iPod, iPhone, iPad....now iChoc?

Although I live on a rural Island in Northern Ontario, I still can get my hands on new and interesting chocolate.  When I do not buy online, my friends and family are often kind enough to drop different chocolate bars in my lap when they come to visit.  The latest find was by my mother, who brought me a chocolate bar called iChoc "Chillout Caramel".  Seriously?  First the iPod, iPhone, iPad, and now iChoc?  Yikes, talk about trying to ride the wave of success.  Now even chocolate is trying to sound all 'techy' and cool?

What is really sad here is that I have no idea how to use an iPod, an iPhone or an iPad (I just recently got the Blackberry Playbook instead).  I know, I probably should not have admitted that I do not know how to use an iPod, but whatever, judge me all you like. Why would I need to? I still listen to Hot 89.9, my favourite Ottawa radio station online for the first half of my day.

But eating iChoc was surprisingly easy.  No buttons, no sliding screens, no touch-screen and no scrolling.  Just eating, savouring and enjoying.

And although I have no idea how this caramel crisp chocolate bar is related to music, I do know that it tastes pretty good. Also, I like that it is in a 40 gram package - a nice portion-controlled size. The crisps are small and add a nice little crunch. So overall as a chocolate snack, it was a good and tasty treat.

The milk chocolate tastes very similar to the Camino milk chocolate couverture that I buy and have blogged about here more than once or twice.  There is a similar flavour in it...an earthy, muddy flavour and given that Camino's chocolate is made from beans from certified organic cooperatives in third world countries and processed in Europe (iChoc is a German brand), I would not be surprised if iChoc's chocolate is made from the same raw materials from the same co-operatives. 

The website is where the music theme is tied in: a different song is associated with each chocolate bar.  From what I can tell, there are four kinds (Wild Milk, Electric Licorice, Chillout Caramel and Gogo Mango), which all look interesting, particularly the Electric Licorice since it is a white chocolate and licorice bar - a combination that I have never tried before. The music that plays on the info page for the "Chillout Caramel" chocolate bar is definitely chill-out music, but I also feel like I am on an elevator ride that just won't stop.

Truthfully, I don't really get it.  What does chocolate have to do with music and an iPod or anything in the "i" product range for that matter? I'm not saying chocolate and music cannot be connected, I'm just saying that the idea that there is a connection feels a little forced and it seems a bit like they are just trying to ride the wave of "i" success and its current popularity.

You can download a few things on their site though, like a hand-written music sheet for the song associated with each type of chocolate.  For instance, this is the one for the Chillout Caramel bar: http://www.ichoc.org/files/chilloutcaramel.pdf.  You can also download the different chocolate bar colours and wrapper graphics for your iPhone and some funky Christmas music (I know, what?), like the "funkynic" song. So they have gone to some lengths to create the chocolate and "i" music connection.
 
Although I was not into the music connection of this chocolate brand, I was into the chocolate.  I think it is a good little portion-controlled snack and and I would probably try the three other flavours that they sell, since they seemed interesting. Plus, the chocolate is organic, and I am all about eating Organic food in order to lead a healthier life.

Here are the package details from the chocolate bar that I tasted today:
iChoc Chillout Caramel, "Milk Chocolate Caramel Crisp", 40g
EcoFinia GmbH/VIVANI (Germany)
www.ichoc.org
Organic Milk Chocolate with pieces of Caramel.  Ingredients: raw cane sugar*, cocoa butter*, whole milk powder*, butter caramel crisp* 10% (raw cane sugar*, maize glucose syrup*, butterfat*, sea salt), cocoa mass* cream powder*, skimmed milk powder*, bourbon vanilla extract*. Cocoa solids: 33% minimum.  Milk solids: 22%.  May contain almonds, hazelnuts and wheat components. *from organic agriculture certified by DE-OKO-013.

"The Healthy Chocolate": What's Up With That?

Xoçai: “The Healthy Chocolate”.  We`ve seen it EVERYWHERE. Well, I have.  I have seen it at farmer’s markets, tradeshows, chocolate shows, health food stores and there always seems to be a Google advertisement somewhere online about “The Healthy Chocolate”. And yet, I have never tried it. Until now. 

