Theo Organic Fair Trade Salted Almond Dark Chocolate 70% Cacao

3oz (84g) bar

Ingredients: Organic fair trade cocoa beans, oft. sugar, o. almonds, oft. cocoa butter, sea salt, ground vanilla bean

12g sugar/42g serving (28.6% by wt.)

Corporate Info: I've reviewed and discussed Theo many times before, so I'll just direct you backwards for company info. I review Theo often for many reasons: It's a good company, it's local here so I see the bars around a lot, it does a lot with dark chocolate, and it adds new bars from time to time so there's often something new to try. Today's bar is new, but not too long ago they came out with a version in 45% milk chocolate and I highly enjoyed it, so I'm anxious to try this one! My fear is that I won't like it the way I don't like many of their 70% bars, in that the base is too sour for me personally. I keep coming back to Theo's 70% bars in part because I love the company and in part because I hold out hope that one of these days, the inclusion and the tart base will turn out to be a perfect match, at least to my taste buds. One more go-around...

Appearance: Low-gloss, very reddish brown with lighter flecks visible under the surface.

Smell: Tangy like red fruit and yogurt, a little nutty.

Taste: The chocolate is indeed somewhat tart, but as I chew it, somehow only parts of what I'm tasting register as sour! The rest of each bite is more balanced among sour, bitter, and tannic, as in a light-bodied red wine, and there's just enough sugar to meet those flavors. The mellow flavor of the small chunks of almond doesn't come out much at all in comparison to all that, but their al dente firmness provides some low-contrast texture. Finally, the tiny flakes of salt contribute a flavor that's less saline and more like centers of heightened chocolate intensity, which add to the general sense of complexity. This wouldn't be a favorite for me, but for those who like this complex flavor profile, it's pretty interesting.

Conclusion: Theo Organic Fair Trade Salted Almond Dark Chocolate 70% Cacao has a lot going on: the sourness, bitterness, and tannins of a light red wine, the texture of almond pieces, and heightened flavor around salt crystals.

Whole Foods Dark Chocolate Pear & Almond

3.5oz (100g) bar

Ingredients: Chocolate liquor, sugar, almonds, cocoa butter, butter oil, inulin, pear, natural flavoring, soy lecithin

14g sugar/38g serving (36.8% by wt.)

Corporate Info: See two weeks ago, both this section and the introduction. This week's bar isn't organic or whatever else; it's Whole Foods' attempt at upscale chocolate flavors. So how do they do?

Appearance: Flat, lightly textured, deep reddish brown, with pale flecks under the surface. A cross-section reveals slivered almonds and, due to slightly different color and shape, what must be tiny pieces of pear.

Smell: In both color and smell this is actually dark, probably at least 60%, though the package doesn't say. Light, nutty, winey. No pear smell as far as I can tell.

Taste: What stands out is pear, which based on the ingredients is just in the pieces (“natural flavoring” is in parentheses next to pear, along with inulin and dehydrated pear; there's no “flavoring” in the chocolate itself), but it jumps out like liberally applied pear extract, sweet, with a candyish texture but a real ripe pear vibe, as in a pear Jelly Belly. Almonds are more low-key and textural, and chocolate isn't in front but does have some winey flavor, so it doesn't get lost.

Conclusion: Whole Foods Dark Chocolate Pear & Almond isn't for lovers of super dark chocolate, but it does provide pear flavor, almond texture, and a legitimate dark chocolate foundation.

Whole Foods Organic 72% Cacao Dark Chocolate Tanzania Schoolhouse Project

3.5oz (100g) bar

Ingredients: Organic chocolate liquor, o. cane sugar, o. cocoa butter

10g sugar/38g serving (26.3% by wt.)

Corporate Info: See last week, both this section and the introduction. This week's bar is both organic and connected to a particular charity: The back of the box says “all proceeds are donated to help meet educational needs of schoolchildren in the district of Kyela, Mbeya region of Tanzania,” and, by the way, “the organic cacao used to make each bar is purchased from farmers in this region and is certified by the Fair for Life Social & Fair Trade Certification Program. Enjoy and feel good about it!” So that's nice, if annoyingly self-congratulatory.

Appearance: Very similar to last week's bar, though I'd say it's maybe half a shade lighter in color.

