20°N & 20°S

Coco-Bananas Preacher Cookies

 

 

Realizing I was sitting on some samples of awesome organic flavored peanut butter from PB Crave, I decided to empty a whole jar practically into a double batch of Preacher Cookies also known as No-Bake Peanut Butter Oatmeal cookies. An experiment well worth trying.

Apparently there is some debate about the origins of the name of these cookies reading up on other blogs. I grew up with them just being called no-bake peanut butter oatmeal cookies. I have heard on more than one occasion that the Preacher part of the name came from housewives being able to quickly whip up a batch for their preachers who paid house calls. They can be made quickly and served during a visit. According to The Revivalist, other names include cow patties. I think have heard that one too. Preacher cookies are the simplest thing to say, so I go with that.

For this recipe I used Coco-Bananas. PB Crave is the best organic peanut butter I have ever had. I am usually into purer, natural foods. This does not count for my addiction to McRibs, but peanut butter is the worst natural product out there in my opinion. They are always too dry, separated oils, not salty enough, not creamy enough, not enough sugars. I am so hopelessly used to processed crap peanut butter. But then PB Carve sent me their samples and it's smooth delicious natural peanut butter with flavors added in. I have written about their Razzle Dazzle (Raspberry, white chocolate and dark chocolate) peanut butter and it was my morning routine to toast an English muffing and smather copious amounts of that peanut butter on it. You don't need anything else except for a cup of hot tea. I like the flavors but hopefully they will put out a plain version so I can buy it regularly. I make one crazy savory dish with peanut butter called Peanut Butter Pork Chops. It's delicious but I need regular peanut butter for that kind of thing.

My next experiment will be to make these Peanut Butter Chocolate Chunk Bars with PB Crave Choco Choco.

 

Following the recipe from The Revivalist:

½ cup butter

4 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa (I went all fancy and used Erico Unsweetened cocoa powder from Quebec City)

2 cups sugar

½ cup milk

1/8 teaspoon salt

3 cups quick cooking oatmeal

¼ cup peanut butter (PB Crave Coco-Bananas Peanut Butter)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Mix the cocoa powder, butter, sugar, milk, and salt in a double boiler. (Don’t tell Mother, but I just use a regular pot.) Bring to a rolling boil and boil for 1 minute. Remove from heat. Add the peanut butter, vanilla, and oatmeal—not the new, instant kind, Mother emphasizes, just quick oats. Slop it all together. Drop them on a plate. (Wax paper is even better if you have it.) Pop in the fridge for a few hours and enjoy.

 

I don't refrigerate mine. I just let them cool on the counter tops and them pop them in a storage container. My cookies are a mixture of generic 365 Quick Oats and Quaker Quick Oats. I need to say that the Quaker Quick oats are very different from what I remember. They used to be more chopped. Now they are very solid and hard even for quick oats. I like them in these cookies but in small doses to add a little more fiber to the cookies.

Luxx Chocolat ~ Cinnful Hot Choxx

 

 

One of the marvels of technology is the fine art of Tweeting. After expressing a bit of disappointment in some powdered hot chocolate I recently bought and reviewed, another chocolate company, Luxx Chocolat, saw my tweets and offered to send me some of theirs. Who can say no to that? I still can't believe that this happens. That someone cares enough about what little old me thinks to send me their products. It's always welcomed and appreciated here.

About Luxx Chocolat.

A few days later, I got a cute set up of their Cinnful Hot Choxx with a mug that has a slot in the handle for a spoon and two stir sticks of Valrhona 72% dark chocolate cinnamon ganache with it's own cinnamon marshmallow.

 

It's painted in edible copper luster and is very fragrant with cinnamon. I thought it might be a cinnamon bomb at first. But after I stirred it up into some scalded milk, it blended in nicely. The nose is full of cinnamon because of the marshmallow but the taste is a nice rich flavor of Valrhona's 72% dark chocolate and cinnamon. It's not cloying with cinnamon and as I mentioned, blended in nicely for a comforting mug of hot chocolate. The quality of Valrhona really added some good rich depth to it.

I liked it. I think the mug is cute with the spoon and slot for the spoon in the handle. The hot chocolate was good and hit the spot. You can't go wrong with Valrhona as your base but the blended in cinnamon was done right. Hopefully if they expand their hot chocolate line, they will make this cinnamon ganache with hot chilies in it too.