Why have I not tried it?  I don’t really know. I saw Xoçai chocolate years ago at a farmer’s market and thought the price was too high. And I guess I just avoided it ever since. But that was back when I was still scraping by on a student’s budget, and I thought that a Lindt Excellence chocolate bar was expensive.  But these days I spend more on chocolate that I know is top quality, all-natural, craft-made, handmade or designed to be healthier for me. And since I have begun to make my own handmade, all natural chocolate treats, I now understand the amount of work, research and cost of ingredients that goes into creating high quality chocolate. So today Xoçai chocolate does not seem as expensive to me as it did when I was younger.

Last week, I received two samples of Xoçai in the mail from an independent distributor: a Xoçai™ XoBiotic Square™, a dark chocolate with Probiotics included in it and a Xoçai™ X Power Square™, which is a dark chocolate loaded with a higher ORAC FN (more antioxidants).

Yesterday, I opened the package and after reading the brochure, I decided to start with the XoBiotic Square™ because I was getting over a terrible two-day stomach flu.  Since Probiotics are supposed to assist with digestion, I figured this was a win-win situation for me.  I got to eat chocolate and help settle my very unhappy tummy!

The smell of the chocolate XoBiotic Square™ was surprising.  For something with `Probiotics` in it, I thought it would smell...hmmm...healthy? You know, that smell of oats and granola or wheat germ (blah!) or like something overly healthy and fibrous. But in fact, it smelled like chocolate chips – yup, that very familiar chocolaty smell that we all grew up with.

It also tasted like a chocolate chip.  The texture is not completely smooth, a sort of finely-ground grittiness, but nothing like my home-made chocolate or stone ground chocolate.  And it was very sweet, like a 50% (for the life of me, I cannot find the ingredients list on the Xoçai website and the company does not mention the % of cacao solids, which is the only thing that really bugs me about this product).

The XoBiotic Square™ contains two Probiotic cultures to assist with digestion. I won’t get into all the gory details, but you can read about how the Probiotics can help your stomach and digestion here: http://www.xocai.com/.  But what is important to know is that Probiotics are supposed to help prevent heartburn, irritable bowel syndrome and stomach ulcers, along with general digestion problems.  Normally, you can find Probiotics in yogurt, but if you do not like yogurt, you can choose the Xaçai XoBiotic Square™ instead!  Isn’t that the tastier choice? And at 11 grams per piece (Xaçai recommends 3 to 5 pieces per day), they are portion-controlled and certainly will not cause you any weight gain!

The other chocolate by Xocai was their X Power Square™, which I ate today.  This one was loaded with antioxidants and flavonoids because it is made with "cacao that is blanched, unfermented, sun-dried, non-roasted and cold-pressed" and mixed with acai berries and blueberries".  Again, the percentage of cacao solids was not listed on the package, but it tasted like it had a higher cocoa content – like a bitter chocolate chip! I did not really taste the açai berries and blueberries that were supposed to be in it, but a higher cacao content means it has more antioxidants and flavonoids already, which are great for fighting cancer (again, you can read the details of how this works on the Xoçai website.

Overall, the two Xoçai chocolates that I tried tasted pretty good.  They are just right for that afternoon sweet treat and to curb chocolate cravings.  Although they are not flavourful in the way that single origin chocolate is, and not bitter like a craft-made 70% chocolate bar, you will find a whole lot of added health benefits.  Check out their site for chocolate with Omega-3 Fatty acids in it (forget the daily supplements!) or if you prefer supplements , Xoçai is launching a line of “anti-aging” supplements that contain their signature cocoa-açai-blueberry blend, plus added vitamins.  Ye hah! to eating chocolate that makes you look and feel younger!

Xoçai also discloses the number of Weight Watchers Points per square.  They print it in their brochure.  For instance, the XoBiotic Square that I ate equals 4 Weight Watcher's Points per 3 squares.  I do not follow Weight Watcher`s and never have (I am on my own life-long Chocolate Diet), but for people who are following Weight Watcher`s special points system, this is very helpful  - no need to calculate the number of points!

