Majani 70% from Olive Oil & Beyond on Balboa Island

Also on Balboa Island is a lovely olive oil store.  They sell artisanal, imported olive oils and vinegars, often flavored, and they are very happy to give samples.  Some of them could probably be delicious beverages alone.  But they also import some other products from Italy, and I found this:

It was INCREDIBLE.  i am a sucker for Italian chocolate bars, particular ones with crystallized sugar.  And this is no exception.  The texture is great, and the taste is super rich.  Both addictive and serious at once.

Bottom Line: Why are these not everywhere??

Organic Nectars 70% and Hammond's 65% Bee Pollen

Here are some things I ate:

To be fair, the Fine & Raw truffle bar is something I always eat.  It is amazing.  And it was a fan-favorite at our Party.

The Organic Nectars bar was nothing special.  A bit muted in taste.

On the other hand, the Bee Pollen bar was just weird.  The taste was interesting, but the texture was awkward.

Bottom Line: Sometimes, stick to what you know.

Domori Origin Sampler

I don't have pictures of this, but I actually did a blind tasting of a Domori single-origin sampler pack.  By myself.  In my apartment.  Because that is how I roll.

Now we've talked about Domori a lot.  And, while we've consistently liked them -- enough to include their baking chocolate in our Party without any sort of sponsorship -- we have never been quite as excited as when we first tried them.

To my surprise, my blind taste test backed this up.  The Pocelana origin was by far my favorite.

Bottom Line: Domori bars are very expensive per ounce.  Fork over the extra money for the top-of-the-line Porcelana bar.  You won't regret it.

I should not be allowed on the internet.

So I tried to buy chocolate on the internet a while ago, and this happened:

WorldWideChocolate.com is a terrifying place.  In a good way.

Slitti GranCacao 90% bar.  UliMana truffles (peppermint, nib, and dark).  Lake Champlain bars (80% and peppermint crunch).  Artisan du Chocolat Java 72% bar.  Domori Arriba 70% bar.  El Rey Gran Saman 70% bar.  Chocolat Bonnat Trinite 75% bar.  Patric In-NIB-itable bar.

The Lake Champlain bars were the least fancy, which actually made me like them a lot.  Chocolat Bonnat was unsurprisingly excellent.  They are often found in very large sizes with price tags outsized even for their weight.  It's worth it.  Everything was good, though.  Except my wallet and waistline.

Bottom Line: Be careful when making internet purchases.  It's not safe out there.

Enchanted Chocolates 70%, Chilmark Chocolates Dark Bar, and Roh-Kaolade 50% Mild with Dates and Other Stuff

My parents came back from three trips and bought me three bars, of which two are pictured here:

Actually, those are just the wrappers.  I ate them too quickly.  SORRY.

I've reviewed Roh-Kaolade before, and I preferred the 60% bar with spirulina to the 50% with dried fruits (i.e. trockenfruchts).  The spirulina bar was weird and interesting, while the 50% was just a bit too sweet, and the trockenfructs only made the problem worse.  I mean, still chocolate.  But sweet chocolate, and with fruit.  Tockenfrucht.  

Martha's Vineyard-based Enchanted Chocolates, creators of the "Dark Vader" 70% bar "made with Magick & Love," is better at chocolate than at spelling.  I mean, nothing about this bar is fancy.  There is a pretty good chance it's just re-tempered Valrhona or something.  I am not sure.  Maybe not.  In any case, it was good.  It tasted like chocolate.  Sort of candy-ish chocolate, but what do you expect?

The Chilmark Chocolates bar was the best of the bunch.  Also Martha's Vineyard-based, Chilmark Chocolates is a store that constantly has a line out the door whenever it's open.  It's the premiere chocolatier up there, but it's nothing too fancy, in reality.  But that does not mean it's not good.  They get a surprisingly rich flavor out of whatever-it-is that they use.  Their chocolates (bonbons etc.) are what they are known for, and they are really quite delicious, but their dark bar does the job.

Bottom Line: If you're on Martha's Vineyard, Chilmark Chocolates are definitely worth a try.  Just get someone else to wait on line for you.

