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.

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?