So if you are looking for a way to eat chocolate while getting your daily intake of Probiotics, antioxidants, and important vitamins and minerals, check out Xoçai.  There are many independent distributors out there, but for anyone in the Toronto region, e-mail Debbie Innes, the lovely lady that sent me the samples at: HealthyChocolateLover@rogers.com or follow her on Twitter (XocolateChic) https://twitter.com/#!/XocolateChic . Debbie's website is www.AChocolateLoversDream.ca.

For ingredients and more detailed information about each product, check out the detailed PDF fact sheets about each product:

X Power Square™:
http://achocolateloversdream.xocolatllife.com/dnlds/pdf/ingredients_xpowersqrs.pdf

Xobiotic Squares™:
http://achocolateloversdream.xocolatllife.com/dnlds/pdf/ingredients_xobiotic.pdf

Making Chocolate From Bean-to-Bar at Home

Did you ever think that you could make a chocolate bar in your own home kitchen?  I am not talking about melting some chocolate chips and pouring them into a mold to make a chocolate bar.  I mean making chocolate from the cocoa bean by roasting the beans in your own oven, grinding them in your coffee grinder, then blending the ground beans with sugar, vanilla and cocoa butter in your blender or food processor, melting and tempering it on your stove and THEN pouring it into chocolate bar molds.  All in your very own kitchen in one afternoon?


Well, that is just what I and a good friend (and fellow blogger: Life on Manitoulin) did last week in my kitchen.  And we have Madre Chocolate, a chocolate bean-to-bar artisan manufacturer from Hawaii to thank for it. 

You see, a few weeks ago I decided to buy myself a lovely birthday present: Madre’s Hawaiian chocolate. I was curious about Hawaiian cocoa beans and chocolate, and Madre was the first Hawaiian bean-to-bar chocolate maker that I have heard of.  So I thought that my birthday was a great excuse to try some of their chocolate bars and spend the extra money on the shipping cost from Hawaii.

Madre also sold a bean-to-bar chocolate making kit on their website  For me, this was an exciting product.  If you have read this blog before, you might know that I am on a mission to become a true chocolate connoisseur someday.  But I have set such high standards for what I think a true chocolate connoisseur should be that the task is a bit overwhelming.  One of the things I believe that I need to learn is how to make chocolate from the bean.  And I don’t mean that I should just take a couple of factory tours to learn how to make chocolate from bean-to-bar.  I mean really make chocolate from the bean by grinding it myself and turning it into real and tasty chocolate.  Madre’s Bean-to-Bar Chocolate Making Kit was offering me a chance to do just that....well, at least a chance to take a first and amateurish stab at making chocolate in my own kitchen.

The kit had the following:

• Cacao beans
• Cacao nibs
• A dark chocolate bar
• A recipe

These were the items you needed to make a basic chocolate bar. The kit was not all that expensive, so there are a few items that were not included that you might want or need to enhance the chocolate bar that you are planning to make, including:

• Cocoa butter
• Sugar (we used Camino organic & Fair Trade cane sugar)
• A vanilla bean
• Lecithin (soy or other)
• Herbs like chili, mint leaves, thyme, or whatever you might want to flavour your chocolate with.

I have to admit, I was not really all that prepared for the project when my friend arrived at my house.  I have limited time these days, so I had just glanced at the ingredients list and made sure that I had the ingredients on hand and out on the counter (I had a vanilla bean and cocoa butter, and decided not to flavour the chocolate with anything else).  I did read that I needed a coffee grinder, so I took that out too, but I missed the mention of needing a “food processor”. Duh, why didn’t I realize that? How else would I mix the ingredients?  I could have asked my friend to bring hers, but since I hadn’t, I pulled out my trusty old blender.  Perhaps a food processor would have worked better, but we had to make do with what we had.

The other equipment that we needed included: a double boiler, spatula, chocolate molds, a thermometer and a hair dryer (I know, what?!?). Luckily, I had all those things on hand.

So the instructions told us to start by roasting the beans. This was the second thing that I was not really prepared for. For some reason I assumed the beans were pre-roasted. But I am glad that we had to roast them because it was fun to learn about roasting cocoa beans. What I learned was: when cocoa beans are roasted, they smell like freshly baked sweet brownies, even though they still taste like bitter cocoa beans.