 

   score
    B

 

Silly Cow Hot Chocolate ~ Marshmallow Swirl

 

 

Silly Cow Marshmallow Swirl Hot Chocolate

All natural and organic hot chocolate mix spied at Whole Foods on special for $4.99. I am a hot chocolate lover and drink it consistently all year long even when it's hot outside. I like finding new brands to try. Whole Food's does pretty good with fun options to try that aren't too risky or expensive like some of the chocolate bar producer versions. I discovered Allegro Single Origin hot chocolate last year or earlier this year, and the Peru 68% made my top ten list for best hot cocoa's.

From the Bread and Chocolate Inc. in Wells River, Vermont, Silly Cow comes in a cute milk bottle and filled exactly all the way to the top. Be careful opening it as it sort of popped due to it's fullness. A very full 16.9 oz.

 

I prepped my evening hot chocolate with scaled vanilla almond milk. This hot chocolate tastes like classic powdered hot chocolate but a bit more rich. I always do more scoops than the recommended. It's fairly sweet with the natural marshmallow flavoring, but the marshmallow flavor is definitely there and noticeable. As I said, it makes it a lot sweeter but in a good way.

It's like the Swiss Miss hot chocolate packets, but all natural. Definitely richer, and more creamier, but that classic hot chocolate taste is the same. I liked it, but I will say it's not as rich or good as the Allegro brands. This is a hot chocolate you buy for your kids and have fun with the classic milk bottles. Might not be that uncommon for Vermont folks, but city kids will get a kick out of it.

 

Ingredients: Natural cane sugar, Dutch processed cocoa (with alkali), natural marshmallow flavor (vanilla, dextrose and silicon dioxide [to prevent caking]).

   score
  C+

Patric Chocolate ~ PBJ OMG

 

 

**Archived notes

 

Back to what works. This bar was reviews a month or two ago, but I have the taste in my mind right now remembering how good this bar is. I was supposed to have reviewed this last year, but I let it slip and then it just got too late to post it. So, I ordered a fresh round of Patric and decided to start over again.

The notes are not that much different from last year to this year. This year's batch was a little less jammy than the year before. Patric Chocolate is one of my all time favorite American bean-to-bar producers. He is finally having a lot of fun and coming up with insanely good new creations. Most recently reviewed was the amazing Salty Signature Seventy. And now my second time around with the PBJ OMJ.

While I think the name of this bar is corny, it is anything but in it's taste. Alan McClure blended peanut butter in just the right amount with jammy Madagascar dark chocolate to give a roasted peanut butter and defaulted jam flavor from the natural berry/fruity flavors on the chocolate. It's a brilliant idea and it's executed so well. Patric's Madagascar was some of my first introductions to Madagascar cacao and I have rarely run into anyone with the same level of quality and flavors.

 

 

PBJ OMG (Seasonal)

 

Type: Flavored dark chocolate

Bean Varietal: Unknown

Ingredients: Cacao, cane sugar, natural peanut butter (roasted peanuts, salt), cocoa butter, sea salt.

Sample Size: 2.3 oz or 65g

 

Appearance: Rich beautiful orange-ish brown color, monogrammed molding with no tab squares, matted textured surface from molding, but shiny and smooth surface. (Minor scratch on the surface came from me.)

Score: 95

Snap: Very soft snap, a little rubbery but still had a slight snapping sound and clean break lines.

Score: 83

Aroma: Nice full but simple aroma of roasted peanuts and jammy fruits. Sweet and rich cacao too.

Score: 94

Taste: Rich roasted peanuts right up front, a little bitter from the dark chocolate, good balance of sugars, fruity notes but more buttery and savory, a little tangy, faint hints of coffee, and Madagascar woody finish.

Score: 92

Texture: Super soft and creamy. Medium-fast melt-time, smooth texture.

Score: 93

 

I have to say, I am not a fan of the new molding from Patric. Well, not so new anymore, but I don't like the splatter paint design at all. His molding before was so much more sophisticated. Putting that aside, look at how gorgeous the color of this bar is. It's a great color, no surface blemishes, and a great shine despite a textured surface. It's a beauty of a bar.

The peanut butter has the same taste as the year before. Adds a nice richness and even some slight coffee notes with the roasted peanuts and bitterness of the cacao. It's a little less fruity than the previous year. But not by much. It's less tangy but more savory and buttery this year. Still has nice fruits that give off the intended effect of peanut butter and jelly. Leaves a classic Madagascar wood flavor on the finish from retro-olfaction.