Smell: Again, like the Costa Rican chocolate, this doesn't smell challenging—round and warm, not sour or anything. It might be little nuttier and less fruity, but the similarities (despite the fact that the beans come from different continents) are challenging my sense of smell!

Taste: Again, creamy, waxy, and rich, with a rounded dark flavor, but not as fruity as the other bar, lighter in a way, reminding me of milk, cream, and nuts.

Conclusion: Whole Foods Organic 72% Cacao Dark Chocolate Tanzania Schoolhouse Project is dark but not heavy, light-bodied with a rounded flavor and creamy texture.

Whole Foods 71% Cacao Costa Rica Dark Chocolate

3.5oz (100g) bar

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

10g sugar/38g serving (26.3% by wt.)

The other day I stopped by Whole Foods for vegetables and discovered that the chain had changed its entire line of store brand chocolate bars. The new line presumably aims at the same demographic—people who will spend extra for local/organic/fair trade/sustainable and are leery of unpronounceable ingredients, i.e. Whole Foods shoppers—but the change seems to be an attempt to stay within current trends in both sustainability and chocolate consumption. The old chocolate was your basic “Milk chocolate” or “Dark chocolate with almonds” in bright, simple packaging, sometimes using the words “organic” or the classic, evocative “Swiss.” The new line includes more dark varieties, single-origin bars, and upscale flavoring combinations in Vosges-shaped thin boxes bearing lots of words, sustainability-certification-type stamps, earthy colors, and photos of people and sights in tropical locales. They're also marketing it under their Whole Foods brand rather than under their 365 “value” brand.

I bought three of the new bars to review over the next weeks, among them today's 71% single-origin Costa Rican bar (but made in Belgium, so there's still some Euro-cachet). Incidentally, this bar's carries Whole Foods' self-defined Whole Trade Guarantee and is made with Rainforest Alliance Certified cacao. These distinctions are, like organic, fair trade, direct trade, and all those others, complicated and varying degrees of meaningful to the well-intentioned consumer. I won't pretend to fully understand them (I suspect very few people really do), and one of these days I'd like to write a post on whatever I can learn about the real-world significance of each. Compared to eating chocolate, that's frustrating and boring, so it's on the back burner.

Corporate Info: After all the above, let's keep this one short. Whole Foods Market is a major American supermarket chain focusing on upscale and health food. People have all sorts of opinions on it because of its relatively high prices (at least in part because of the nature of the products, maybe also because its customers are willing to pay more), penchant for taking over regional health food chains, and outspoken co-founder/one-time CEO, but it also gives health-food devotees supermarket-style access to their preferred products, including many of the chocolate bars I review here.

Appearance: Surface is semi-glossy and finely textured, with a red-orange undertone.

Smell: Big, warm, round—that is, there's a lot of aroma but nothing pungent. Like ripe cherries or berries or something.

Taste: Texture is creamy, waxy, rich, mouth-coating. Flavor is full, not too sweet, not at all sour or bitter. This is the crowd-pleaser of very dark chocolates, fruity and winey without any challenging or unpleasant edges.

Conclusion: Whole Foods 71% Cacao Costa Rica Dark Chocolate is exactly what an upscale store brand would do when attempting to make a good-quality but not off-putting fairly dark chocolate.

B.T. McElrath Salty Dog Chocolate Bar

3oz (85g) bar

Ingredients: Chocolate liquor, sugar (in the chocolate), cane sugar (in the toffee), cocoa butter, soy lecithin, butter, bicarbonate of soda, natural flavor, salt (in the toffee), sea salt (on the back of the bar)

17g sugar/43g serving (39.5% by wt.)

Corporate Info: Minneapolis's B.T. McElrath was founded by a chef, and accordingly seems to focus on creating unusual flavored bars and confections like Sweet Potato Pavé and Buttered Toast. B.T. McElrath's Chile Limón Bar is one of my favorites, and now that I'm eating a little more sugar, I can venture into the other 70% bars, including today's Salty Dog.

Appearance: Very glossy, richly hued reddish-brown with pale flecks under the surface and sea salt evenly sprinkled on the back.

Smell: Not strong, but with a hint of roasted beans and nuts.

