve had some great bars from Blanxart (often with too high a sugar content for me at present) and I hope to review more. I’m sorry to say I didn’t like this one, but hey, at least I didn’t spring for the full size!

Conclusion: Blanxart Dark Chocolate origin Ghana 80% Cacao is too sweet and difficult to eat. 

Lindt Creation 70% Pure Chocolate

5.3oz (150g) bar

Ingredients: Chocolate, sugar, cocoa butter, butterfat, cocoa powder, soya lecithin, vanilla extract

11g sugar/45g serving (24.4% by wt.)

Last week I gave Lindt its first review on this blog, and it was a poor one. At the end I noted that I wasn’t writing Lindt off entirely, and this week I wanted to make good on that promise by reviewing an entirely different sort of bar, the Creation line’s mousse-filled Pure Chocolate. (The other two Creation bars are Cherry & Chili and Orange, which layer a fruit syrup on top of the same mousse.) I’ve bought this bar several times before and enjoyed it as an alternative to a solid bar, and though I usually find it for about $5, it’s less than $1 per ounce, which I consider reasonable for decent chocolate.

Incidentally, the large bar is divided into only 10 squares, and I don’t always want that much chocolate at once. Fortunately the mousse is fairly solid, so I break the squares into smaller pieces inside the packaging and fish them out to eat at my leisure. (By contrast, the syrup-filled bars are gooey and messy. Since quickly scarfing a whole square isn’t always pleasant or cost-effective, I don’t buy them often.) Eating angular shards is actually even nicer, because the denser outer layers often separate from the creamier inner one, which highlights the fun difference in textures. As for the flavor, it's fairly uniform but well balanced, creamy and mild but unmistakably dark, and just tart enough to be interesting. I wouldn’t call it complex or especially deep, but it has some edge, and a lingering finish that doesn’t turn bitter.

Conclusion: Lindt Creation 70% Pure Chocolate is a bit different but not so silly as to be merely novel. It's a good twist on the plain bar.


Update 08/10: I've been looking for the Creation line for months but haven't seen it on store shelves and it's no longer listed on Lindt's website. They do list other dark truffle-filled bars, none dark enough to qualify for this blog. Shame--I write one positive review of Lindt and they discontinue the product!

Lindt Excellence 90% Cocoa Supreme Dark

3.5oz (100g) bar

Ingredients: Chocolate, cocoa powder, cocoa butter, sugar, natural bourbon vanilla beans

3g sugar/40g serving (7.5% by wt.)

I put off writing this review mostly because I had computer trouble, but also because I knew I eventually had to write about Lindt’s 90% cacao bar. Unlike some of the bars I’ve reviewed it’s widely available, and it’s been sitting in The Chocolate Basket for ages, so I couldn’t ignore it. I bought it when I was eating even less sugar than I am now; in fact, I was so thrilled to find such a dark bar that I went ahead and bought two. I nibbled at one a bit but didn’t like it, so it just sat there, and now the unopened one taunts me, an unpalatable reminder of my hubris and consumerism and desperation. It’s safe to say that I’ve become biased: I hate this bar.

I’ve tried 99% and 100% cacao bars, and they usually have some bitter or sour taste. This has neither, which sounds good except I’m not sure what’s left. It’s all fruit, or deep wine flavors, but without the sweetness or perfume (caramel or citrus or what have you) or tannins or anything else but Dark. It’s a vacuum of flavor, a sucking, sinking feeling. Eating it doesn’t make me wince or gag, just scowl—from cheerleader to scold in one lingering bite. Oh, and it’s a bit chalky.


Conclusion: Yuck.

I don’t want to be down on Lindt, makers of everyone’s favorite drugstore luxury, the Lindor Truffle. I’ll be happy to try their other products. I’m just not sure what to do with the rest of this one…