François Pralus Le 100% Criollo

3.5oz (100g) bar

Ingredients: Organic cocoa, o. cocoa butter

I was working on another review when the mail brought me a package from a thoughtful friend: François Pralus 100% cacao bar. What was I to do with such dark chocolate? I figured I couldn't review it, because without sugar, 100% cacao is bitter and sour. I also didn't want to bake it, drowning a relatively small amount of lovingly molded French cacao in butter and flour.

I unwrapped the foil, took a little sniff, then inhaled deeply: tropical, fruity, enveloping. So I tried a crumb, and this 100% cacao bar surprised me: it's not especially sour or bitter. It does have the expected acrid bite, but what predominates is the tropical fruit, not too flowery, something like pineapple or mango. The texture is more waxy than brittle, which I appreciate. This chocolate is complex but easy to eat—if you like 100% cacao, of course—because it's free of the sort of unpleasant edges that require dulling by sugar or milk.

Okay, I still wasn't about to eat an entire bar of unadulterated cacao. I discovered the solution in a leftover cup of heavy cream, and just for the heck of it, I tried it in two different but similar preparations. First I melted the bar with a bit of sugar. For one dessert, I whipped a small amount of the chocolate and sugar with half the cream to make an easy, soft, spoonable ganache. The rest of the chocolate mixture and cream (close to equal parts) I combined, refrigerated, scooped into balls, and rolled in cocoa powder to make truffles. In such a simple recipe inferior chocolate would have stood out, but these desserts tasted rich, pure, and dark.

Conclusion: For simple desserts that showcase high-quality chocolate, medium-bodied François Pralus Le 100% Criollo will not disappoint. 

Bissinger's Naurals Chocolate Covered Pumpkin Seed Crunch

5oz (142g) bag

Ingredients: Pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds, rice malt, organic cane sugar, sea salt, dark chocolate (sugar, unsweetened chocolate, cocoa butter, butter oil, soy lecithin, vanilla)

8g sugar/29g serving (27.6% by wt.)

Missouri-based Bissinger's makes a whole host of confections, chocolate and otherwise, which aren't the sort of thing I usually review. But I saw these dark-chocolate-covered pumpkin seed clusters when I was trolling the candy aisle at Whole Foods (as I am wont to do), and while they don't list the percent cacao content, they fall within my sugar limit because much of the weight of a serving is made up of nuts. It's kind of a cheap way to sneak in candy, but these things happen when I shop hungry.

The good news: They're pretty good! Each piece is one or two bites' worth of pumpkin seeds and a sprinkling of sesame seeds bound by a minimal sheen of sweet lacquer and enrobed by a thin layer of inoffensive, generic dark chocolate. Because the pumpkin seeds are fairly delicate and the syrup and chocolate are applied with a light hand, the whole thing ends up airy and really quite nice. I'm not big into nuts and seeds, so I had my doubts, but I'd be happy to recommend these to folks who want a sweet chocolate snack that actually tastes reasonably healthy. Good going, Bissinger's.

Conclusion: Bissinger's Naturals Chocolate Covered Pumpkin Seed Crunch is pleasantly light and not too sweet.

Divine Fruit and Nut Dark Chocolate

3.5oz (100g) bar

Ingredients: Fair trade cocoa mass, ft. sugar, currants, ft. cocoa butter, chopped almonds, butterfat, soy lecthin, ft. vanilla

14g sugar/50g serving (28% by wt.)

When I reviewed Divine's mint bar I thought it just okay, but I appreciated the company's commitment to fair trade practices and swore to give its chocolate another chance. That chance is here with the fruit and nut dark chocolate bar, which is more precisely the currant and almond bar in 68% cacao chocolate. The bar is straightforward: It has a standard gloss, is nicely molded, and looks medium brown, and it smells, as you might imagine, of raisins. It also tastes a bit of raisins, and nuts too (though I wouldn't say they're clearly almonds), both chopped fine. The chocolate is sweet and not especially interesting.

I've actually had Divine's fruit and nut bar several times before. It's never my favorite, as the chocolate isn't the best and the combination of currants, almonds, and chocolate is wholly uninspired. But by the same token, the chocolate isn't off-putting and the flavorings don't clash with the chocolate, so the bar is pleasant enough and easy to eat. I wouldn't say I recommend it, but if you like the combination, you could do worse.

