Exploring Chocolate

First off, a quick note to say that I’ve been away from this blog for a while because of the demands of a full time job and parenthood. Thanks for checking back and I intend to keep writing as time allows.

With that said, today I’d like to present a review of a couple high quality chocolates from Amano Chocolatier. I recently sampled Amano’s Madagascar Premium Dark Chocolate (70% Cocoa) and their Ocumare Grand Cru Dark Chocolate, also at 70% Cocoa.

First, it should be said that Amano is an award winning maker of chocolates. In 2007 they were awarded several Gold medals in the San Francisco International Chocolate Salon. They were also selected as one of 12 silver trophy finalists for Outstanding New Product at the July 2007 NASFT Summer Fancy Food Show.

So, upon trying this chocolate, I already knew I was going to be sampling something special. My expectations were high, and I was not disappointed.

Ocumare Grand Cru Dark Chocolate. Comparing this dark, bitter chocolate to a glass of rich red wine would not be inappropriate. It has the intense flavor of other chocolates I’ve tasted over 60% cacao, with the noticeable difference of intense floral tones that linger long after the first bite. In fact “winey” would be an appropriate term to describe this chocolate, as it has a lot of flavors that remind me of wine. The cacao for this chocolate comes from Venezuela. The name comes from the place where the cacao is harvested, Ocumare de la Costa, which is known for quality Criollo cacao.

The aroma is also quite pleasent. Rich and sweet, and in fact the aroma is sweeter than the chocolate itself.

On another note, I was also struck by the classy packaging. They use tiny elegant boxes rather than a paper wrapping. Included are elegant engravings. A nice touch for sure, making this chocolate an excellent gift.

Ratings:

Flavor: 9/10, bitterness of the cacao tends to dominate but overall flavor is excellent
Packaging: 10/10, Elegant. Makes for a great gift.
Aroma: 10/10, Enticing deep aroma, lightly sweet.
Overall: 9.5/10

Madagascar Premium Dark Chocolate. Like the Ocumare, this is an intense chocolate that captures the bitterness of the cacao while allowing the mouth to experience a variety of flavors at the same time. This chocolate reminded me of the times I visited a cacao plantation in the Moskito Coast of Honduras. The aroma of the freshly roasted cacao in the air, and the freshness of the flavor as we sampled raw, roasted cacao beans.

The cacao trees where this chocolate comes from originate from ancient stock from Venezeula which were transplanted to Madagascar in the turn of the century.

This chocolate is slightly milder and sweeter than the Ocumare, which makes it my favorite of the two. Not that I don’t enjoy the flavor of the Ocumare. However, I find that the lightly sweet essence of the Madagascar allows you enjoy all the flavors of the chocolate without the strong tang of the bitter that tends to linger with the Ocumare.

Aroma again is enticing and delicate. Packaging is unique and elegant. Once again, this chocolate makes me think towards next Christmas as it would make a terrific gift for the true chocolate lover.

Ratings:

Flavor: 10/10, Perfect blend of bitter, sweet, and floral
Packaging: 10/10, Elegant. Makes for a great gift.
Aroma: 10/10, Strong, deep aroma.
Overall: 10/10

Check out a cool blog about chocolate called the Chocolate Nerd for lots of great tips and info regarding gourmet chocolates. You can find such exotic items as chocolate covered Spanish olives and tiny chocolates in the shape of shoes.

The Chocolate Nerd has probably the most unusual listing of chocolate products I’ve seen on the internet. Check them out!

Today I received my Reese’s Fresh from the Factory Peanut Butter Cups in the mail. They came with a nice little frozen gel pack to keep them cool, and they did indeed arrive very quickly, I must say!

They come sealed in a large tub, which I opened up and smelled immediately.

I promised myself I wouldn’t eat them all in one sitting like that one Halloween when I was a kid and my friends and I bought a bag of Peanut Butter cups and gobbled them all up. I had to forgo Peanut Cups for about 6 months after that!

I think these have been one of my favorite candies since I was a little tike, and so it was fun to try out the Fresh from the Factory version. I haven’t had a regular Reese’s P.B. cup from the store in a while, and I didn’t get one to do a comparison.

The Fresh from the Factory Cups are very yummy. I think what I like about the Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup in general is the slightly salty peanut butter mixed with the sweet milk chocolate. The two flavors just work very well together and make my mouth very happy.

As usual, the idea of eating a chocolate from a tiny waxy cup is pretty cool too. And there is always a bit of peanut oil at the bottom of the cup. Yum!

The peanuts also provide some protein, around 2 grams I believe.

All in all, still one of my favorites, and the freshness of these ones is notable. I have indeed eaten the ones from the store after they’ve been sitting there for a while. Let me tell you that the flavor of Fresh from the Factory Peanut Butter Cups is very rich.
And the peanut butter is creamy and slightly crumbly.

