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.

Olive and Sinclair Mexican Style Cinnamon Chili

2.75oz bar

Ingredients: Cocoa beans (Ghana), sugar, cocoa butter, organic Ceylon cinnamon, salt, cayenne pepper

I really enjoyed Olive and Sinclair's salt and pepper bar, so when I returned an item at a local chocolate shop, I exchanged it for Olive and Sinclair's Mexican chocolate bar.

Corporate Info: One appealing feature of Olive and Sinclair's chocolate is that the young company is small and American—in Nashville, to be specific. They make several plain and flavored bars using stone-ground beans and brown sugar, both of which are relatively uncommon (though not unheard of) in the chocolate game. I can't find anything on the bars or website about their bean sourcing and so on, but they do seem to be making an effort with certain organic ingredients (see ingredients for this bar), some well-intended environmental initiatives, and possibly a foray into fair trade (there's a blink-and-you'll-miss-it mention in this video). All in all, at this time Olive and Sinclair is a company I'm happy to support.

Appearance: Unlike the Salt & Pepper bar, the Mexican Style has the spices mixed in, so there's no photo of the speckled back of this bar. Again it's thin, flat, and sharply molded, and the color is glossy and vivid.

Smell: Fruity, something juicy like cherry or currant. Aside: I've called a lot of chocolate “fruity” lately, which either means I've eaten a lot of fruity chocolate or I have a limited olfactory palate. Probably both, though I'm working on the latter. Anyway, whether this bar is “fruity” or not, the smell is pretty pure, not roasty or sour or sweet or in-your-face, just a fresh, slightly caramelized scent.

Taste: Whereas some “Mexican” chocolate can be one- or two-note, in this bar the chocolate, cinnamon, cayenne, and salt merge with surprising complexity. It doesn't just taste like cinnamon or overwhelming spiciness but instead is infused with warmth and flavor; I wouldn't have been surprised to have seen other spices listed in the ingredients. The chocolate itself is subtly fruity with an additional, interesting sweetness, like toasted marshmallows—perhaps from the brown sugar. Texture also helps, as stone-ground beans give the chocolate a fine, uniform grittiness that makes mouthfeel and chew intriguing but not to the point of being distractingly annoying.

Conclusion: Olive and Sinclair Mexican Style Chocolate Cinnamon Chili is balanced and complex, just excellent stuff. 

Nói Síríus Pure Icelandic Chocolate 70% Extra-bitter

7.05 oz bar

Ingredients: Sugar, cocoa mass, cocoa butter, lecithin, vanilla

11g sugar/1.4oz (39.69g) serving (27.7% by wt.)

I bought this bar for two reasons: 1. It was novel, and 2. It was relatively cheap. I don't remember the price exactly, but at $4.50 or so for a hefty seven ounce bar (full price, not on sale), it fell well below my $1/oz threshold for compunction-free chocolate purchases. If it's wonderful, it'll make for good eating and maybe baking, and even if it's not it can probably still suffice tempered by milk in my morning cocoa.

Corporate Info: Not a lot. Google Nói Síríus and you'll find the corporate website, a brief Wikipedia entry, personal reviews, and several puns on the word “serious.” Based on what little is out there, I'll just report that Nói Síríus was founded in 1920 and is now Iceland's largest confectionary company (with 130 employees, it's no Mars but is still significant), producing chocolate among a large assortment of other sweets. The website lists Whole Foods as the only brick-and-mortar U.S. retailer selling Nói Síríus products, though there are online resources as well. I see no claims regarding chocolate sourcing/fair trade/sustainability/choose-your-buzzword.

Appearance: The big ol' seven ounce brick is actually two regular bars stacked on top of each other, which is less awe-inspiring than the alternative but much easier to eat. My particular bars have gotten a bit banged up and broken, but it's all there in glossy medium brown.

Smell: Dried fruit, not dark caramel like raisins but something a little lighter, like stone fruits.

Taste: Dense and rich, not at all sour or bitter. Reminds me of figs. Lingers thick and a little chalky.

Final Thoughts: Before I finally got around to reviewing Nói Síríus I tried this bar in hot chocolate and found the combo to be very dull; I had to add other flavors to jazz it up. Without the milk to hide the flavor I still think it's bland, and without that super-milky smoothness that makes mild seem enjoyably decadent. On the other hand my co-taster, who was also disappointed with the cocoa, loved this chocolate on its own, coming back again and again for another piece. A glance at other blogs shows that many reviews love Nói Síríus, and perhaps you will too.

Conclusion: Nói Síríus Pure Icelandic Chocolate 70% Extra-bitter is dense and mild, not my favorite but possibly yours.

What To Do With Excess Chocolate?