Conclusion: Divine's Fruit and Nut bar is acceptable for those who like currants and almonds in their chocolate.

Olive and Sinclair Salt & Pepper

2.75oz bar

Ingredients: Cacao beans, brown sugar, cocoa bitter, kosher salt, black peppercorns

I spotted Olive and Sinclair's distinctive wrappers at a specialty chocolate shop, where the clerk said the bars had only just arrived. The Nashville-based company doesn't even have a fully functioning website as of this writing, but its enthusiastic blog details the entire process of setting up production, from receiving the bean roaster to choosing molds to getting the first bars out the door. The blog currently lists two plain bars in 67% and 75% cacao, three year-round flavored bars, one seasonal bar, and nibs. My local store carried three of the bars including Salt & Pepper, which according to the blog is in the 67% cacao base.

So how's the new chocolate on the block? The look of the bars is very clean, a vivid brown and with sharp edges and detailing on the front and an even sprinkling of salt and medium-ground black pepper on the back. Of course it smells like salt, pepper, and chocolate, with the salt and pepper somewhat restrained and the chocolate...hard to distinguish: It all blends into one sweet-savory aroma, which is probably a sign of a good pairing. The rectangles snap apart easily—this is a firm, crunchy chocolate.

Because of the slightly dusty salt and pepper I start by biting into the rectangles flavor-side-up, and I find I detect a gentle pepper scent, nothing close to sneeze-inducing. When I try biting into them flavor-side-down instead, the scent is eliminated but the salt immediately begins to melt on my tongue and the pepper provides heat instead of perfume. Once I begin chewing the flavor changes again: The salt becomes a background salinity and the pepper a touch of earthiness, a combination that evokes seawater.

If I weren't paying such close attention, I'd probably swallow before thinking about the experience, and I'd come out with “That was kind of neat. Not a strong pepper flavor, a little salty, tasty chocolate but that's really not the point here...heh, cool.” And that would be that. As it is, I am reflecting during each step of the process of savoring each bite, and it's rather more complicated. Thus, I pronouce:

Conclusion: Olive and Sinclair's Salt & Pepper bar is subtle, meant for measured bites and slow appreciation—an interesting experiment in learning to pay attention to how things taste. 

[Apologies for the dark photo of the back of the bar. It's actually the same color as the front, but my bare-bones free photo organizing software doesn't enable me to lighten photos.]

Baratti e Milano Puro Cioccolato Extra Fondente 88%

75g bar

Ingredients: Cocoa mass, sugar, cocoa butter, natural vanilla extract

Baratti & Milano's Extra Bitter 88% bar was a gift from a lovely old friend who knows my taste for dark chocolate. I opened the box, the kind bound with an elasticated gold cord tied in a little bow at one corner, to find four different high-end bars. I'm starting with something Italian.

This is another wide, thin, flat bar, in a deep black-brown with a dull finish. The fragrance is kind of fascinating, less chocolate than like a spicy perfume heady with vanilla. I don't wear perfume, but I might if I were able to get my hands on one that smelled like this.

“Bitter” is an apt term for the chocolate, though it's not the pungent kind that makes you grimace—it's actually surprisingly smooth, in both texture and flavor. The bitterness comes on slowly and builds gradually, finally revealing a hint of sugar. It brings you as close to the bean as you can and still be eating chocolate, processed to be palatable and with just a hint of sugar for balance.

This is some of the darkest-tasting chocolate I've eaten. Another 88% bar I've tried (Endangered Species' Black Panther bar) is sweeter and more accessible, so it's not just the cacao content; maybe it's in the choice of bean, or in the processing. Because of how bitter it is I probably won't be buying this myself, but it's a very good special occasion bar, smooth and sweet enough to be more than plain cacao, but only just.

Conclusion: Baratti e Milano Puro Cioccolato Extra Fondente 88% is barely sweet, surprisingly smooth, a high-quality super-super-dark chocolate.

[Note: I couldn't find a website for Baratti e Milano, so the above link is to this bar on Amazon.]

Vosges Calindia Bar

3oz (85g) bar

Ingredients: Dark chocolate (cocoa mass, sugar, cocoa butter, soy lecithin), dried plums, cardamom, organic walnuts

10g sugar/32g serving (31.3% by wt.)