2 Beans again: featuring Pacari 85%, Aeschbach "Special" 80%, SPAGnVOLA 70%, Aesbach "Amer" 60%, Venchi 56%, Domori Javagrey milk chocolate, and Aeschbach Hazelnut

It was a friend's birthday, which seemed like a good excuse to go nuts at 2 Beans.  Hint: Anything is a good excuse to go nuts at 2 Beans.

So this is a lot of chocolate, and all of it was good.  I didn't try the Domori Javagrey milk bar or the Aeschbach hazelnut bar, but they were probably great, because those companies are great.

Of the other five bars, the lowest percentage was actually my favorite.  But that's not really fair -- the Vench 56% has long been my favorite low-percentage (under 60%) dark chocolate bar on the market.

Other than the Venchi, the two Aeschbach bars were expectedly amazing.  I especially liked the less fancy, 80% bar, though I am not sure if it is due to the less-fanciness or due to the higher percentage.

The SPAGnVOLA bar, though, was surprisingly excellent.  I had never heard of the company before, and they stacked up well with Aeschbach, which were one of my favorite companies from Zurich.  Pacari was bringing up the rear this time, likely because it was slightly fruitier than the others, but all four bars come recommended.

Bottom Line: Sometimes you hit the jackpot.  Most of those times are at 2 Beans.

2 Beans: featuring Domori 100% Criollo, Domori Biancomenta, Domoro Velvet Cremini, Mitzi Blue 80%+90%, and Konnerup & Co. 70% Peppermint

So after the Ghiradelli tasting, Leila and I had only one thing on our minds: more chocolate.  So we went to 2 Beans, where we purchased about 100 chocolate bars:

2 Beans is a phenomenal place, by the way. They have gelato and a coffee bar and just shelf after shelf of brand after brand of chocolate bars, including many of our favorites that are usually hard to find, and including some that we had never even heard of before. That is why we had to buy so many.

Take a look at what goes on inside this store:

I mean, SERIOUSLY:

We started with the Mitzi Blue bar.  It was a large disc of 80% chocolate with caramalized chili nibs, and with a smaller disc of 90% chocolate embedded:

It was good, but the smaller disc seemed a bit unnecessary.  Leila and I are also not the biggest fans of spice, but I guess this one was really on us, since we bought the bar with the chili nibs.

We also got some Domori "velvet cremini."  I am still not sure exactly what they are, but they are soft and chocolatey and creamy and sweet and delicious.

The above is white chocolate, somehow.  Mint white chocolate.  I actually liked it, but obviously Leila did not.  She has no patience for that.  But if you like white chocolate and mint, the Domori bar is highly recommended.

Similarly the Domori 100% bar was great for what it was.  It was bitter, even for 100% bars, so Leila was not down, but I gobbled it up.

I think our consensus favorite, aside from the Cremini, was the Konnerup & Co. peppermint bar.  It was chocolatey and refreshing, and can go along with the many, many other delicious peppermint-dark chocolate bars out there.

Bottom Line: The real bottom line here is that 2 Beans is incredible.  Aside from the Meadow, which is geographically very far away, it has the best chocolate selection in NYC.  Truly global in its reach, with excellent taste.

Food Emporium Chocolate Shop: featuring Niederegger Marzipan"Classic" bar, Amedei 70% Venezuela, and Christpher Michael 61% Cacao Nib Bar

Food emporium has a chocolate shop.  It's sort of built into the store on 69th and 3rd.  It used to be more standalone, and the selection was deeper then.  But it's still there, and there are still interesting options.  Observe:

None of these three bars totally blew me away.  The Christopher Michael and Amedei were totally adequate.  Remember that the Venezuela origin was my favorite of the Amedei Cru chocolates, but nonetheless, there are better options.  It's got the flavor notes you'd expect, but they're not as powerful as in some other bars, nor is it as chocolatey.  The same can be said for the Christopher Michael, which -- despite being lower percentage (61% to 70%), I slightly preferred.  The nibs helped.  The nibs always help.

I also got a Niederegger marzipan bar.  Leila loves Niederegger, and I like it too, but I honestly prefer the Rittersport version of this bar.  I think maybe the marzipan is fresher in the Rittersport bars?  They are both German companies, so I'm not sure why that would be.  But it's how it tastes to me.  I also prefer the chocolate in the Rittersport bar.  The only advantage to the Niederegger is the chocolate-to-marzipan ratio is slightly higher.