My newly purchased bars go into the pantry in a paper bag whose contents are the only food in the house that no one but me is allowed to touch. Once reviewed, all chocolate ends up in a big open-access bowl along with the other broken half-bars and regular chocolate purchases. So what to do with all that chocolate? Ah, first-world problems. Since I'm not a serious chocoholic, I don't actually eat straight chocolate all day, especially if I didn't really like a bar in the first place. But most of it gets used in the end, and here's how:

• Cocoa
• Aside from its obvious charms, in hot chocolate the milk mellows harsh flavors and overwhelms weird textures. Cocoa is endlessly customizable with sugar or other sweeteners, extracts, spices, coffee, a pinch of salt, whatever you like. Even inclusions are okay, since the pieces of nut or fruit just sink to the bottom.
• My quick-and-dirty way to make cocoa is to break up a few pieces of chocolate into a mug, add in anything else I want, and top with milk. I microwave until just hot, stir, and microwave and stir a bit at a time until chocolate is melted and thoroughly incorporated.
• Watery cocoa is the pits, but it can be avoided! You can use higher-fat milk for richness or whip the milk with a frother, which turns even nonfat milk into soft, pillowy goodness. I happen to use soy milk, which when shaken froths well on its own, but I also have a frother that I quite like.
• Baking
• Baking chocolate is still just chocolate, though it sometimes includes extra cocoa butter for creamy meltiness, and serious bakers probably have favorite brands for top-quality cakes and pastries. Personally I'm usually just experimenting with a basic brownie or cookie recipe, and I have enough random chocolate around that I can't justify buying E. Guittard wafers, so I chop up what I have and voilà.
• I don't recommend using chocolate with harsh or “off” flavors for baking, especially in items like chocolate chip cookies. There might be cookie around those chocolate pieces, but the chocolate will still be harsh or “off,” and now you have a whole batch of weird tasting cookies.
• Hoping someone else will eat it
• Some chocolate is appealing enough to others that it disappears before I get around to using it elsewhere. On the other hand, if I didn't like it much or it's directed at a very particular sort of audience, no one else is anxious to finish it either. Thus the absinthe bar is still hanging around. Oh well.

Domori Cacao Criollo Javablond (70%)

25g (0.88oz) bar
Ingredients: Cocoa mass, cane sugar


I bought Domori's Javablond bar at Cacao in Portland, Oregon. The salesclerk, a smoker, described it as reminding him of a flake of tobacco ember on the tongue (I hope I'm remembering that right). While I wasn't sure I'd enjoy the bar the way he did, I was sufficiently intrigued.

Corporate Info: A Google search on Italy's Domori mostly finds retailers and the occasional layperson like me, not news articles or other credible sources of information. (One minor exception is a short blog post from 2005 by famed pastry chef David Lebovitz.) Domori is a subsidiary of gruppo illy, which also owns several other high-end brands including the obvious illycaffè. Otherwise I'll refrain from making any claims about Domori as a company and just point you to the area of its website that talks about cacao types, ingredient traceablity, and so on. It's not all that enlightening, but the focus (whether in reality or just marketing terms) seems to be on quality and flavor. So that's nice.

Appearance: Javablond is a thin, flat bar in reddish-orange medium brown, a bit darker than it looks in the photos here.

Smell: Like dried fruit, especially raisins. I know that's “snooty reviewer stuff,” but that's what this bar smells like to me.

Taste: Ooh! Very smooth and creamy, sweet, bitter, super interesting.

Snooty Reviewer Stuff: On first taste I just think “bitter,” but if I visualize smoky flavor, I definitely find something tangible to connect the concept with, if that makes sense. I can even see what the salesclerk meant by the idea of a smoky ember, though as a nonsmoker I don't think I'd identify tobacco in such a subtle form. The dried fruit I smelled is there too, but the fruitiness is more of a full, round foundation to the distinct bitterness that sits on top of it. There's a long, lingering bitter aftertaste, but it's mellow, not harsh, and so not unpleasant. The creamy texture is a great pairing for the strong flavor.

By the way, this is what Domori's site says about the Javablond bar: “Notes of tobacco, red fruits, smoked notes, and notes of underbrush. Pungent with great persistence and mildness.” I avoided reading this until after describing the bar myself, but it meshes fairly well with my experience.

Final Thoughts: FYI, this ain't no cheap chocolate, something like $5 for less than an ounce. A fun treat, though.

Conclusion: Domori Cacao Criollo Javablond is creamy, fruity, and smoky.

Moonstruck Dominican Republic Single Origin Dark Chocolate 72% Cacao

 

2oz (56g) bar

Ingredients: Cocoa beans, cane sugar, cocoa butter, vanilla bean

7g sugar/25g serving (28% by wt.)

I've seen Moonstruck's distinctive bright-and-white boxes in stores, but I finally bought this not-cheap bar when sampled it at a festival.

Corporate Info: Portland, Oregon-based Moonstruck makes bars and confections, single-origin and blends, plain and flavored. The company once operated a bunch of chocolate cafés around the country but scaled back a couple years ago to the Portland area alone, and made the news recently for working with a special, rare cocoa bean. While Moonstruck's chocolate is neither organic nor fair trade certified, the company claims that it works with vendors it trusts to eschew abusive labor practices. Your comfort level with this state of affairs may vary.

Appearance: Standard: reddish brown, neither glossy nor dull.

Smell: Fruity.

Taste: Smooth, bright, and fruity. Complex and well balanced.

Snooty Reviewer Stuff: This is actually a really interesting bar. I'm tasting tart red fruits like raspberry and dried cherry, something nutty and tropical like cashew, and a background note of pleasant perfume, maybe vanilla and caramel. A bit tannic. This isn't seriously “out there”—pungent or seriously mouth-drying—but it's not mild and sweet either.

Conclusion: Moonstruck Dominican Republic Single Origin Dark Chocolate 72% Cacao is complex, interesting, and balanced.