beetiger

It's been a while since I've done a food review here, although it's one of the things I'd really intended to use this journal for when I started it. But

blither was too good to us, and sent a big box of treats: Japanese crunchy snack labeled "Miyakip-Joy Cookie" which looks kind of like a rice-based Fiddle-Faddle, and an organic energy bar with a bumblebee on it, and a sampler of the wonderful honey-and-beeswax scented Burt's Bees baby care stuff, and some inexplicable stuff called Twang which comes in a little green packet and looks like kind of a dehydrated maragarita. But the item that called to me most to try first was the Dagoba organic xocolatl flavored chocolate.

This decadent bar keeps closer to the likely original recipe served in Montezuma's court than any modern confectionery I've otherwise seen. The bar starts with ultra-dark chocolate, 74% cocoa solids, and then adds (roasted?) cocoa nibs in to the mix, which give the bar a pleasant crunch similar to that of chocolate covered espresso beans. The primary flavoring component is chilis, which impart both a bit of roasted pepper flavor, and just the right amount of heat to be noticeable in a small bite, with the heat lingering mainly in the aftertaste, blending together with the bitterness of the chocolate, right where it belongs. The bar also contains the well-known spices vanilla and nutmeg, which helps sweeten the blend in character, a good thing considering the modest amount of sugar (oops, I mean evaporated cane juice, in organic-confectionery speak). I'm always impressed when a food product manages to contain a non-bogus ingredient with which I wasn't familiar, and this one does -- maca, which a web search tells me is a traditional Peruvian herb/starch (tuber?) with a butterscotch-like flavor and a reputation for being an aphrodesiac and libido enhancer.

The texture of the bar is nice, not as hard as some of the other high-cocoa solids bars I've seen, possibly because of the addition of extra cocoa butter, and possibly because the cocoa nibs just break it up a bit. And for those who care, almost every ingredient is organic, except for the cacao nibs, the vanilla, and the love, which I'm sure is sincere but present in lower quantities than any other ingredient.

Definitely a well-built bar of chocolate for nibbling a little at a time. I still personally prefer the taste of a more modern Mexican hot chocolate, with the taste of dark chocolate and chiles softened by foaming milk. But I'm overall impressed, and am looking forward to tasting the mint-rosemary bar which was also in the box, and perhaps to ordering the lavender-blueberry variety next time I feel self-indulgent.