Roasting took about 20 minutes in the oven on a cookie sheet. Although we were not sure that the beans were fully roasted, we were being extra careful not to over-roast them (if we had, Madre had also supplied pre-roasted cocoa nibs in the kit so that we could use those in case of a roasting mishap – good thinking Madre! My next project is to make some chocolate from the nibs provided).

Then came the shelling, which was the HARD PART. That is where the hair dryer came in.  Apparently you can toss the beans into the wind in order to get the shells to loosen so you can crack them off, or you can blow cool air on them with your hair dryer.  I warn you: even a bowl with high sides still will not prevent the mess of shells that want to fly everywhere, so just be prepared to sweep up. Admittedly, it was a bit funny when I first turned on the hair dryer and there was a sudden shower of bean shells that we had already tried to crack.  Again, “duh” I should have figured that one out before I turned on the hair dryer!

The only down side of the instruction sheet was that the recipe was for one chocolate bar. Therefore, we had to do some math in order to make chocolate with all of the beans that were provided in the kit. I think my friend and I both just wanted to be told exactly how much sugar, vanilla, cocoa butter, etc was needed to make chocolate from the amount of beans that were provided.  But I understand why Madre had a recipe with quantities that did not match the amount provided.  For one, it teaches us how much of each ingredient is needed as a percent (%) of the entire chocolate bar, so we will know in the future should we make chocolate again.  Also, if we messed up while roasting the beans and burnt some, then we could simply follow the recipe using less beans. 

But since we wanted to make enough chocolate so we could both take some home at the end of the day, a little math was required in order to use up all the beans.  So I pulled out my scale and weighed the beans once they were roasted and cracked, then we measured up all the other ingredients to match that number of beans (which, bye the way, was about 4 ounces of beans). 

Once roasted and shelled, the beans could be ground in the coffee grinder in batches.  My friend took care of that part and stopped the grinder when the beans started to get a bit pasty from the heat of the grinder (a grinder that does not warm up would be better for chocolate making!). We also used the coffee grinder to grind the sugar and the vanilla bean. Once ground, the sugar, vanilla and cocoa beans were put in the blender along with a little less than 1 ounce of additional cocoa butter and a touch of lecithin. In the blender, a miracle happened!  The mixture quickly melted into a liquid!  Although the instructions said to blend for 20 minutes to 1 hour, we only had 20 minutes, so that is all we did.

Once blended (or amateurishly 'conched'), we then followed Madre’s instructions to temper the chocolate.  I have my own method of tempering that I am used to, but thought I should follow Madre’s method and use the pre-packaged chocolate bar provided to stabilize the cocoa solids during tempering.  We also ate some of that pre-packaged Hawaiian chocolate – it couldn’t be helped!  Then we poured it into a few different chocolate molds, let it cool and VOILA!  We had made beautiful chocolate!  The sea shell mold that I loaned to my Life on Manitoulin pal to take home with her was quite appropriate, since we were making some tropical chocolate from Hawaiian cocoa beans.

So, you might be wondering: How does our chocolate compare to commercially manufactured chocolate? Well, the texture is very different than the chocolate that we all know.

<><><><><><><><><> 

This is OUR finished product! 
Looks great, right?
And it was made from
bean-to-bar in MY kitchen!

Instead of turning out like Madre’s beautifully smooth-textured chocolate bars, our chocolate was more like TAZA Stone Ground Chocolate, an American small-batch chocolate producer who believes in minimally processing their chocolate. I happened to have a TAZA 87% Stone Ground Chocolate bar (single Origin: Bolivia) on hand that we compared it to ours.  TAZA’s bar was slightly more bitter and acidic and the cocoa bean flavour was different (the Hawaiian chocolate had a distinct tropical fruit flavour), but the sand-like texture was very similar.

The reason for the grittiness: Lack of equipment! Although TAZA intends for their chocolate to be gritty, we just did not have the right equipment to finely grind the cocoa beans, and my blender couldn’t grind it up any further. This also meant that the flavour still had a bitter cocoa nib taste to our chocolate (similar to TAZA’s also), a flavour which is usually processed out of chocolate made with professional chocolate-making equipment. But regardless, it was still chocolate and we enjoyed it none-the-less!

