Madre Chocolate: Passionfruit

Still wonderful here in Oahu. And you’re still not here. Just thought I’d emphasize that.

To make my trip sound even better, let’s discuss some more chocolate from Oahu-based Madre Chocolate. How about a bar with some fruity additions? How about a bar made from Hawaiin passion fruit AND Hawaiian cocoa? An all-Hawaiian product, if you will.

The packaging for 70% cocoa Passion Fruit bar features information about the source of both the passion fruit and the cocoa, and notes that passion fruit “lifts the mind and stimulates the palate.” I’m not sure how much one needs mood-lifting while visiting Hawaii, but perhaps if I bring some more of these bars back to the mainland, I’ll take advantage of that property on a windy, rainy November day.

The bar has, unsurprisingly, a fruity aroma, which is mostly citrus-based, and is a bit softer than the pure Hawaiian Dark Chocolate bar.

The passion fruit emerges from the chocolate the moment it hits your tongue, and is well-mixed with the chocolate. The chocolate has a very strong citrus flavor throughout, which is complimented by the perfect amount of sugar and a creamy melt that is smooth but just a tad quick for my tastes. Aside from the citrus flavor, it’s difficult to tease out other flavors, aside from a bit of woodiness, from the chocolate itself, as the passion fruit is so dominant.

This raises a philosophical question: at what point does an addition overpower the chocolate too much? In this case, I happen to thoroughly enjoy passion fruit, especially in this bar, as it is flavorful and well-distributed. But should I also be able to appreciate chocolate flavors more?

Hard to say. In either case, if you enjoy passion fruit as much as I do, this bar is a must-have.

Do you think that chocolate or an added fruit should be more dominant in the flavor of a chocolate bar?

Madre Chocolate: Dominican Dark Chocolate

Were you hoping, after my boasting yesterday that my surroundings in Hawaii were perfect, that a storm would sweep through? No, no luck there. I’m still enjoying Oahu, and will still be able to get my hands on more delicious Hawaiian Chocolate. I have several chocolate-based visits lined up for later in my trip, which I got more and more excited about as I worked my way through Madre Chocolate’s samples. I was able to sample another pure dark chocolate bar, this time, one with beans from the Dominican Republic.

The Dominican Dark Chocolate bar, which is 70% cocoa, is made solely from fair-trade beans. These are the kind of things that bean-to-bar chocolate makers can tell you. And this is one of the reasons I like bean-to-bar chocolate. I also enjoy the artisan approaches to roasting and conching, which can produce wonderful, complex flavors and aromas. In this case, the aroma is cherry-based, with a bit of smoke as well. The clean snap also indicates well-treated beans.

As with the Hawaiian Dark Chocolate bar, the chocolate is not at all bitter while offering a variety of pleasing flavors. There is a subtle woody flavor and a soft cherry note throughout, as well as a hint of citrus – specifically lemon. These flavors are complimented by a perfectly smooth, creamy melt, and just a hint of sugar to enhance the flavor and texture. The one drawback of this bar is that the wonderful flavor dissipates a bit quickly; I would prefer that it linger a bit longer so that I could enjoy it more.

Do you prefer chocolate with a long-lasting flavor, or do you eat it quickly enough that you’d never notice?

Madre Chocolate: Hawaiian Dark Chocolate

If you follow me on twitter, you have been seeing my incessant chatter about my trip to Hawaii this summer. I’m finally here, and am happy to report, for those of you back in the oppressive humidity and incessant traffic and smog on the east coast, that it is beautiful here.

Aren’t I just the best?

Besides the perfect weather and incredible scenery, I was excited for this trip because of the numerous chocolatiers that call Hawaii home. To add to that excitement, I was fortunate to receive some sample bars from Oahu-based bean-to-bar Madre Chocolate to evaluate. I started, appropriately, with the Hawaiian Dark Chocolate bar, which was a 70% cocoa bar.

As the only state in the United States that grows cocoa, Hawaii offers chocolatiers the unique opportunity to use beans sourced near their own operations; the beans for this particular bar are from the Hamaka coast of the Big Island. The intricate design of the bar evokes even more thoughts of Hawaii, and is a creative approach to molding this most unique chocolate.

The aroma of this bar was fruity, and the melt was smooth and just a bit creamy, though not notably so.