The texture was fantastic and smooth, the aroma was to die for, and it tasted fantastic. Just a little weak snap was the only thing really wrong with the bar. It bent quite a bit before it snapped. But it still gave way to a slightly decent snap sound despite how soft it is.

Excellent flavored chocolate. A great blend of peanut butter without making it PEANUT BUTTER. It's such a dominating flavor. While, this bar is definite on it's roasted peanut taste, it doesn't take away from the gorgeous Madagascar cacao. I love that about this bar. It's a great blend that really shines on both elements.

 

Final Score: 91.4

   score
  B+

Olive & Sinclair ~ Buttermilk White Chocolate 45%

 

 

 

The bar that got me in trouble with my ordering. It all started with a simple tweet from Olive & Sinclair announcing they released these Buttermilk White Chocolate bars. I love all things buttermilk being a good southern woman at my core (when it comes to food only). I logged on to order this bar, and ended up with 5 bars of chocolate and two kinds of cacao nib brittle.

This is my first experience with Olive & Sinclair and I was quite happy with the Brittles being tastes first. I am actually a believer in white chocolate. I haven't always loved the commercial crap that is usually sold and used for baking. It's generally too sweet, and too artificial tasting. But having experienced craft white chocolates, I am sold on how good they can actually be. I am also a believer that white chocolate is in fact chocolate. Or at the very least a crucial part of the cacao bean and in some cases makes up more of the bean. So many hardcore reviewers and so-called experts will disagree vehemently that it is not chocolate because it does not contain cacao liquor. Without getting too technical, in my point of view, a cacao bean is made of roughly 55% cocoa butters or fats according to Beckett's The Science Of Chocolate Second Edition. It's the seed's food supply. The bean and winnowed down nib is made up of more fat that ends up pressed away. Low and high quality fats are pressed from nibs and separated. They go hand in hand. I am sure many actual experts will disagree and argue until they are blue in the face, but cacao cannot be without it's main food supply which is the fats that are pressed away for cacao liquors and pastes.

Where people draw the line is with the content of white chocolate is that it's made of up the pressed cacao fats, milk powders, vanilla, and sugar without having any cacao liquor or paste put into it. But again with the nibs and seeds being made up predominately of fats and cacao butters, I am inclined to consider white chocolate real chocolate. I welcome comments and debates about this subject.

Back to Olive & Sinclair. This is a white chocolate bar done with buttermilk powder, salt, and black peppercorns. This is not the Buttermilk White with Salt and Pepper bar though. I am noticing they hallmark some of their products with hints of salt and pepper. It does say they used "Unfiltered" cacao butter. I am wondering if that just means it hasn't been deodorized. Cocoa butter is aromatic and pungent and is often deodorized so that it can be added to chocolate bars without effecting the taste.

 

 

Buttermilk White Chocolate 45%

Type: White chocolate, 45%

Bean Varietal: Unknown

Ingredients: Cane sugar, organic unfiltered cacao butter, buttermilk powder, milk powder, kosher salt, black peppercorns.

Sample Size: 2.75 oz

Batch #: 041313

 

Appearance: Arrived broken, Creamy white color with black flecks of pepper, short and wide bar with large tabs, custom monogrammed molding, smooth surface with muted shine, slight particles on surface.

Score: 84

Snap: Nice firm snap, good snap sound, clean break lines.

Score: 91

Aroma: Big aroma of dry roasted cacao, nutty, wood, and cream, slightly peppery.

Score: 94

Taste: Creamy, lightly salty, very peppery, a little funky, tangy buttermilk flavors, slight lingering nutty flavors but mostly lingering pepper and milk on the palate.

Score: 76

Texture: Smooth surface, medium melt-time, gritty texture, a little chewy and gummy.

Score: 73

 

I like the molding on this bar. The tabs are wide, but not too thick to bite into. I am disappointed that it came broken though. All the bars were broken in the same place. But the color is good and the molding is great. Simple and monogrammed. Nothing too fancy.

I love love love the aroma on this bar. It's simple yet super full and wonderful. I love the huge dru roasted nutty aromas, and big wood aromas mixed with cream. There is really nothing more to the aroma than that except a little bit of pepper. I personally love this aroma. It's not what I expected at all for this bar. I expected sweet vanilla aromas and cream.

