Tag: unroasted

U is for Uinta Brewing

When I started this round of Eating the Chocolate Alphabet, I knew that some letters would be more difficult to fulfill than others.

Really, how many alcohol names do YOU know of that start with “U”?

A Hungarian chocolatier friend of mine was going to make Unicum bonbons – but I chickened out because that liqueur is EXTREMELY bitter! You probably don’t believe me that Unicum actually exists, but here is a link to a Bon Appetit article reviewing it!

Anyway, I digress…

When I attended the Northwest Chocolate Festival in November 2019, my problem was solved. Lo and behold, a chocolate made with a U alcohol: a beer from Uinta Brewing! Yes, I realize that using a brand name is a bit of a stretch, but I already feel guilty about not covering every letter this round!

The Chocolate Conspiracy from Salt Lake City, Utah infused unroasted Peruvian cacao nibs with Uinta Brewing’s Baba Black Lager.

Love the stylized honeycomb mould design which reinforces the fact that this chocolate is sweetened only with raw, unfiltered Utah wildflower honey. Or, it could be that it is paying homage to Utah’s nickname: the “beehive” state!

Deep dark brown color, trending toward black – which makes sense given the name of the beer! Medium to soft snap, smooth/silky to the touch and a slight fruity aroma at the cut edge. Placing a hexagon-shaped morsel on your tongue, your taste buds awaken as if you’ve just sipped an aperitif. There’s a slow/even melt and a distinctive sweetened-with-honey texture when chewed (meaning that it’s lightly grainy, reminiscent of halva or fudge). I’m not much of a beer drinker, so I can only assume that the long lasting bitter after taste can be attributed to the multiple types of malt in the beer.

Utah isn’t really the first place that comes to mind when you think of beer, but Uinta Brewing has been around since 1993 (starting out in an old mechanic’s garage…imagine the confusion of people wanting to get their cars repaired!) Since 2001 they have been 100% wind powered (one of the first Utah businesses to do so) and added solar panels a decade later. With their commitment to precision, passion & people, they are always looking for ways to make beer in a way that is better for the planet. If you would like to learn more about their history and products, please visit their website.

Can you believe there are only 3 more chocolates lined up for this round of the Alphabet! Do you have any suggestions for the next theme? Leave me a comment to let me know!

To obtain one of these chocolate bars for yourself, head over to Chocolate Conspiracy’s website: https://www.eatchocolateconspiracy.com/

C is for Cabernet Sauvignon

Chocolate paired with wine is popular…but, how about a chocolate that TASTES like wine?! Yep, Brooklyn’s Raaka Chocolate has that covered with their 68% CAC Pangoa, Peru dark chocolate Cabernet Sauvignon bar!

According to the description on the back of the outer packaging: “This chocolate is tipsy. You don’t even need a glass!”

Unroasted cocoa nibs are steamed over a simmering big/bold California cabernet wine to infuse juicy, grapey flavors with a raisin-like finish.

You wouldn’t know it, but this bar is almost a year old (it was part of the July 2018 First Nibs subscription shipment). I love that the detailed mold design mimics the abstract illustration on the paper wrapper.

Tasting morsels segment easily with a sharp snap, releasing a raisin/dried fruit aroma. Starting off subtle, there were bursts of bright red fruit during the slow/even melt & the mouthfeel was, surprisingly, not completely smooth. It seemed like the grape/wine flavor was more vibrant when chewing the chocolate rather than just letting it melt on the tongue. Maybe it’s my imagination (or my palate becoming acclimated to the taste), but I swear the intensity of the fruit flavors are cumulative since my second “chomp” was like eating wine in solid form! Lightly tannic and long lasting finish mostly on the tip of the tongue and back of the throat.

Normally I have so much more to say in my posts; but, honestly, bold red wine is not my favorite spirit. Give me a late harvest or dessert wine & I’ll ooh and aah. Give me a gin and I’ll wax poetically.

I’ve been told by friends who are wine drinkers, that this bar is one of their favorites! So if the taste of California red wine is your thing, check out Raaka’s website for more details!

A is for Absinthe

My hiatus from blog posts has been lengthier than I’ve wished or expected. However, when I woke up this morning (March 5th) & discovered that it was National Absinthe Day, I was inspired to launch my new Alphabet project even though I’m not fully prepared to do so…I just couldn’t let the perfect opportunity pass me by. In this round of Eating the Chocolate Alphabet, I plan on featuring chocolates that include or are inspired by different alcohols. So, if you have any recommendations for future letters, please leave me a comment or send an email!