The taste is refreshingly cool and minty at first, with a hint of banana throughout and a bit of coffee and smokiness at the end. Though offering a wide variety of flavors to create a complex bar, it is not bitter, and this bar would be a good introduction to bittersweet chocolate for those who prefer sweeter approaches to chocolate.

It’s also a great introduction to Hawaii. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to go enjoy the temperatures in the low 80s and the nonstop sunshine.

Have you had chocolate from Hawaii before?

Somebody Is Following Me: The Hot Chocolate 15k

It's clear from the title of my blog that I like chocolate. A lot. And probably pretty obvious that I live in DC.

What's less obvious, but possible to observe from some select post, is that I like swimming and running. Enough that I occasionally enter races. Which are always fun. You might think I'd love to have a race that involved chocolate at the finish line.

Yeah. This thing? It's starting in DC this year after several successful years in Chicago. December 3. 15k run. Chocolate. Who's in? Besides me, obviously.

Thornton's Dark Chocolate with Rose: Floral Chocolate

In assembling that beautiful package of British chocolate, Natalie kindly sent along multiple pieces of chocolate from each chocolatier represented. The nice thing about this is that I can evaluated different products by each chocolatier and not draw snap judgments – good or bad - based on one piece. To compliment my sampling of the Thornton’s dark chocolate with blueberries and raspberries, she also sent along their limited-edition bar of dark chocolate with crystallized rose petals.

The 64% cocoa bar has an aroma of red fruit, with a hint of smokiness as well.

The chocolate itself has a slow, buttery melt, and is complimented by the rose crystals, which are substantial enough to be apparent but small enough to integrate nicely into the chocolate.

However, there is little rose flavor in the chocolate, and while the crystals aren’t distracting, they seem to add little to the chocolate. The strong chocolate flavors are vanilla, coffee, and smoke; a hint of lavender emerges along with some generic floral taste, but rose doesn’t specifically come forward. It’s a nice bar, but I would like to see the rose more apparent.

Have you had chocolate with rose before?

Thornton's Dark Chocolate with Berries: Antioxidant Overload

Natalie really sent me a nice haul with that package that included those Montezuma chocolate bars. It didn’t end with those three bars. Oh no. When we ship things across the Atlantic, we mean business. Real business, like this Thornton’s dark chocolate bar with wild blueberry and raspberry.

The 63% cocoa bar is, as noted, packed with antioxidants. This helps with exercise recovery, and other good stuff. The berries have antioxidants, and so does the dark chocolate. These things make it possible for me to swim 10,000 meter swim workouts.

Don’t believe me? Try upping your chocolate consumption and see if it works for you. Maybe this bar with its fruity aroma, which unsurprisingly includes strong berry notes.

The dried berries inside are finely chopped, and well-dispersed. I liked this already.

The chocolate is soft, with hints of banana and coffee that mix nicely with the berry bits, which aren’t hard or chewy and instead dissolve perfectly alongside the buttery melt of the chocolate. It isn’t a very complexly-flavored chocolate, but this allows it to balance well with the bits of berry. Since I love berries and chocolate, Thornton’s would have had to make some serious mistakes for me to not enjoy the bar; I still find this bar to be quite nice and something that you really ought to look into for post-workout refueling.

The antioxidants help the body repair muscle microtears. Honestly. You owe it to yourself to check it out.

What kind of berry do you like best with chocolate?

Montezuma: Milk Chocolate with Butterscotch

Though the first two Montezuma bars I tried from the package that Natalie sent me from the U.K. were based on dark chocolate, a milk chocolate bar was also in the mix. One that looked like it would be quite sweet – a 54% cocoa milk chocolate bar with butterscotch.

When I unwrapped the bar I searched for an aroma and found a weak caramel note and little else.

Those bits seemed to be based on crystallized sugar, which means that they dissolved quite nicely alongside the relatively quick, milky melt of the chocolate to result in a balanced flavor throughout.

The salty and creamy flavor of the butterscotch enhanced the creamy flavor of the chocolate itself, and the banana notes from the chocolate resulted in a more complex creation without distracting from the core flavors. All together, the bar and butterscotch bits are blended nicely from a flavor and texture standpoint.

Now if only Montezuma were readily available in the U.S., I’d eat this by the pound.

Have you had butterscotch with chocolate before?