Zoe's Chocolate Company: Raw and Espresso Bars

IMPORTANT COMMERCIAL BREAK: You have just over a day to bid in the Bake Sale to Punch Cancer in the Face. Go get yourself delicious treats. Now.

Down to the wire here, folks. Father’s Day in three days. Panic. Don’t get your dad a tie. Get him something tasty. As I mentioned yesterday, if you’re one of my DC area neighbors, you can still pick up a Zoe’s Chocolate bar at several shops inside the beltway – including many Whole Foods branches as well as Biagio Chocolates. But which one? If the pretzel or sports bars don’t sound like your dad’s thing, I have two questions for you:

1 What is wrong with your dad?

2 How about another bar? Like the Raw Bar, which is sprinkled with nibs?

The bar has a weak earthy aroma, and the nibs rest on the surface of the bar; while my personal preference is for finely-chopped nibs to be mixed into the bar so that I can let the chocolate melt and enjoy the nib bits at the end, I gave this bar a try.

The nibs themselves are nicely roasted with an earthy flavor, and add a nice crunch to the bar; however, you have to chew the chocolate to glean this effect. The chocolate itself is too delicious to chew, as it has a slow, buttery melt to compliment a pleasing combination of banana and vanilla flavors. This left me to go for the partial-melt-then-chew approach to enjoying this bar. The components were all enjoyable, but it was a bit difficult to fully appreciate the chocolate and nibs together with the construction as is.

That’s just my take, though. Your dad might be a chocolate chewer.

Still not seeing anything you think your dad would be impressed by? You have a tough dad. Or maybe a dad who is a coffee connoisseur. He might be one who needs, yes needs, the espresso bar.

This bar features a dark chocolate swirled with an espresso-flavored white chocolate. The swirl is visually pleasing, but I was concerned that the two chocolates weren’t well mixed, however, once I broke the bar open, I discovered more internal mixing that makes it easy to enjoy the two chocolates in harmony.

The bar has a creamy, caramel aroma with a hint of vanilla, most likely from the sweet white chocolate, which features a creamy melt and a caramel flavor. A mild, sweet espresso flavor emerges at the end, and I also detected a bit of salt, perhaps a compliment to the caramel flavor. The dark chocolate has a more buttery melt than the white chocolate, and features banana and raising flavors at the beginning with a subtle coffee flavor emerging at the end. When all combined, a superbly smooth chocolate with a flavor reminiscent of a sweet, creamy, salted caramel mocha coffee drink.

Buy extra Espresso Bars. The one in this pack isn’t enough. Honestly.

Of the creations featured in the Chocolate Six Pack, which do you think would be your favorite?