Taste: Creamy chocolate, a lot of salt, toffee is more subtle in very small bits of crunch and low-key caramel flavor. The chocolate is mild, so even though it's 70% cacao the sweetness of the chocolate (not the toffee) stands out. Additionally, the salt doesn't seem to have a good counterpoint, which makes me wonder about the whole salt-sweet concept. I'm thinking that it's not just sugar and salt that work against each other, it's burnt sugar/caramel specifically that's so wonderfully enlivened by salt. Thus, I'd say there's too much sugar in chocolate form and not enough in toffee form to really play off the salt here. I've seen this bar many times and have the impression that it's pretty popular, but to my taste there's a balance issue that the Chile Limón bar didn't have. It's all very interesting, and I'd love to try more B.T. McElrath products.

Conclusion: For me, B.T. McElrath Salty Dog Chocolate Bar has too much sugar and not enough toffee to balance well with the mild chocolate and abundant salt.

Justin's organic 2 dark chocolate peanut butter cups

1.4oz in two peanut butter cups

Ingredients: Organic cane sugar, o. chocolate liquor, o. cocoa butter, o. soy lecithin, o. vanilla, o. peanuts, o. palm oil, sea salt

14g sugar/40g serving (35% by wt.)

Corporate Info: Justin's—a.k.a. Justin's Nut Butter—is a nut butter company, not a chocolatier, but I like peanut butter cups and Justin's makes a dark chocolate peanut butter cup, so there you go. Justin's products are mostly organic, and they claim to be trying for sustainability in a whole assortment of ways. Good for them. Also, with a hometown of Boulder, Colorado, Justin's is neighbor to Chocolove and SunSpire.

Appearance: Pretty nice. The wide, flat cups, glossy chocolate, and (in cross-section) good amount of crumbly-looking peanut butter make these comparable to Reese's ultra-popular version. I have as much Reese's nostalgia as anyone, so a decision to emulate the big boys seems like a good one to me.

Smell: As you'd expect, but with a somewhat greater emphasis on the chocolate than most. That chocolate has a red-berry tartness to the smell rather than being the usual super-mild and sweet type.

Taste: On first bite, I think: sweet...very smooth and creamy chocolate...yes the peanut butter has some crumbly-crunchy going on...lingering sugar and red fruit tartness. I wish the peanut butter stood out more; I'm thinking that, compared to milk chocolate cups, dark chocolate ones need a higher ratio of peanut butter to stand up to the chocolate, even if the chocolate isn't crazy intense (and this isn't). Not bad, though.

Conclusion: Justin's organic 2 dark chocolate peanut butter cups are a fine organic, small-company Reese's substitute, but the peanut butter flavor tends to get overwhelmed by the flavorful chocolate.

Madécasse 75% Cocoa Single Origin Madagascar

2.64oz (75g) bar

Ingredients: Cocoa beans, sugar, cocoa butter, soy lecithin, vanilla

10g sugar/37.5g serving (26.7% by wt.)

Corporate Info: Madécasse has one of those interesting progressive-chocolate-company stories: The American founders met as Peace Corps volunteers in Madagascar and decided to not only grow their cacao there (not unusual) but also process and package the chocolate there to benefit the local community. The company claims to be paying good wages and using sustainable farming practices, and has impressed The New York Times and Fast Company (among others) with its commitment and innovation. The bars are not officially labeled fair trade or organic, but from what I read, the process is essentially a variation on both of those complicated labels. Madécasse produces a relatively small selection of plain and flavored bars. In the past I've tried and liked the 63% cacao barwith sea salt and nibs, and today I'm trying a basic 75% bar the wrapper describes as “dark & bold.”

Appearance: Basic semi-glossy, medium brown, not especially red or grey or anything.

Smell: Warm and sweet, caramelly dried fruit.

Taste: Texture is crunchy melting into creamy. Intense, tannic—that is, bitter in a drying, astringent way. It's pretty hardcore when it first hits, but as the chocolate melts, the thick, rich creaminess mellows the flavor so it's still intense but not like a punch in the mouth. Indeed dark and bold!

Conclusion: Madécasse 75% Cocoa Single Origin Madagascar is intense and thickly creamy, good for those who like their chocolate assertively dark.