The taste is interesting. I wasn't entirely sold on it. The buttermilk makes it tangy and creamy, adds a little funk to this bar. But it's overwhelmed by the black pepper. The salt adds a nice contrast up front to the sugars, but then the tangy buttermilk and pepper take over and it's unbalanced. The tang and pepper detracts from the creamy quality of the white chocolate. I also think there are undertones of that nutty quality that wants to come out more but is overtaken by the dominating pepper. It's not supposed to be a salt and pepper bar either. Unless I got one mislabeled.

Not all is lost with the taste though. This needs to be cut up and baked into macadamia nut cookies. Buttery cookies with buttery nuts, and tangy, spicy white chocolate to add a different direction.

I had much higher hopes for this bar. I think it would be great without the black pepper. It's just too much and destroyed everything about this bar. The salt was fine even with the tangy buttermilk, it added a balance without interferring too much with the flavors. But overall, the taste just didn't work out.

It seemed like such a good idea at the time.....

 

Final Score: 83.6

   score
  C+

Olive & Sinclair ~ Smoked Nib Brittle and Bourbon Nib Brittle

 

 

 

Sometimes you are drawn to a product from a company and end up being sucked into their whole profile. That's what happened here. This is how I ended up with these brittles.

Olive & Sinclair are a bean-to-bar chocolate maker from Nashville, Tennessee. I had been meaning to get their products up for review for some time and then came the email about their Buttermilk White Chocolate bar. I am all about buttermilk right now (biscuits, fried chicken, and Buttermilk ice creams) and I am also a southerner. It's right up my alley. While browsing their site I found these brittles. In to the cart they went and several bar in their profile. Bastards! I came for one bar and ended up with two kinds of brittle and five bars.

Olive & Sinclair are a small craft chocolate producer with slow roasting and stone grinding techniques in small batches. These brittles are an excellent novelty product for their collection. Adding world sourced beans, small batch techniques into pure southern sweet-tooth classics such as brittle.

 

 

 

 

Bourbon Nib Brittle

Ingredients: Sugar, O&S 67% Ghana chocolate (cacao beans, brown sugar), butter, Bourbon Cacao nibs, kosher salt, black pepper.

Ghana cocoa nibs aged on barrel-aged in bourbon barrels. Smells like rich chocolate, those classic brownie notes of Ghana cacao. Boozy right out of the package but cocoa-y once it's sat out for a bit. Smells like boozy oak and fruit. Lovely smell.

Tastes like bourbon and butter right off the bar, sweet buttery, and bourbon, then finishes with deep rich brownie flavored chocolate and salt. Lingering bourbon flavors on the finish. Very tasty!

The texture is nice and crispy and crunchy with the nibs, nice chocolate melting on your tongue while crunching away at the sugars. My only gripe is that it needs a tad bit more salt. I know these are southerners who like every thing sweet, but a pinch more salt would cut that and make this even more addicting. I also can't tell which bourbon they used. The nibs do have great lingering bourbon flavors.

Barrel-aging is up my alley too as beer is my day job and barrel-aging beer is not uncommon. I like that they did this to the nibs. It imparted great flavors. You open with bourbon and close with it on the palate.

I want to give this a B for it's almost overly sugary sweetness, but the lingering brownie-like nibs and subtly and awesomeness of the bourbon make this worthy of an A- grade. And yes I do realize it's brittle and supposed to be sugary sweet. I just feel like it could use a touch more salt to achieve balanced greatness. The richness of these ghana nibs really shine on this product and they are so much better with bourbon barrel-aging.

   score
   A-

 

 

 

Smoked Nib Brittle

Ingredients: Sugar, O&S Ghana chocolate (cacao beans, brown sugar), butter, smoked cacao nibs, kosher salt, and pepper.

 

Smoked Ghana cacao nibs in "Mr. Allan Benton's wood stove smokehouse at Benton's Smoky Mountain Country Hams." If you are not familiar with Benton's hams or bacon, slap yourself in the face hard, and then go find some immediately.

The aroma is all smoke. Ham-y, bacon-y smoke. Fat smoke. Breaking into smaller pieces releases that actual pork aroma from the smoked nibs.

Peppery brittle like peppered bacon coated in sugar. The second bite was more of the butter, sugars, and chocolate. They all tend to take a back seat to the smoky nibs on the first taste but then become more noticeable. A little bitterness on this brittle too. In total it's spicy black pepper, smoky, bitter, pork flavors, buttery, sugary.