Bottom Line: While this may not have been the best haul, the Food Emporium chocolate shop has a big enough selection to give you a diverse, new experience each time.  Definitely recommended, and possibly the best bet for a broad pick of bars on the Upper East Side.

Meiji Hello Panda Double Chocolate, Lindt 70%, and Green and Black's 85%

I got a sweet care package:

The Meiji-brand Hello Panda chocolate things are candy, but they are delicious candy.  I am not sure whether there is really any actually chocolate hiding between all the partially hydrogenated oils, but mmm-mmm-mmm, those are some delicious oils.  My compliments to the hydrogenator.

As for the bars of chocolate, they were both good.  The Lindt 70% was not as good as the Green & Black's 85%.  And it was far from as good as the Lindt 90%.  But it seems like it could do in a pinch.  Green & Black's actually did a nice job of getting that sweet spot of chocolatey-but-neither-bitter-nor-sweet, which is a great place to be.  The flavor did not overwhelm, and it was not particularly fascinating, but it did what a good bar of chocolate should do.

Bottom Line: Even with commonly available "real" chocolate, there is no way to compare with the other chocolate products that are possibly sold in the same store.

Cardullo's Gourmet Shoppe in Cambridge, MA: featuring Olive and Sinclair 75%, Fruition 70%, Vosges 65% Gingerbread Toffee, and The Tea Room Green Earl Gray 60%

During a recent trip to Boston, Kasey and I purchased three bars at Cardullo's Gourmet Shoppe:

The Olive and Sinclair bar was too fruity for me, and -- while I believe it when the label says it is stone ground -- it did not have the classic, gritty "stone ground" texture.  Kasey liked it though.  When I complained that it was too fruity, Kasey brought out a 70% Fruition bar that immediately sent me into fruitiness shock.  I had previously taken issue with their 66% bar as being too fruity, and the 70% was even more extreme.  

The Vosges Gingerbread Toffee bar was surprisingly delicious.  Kasey liked it but was not as excited as I was.  I thought the gingerbread and toffee added a nice texture and did not take away from the chocolate flavor.

The Tea Room Green Earl Gray bar was the most interesting.  You get smacked by the taste of tea and oils the moment you bite in, before even tasting the chocolate.  It was all too much for me, but Kasey clearly enjoyed it.

Bottom Line: Three interesting bars from a shop(pe) with a great selection.  As usual, I pick the Vosges bar.

Lindt 90%, Theo 85%, Chocolove 77%, and Green and Black 70%

So I ate some chocolate bars and didn't take pictures.  Here are some quick thought:

Theo's 85% bar is disappointing.  I often find 85% bars disappointing, and I'm not sure why.  I think maybe they are just sweet enough that you don't get the Pure Chocolate Feeling of 90% but still bitter enough that the sweet taste feels a bit fruity?  Or in this case raisin-y?  Or maybe I just call everything I don't like either "fruity" or "raisiny" as a post-hoc explanation?  I'm not sure.  I think I'm still bitter that they discontinued their 91% special edition Venezuelan-origin bar, which was maybe the best bar I've ever had.  That said, I usually like Theo, so maybe just avoid this bar.

Green and Black's 70% was much better.  There was really nothing special about it, but it tasted like 70% chocolate, which, when you think about it, is something really damned special about it.  I'll eat that stuff all day.

I also had Lindt's 90% (for the 100th time since I reviewed it) and Chocolove's 77% (for the first time since I reviewed it), and my opinions were unchanged.

This is also a good time to talk a little bit about tempering and chocolate storage.  All these bars were purchased at bodegas.  Bodegas increasingly have a good selection of chocolate, but they do not do a good job of storing them.  As a result, they freeze or melt (as the season demands) and then reform "good as new."  But it's not good as new, and you can tell.  They lose their shine and their snap, and there is often white bloom all over them.  But worse is the texture problem.  You bite in, and they crumble in your mouth.  Or they are waxy.  In fact, the reason I went so long without eating a Green and Black bar was because I used to buy them in bodegas, and they were super waxy and gross.  This bodega had done a better job of storage, and the bar was leagues better.  In contrast, the Lindt bar's texture was all wrong -- Duane Reade's perfect air conditioning generally keeps the bars in much better shape than whichever bodega served me the bar more recently.