If you are curious about Madre’s awesome Hawaiian chocolate, I have recently written about the chocolate bars that I bought from them: http://www.ultimatechocolateblog.blogspot.ca/2012/03/going-to-hawaii-think-tropical.html.

If you are curious about making chocolate at home, you can buy Madre’s kit online at www.madrechocolate.com.  This is a GREAT gift idea for that chocolate lover in your life.  And here is a good article on turning your home kitchen into a miniature chocolate making factory:  http://www.wikihow.com/Make-Chocolate, which also recommends some good home equipment to get started. Check it out: http://www.wikihow.com/Make-Chocolate.

Don't forget to check out the fantastic blog (and her blog post about making chocolate with me) by my friend and chocolate-making partner here: Life on Manitoulin.

If you are interested in TAZA's Stone Ground Chocolate made with Bolivian cocoa, which I tasted this week, here are the package details:


87% Dark Stone Ground Chocolate (Organic), 3 oz (85g)
TAZA chocolate
www.tazachocolate.com
Ingredients: organic Bolivian cacao beans, organic cane sugar, organic vanilla bean. May contain nuts.

***
Looking for Madagascar Vanilla Beans for your home chocolate-making project?

They are available through Chef Central.

Like Salt and Chocolate? Try these Canadian combinations!

If you are into the flavours of Salt and Chocolate....together....I have been sampling a few Canadian chocolate bars that offer their take on that flavour combination.

Soma offers a Dark Peruvian 64% chocolate bar with Maldon Salt (one of the best-known brands of sea salt). Soma calls it "The Starry night" chocolate bar. Their Peruvian chocolate is bitter, strong and flavourful and with 64% cacao solids, it offers just the right sugar level to complement the salt that is sprinkled on the back of the bar. You can taste the salt and the chocolate separately if you like, or combine the flavours in your mouth for pure sweet and savoury perfection.

Camino does not make their chocolate from the bean, as Soma does, but it focuses on paying fair prices to the cacao farmers for beans and by making organic chocolate. Camino's standard 38% milk chocolate bar is known for being smooth and creamy with a hint of hazelnut flavour (the secret ingredient to making it so yummy) and their Milk Chocolate with Sea Salt chocolate bar is the same great milk chocolate with the addition of sea salt. The sweet and salty combination is nuttier (thanks to the hazelnuts) than Soma's and has more of a nut-butter flavour because of the salt.

Soma's The Starry Night chocolate bar can be found on site in their store in Toronto, or via e-mail or telephone order across Canada. Camino sells its chocolate in health food stores and major grocery store chains across Canada, but they now also sell their chocolate online. See below for wesbite information for both companies.

If you are in the Montreal area, Suite 88 makes a 45 gram Chocolat NOIR a la Fleur de Sel chocolate bar. Check out my review of that bar at: http://ultimatechocolateblog.blogspot.ca/2010/12/salt-and-chocolatean-appetizer-or.html

And for those of you Canadians who are out West (or out East but like to online shop!), you can check out the Canadiana chocolate bar by Organic Fair Inc. It is an organic dark chocolate with maple syrup and salt and is very tasty! Check out the review here: http://ultimatechocolateblog.blogspot.ca/2011/12/oh-canadianacanadian-chocolate-that.html,

Of course, there are a tonne of other salt and chocolate choices on the market right now, but these are just a sampling of the Canadian ones! Below are the package details from the two chocolate bars that I tasted today:

The Starry Night Dark Peruvian Chocolate 64% with Maldon Salt, 80g
SOMA chocolatemaker (Toronto, Ontario)
www.somachocolate.com
Ingredients: cocoa mass, sugar, cocoa butter, Maldon Salt, natural vanilla, soy lecithin.  Junk-free, all-natural. May contain traces of dairy, gluten and nuts.
Camino Fair Trade, Organic Milk with Sea Salt, 38% Cacao, 100g
La Siembra Co-Opertaive (Ottawa, Canada)
Made in Switzerland.
www.tasteofcamino.com
Ingredients: whole milk powder*, golden cane sugar*+, cacao butter*+, cacao mass*+, whole cane sugar, ground hazelnuts+, sea salt (Guerande), ground vanilla beans*+. *Fair Trade Certified(TM). +Certified Organic.  Minimum 38% cacao.  May contain traces of peanuts nd soy. Contains dairy products and nuts.