You've probably seen Vosges (pronounced something like “Vohzh” or “Vohj”) bars in upscale markets. Perhaps you heard of the company's famous bacon bars. If you picked one up, you more than likely gaped at the price. The Calindia Bar here was something like $7, which is more than I'm usually willing to spend on a 3 ounce bar, but my first impression was that the cardamom, walnut, and plum combination sounded rather novel, so I threw caution to the wind and went for it.

Second impression: The copy on the box is silly. “How to enjoy an exotic candy bar: Breathe...Engage your senses. Take 3 deep ujjayi breaths, quiet the chattering mind and be in the present moment.” It goes on and on from there, about how the chocolate should smell, sound and taste, which is theoretically useful, but it rubs me the wrong way, making me feel like I'm paying for marketing rather than quality. Also on the box are Vosges founder Katrina's headshot and the story of her privileged career path, from Vanderbilt to Le Cordon Bleu to “extensive world travel.” I would never fault her for how she's gotten where she is today, but to me the charmed life story and yoga-speak fall somewhere between “I want to attain that” (by buying the chocolate) and tone-deaf bragging (so I don't really want to give her more money).

Third impression: This is a perfectly nice looking bar of the large and thin variety, with a delicate scent of nuts and dried fruit.

Fourth impression: The flavors are delicate as well, more so than my personal taste would hope for. The walnut is the least interesting element to me, and also the one that predominates, if only slightly. The plum shows up in a light fruitiness, like a golden raisin; the pieces are small and not readily apparent, but large enough that one's teeth sometimes close on a bit of firm chewiness. The cardamom is a good match, quite subtle but easily identified by the scent that wafts up in the back of the throat and a taste on the tip of the tongue. The chocolate is light and soft, reminiscent of citrus rather than berries or wine. (The box recommends pressing a small piece of the chocolate to the roof of your mouth and letting it melt to smell the cardamom as well as the subtleties in the chocolate, and that does seem to work.)

Final verdict: I wouldn't pay $7 for this again, but it was different from my norm, and I'm glad I tried it.

Conclusion: Vosges Calindia Bar is light, subtly exotic, and expensive.

Lake Champlain Chocolates Dark Chocolate 70% Cocoa Sao Thome

  

3oz (85g) bar
Ingredients: Cocoa mass, sugar, cocoa butter, soybean lecithin, vanilla
12g sugar/43g serving (27.9% by wt.)

I don't know much about Vermont-based Lake Champlain Chocolates except that I've seen the company's products around and that they get a positive mention in Steve Almond's Candyfreak. The bar I have here is one of several very dark bars Lake Champlain offers, differentiated by cacao origin: This particular chocolate is from an island off the coast of Gabon called São Tomé and Príncipe. The wrapper describes the chocolate's flavor as “fruity and robust...exceedingly complex...pure” with “resounding vanilla tones” (from the vanilla, of course). So what do I think of it?

This is a rather dark bar with a dull finish and a shape that has held together in the wrapper with no flaking or scuffing, which is something I can't always say. It smells richly chocolatey and breaks into clean rectangles. A bite reveals chocolate that is dense and creamy, with a bit of chew and a complex flavor. 

An aside: There's a difference between being mild and lacking complexity. Even if you haven't bothered to pay close attention to how the flavor of various bars differs, if you've eaten enough chocolate you'll notice that some bars you just don't go back to after the first few pieces, and it's not because something stands out as being “off.” I think you feel indifferent when you eat chocolate that lacks complexity—it's one-note, boring, unintriguing, even though it's technically just as much chocolate as any other. You experience the opposite when you eat something chocolate flavored, like mousse or cake, and exclaim “Oh, that's just so...so chocolatey!” Similarly, you can make two pans of brownies using the same recipe but with two different chocolates and have one pan taste markedly more chocolatey than the other.

Back to Lake Champlain. This chocolate is complex but not super-dark, with a flavor that is perhaps a bit nutty. It's not my favorite bar ever, but I doubt I'll have trouble finishing it. And that's all I have to say about that.

Conclusion: Lake Champlain Chocolates Dark Chocolate 70% Sao Thome is satisfying, interesting, and easy to eat without being boring. 


[Update 1/18/12: I fixed the color issue.]