Bottom Line: Where you buy the bar of chocolate can be almost as important as which bar you buy.  Unfortunately, there's no good way to find out a shop's ability to store chocolate until you open the bar.  But once you do, it's important to keep track.

Chocolate at Belmont: featuring Noi Sirius 45%, Wild Ophelia Southern Hibiscus Peach, Patric "Columbia Art Bar" 70%, Jelina Chocolatier "Noir Dark" 72%, and Theo Almond Sea Salt

I went to the Belmont Stakes a while ago, and obviously I brought chocolate.  And obviously my friends did too.

Here is one chocolate:

I've never been much of a fan of nuts in my chocolate.  I honestly did not particularly appreciate the almonds in this bar.  But I must say that I didn't really mind them too much.  The chocolate was really excellent -- Theo always does a great job -- and the nuts were unobtrusive.  The chocolateyness, as always, was key.

The biggest disappointed was the Noi Sirius 45% bar.  Especially because I love Noi Sirius.  Really, it was my fault.  I saw 45% and expected milk chocolate.  I tend to prefer dark to milk, but sometimes I am in the mood for milk chocolate.  But here's the thing: 45% dark chocolate is way too sweet.  As someone used to 90%+, this was difficult for me to eat in the way I imagine my high-percentage bars are difficult for the lay chocolate eater.

I did manage to succeed in getting one bar of milk chocolate: The Wild Ophelia Southern Hibiscus Peach bar.  

It was 41% chocolate -- almost as much cacao as in the Noi Sirius -- but with the milk and peach, it had way less sugar.  The peach was honestly a bit too subtle -- which may have been a blessing as this was a weird experiment -- but the bar was delicious, and we wolfed it down in about 5 seconds.

Next came the Patric Columbia Art Bar, which was just a 70% dark chocolate bar with a fancy name.

This was a solid chocolate bar -- definitely recommended -- but not as good as the Mint OMG.

Last, we went with the Jelina Chocolatier "Noir Dark" 72%.  I am always dubious of companies that use high-percentage sounding names for mid-percentage bars.  But good thing I did not prejudge here.

This was probably the best bar of the bunch, at least in my opinion.  It was not too fancy, but had a nice rich taste.  I look forward to trying more Jelina-brand bars in the future!

Bottom Line: This might not sound like the most successful haul, but if you knew how badly I did at the race track, you'd see how this was sort of the highlight of my afternoon.

Food Emporiun: featuring Chocolate Santander 70% and Chuao Salted Chocolate Crunch

Food Emporium has an often-underrated chocolate selection.  In fact, they have an entire chocolate shop on the Upper East Side.  But here are a couple bars I got when stopping by in Union Square:

I had never tried Chocolate Santander, but I was more than pleasantly surprised -- it was really great!  Richly chocolatey, but with interesting notes.  I'm bad at distinguishing Colombian chocolate, but now I am convinced that this is what Colombian chocolate is supposed to taste like.

I had tried Chuao once before, and I was disappointed.  But that surprised me, and it had been a while, so I gave them another shot.  This almost never works for me.  I am pretty consistent.  But guys: I totally loved this bar!  One of the few things that goes well with chocolate is bread, because bread is an amazing substance that goes with literally everything.  And the sea salt was very light -- just enough to make it a salty/sweet addictive situation, where you sort of tear through it ravenously as if it were M&Ms or something.  But without the regret!

Bottom Line: Two really great chocolate bars from an underrated chocolate supplier.  If you want to shove an entire dark chocolate bar down your throat and never look back, Chuao Salted Chocolate Crunch has to be among my top recommendations.  Santander is just a really good quality bar that you similarly will not regret.

Taza 70%

I don't really know why Taza isn't my favorite chocolatier, but it's not.

I appreciate their two-disc setup.  I appreciate that it's not too fruity.  I love stone ground chocolate.  But for some reason, I always wind up a bit disappointed.

Perhaps the chocolate is a bit bland, without a rich enough flavor?  Perhaps the texture is in a sort of uncanny valley of groundness, where it is not as rough as Italian chocolate but not as smooth as a conched bar?  I am not sure.  But it's just not really for me.

Bottom Line: Sometimes you just don't like something, and you don't really know why.

