Mast Brothers dark chocolate with sea salt bar

You may be looking at this chocolate bar and thinking, "Well, that doesn't look all that attractive to me. That wrapper does't look like a jaunty shirt worn by Ralph Lauren on his sailboat." And to you I say, "That's because I tore through three-quarters of the bar before I stopped to take a photo. Of course it looks bedraggled now."



There is a LOT of sea salt in here, and it works great. It reminds me of what I like about dark chocolate pretzels. A great salty-sweet combo.

BOTTOM LINE: Mast Brothers does it again!

Chocolove 55% with Almonds and Sea Salt

I generally like Chocolove.  But I generally don't like stuff in my chocolate.  What will I think... of THIS:

Dun dun DUNNNNN.

It's good.

I mean, it's like... if you want to replace peanut M&Ms in your life.  It's sort of hearty and filling, but also chocolatey.  But unlike M&Ms, it won't make you feel gross.  Because it's all quality stuff.

But I mean... my opinion remains that it would probably be better without the sea salt & almonds.  But that's just me.

Bottom Line: Excellent for what it is.

Trader Joe's Dark Chocolate Almonds

Is there nothing Trader Joe's can't do? You already know my feelings regarding their chocolate-covered peanut butter-filled pretzels. Turns out their dark chocolate almonds are every bit as amazing.



As you can see on the packaging, these bite-sized babies are sprinkled with sea salt and turbinado sugar, and that makes them highly, highly addictive. As I sit here writing about them, I just want to keep eating them, but I have already eaten about a dozen tonight, plus it's past midnight, so I know I shouldn't. But I want to.

Chocolate-covered almonds are one of those foods that can really run the gamut. Some are very good. Some are waxy and kind of gross. These ones are spectacular.

BOTTOM LINE: Trader Joe's comes through on the chocolate front once again.

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.

Treehaus: Featuring Nunu, Mast Brothers, and Tumbador (among others)

Manhattan Espresso Cafe was around the corner from my previous job, and they sold all sorts of secondary market deliciousnesses.  My current go-to is Treehaus.  Aside from baked goods and other great things, they sell chocolates by Nunu, Mast, and Tumbador:

I bought some Nunu chocolate-covered graham crackers.  They were good.  As described.  They didn't blow me away.

From Mast, I bought a black truffle sea salt bar.  Like with Nunu, I thought it was very good, but I didn't really get the hype.  Everyone with whom I shared it, though, did get the hype.  It was a bit salty and fruity for me.

Surprisingly, the winner for me was the Tumbador Mint Crunch, with nibs.  This is obvious, because I ate it too quickly to get a picture of the bar itself.  Readers will know Leila and my fondness for mint and nibs, so this might not be surprising.  It might not be the best mint bar in NYC, but it's yet another darn good version.

Bottom Line: This isn't even scratching the surface of Treehaus' sweet offerings, to say nothing of their savories.

Returning Home

Washington, D.C.

From Chapel Hill, we drove up to Washington, DC.  This is another tale about the value of friendship: I did not have time to procure any chocolate for myself, but my friend Mick came through in the clutch (again) and delivered three chocolate bars (of which I selected two to keep)!  They were both from Salazon Chocolate Co.  

The first was "sea salt and coffee," which does not sound like something I would like, but I found myself shocked to be enjoying it thoroughly!  It's easily the best coffee-infused chocolate bar I've ever had, though in all fairness this is a low bar.  The other bar was pure sea salt.  And I mean that (almost literally).  It is honestly one of the saltiest things I've ever tasted.  Like, it's saltier than just eating table salt.  Which is something I've been known to do.  But my personal problems aside, this bar is for the intense salt fan, who does not stop at pouring bottles of Morton's down his or her throat.

Home

I finally returned home, accompanied by the tiniest baby.  Waiting for me at home, to my near-chagrin, were boxes of chocolate.  My real estate agent, with whom I have not spoken since getting my apartment over 6 years earlier, had sent me a box of Richart bonbons.  

Hot off that stunninig success, I was quite excited.  Alas, even the "pure" chocolate pieces were not rich enough, and the flavors were uninteresting.  It came with a sheet of pure chocolate, which was a little waxy.  Perhaps Richart in the US is very different from the Richart in France.

That said, I also had waiting a box of Chocolate Bar bonbons, which knocked Richart right out of the park.  They were excellent. 

They were not quite at the level of, say, Stephan Dumon, and they were about a half-step behind the offerings at the Chocolate Door, but they were still really excellent -- closer to the near-perfect Dumon bonbons than to the box of Richart I'd just sampled.  This is our third time reviewing Chocolate Bar, and we've had consistently great experiences.

But honestly, that was just the beginning.  There was also a milk chocolate bar, from Anne Taintor, which was almost indistinguishable from the one I bought at the Belgian tourist shop -- same ingredients, with the same cacao content.  

The US bar had a slightly creamier texture, but they were so similar that it would be impossible to pick a favorite between them.