You might have heard that for nearly 100 years it was illegal to import, manufacture or sell “real” absinthe in the United States. But do you know why? Well, many believe that wormwood (the bitter component to absinthe, as well as the herb responsible for its characteristic hue) contains a toxic chemical called thujone, and this was believed to be the cause of all sorts of bad things: drunkenness, hallucinations, rage, violence and even death.

With a back story like that, finding and tasting a chocolate called Absinthe intrigued me! To be clear, the following chocolate bar does NOT contain any alcohol, only botanicals which impart a licorice flavor that is similar to the beverage that inspired it!

Introducing, Endorfin Foods’ ABSINTHE 70% dark chocolate with anise & wildcrafted mugwort:

Endorfin leaves the cacao beans unroasted and uses caramelized coconut + coconut blossom sugar to sweeten their chocolate bars more naturally. Essential oils of mugwort, anise, sweet fennel and lemon balm provide the absinthe-like flavor profile without any of the bitterness.

Love the vintage font and corner illustrations on the 100% compostable packaging that makes me think of the Arts and Crafts movement / Craftsman style which is so prevalent in my hometown of Pasadena, California. If you look closely, the company logo sports a series of cacao pod cross sections, which at a glance could be mistaken for flowers.

Removing the relatively plain, conjoined 8-rectangle bar from the packaging, you immediately see a mostly pristine/glossy dark brown surface as well as smell a vibrant anise/licorice aroma.

Sharp snap, revealing a few tiny air bubbles at the break point.

Slightly crumbly when chewed and not completely smooth on the tongue, I attribute these to the coconut sugar. Creamy mouthfeel during the slow/even melt; the herbal flavors mingle harmoniously with the base chocolate making for a pleasurable experience, sans hallucinations!

Since I happened to have a few bottles of absinthe at home, I decided to conduct an impromptu tasting:

If I’m being completely honest, I MUCH prefer the aroma and flavor of Endorfin’s rendition of absinthe!

For more information on Northern California-based Endorfin Foods, please visit their website: https://endorfinfoods.com/

Y is for Yacon Root

OK…is it just me, or have you noticed that as I near the end of the alphabet, it’s getting harder and harder to find viable inclusion ingredients that start with my featured letter?! ?

For “Y” I could have potentially found yams, yeast, yogurt, yuca or yuzu…but I chose yacón root instead!

According to Wikipedia, yacón is an Andean tuberous root composed mostly of water that is a close botanical relative of Jerusalem artichokes or sunflowers. While the root can be red, orange, yellow or even purple, it seems like most pictures online remind me of a slender yam with cream-colored flesh reminiscent of jicama. Upon reading things further, Ecuadorians refer to yacón as “jicama” (wow, talk about confusing!) Speaking of names, it’s also called a “Peruvian ground apple” which makes sense since the French call potatoes pomme de terre (literally translated as earth or ground apples). Yacón is known to have a flavor that is slightly sweet & resinous with floral undertones. I was fascinated to discover that until the early 2000s, yacón wasn’t widely available outside of its native growing areas and that companies have since developed new products like syrup and tea from this root due to its extremely low glycemic index (1 on a scale of 0 to 100), making it popular among people watching their sugar intake (like diabetics or those on a diet).

After all that, I was really curious about how this bar would taste!

Raaka 79% Dominican Republic sweetened with Yacón Root

Raaka leaves their cacao beans unroasted (aka “virgin”) to allow the flavors to come through. For this bar, they are using Dominican Republic beans from the Öko Caribe Cooperative.

I love the simplicity of the micro fine point black ink lines on thick white paper. I see bamboo through mini blinds or plantation shutters. Though, I wonder if the front packaging is really an autostereogram (also called a “magic eye” picture) that needs to be viewed from a distance (or by squinting) for the image to finally emerge.

Removing the rectangular bar from the wax-lined silver foil that was folded with the outer paper like a hiyoku (inner kimono layer), you immediately see abstract art embossed into the chocolate (despite the jagged edge splitting the bar into two pieces; a transit-caused “casualty”).

There was a sharp brittle snap when segmenting pieces and the “breaking point” looked a little dry.

The tasting morsel melted slowly in my mouth (and with a bit of effort), yielding a chalky, powdery, not smooth mouthfeel and a mouth-puckering bitter flavor. There was a starchy, filmy residue that clung to my tongue, teeth and palate long after the piece was gone from my mouth. When “chomped” the chocolate tasted fruity…maybe this was the Dominican Republic terroir coming through?

Overall, this bar was extremely photogenic, but sadly the “acquired” taste of the unrefined sweetener did not win me over. I like earthy bars, but this one was a little too astringent for my taste. Maybe it was the unroasted beans? Maybe it was the 79% cacao content? Maybe I just need to find the right “pairing.” Have you tried this bar? Let me know what you think!

For more information on Raaka, please see their website: https://www.raakachocolate.com/