Organic Avenue: featuring Gnosis, Hail Merry, and Keen-Wah Decadence

You may have noticed I have recently been posting a lot of vegan items.  That's because I spent a whole month vegan.  During that month, I stopped by Organic Avenue, which seems to be some sort of high-end, pre-made juice bar, with lots of salads and other "organic," vegan items.  And lots of chocolate.  I got something lame for food, but I also got some chocolate:

I got some sort of flourless, chocolate, mint tart from Hail Merry and some sort of chocolate protein bar from Keen-Wah Decadence.  I quick examination of the interiors will tell you which was better:

The Hail Merry tart was great.  I have previously had their chocolate macaroons, which are also great, even though I don't like macaroons.  On the contrary, the Keen-Wah Decadence bar was just gross.  I took a few bites, then threw it out.  I never throw out chocolate.  But it was definitely the Hail Merry tart that was the decadent chocolate item.

I also got a little, bite-sized piece of Gnosis 70% dark chocolate:

Gnosis is another one of those raw, organic, agave-and-coconut-using brands that I wish I hated more than I do.  The square was actually quite good.  It will never be able to hold its own against the great bars out there that actually roast their beans and use real sugar, but still, this was pretty delicious.

Bottom Line: I am finding these "aggregator" stores, on the Dean & Deluca model, are actually pretty good places to try a variety of chocolate items.  We had the Manhattan Espresso Cafe, we had Treehaus, and now we have Organic Avenue.  Among the items, I highly recommend Hail Merry.

L.A. Burdick

After Leila visited L.A. Burdick in Boston, it stoked my memory, and Angel and I went to L.A. Burdick in Flatiron.  I had not been in about 4 years.  (Which of course has not stopped me from expressing opinions.)  Of course this meant we needed to buy one of everything:

LA Burdick is especially known for its selection of single-origin hot chocolates.  When I went four years ago, I got a sampler of hot chocolates and... a lot of other things.  Here is the email I sent to Leila and Angel immediately after getting home:

LA Burdick has not great bon bons and chocolate mousse, BUT it has a really interesting hot chocolate situation.  they have 6 different single origin hot chocolates.  the madagascar, ecuador, and venezuela were GREAT.  the bolivia, dominican republic, and grenada were not good.  the first three were, like, around vosges-level good.  which is really good.

Yes, we have been serious about this stuff for many years now.

In any case, my previous suspicions were confirmed on my return.  The bon bons were nothing special.  The cake was a disaster -- there was some fruit situation hidden sparsely inside.  The macaron was adequate.

But the hot chocolates were great.  We got Madagascar and Venezuela, having pulled up my old email (though a few of the flavors had changed).  I of course preferred the Venezuela.  Angel preferred the Madagascar.  But, in any case, two satisfied customers.

We also got two chocolate bars:

They were clearly crafted with love:

And in fact they may have been the highlight of the whole stop.  Both bars were excellent.  I had never seen this before, but they had a percentage range -- 69%-72% and 70%-72%.  Not that much of a range, but still.  The former was a blended origin with nibs and the latter was a simple Venezuela origin.  Both were delicious, and both were devoured within a few minutes.

Bottom Line: If you keep it simple here, you will do very well.  Just don't get carried away.  In other words, don't be us.

Fearless 75% and 70% Green Tea Mint

During passover, I needed a bar without soy lecithin.  From a bodega.  In Gowanus/Park Slope.  It was an emergency.  Enter: Fearless:

I devoured this bar really quickly.  I loved it.  It tasted super chocolatey.  I discovered later that they are based in Berkeley and all their beans are sourced from Brazil, which honestly surprised me, because Brazil is usually to fruity of an origin for me.  But the 75% bar was terrific.

Later, on a Treehaus run, I spotted Fearless again.  The 70% Green Tea Mint sounded super appealing -- I love green tea and mint, after all.  It was very good, but not nearly as good as the 75%.  The green tea brought out the fruitiness of the bean a bit too much.

Which is not to say that I didn't devour it just as quickly as the 75%.

Bottom Line: Among my favorite Brazil-origin bars.  Also, I really want to be friends with that adorable, winged elephant on the package.