This is very different brittle from the Bourbon Brittle. This is savory and smoky. The black pepper dominates and is a little spicy. The bitterness of the cacao nibs come through more as well. It's more salty and savory, the butter is more noticeable but not until the second bite. It's all smoke and black pepper at first and then every thing else comes through. It's almost like peppered bacon bits instead of the actual nibs.

While the Bourbon Brittle was more rounded with subtle flavors, this one is more in your face. Both are so very southern and so rooted in all things Tennesee. I find the pepper to be a little too dominating on the Smoked Nib. It's still very good. It's a better balance of the salt with the sugars in the brittle, but the smoke and pepper are palate killing and dominating. The chocolate only has a moment to shine, and the richness of the nibs are overshadowed.

Having said all that, I think it's pretty damn awesome. It's for bacon lovers and people who like bold smoky flavors and big pepper tastes. This would be perfect for pairing with strong robust stouts. The bitter on the beer will let those sugars and bacon fat tastes come out more and the chocolate would mostly like be more apparent.

   score
  B+

Xocolatl de David ~ Bacon + Chocolate = <3

 

 

**Archived Notes

 

The bacon revolution continues. I for one, am not standing in the way. Where once I foolishly thought the bacon craze in general was going overboard, I never turned my back on the bacon and chocolate craze. Bacon and dark Ecuador cacao with a caramel center. Can't go wrong with that.

Similar to the Raleigh Bars, this is a similar theme from Xocolatl de David whom often works with bacon in his confections. Bacon and caramel in a slender bar/tablet form. Only without the nougat like the Raleigh bars.

 

 

Bacon & Caramel Bar

 

Type: Filled candy bar, 72% dark chocolate.

Bean Varietal: Nacional

Ingredients: 72% cacao (cocoa mass, sugar, cocoa butter, vanilla), sugar, cream, bacon, invert sugar, fleur de sel.

Sample Size: 2.2oz or 62g

 

Right away you can notice from the pictures it's sloppy appearance. A side effect from the salt and the caramel bulging the chocolate. I had a hard time capturing the bulging, but you can sort of make it out in the last picture above. It leaves for a hot mess in the appearance. Ashy, white, streaking, and the shine has gone off the bar.

All that aside, it smells fantastic. Like salt cure, smoky bacon, and sweet buttery caramel with earthy, fruity dark chocolate. Wonderful aroma. If they could make reed diffusers in this scent, it would be a best seller.

Sweet, and tangy bitter on the taste from the rich bitter dark chocolate, then buttery caramel with salty cripsy bacon. While the taste is full on with the bacon, I do wish it had bigger bacon pieces in it. It's the plight of my blog to demand chocolate makers to stop being skimpy with the bacon. It's bacon, you can never have TOO much in one bar. But more than that, it has the taste, but if needs the meaty back bone to make you feel like you just chewed on a fatty piece of bacon covered in chocolate and caramel. Because as rich and delectable as this is, large greasy, fatty bacon pieces would set this bar apart from any other bacon bar on the market.

I love the Ecuador chocolate they use on their products. It's rich, fruity, and bitter, and with the caramel and smoky bacon, it brings out a nutty richness to the chocolate with slight brewed coffee notes. Nice combination of flavors. It's very bitter too and that helps round out the sugars and sweetness on the bar.

A real decadent and fantastic bar. The salt makes it that much more addicting too. I am giving this bar a higher score based solely on how it tastes. It's very balanced. Savory, salty, buttery, sweet, rich, and deeply chocolaty and bitter. It's appearance is a side effect from the gooey caramel. It's really bad on this particular bar. But knowing exactly what this bar is and how it tastes shouldn't detract from making this a regular treat or gift for a true bacon lover. It's that good.

 

   score
    A

Antica Pasticceria Muzzi ~ Trinitario al Sale

 

 

Antica Pasticceria Muzzi

A 200 year old Pasticceria who specializes in classic Italian pannetone and other classic Italian goodies, that has decided to create a finer line of chocolate called "A pelle," with interesting flavors. Flavors like Spicy Criollo, Cubarancia, Salt Trinitario, Double Black 99%, Total Black 70%, Cinnamon and White Chocolate, Cannabis and Criollo, Madagascar.

Located in the center east of Perugia in a town called Foligno.