So Smooth. So Chocolaty. So Moldy?

I am so disappointed and yet also in chocolate heaven.

Why the disappointment? Well, I waited until my birthday to taste two very expensive of Porcelana chocolate bars. My plan was to compare the Original Beans “Piura Porcelana 75%” chocolate bar to the Bonnat's "Apotequil "Variete Porcelana" chocolate bar - two chocolate bars that cost quite a lot of money because of the rare and delicate Porcelana beans they were made with. The Bonnat bar smelled and tasted completely of mold (sorry, if you are British or Canadian, I do mean mould)!

At first, when I opened the Bonnat wrapper, I thought "what is that aroma?" which was clearly strong and very different from the chocolaty, smoky, nutty aroma of the Original Beans bar. Then, I put a piece of the Bonnat bar in my mouth and I instantly realized - the smell was mold! The bar itself looked fine, the snap was good, the chocolate was tempered perfectly, but clearly mold had affected the beans prior to making this chocolate. 

It's not to say that I won't ever buy Bonnat's chocolate again. I will. I have the utmost respect for Chocolat Bonnat. I fell in love with their Puerto Cabella bar some months back and want to go back for more some day. And in fact, I may even try this Bonnat Porcelana bar again  - from what I could tell it was very smooth and creamy - but it will definitely be from a different batch! This one was Lot A with a Best Before of October 2012. So check your chocolate bar, if you have a Bonnat bar from the same batch. As for me, I am calling up the distributor tomorrow and asking for a new bar!

As for Original Beans' "Piura Porcelana 75%" chocolate bar: I LOVE IT. The chocolate is not super smooth, but it is tasty. Rich, strong and like a black dark roast coffee or like a bitter, flavourful glass of Cabernet Sauvignon. It is reminiscent of raspberry and toasted pecans, as the back of the package mentions, although I don't personally taste the lime, Kumquat, or apricot that Original Beans suggests should be tasted. I am reminded of smoke and fire with this chocolate bar. It is definitely rich in flavours and worth a try by any true chocolate connoisseur.

Original Beans is all about protecting biodiversity and rainforests and "replanting the planet", so they have a very good cause in mind when making and selling chocolate. You can also go online and enter a code from your specific chocolate bar and track the specific trees that the cocoa beans came from in the Piura River Valley in Peru.

What I always find interesting with chocolate bars made from Porcelana beans is the colour of the chocolate. To the naked eye, you might confuse a very bitter 75% chocolate, like Bonnat's and Original Beans Porcelana bars, for milk chocolate. This is because the Porcelana beans are a rare white colour. It really goes to show that not all chocolate is the same, as I once thought when I was young.

Both Bonnat and Original Beans chocolate does not contain soy lecithin (they are soy-free), and only contain three ingredients (cacao beans, sugar and cacao butter), so they are free of any artificial flavours or even vanilla flavouring. Each chocolate maker also specializes in making chocolate from cacao beans of specific origins. See below for more detailed information on both manufacturers, such as website and other information.

The package details from the two chocolate bars that I tasted today are as follows:

Origina Beans "Piura Porcelana" 75%, 70g
Original Beans (Amsterdam)
Made in Switzerland
www.originalbeans.com
Ingredients: Direct-trade cacao beans*, cacao butter*, cane sugar*. *Certified organic. May contain traces of nuts, lactose and soy. Vegan. Gluten Free.

Apotequil "Variete Porcelana", 75% Cacao, 100g
Chocolat Bonnat (France)
www.bonnat-chocolatier.com
Ingredients: cocoa, cocoa butter, sugar.

Going to Hawaii? Think Tropical CHOCOLATE, Not Tropical Drinks

When I think of Hawaii, I think of palm trees, sunshine, flower print shirts and Tom Selleck.  I do not think about chocolate.  It just seems like a place that is too warm for such a melty treat. But that is not the case.