Now that I’m a grown up though, seeing ingredients named TBHQ and PGPR on a package scares me a bit, so I’ll be happy to one day see an organic Peanut Butter Cup that tastes just as good. Right Reese’s?

My scores:

“A” for speed of delivery and packaging, “A” for flavor, and a “B” for some perhaps not so natural ingredients

The total net weight of the package is 1 lb. 7 oz., and the cups themselves weigh in at 15 grams. One cup per package, unlike the double cup packages you buy in the store.

Ingredients: Milk Chocolate (Sugar; Cocoa Butter; Chocolate; Nonfat Milk; Milk Fat; Lactose; and Soy Lecithin and PGPR, Emulsifiers); Peanuts; Sugar; Dextrose; Salt; and TBHQ (Preservative).

Today I’m featuring a review of Newman’s Own Organics Chocolate Alphabet Cookies. These are widely available at most supermarkets, and at specialty natural food markets. If you want to learn more about their products, you can check out the Newman’s Own Organics website.

First off, let’s look at the ingredients, which are indeed mostly organic and of high quality. I’m feeling lazy, so rather than copy them from the bag, here’s the info from the product website.

Organic Unbleached Flour, Organic Sugar, Organic Palm Fruit Oil, Organic Cocoa, Cocoa (Processed with Alkali), Natrual Flavor, Baking Soda, Salt, Organic Unsweeteded Chocolate.

Nothing in there I can’t pronounce, so I’m pretty happy.

I’m also pleased that on the package they print a few paragraphs about the organic palm fruit oil they use:

Organic palm fruit oil:

*Is extracted from the palm’s fruit not the palm’s kernel.
*It is not hydrogenated.
*Contains no trans-fatty acids.
*Is lower in saturated fat than butter and has no cholesterol.
*Can be grown organically in tropical regions.
*Of the three tropical oils, Palm Fruit Oil is 50% saturated, while Palm Kernel Oil is 86%, and Coconut Oil is 92%.

We like, too, that palm fruit oil comes from a part of Columbia where its production helps protect the area.

I like that too! Good work!

I appreciate the fact that the Newman’s Own brand is using their packaging to educate their consumers about the ingredients that they use.

As far as flavor goes, I was impressed by the richness of the chocolate in these seemingly simple cookies. These small, bite sized snacks are a perfect way to introduce your kids to the taste of real chocolate. This is the real deal. The cookies have the complexity in taste of a good dark chocolate bar, while being sweet and wheaty enough not to turn off the tots. In other words, they’ve got that slightly bitter bite of dark chocolate, but they’re not too strong nor too sweet.

As far as nutrition goes, 10 cookies has about 3 grams of fat, 1.5 grams of that being saturated fat. There are zero grams of trans fats.

Cholesterol: 0mg
Sodium: 120mg
Total Carbs: 22g
Dietary Fiber: 1g
Sugars 9g
Proten 2g

No significant contribution of vitamins and minerals with the exception of 6% Iron.

The website has more info about the products, the organic certification process, the packaging, and a section of Frequently Asked Questions about each organic product.

Overall, the Newmans get an A+ for a tasty chocolate product that will appeal to lovers of real chocolate and younger fans as well. They also get an A+ for a package and website that tells you enough about the product to give you an idea of what you’re buying so you can feel good about making an informed purchase.

Reuters reported today on a study by German researchers that shows that chocolate products are effective at reducing blood pressure. Green and other teas have many health benefits, but lowering blood pressure is not among them, the study also says.

The drop in blood pressure among participants who consumed cocoa products for at least two weeks was in the same range as achieved by someone taking drugs commonly prescribed to control high blood pressure.

In countries like Mexico and the Philippines, where drinking chocolate is as common as coffee in some places, people have known that chocolate is good for you for years. But it is generally consumed in a more pure form. It’s all the processed sugar and additives that make chocolate products so unhealthy.

The article refers to the comments of researcher Dirk Taubert:

Treats such as dark chocolate might be substituted for other high-calorie desserts, based on the study’s findings, but “we believe that any dietary advice must account for the high sugar, fat and calorie intake with most cocoa products.

“Rationally applied, cocoa products might be considered part of dietary approaches to lower hypertension risk,” he wrote.

Drinking pure cacao in water with a little raw cane sugar and spices is one of my favorite ways to consume chocolate. I learned this from my time in Oaxaca, Mexico, where big, fat bowls of chocolate are served in the public market. Let’s hope this trend catches on in other parts of the world!

Easter is just around the corner! When you go to the store, you’re probably already feeling overwhelmed by all the candy out there on the shelves. Rather than impulse shop, take some time to read this post so you can find the best chocolates out there for this holiday.

First, check out this post at the Candy Blog. They review the newest line of Russell Stover chocolate Easter eggs.