 

[Image via: Vacances-Location.net]

 

I picked this up in Quebec City, Canada. I am not going to lie, I did it purely because of it's funky packaging. I barely looked at it at the time because I was grabbing a ton of different things at once, but I am happy to find that I grabbed milk chocolate Trinitario with sea salt. However, had I known crazy shit like the Cannabis and Criollo existed, I would have easily grabbed that. I am not even a pothead, but I want to try interesting things all the time. I have had people who love craft beer give me their own handmade hops and chocolate to taste. If you are not aware, hops is a cousin of cannabis and also has soothing and mellow properties (not THC) to it. But it's a bold and bitter taste. It was put in white chocolate, when I tried it, but I'd like to see it in milk chocolate to see how it does.

 

Trinitario al Sale

 

Type: Flavored, Milk Chocolate

Bean Varietal: Trinitario

Ingredients: Plain milk chocolate (32%, Sugar, cocoa butter, powdered skim milk, cocoa paste, powdered whole milk, soya lecithin, and sweet salt.

Sample Size: 60g

 

Appearance: Rich caramel color, square monogrammed tablet, no molding lines, matting marks, salt crystals and particles all over the bar.

Score: 74

Snap: Excellent firm snap. Good snapping sound, nice thickness of the molding, now dullness, and clean break lines.

Score: 94

Aroma: All fatty cream and butter. Smells like nutty brownies and a little smoky.

Score: 93

Taste: Creamy and milky, buttery, caramel, a little nutty, lightly salted but balanced well through the bar, almost too creamy though and it almost tastes like white chocolate.

Score: 87

Texture: Creamy, fast melt-time, slightly grainy with the salt, and slightly gritty.

Score: 89

 

The appearance is a bit of a hot mess. It has a simple molding, clean and nice and thick for good snap, but the salt particles on top muddle it and I can't even begin to tell you why there was so much particle matter all over it. It had matting too from the plastic seal. It's color was rich though. I bet this thing is a beauty when it's freshly made. Still, it's packaging is cool.

Great snap and and decent texture. A little grainy with the salt and sort of gritty. It was a creamy texture but not silky.

It's taste is nicely balanced with the salt at first. Good sweet and salty ratio. But the cream and fatty milk taste was almost too much. it dominates and detracts from the nuances of using Trinitario cacao. It left too much of that cloying milk taste that so many often dislike about white chocolate. Too creamy and too milky. It has nice caramel and nutty notes and again sweet and salty, but the palate is then dominated with cloying milk and leaves with you milk breath. I think it's great up until that point.

I wish I had more of it because the best thing to do with overly milky chocolate like this is to chop it up and toss it into a batch of cookies. The salt would make it even better.

 

Final Score: 87.4

   score
    B

Fleurir ~ The Midwest Bar

 

 

 

Virginia chocolate from some Virginia pals for a Virginia girl. Thanks to Jeff Evans who sent this to me.  I may be a Masshole now, but I never forgot where I came from.

Jeff was nice enough to send up Fleurir bars in a big shipment of beer that was sent to us by Chuck Triplett. They had a good time at our Extreme Beer festival, and this was a very generous thank you. I have followed Fleurir on twitter checking out some of their truffle flavors like peanut butter and banana. They have been on my radar for a little while.

They are actually pretty funny too. Check out their "About Us" page.

Their blends and flavors on these regional inspired bars, in a way, remind of Chocolat Moderne. Different concepts as Chocolat Moderne is into art and art history, but the flavor blends with dried fruits and Valrhona chocolate blended bases is more what I was thinking. Although Fleurir is more artful in their packaging and their splatter painted molded bars.

 

 

The Midwest Bar

 

Type: Filled, blended bar.

Bean Varietal: N/A

Ingredients: Dark chocolate (cocoa bean, sugar, cocoa butter, soya lecithin), Milk chocolate (sugar, cocoa butter, whole milk powder, cocoa beans, soya lecithin), Michigan cherries, and black walnuts.

Sample Size: 75g or 2.7oz

 

Appearance: Deep dark brown color, standard non-monogrammed molding, very shiny, artful splatter paint design on the top surface of the bar, large visible walnuts and cherry fillings on the back side, Some drying by the walnuts, and some plastic matting marks on the top surface.

Score: 92

Snap: Good snap, mildly audible but firm, crumbly break lines.