I also did not expect such good chocolate to be made in Hawaii either. But I was wrong about that too. My first ever shipment of Hawaiian chocolate came in last week and I was completely surprised by the taste and quality of this bean-to-bar chocolate made by Madre Chocolate on O'ahu, Hawaii. Not that I expected them to make bad chocolate, I just thought the climate would not be right for tempering and maintaining good chocolate. 

Admittedly, I expected to receive a box of wrappers with a pile of melted chocolate at the bottom of the box. But nope. Perfect condition. Not melted at all. Not even a little bit.  These guys knew how to package their chocolate to handle the high temperatures of Hawaii and its transport from their island to mine (albeit considerably colder temperatures on my Island!).

So far I have tasted all of the flavours that I bought, which were: Coconut Milk & Caramelized Ginger, Passion Fruit 70% Dark Chocolate, Pink Peppercorn & Smoked Salt (70%), and the straight up 70% Hawaiian Dark Chocolate.

My favourite - by far - was the Coconut Milk & Caramelized Ginger.  It was so smooth and creamy that it just melted in my mouth and honestly, tasted better than regular milk chocolate.  It was rich and full of flavour, so that a dark chocoholic like myself could enjoy it, but also creamy and milky with a hint of coconut flavour.  So this dairy-free chocolate is great for vegans and people who cannot have milk due to an allergy.

The caramelized ginger was different than I have tasted in the past.  The ginger was not chewy or soft, but sort of hard and had a milder flavour than most ginger.  So really there was just a hint of ginger flavour.  I could eat this chocolate bar all the time if I was just a little bit (or a lot) closer to Hawaii!

The Passion Fruit chocolate bar is Madre's most popular bar and I can see why. Normally, I do not like fruit and chocolate combinations, unless it is raspberry and chocolate or banana and chocolate, but Passion Fruit was reminiscent of the heavy tanginess and bitterness of raspberry and for me, it worked. My mouth was overloaded with fruit and chocolate flavour. It was not as smooth as the Coconut Milk & Ginger chocolate bar, and was a little sweeter tasting than the average 70% chocolate bar.  Overall, it was a great tasting experience and a great way to sample Hawaii through food.  I'd choose this over a fruity vacation drink any day!

The other chocolate bars were all equally as good.  The straight up 70% Hawaiian Dark Chocolate  bar confirmed my thoughts that Madre's Hawaiian chocolate is tangier and fruitier tasting than most other chocolate I've tasted.  Some single origin chocolates have a strong organic, earthy flavour, others, smoky and some industrial (like the smell of gasoline on a freeway), but Madre's Hawaiian chocolate encompasses the smell and flavours of tropical fruit.

As for that Pink Peppercorn & Smoked Salt chocolate bar, it was sweet and salty and slightly peppery all at the same time, with the same tangy fruitiness like the other Madre bars had.  The Peppercorns are ground up but still have a nice slight crunch.

According to Bulkpeppercorns.com, pink peppercorns are rarer and harder to find than other peppercorns.  They are also known for their fruity flavour in comparison to white peppercorns that are hotter, and have a mild citrus zest and sweet berry flavour.  I have to agree, I immediately thought of citrus and mixed berries when I tasted the chocolate, although I was expecting the flavour of black pepper for some reason.  I’ve had pink peppercorn many times, but I never thought about there being a difference in pepper flavours.  I just thought pepper was pepper.  My eyes have been opened!

The wonderful thing about eating single-origin chocolate is that you feel like you are taking a trip around the world every time you eat it.  And for a girl on a lonely Island in the North, who is not travelling as much as she used to, that is the best part about eating chocolate. And I often am surprised by the places that chocolate will take me.

If you are interested in Madre and their Hawaiian chocolate, stay tuned, one of their chocolate bars will be included in a prize basket for a contest that I am putting together in April!