I also received a Fairytale-brand brownie.  

Actually, two of them.  They were surprisingly excellent, not just for prepackaged brownies, but for any brownie.  They were fudgey, fun, and delicious.

Lastly, my friend Ellie brought over her amazing chocolate cake and her dad's literally professional chocolate mousse.  Wow.

Seriously, guys.  Friends: I recommend them.


Chocolate Tasting:

Finally, I had a chance to sit down with Leila and my friend Austin and do a tasting of a few of the chocolates I'd saved from Europe.

First, we went over the five bars from Del Ray in Antwerp.  This was an interesting experience, because first we ate them in decreasing percentages, but then i did a blind taste test to pick favorites.  I never believed that the order was too important, but boy was I wrong.  When you do a blind taste test, switching back and forth among the different percentages until you settle on an ordered list of favorites, it becomes very clear that the sweetest will win.  If you eat a piece of chocolate and follow it up with a higher percentage piece, it just won't taste as good.  While my initial list was probably 66% Carribean, 72% Venezuelan, 54.5% Blend, 70% Sao Tome, 85% Ecuador, my blind taste test list was 66% Carribean, 54.5% Blend, 70% Sao Tome, 85% Ecuador.  Basically, the 72% Venezuela bar really suffered for its higher percentage.  That said, the lower percentage bars here were truly excellent.  When I tried the blend, I was shocked at how uncandy-like it was given how sweet it was.

Leila and Austin did not agree with me, but they didn't like any of the bars as much as I did.  Their order was the same -- Venezuela, Sao Tome, Ecuador, Carribean, Blend.  They did not appreciate the sweetness of the lower percentage bars.  That said, we all generally agreed that the Sao Tome was just sort of a more bland version of the Venezuela

We made a spreadsheet of our comments:

Spoilers.

Anyways, we also taste-tested three different mint-flavored bars.  I didn't like any of them.  But we all agreed that the Zaabar bar was the best, followed by the Dolfin bar, and the 1888 bar wasn't even in the running.  We all hated the 1888 bar.  Leila noted that it tastes like the Dentist.  The Dolfin was definitely the most complex flavor wise.  I was dubious of the overly-natural taste in the Zaabar bar, but Austin and Leila loved it.

We also tried the two "original recipe" bars from the Choco-Story Museum.  Both were stone ground, which Leila cannot tolerate and Austin thought was weird.  The Aztec bar was more finely ground than the Spanish.  But flavor-wise, we all agreed that the Spanish combination of flavors was vastly superior.

Whichever peppers and spices they put in there were definitely a historical improvement.  I actually enjoyed it, despite the spice, which I never would have expected.

Lastly, we reviewed my top two truffles from Europe.

We agreed that the Mary truffle tasted like fudge, and childhood.  I preferred it slightly, but Leila and Austin agreed that Chapon had created pretty much the Platonic Ideal of the truffle.  Hard to dispute.

Bottom Line: I lead a very difficult life.

Guest Post by Angel: El Ceibo 77% Cocoa Nibs & Uyuni Salt

Angel, a great friend of the blog and the only person we know who is as into chocolate as we are, was kind enough to grace us with a review of El Ceibo's nibs+salt bar.  Her words and pictures follow:

The El Ceibo is not the best, but it is good.  It has a smooth velvety texture.  The taste is fruity with a nice sweet/bitter balance.  The aftertaste is slightly milky and bitter.  It's strangely not very nibby or salty.  I wouldn't even notice the salt if I hadn't seen the label.

After nibbling on it at work for a few days, I realized that I was just eating it because it was there, not because I craved it. I think the fruity profile of the chocolate was just a bit too much. I would eat it if offered, but I would not buy it again.

Bottom Line:  It is perfectly serviceable chocolate, but I would not go out of my way for it.

Storm Rations B5: Theo 70% Sea Salt Dark

Remember Sandy?  Wrapping up that situation with three final posts:

So the last bar I purchased for the car ride home was Theo's 70% Sea Salt bar.  I got this mostly for my lovely chauffeur, as sea salt is not my favorite thing in the world, but we did not get to it the whole drive.  I wound up breaking into it at my brother's house the following night.

This bar is very good.  It's simple and exactly what you'd expect.  Sea salt has a tendency to dominate whatever its been added to, but Theo is an excellent chocolate company, and they smartly worked hard to make sure the flavors balanced.

One thing I very much like about Theo is that they don't try do too much.  And this is a great example of it.  They make good quality chocolate, and if you want something added to it, they'll do it in a tasteful way.

All this said, every time I see Theo sold, and I can't find their 90% Venezuela-origin bar, I cry a little on the inside.

(As a side note, Theo is based in Seattle, and their factory building was shared with a band/actual circus I loved very much called Circus Contraption.)

Bottom Line:  If you are looking for a high quality, well balanced sea salt bar, this is a nice starting point.