Vosges Marzipan Bar, Green Tea Bar, and Hot Chocolate

I stopped by the Vosges shop in Soho recently, and they are really just a solid company.

So the matcha green tea bar with spirulina was not the biggest hit.  I mean, it was ok.  But Roh-Kaolade did it better.  Still, it was interesting.

The marzipan bar was really excellent.  The marzipan was fresher and gooey-er than the Rittersport version.  The only downside was that it had a stronger taste, so that -- despite have a higher chocolate-to-marzipan quantity ratio than the Rittersport -- it did not have a substantially higher chocolate-to-marzipan taste ratio.

It should also be noted that Vosges makes excellent hot chocolate.  It is not thick like City Bakery's.  It is for drinking.  It is a drink.  That is ok.  It is delicious.  It tastes like chocolate.

Bottom Line: Vosges is great, because they do simple things really well but also have really wacky ideas that are usually worth a try.

Physical Graffitea Chocolate Tea and Chocolate Chai

So we've talked about chocolate tea before.  I've liked it in the past, including at Physical Graffitea, which is a truly lovely establishment on St. Marks.

That said, I do recommend the Florentine tea over the Chocolate or Chocolate Chai.  Neither of the latter two were sufficiently chocolatey -- which surprised me, given how good the Florentine was (and that was chocolate-hazelnut!).  Honestly, with or without sugar, it was hard to detect much chocolate flavor at all.

Bottom Line: A really great tea shop, but if you want a chocolatey tea, stick with the Florentine.

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.

Physical Graffitea Florentine Iced Tea

I had this chocolate-hazelnut tea at Physical Graffitea on St. Mark's:

It may not have been quite chocolatey enough, but it was cool and delicious.  Definitely recommended.

Bottom Line: It is hot out, and this can help.

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.

Chocolate Mint Iced Tea at Argo Tea

I have been traveling a lot recently, creating a huge backlog of posts (from exotic locations).  If things have been a bit slow on my end, it's because I have had almost no time in front of a computer.

I have, though, spent a lot of time at airports.  While at one, I got this chocolate mint iced black tea from Argo.  I honestly wasn't expecting much, as chocolate teas usually disappoints me.  Surprisingly, this was great and just what I was looking for.  It was the perfect blend of chocolate, tea, and mint.

Bottom Line: The first time I've had real tea that was actually chocolatey.  If you are in the mood for both chocolate and tea, seek this out.

Additional note from Leila: I have been a fan of the chocolate mint tea at Argo since senior year of college; in fact, it is how I first started teaching myself to drink tea.

This beverage is a mug filled halfway with hot chocolate, and then the other half is mint tea. So it has the benefits of being a mint hot chocolate, while still having the lightness of tea. Once I learned I could enjoy this, I started making it myself, slowly cutting back on the amount of hot chocolate and increasing the amount of mint tea until I was drinking just a straight cup of mint tea.

My one caution here is that it's very sweet. That's not necessarily a bad thing. Just wanted you to be aware.

Ciao Bella

There are a lot of tiers of ice cream/gelato, at least in terms of pretentiousness.  Ciao Bella is not at the top tier, probably because it is not sufficiently "artisanal."  It is a chain.  And it is sold (*gasp*) at grocery stores

But if you stop by the convenient Ciao Bella counter in the Grand Central Dining Concourse, there is really no way to distinguish its beautiful offerings from those of the more artisanal gelaterias.  And tastewise, I think Ciao Bella holds its own with just about anything, easily outpacing any other store-bought offerings.

My favorite item at Ciao Bella is the dark chocolate sorbet.  You need to be a sorbet person.  Many aren't.  But the real advantage is that it's just so much more chocolatey than gelato or ice cream, because those necessarily uses dairy.

On my most recent trip, I was thirsty, so I decided to mix it up and got an iced green tea float with the chocolate sorbet.  I made an amateur mistake, though, in getting the medium rather than the small.  They put in the same one scoop of sorbet with extra green tea, diluting the chocolatiness.  However, by the time I got to the more chocolatey bottom, the drink was absolutely hitting the spot.

My friend got a cup of cookies and cream and mocha gelatos.  Neither is really my style for obvious reasons, but both involved chocolate and were good versions of what they are.

Bottom Line: Easily the best stuff you can buy in a store and conveniently located in Grand Central