Flavors for 2007 include:

*Organic Pecan Delight
*Raspberry Whip Egg, and the
*Peanut Butter Egg

The Candy Blog also has a feature about all things Easter, not just chocolate.

Next, read our posts on organic and fair trade chocolates to help you purchase chocolates that are more environmentally and socially responsible.

And lastly, consider making your own chocolates with these amazing recipes from our favorite foodie blog, Chocolate and Zucchini!

The Rainforest Alliance website has a great article with information about the Cacao tree. It has information on its significance to humans, its habitat and its botany. It also has some fascinating information about the fruit itself and how it has been used over the centuries.

There is also a link to the Conservación y Desarollo (Conservation & Development) project, which is working in sustainable forestry projects using the cacao tree. Here’s some info from the Rainforest Alliance website:

The Rainforest Alliance is working with cocoa farmers and a conservation group in Ecuador called Conservación y Desarollo (Conservation & Development) to help the local cocoa farmers shift from growing cocoa on full-sun, high input farms to using shade-covered and more sustainable farms. This has dramatically increased the quality of their cocoa beans and in turn helped these farmers earn better prices for their cocoa. In this way, the people, the environment, and the animals that live in the shade trees of these farms all benefit from sustainable practices.

I’m currently on the lookout for unique chocolate products for Easter. If you have any recommendations, please let me know.

Today, I found these cool Milka mini chocolate Easter eggs. They are available from Belgian Chcolate Online. Flavors include white chocolate, cappuccino, espresso, nogut, hazelnut, marizpan, and “Alpen Milch.”

This is something very unique for people looking for exotic, high quality chocolate.

Check out this cool idea for an Easter gift: this Kid’s Chocolate Garden Seed Kit contains six seed packs that will produce chocolate colored flowers. It also has planting instructions and a kid’s garden trowel. Some of the flowers are even edible!

The flowers in the kit include Chocolate Viola & Chocolate Nasturtium (edible), Chocolate Sunflowers, Royal Chocolate Painted Tongue, Chocolate Snapdragons and Chocolate Pincushion Flower.

This product comes from the Chocolate Flower Farm, an unusual nursery with the following background:

“Our farm is named after Bill’s love of chocolate and Marie’s passion for gardening… as it turns out Marie already had a love of dark plants, thus our name tipped the scale toward specializing in “chocolate” flowers. Bill must have chocolate for breakfast, lunch and dinner ~ but gardeners cannot live on chocolate alone so we grow many complementary plants as well, with an emphasis on rare, hard to find perennials. We have been here one year now and have wonderful plans for the farm and for the shop. We are looking forward to creating a special nursery you will want to visit often.”

The Cacao tree, where chocolate comes from, is an important natural and economic resource for many people in Ecuador’s Amazon Basin. One important fact I did not know about the Cacao tree is that it is an understory crop that requires shade. Thus, it is in the interest of the people to grow it under the rainforest canopy. Preserving rainforest while providing people with economic options sounds very much like a win-win situation.

You can now help to preserve the rainforest while supporting the production of fair tree chocolate. FUNEDESIN and Yachana Gourmet have teamed up to create an “adopt a Cacao” program. Here’s more information from the Yachana Gourmet website:

“FUNEDESIN recognized the importance of cacao several years ago and has been working to establish it as the principal income producer in Ecuador’s northern Amazon rainforest ever since. In 2000, the Foundation created Yachana Gourmet , a green company designed to purchase cacao at Fair Trade prices and produce a unique chocolate product, known as Yachana Jungle Chocolate.

As long as the region’s people can earn a living by cultivating cacao they will not have to turn to logging and cattle ranching, the two biggest threats to the remaining rainforest.

When you Adopt a Chocolate Tree, you receive:

• A Certificate of Adoption. This certificate acknowledges your important contribution to the future of Ecuador’s rainforest and the wellbeing of its people. The certificate is suitable for framing.
• Yachana Jungle Chocolate. Along with your Certificate of Adoption, we send you two bags of our delicious Fair Trade Yachana Jungle Chocolate.
• Discounted Jungle Tours. Participants in the Adopt a Chocolate Tree program receive a 10% discount off of the regular price of Yachana Lodge tours during the one year term of the adoption.

In addition to receiving these great gifts, you can rest a little easier knowing that you’ve helped the impoverished inhabitants of Ecuador’s rainforest and done your part to protect the Earth’s biological heritage. Your adoption supports FUNEDESIN’s community-based Biodiversity Fund. Indigenous and colonist communities own the tropical forest around FUNEDESIN’s Protected Rainforest. Women’s committees in each of these villages manage a Biodiversity Fund that directly protects thousands of acres of tropical rainforest. “

Go to their website to enter in the program and to do your part in protecting the rainforest!