Here are the package, company and website details from each chocolate bar reviewed today:

Coconut Milk & Caramelized Ginger, 70%, 1.5 oz (43g)

Madre Chocolate (Honolulu, HI)
www.madrechocolate.com
Ingredients: Hawaiian cacao, organic sugar, organic cocoa butter, coconut, Hawaiian ginger, Mexican whole vanilla. Processed  in a facility that also processes nuts and milk.
Batch: MAR 02 2013

 
Passion Fruit Hawaiian Dark Chocolate, 70%, 1.5 oz (43g)
Madre Chocolate (Honolulu, HI)
www.madrechocolate.com
Ingredients: Hawaiian cacao, organic sugar, organic cocoa butter, Hawaiian passion fruit, Mexican whole vanilla. Processed in a facility that also processes nuts and milk.
Batch: MAR 02 2013

Pink Peppercorn & Smoked Salt, 70%, 1.5 oz (43g)
Madre Chocolate (Honolulu, HI)
www.madrechocolate.com
Ingredients: Hawaiian cacao, organic sugar, organic cocoa butter, Mexican whole vanilla, Hawaiian pink peppercorn, Hawaiian mesquite smoked salt. Processed in a facility that also processes nuts and milk.
Batch: JAN 31 2013


70% Hawaiian Dark Chocolate, 1.5 oz (43g)
Madre Chocolate (Honolulu, HI)
www.madrechocolate.com

Batch: FEB 22 2013

A Great Canadian Pair: Wine and Chocolate

Wine and chocolate pairing can be difficult.  Sure, you can follow some advice that you find online, like to "pair sweet with sweet and dry with bitter", but then what?  There are thousands of brands and types of wine to choose from and an equal number of chocolate bars.  It takes a lot of time and many taste tests to find a chocolate that pairs perfectly with a specific wine.

So I thought, "Why not share some of my better pairings?" I am in no way a wine expert, but I have been to enough wine tasting workshops and tours to have a basic knowledge.  And I have a lot of experience pairing chocolate with just about any flavour. But most often, I find myself enjoying a glass of wine and then heading to my chocolate tasting cabinet to taste three or four chocolates to see which pairs best.  So I decided that every now and then I will share my more successful wine and chocolate pairings here on this blog.

Last night's pairing was all Canadian.  I opened a bottle of Mission Hill 2008 Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon from the Okanagan Valley in British Columbia.  After trying a few Theo chocolate bars, which were okay with the wine, and a single-origin 66% Mexican chocolate (by Cacao Barry), which also paired well with the wine, I tried a Soma Black Science Microbatch Madagascar 70% chocolate bar.  Although the Theo 84% Dominican bar paired well with the wine, the slightly sweeter Soma Madagascar bar offset the dryness of the wine.  The bold, citrus and smoky flavour that is common to Madagascar chocolate went well with the bold, thick and dry  flavour of the Mission Hill Cabernet.

I am quickly learning how amazing Soma chocolatemaker's chocolate is and I have not yet been disappointed.  Each time I taste Soma against other brands, Soma's chocolate texture and flavour has won against the competition. Their chocolate is wonderfully smooth, and their dark chocolate is bitter, rich and flavourful.  I also love that they are so transparent in their labelling: the package states the bean type (in this case an organic criollo, which to me, is about the best you can get!) and the batch number (M19) along with the origin (Madagascar).  What's more, Soma will tell you if the chocolate bar is made of a mixture of beans, or made with forrastero-type beans instead of criollo.  Since they know they use the best batch of beans from each type, they have no problem stating it on the package. I wish commercial brand chocolate manufacturers would be as transparent as Soma.

Since I love Soma so much, I have decided to have a contest!  Sign up as a "follower" on the right side of this blog by the end of March, 2012 or follow me on Twitter or Facebook and I will enter your name for a draw for a Soma chocolate bar.  If you are already a follower, don't worry, you will be entered too!  I will draw randomly and will announce the winner at the end of March 2012! And stay tuned in April, I am having another contest for a bean-to-bar gift basket that will include another Soma chocolate bar!

Here are the package details from the Soma chocolate bar that I tasted today:

Microbatch Madagascar 70%, 80g
SOMA chocolatemaker, Toronto, ON CANADA
http://www.somachocolate.com/
Ingredients:  organic cacao beans, organic cane sugar, cocoa butter, all natural ingredients, may contain trace amounts of dairy, soy, and gluten.
Batch: M19. Bean type: Organic Criollo. Bean Origin: Madagascar. Batch size: 45kg.