W is for Wasabi

You are about to eavesdrop on a conversation I had with myself recently!

ME: OK, what inclusion are we going to feature for “W” week?

ME2: We always blog about the most unusual ingredient possible…duh, wasabi!

ME: But, I don’t even like wasabi…I avoid it when eating sushi, remember?
(said in a whining tone)

ME2: Well, we couldn’t find wattleseed locally, so it has to be wasabi!

Dear readers, appreciate that I’m sacrificing my taste buds just for you 😉

*****

Maybe I’m imagining things, but isn’t wasabi a trendy ingredient in chocolate these days?! At least I *think* I recall seeing it in several bars over the years & was fairly certain that it was easily obtainable. However, a couple of weeks ago, when I started looking in earnest, all I could find were chocolatiers that were no longer making their wasabi bars :0

Eeks! Now, what?!

After a little digging, I discovered online that Cost Plus World Market was still selling wasabi bars…but they were in limited supply and deeply discounted, which is usually a precursor to being discontinued from inventory soon. After visiting one store and being unable to locate the bar, I thought I had missed my “window of opportunity.” My boyfriend is not as easily deterred, so when he found the bars at a store near him, he picked up the three remaining bars they had in stock. I truly appreciate his enthusiasm, but I don’t NEED 3 bars…so if anyone out there wants one of my extra bars, PLEASE let me know & I’ll gladly ship it to you 🙂

According to the packaging, this dark chocolate Ginger Wasabi with Mediterranean Sea Salt bar is from “the exotic collection of sea salted chocolate.” Yes, I’ll admit that I’m a snob and put “exotic” intentionally in quotation marks for tongue-in-cheek humor. While I’m certain that this bar might be someone’s favorite, it’s definitely not mine. Please don’t take away my craft chocolate fan club card based on this post! 😉

Removing the silver foil wrapped bar from the portfolio/wallet-like outer cardboard packaging, I was surprised to see the “back” of the bar facing me. Ignoring chocolate dust that had accumulated during transit, I noticed 10 squares with an interesting “drip” pattern near the outer edges.

While the matte finish front sported only 8 logo-emblazoned squares!

Straight out of wine fridge storage, there was no detectable aroma to the chocolate. However, as it came up to room temperature, a pungent peppery and ginger oil scent wafted from the bar. Surprisingly, since it’s not included as an ingredient, I also detected a lime or citrus smell?!

Speaking of ingredients, this bar has: Chinese ginger powder, wasabi powder, ground habanero chile pepper and ginger essential oil. The particular Mediterranean sea salt had been harvested from the Southern tip of Italy & was known for its mild flavor and bright white crystals.

There was a sharp snap when segmenting tasting morsels and it took some effort to get the chocolate to melt in my mouth, revealing a mostly smooth mouthfeel. There was an immediate back-of-the-throat burn that I associate with chili peppers, but there wasn’t the sinus-clearing sensation that wasabi is known for. Chomping the chocolate provided me the opportunity to experience crunchy salt crystals while feeling the cumulative, gradually-building, but long lasting, “heat.”

Overall this chocolate was not as potent as I had feared and I’ll probably use it for hot chocolate beverage experiments in the future.

I know, I know…my descriptions aren’t really “selling” the bar for you…but, don’t let that deter you from jumping on this once-in-a-lifetime deal of taking the extra bars off my hands 😉

Now where can I locate that wattleseed chocolate bar that I *really* wanted to try?! 😉