Taza Stone Ground Organic Chocolate - 80%

Taza is a little company in Somerville, MA that makes its own chocolate the old-fashioned way. Stone ground chocolate is a little gritty, but can be enjoyable to chew on if you like the texture. This particular bar of 80% surprised me because I expected a dark-roasted kind of flavor but instead got something really bright and fruity. By that I mean it has a slight tartness to it. The gritty texture is the product of stone-grinding the roasted cacao beans, but it feels like you are eating granulated sugar. I've had this chocolate once before a long time ago and I think I had the same reaction: I like the idea of stone ground chocolate very much, but the reality disappoints. I don't think I like bright, fruity chocolates (although if you've never tried one, try this and you will see what I mean)and I don't know whether that is the result of the type of beans they use or the particular way they roast them. The granulated texture keeps making me think I'm eating raw sugar, which is a bit unsettling. The good thing about Taza, though, is that they are a small, New England company, their products are becoming more and more available, and they sell chocolate-covered cacao nibs! If you've never had nibs, you really must seek these out. They are just cracked pieces of cacao bean covered in chocolate, which adds a bit of sweetness to the otherwise bitter nibs.
If you like chocolate with a lot of texture, try Taza.

Lake Champlain 5 Star Bar - Fruit & Nut

This is a lovely little treasure. Lake Champlain Chocolate is from Burlington, Vermont and they make a decent chocolate bar. Their 5 Star Bars are these 1.9 g. little nuggets of milk and dark chocolate with goodies folded in. The Fruit & Nut bar has "praline, pecans, cherries and dark chocolate". They look like mini chocolate bars but they are three times as thick! They make a great treat when you want your chocolate but are too afraid to buy a large bar for fear of eating it all, like my last Green & Black's fiasco. The down side is they cost about $2.69, which is reasonable for a large bar but a bit appalling for such a little bar. It is thick, but it's not that thick! However, it is a price worth paying for a small treat that will satisfy you without overindulging.
They are sweet and nutty, with a dominant hazlenut taste and some dried cherries and pecans in the background. The nuts and cherries are folded into a soft, almost-but-not-quite truffle-like center and the whole thing is covered in dark chocolate. If you don't like hazlenuts (filberts), stay away from these.
I used to buy these once a week, several years back, when I wanted a treat and had more self-discipline with chocolate than I have now. I think that is when I originally got hooked on the dried cherry and chocolate combo that resulted in the above mentioned fiasco (See Green & Black's Cherry).
They do come in several other flavors, like peanut butter and caramel, so if you're not wild about cherries and hazlenuts, try one of the others. They are a great size to slip into your purse for a long trip when you know you will need something somewhere along the way to lift your spirit!
Living in Vermont, these are easy for me to find. Outside of Vermont, you will most likely only encounter these in a chocolate shop or gourmet food shop. It is not that the quality of the chocolate is that good, it is just that these days anything made in Vermont has made the luxury items list and can only be found in specialty stores! Go figure! It is, however, better than a Hershey bar, so if you find one, buy it.

Green & Black's Cherry

I cannot buy these anymore. I just ate the entire bar in one sitting - and it ain't no dainty-sized bar! This is a 60% dark chocolate bar with whole, dried cherries in it. Now I know I said somewhere on this blog that I am not a big fan of fruit in my chocolate, but next to the Amadei this is a winner. The tartness and chewiness of this bar makes it a gobble-up bar. It is a 100 g. bar, so if you have no self-discipline, only buy this if you have supervision, i.e. someone to share it with. This is just one of many in the Green & Black line of chocolate. It should be accessible in most places, so if you don't find this brand, ask for it. It is not expensive and all markets everywhere could benefit tremendously from carrying this line!
If you love the cherry and chocolate combo, this bar is for you! Seek it out, ask for it politely, demand it firmly, whatever you have to do. Just get it!

Tom & Sally's Organic Skinny Bar

This is brilliant marketing. Call a chocolate bar a "skinny" bar and you know people are going to snatch them up! After all, isn't that just about everyone's dream? To eat chocolate and get skinny?? Well, of course the "skinny" in this product relates to the fact that it is a small, 40 g. bar and only has about 175-200 calories per bar. The "Skinny Bars" come in many flavors and I chose the 78% Belgian with Ethiopian coffee. It was quite nice. It had bits of finely ground coffee in it which gave it a "gritty" texture, but not at all in a bad way. This is a great "chewing" chocolate, with the coffee grounds lending extra texture. I found that it was not too strong from either the cacao or the coffee and would most likely make a great afternoon "pick-me-up" or a good breakfast for those of you taking the "red-eye" flights across the country.
Tom & Sally's is a small chocolate company from Brattleboro, Vermont - practically in my own back yard. They offer tours of their factory and you can bet I'm going on one soon!

Procuring Chocolate

It has come to my attention by a few of my readers that not everyone has easy-access to good chocolate! SHOCK! This is a situation that really ought to be remedied. Every town in America should have a good chocolate shop, although I'm sure the Obama Administration has bigger fish to fry right now so I'm not even going to bring it up.
However, there is a lot you can do for yourself right from your very own lap-top. My chocolate shop, Chocolate Now, in Hanover, NH ships all over the country, and it is also where I buy most of the chocolate I write about on this blog. So if there is something you would really like to try but can't find anywhere near you, please click on the Chocolate Now link below. If there is something you want but do not see on their website, give them a call. They most likely have it in stock and can ship it right out to you.
Of course, you can also go directly to the websites of the individual chocolate companies, but compare prices. Sometimes you get a better deal from Chocolate Now than from the chocolate company itself!

Valentine's Day

A state-sanctioned day of chocolate indulgence, Valentine's Day is every chocoholic's favorite holiday. You don't even have to have a lover, as long as you have a box of chocolates! I am spending this Valentine's Day with a few very good friends and a lot of chocolate. First come the fresh strawberries dipped in milk chocolate (38.5%). Then come the hand-made truffles made specially for me by Mike at my chocolate shop. If my friends can keep up with me (not likely) I might treat them to a nibble of my three other Domori bars. All to be finished off by a nice dish of locally made coffee ice cream. I will feed them a meal first, I promise, but I am far more excited about the chocolate than the meal.
Happy Valentine's Day to all and to all much chocolate!

Domori - PuertoMar 75%

Another Italian chocolate. I just stumbled upon this one today as I went to pick up my pre-ordered truffles for Valentine's Day. The Domori line is a new addition to my local chocolate shop. I bought the entire set - a nice little Valentine's Day, red-bow wrapped package of four single-origin chocolate bars. These are small, 25 g. bars and, of course, they are not inexpensive. However, this Puertomar bar is the epitome of "this must be European" chocolate. It is the smoothest thing ever, like velvet, with a sweetness that is nicely balanced with the dark bitter cacao, and a touch of acidity. It is truly a work of art. Domori makes its chocolate from criollo beans coming from plantations in Venezuela. Most chocolate these days is from either forrestero (usually African) or trinitario (usually Central or South American) beans, both cultivars of which can withstand differences in climate and are fairly disease resistant. Criollo is considered to be difficult to manage, having low resistance to disease and climate changes. However, chocolate made from criollo is incredibly smooth and well rounded. Many people consider criollo the best cacao bean choice, but it is rare and expensive to procure. So whenever you happen upon a bar made from criollo, the package will make certain to advertise that fact. It will be expensive but is a "must-try" for chocoholics.
I must confess that my friend Mike at the chocolate shop recommended it to me so I can't claim total ownership of this beautiful discovery. I still have 3 other bars to sample in the coming days, so stay tuned for more on Dolmori.