Noi Sirius 70%

Early on in this blog's history, I mentioned how much I love this bar.  I love this bar so much that I am obsessed with anything made from it.  Tragically, I hadn't seen it in whole foods for a while, partially because I avoid Whole Foods wherever possible, but just this week we were reunited:

Yeah, the odds that I was going to get this back to my office before tearing into it were zero, but at least I put it back together enough to get a picture.

I also finally figured out why this bar is so unbelievably good.  Most chocolate involves the following ingredients: cocoa mass (basically roasted beans ground into paste), sugar, soy lecithin, and vanilla.  Often, bars will add some cocoa butter (the fat from the bean, separated out) for texture.  Noi Sirius does the opposite -- they add cocoa powder (the non-fat from the bean).  For flavor.  It is the most intensely chocolatey bar you can get at a mid-percentage.  Basically every chocolate lover who tries this utters some sort of profanity-laced exclamation of joy.

The other thing about this is that it avoids a classic paradox.  Most high quality chocolate is savored, maybe because it is very fatty.  Low quality chocolate, as we've discussed, is devoured, and regrets and illness quickly follow.  Noi Sirius is a chocolate bar that can be devoured without any regrets at all.  Except for the regret that you realize that the package contained two bars totaling over 1000 calories, and you just ate them both in 10 minutes, and maybe you should go to the gym?  

Nah.  In any case, you'll feel great.  They were probably Good Calories.  Right?

Bottom Line: Is it bad manners to stuff two entire chocolate bars in your mouth at once?

Nunu 70%

At a subsequent trip to Treehaus, I picked up a Nunu 70% bar, which I liked better than the chocolate covered graham cracker.  I ate it with some other stuff, and it was nice and chocolatey, with a mild coffee flavor.  Exactly what I wanted.

With a clean pallet it was not quite as great -- it had a slightly acidic taste.  But I still enjoyed it.

Bottom Line: A nice, local 70% bar.

Nibs Cacao and ChokoCafe, Berlin

Nibs Cacao:

I went from Zurich to Berlin basically just to see a show.  I didn't really have any sort of plan, place to stay, or list of things to do.  I basically had one address written down, which was for Nibs Cacao, because I had heard they had amazing Spanish chocolate and churros.

 

They did.  So I don't really know if Spanish chocolate counts as a drink -- it's served in a cup, but it's served with a spoon.  But if it does count as a drink, this is one of the best chocolate drinks in the world.  It is unbelievably thick.  Thicker than City Bakery or DT Works (RIP) or Angelina (review pending).  And the churros were warm, soft, sweet, and otherwise just the perfect vehicle for soaking up whatever chocolate one does not feel like guzzling down straight up.

Nibs Cacao also sold chocolate bars.  I was still not over my pumpkin phase, being still early December at the time, so I got a Berger-brand milk chocolate bar with pumpkin and pumpkin seeds.  Berger seems to be the chocolate-producing imprint of mgm Group Corporation, based in Zurich.

It wasn't pumpkiny enough for me, but I love pumpkin seeds in chocolate, so the seeds were a nice touch.  Overall, excellent quality milk chocolate + pumpkin is not really something to complain about.  A delicious experience.

I also purchased a Domori-brand, 70% Venezuelan-origin bar, made of pure crillollo beans.  I bought a lot of Venezuelan chocolate on this trip, and I didn't eat this on the spot, so when I busted it out later, it didn't really stick out in my mind as too exciting.

But when I bit in, I was totally blown away.  It's one of the chocolatiest 70% bars I've ever had, while still retaining the great Venezuelan, crillollo-supplied brightness I love bout Venezuelan chocolate.  This bar is a true masterpiece.  My only criticism is that it was too small.  Fortunately, it seems to be available at The Meadow, so I will be able to buy more anytime!

Chokocafe:

Walking to Nibs Cacao, I passed by a chocolate cafe, cleverly called Chokocafe.  I had plenty of time to kill, so I decided to follow up my Spanish chocolate with something a little less thick and a little less sweet, ordering the darkest chocolate hot chocolate on their menu.  It was perfect.  Just look at this picture:

I feel serene just looking at this photo

Can you imagine a better way to kill an hour?  I put it to you that you cannot.

Bottom Line:  I did no go to Berlin prepared for a comprehensive chocolate experience, but left with a totally memorable one.  It was the city I felt I left most unexplored and to which I most wanted to return, for reasons including but not limited to chocolate.  A city where worthwhile things are happening.