Score: 90

Aroma: Soft aroma with mild smoky notes and nuts.

Score: 85

Taste: Sweet, a little tangy right up front, inky, and bitter cacao flavors, nutty, wood flavors, tart and tangy dried cherries, dry walnuts. Straight forward.

Score: 93

Texture: Smooth and hard up front, medium melt-time, nice chewy dried cherries, and crunchy walnuts.

Score: 91

 

I love the way this bar looks. Simple molding, even some pretty big plastic matting marks, but that could not detract from the brightness of the spattered paint design on top contrasting the dark brown color. Super shiny too.

Very straight forward bar. Bold Valrhona cacao with big woody flavors, mixed with nutty flavors and ink. I would be really awesome if I could identify the Valrhona in this bar. I am good, but not that good. Not yet anyway. And not with the fillings adding their own flavors.

The natural wood and nut flavors on the cacao are very different than the walnuts. The walnuts give added depth. They also do not dominate the bar because the cacao is so rich. I recently had a discussion about whether a chocolate maker should add more nuts to their candy bars. He said he was worried about the pecan flavor dominating the bar. I disagreed because it was the one flavor you were looking for and was sort of lacking. Also for textural reasons. But in this case, the walnuts, although they can be a more subtle flavored nut, prove me right. More is always better. The cherries don't even dominate this bar. It's all a nice harmony. The cherries give a nice tart bite, and then a textural change with chewy on top of the crunchy nuts. But they are present themselves and still leave the chocolate flavors as the dominant feature of the bar.

I find the walnut flavors and the difference in the nuttiness on the chocolate fun to taste and the best part as far as thinking in depth about this bar. They are so different. There were some lingering inky flavors and bitterness, but the sugars balanced this bar nicely as well as the dry nuts, and the tangy and tart cherries.

I hope the Midwest is happy with this bar because it tastes good. There is not a lot of guff with with bar. Just a pretty looking bar and a nice balance of flavors. Full flavors, but straight forward. The only thing weak about this was the aroma. Virtually nothing there but a little smokiness, and walnuts. Not very strong or dynamic.

 

Final Score: 90.2

   score
  B+

Xocolatl de David ~ Raleigh Bars

 

 

 

Handmade candy bars by Xocolatl de David in Portland, Oregon. Created for the affable Pine State Biscuits in Portland.

 

A few years back, my friends at the world renown Pine State Biscuits here in Portland asked me to create something for them to sell at their restaurant.  More specifically, a candy bar.  They bugged me for a good 3 months before I came up with the first and only prototype. It was so well received that I knew I was not going to be able to sell it just at Pine State Biscuits. To thank them I named it after the founder of the "Pine State" (North Carolina, for those not in the know), Sir Walter Raleigh.

To me the classic candy bar is, nougat, caramel, and nuts coated in chocolate.  I created mine with a southern vein since Pine State Biscuits is a southern style restaurant.  

 [Original Raleigh Bar]

Chocolate Pecan Nougat & Salted Caramel, coated in 72% Chocolate from Ecuador.

 

 

Bourbon Caramel

Buffalo Trace Bourbon Caramel, pecan chocolate nougat, 72% dark chocolate from Ecuador.

 

 

Visually this one was a little disappointing with the ashy appearance. But that's superficial for the huge flavors on this bar. Huge flavors except for the bourbon that is. Cutting into the bar I cut right through a pecan bit. Sadly it was the only real bit of pecan in the bar. I found this to be an issue as well with Liddabit's The Snacker bar. Handmade candy bars from Brooklyn, NY. Skimpy on the nuts and I am not sure why. In this case, the size of the bars maybe be a reason why. They are only about 2 inches long. But if they make them in bulk batches and strips only to be cut smaller, it doesn't completely make sense. Still, a small detail compared to the over all flavor but an issue with texture. You need those crunchy nuts to break up the chewy nougat and caramel mou consistency.

The aroma was dominated by the rich and full Ecuador chocolate. 72% and fairly bitter. It interacted nicely with the flavors of the burnt caramel and the chewy nougat. Salty caramel and sweet nougat. Lot's of contrasting flavors giving it an up and down quality for the palate. No one taste or flavor is the focus. I wished the aroma had more bourbon on it. Buffalo Trace is a big woody bourbon perfect for things like this and chocolate. I use it for my own Bourbon Pecan Truffles. But the subtle use of it in the caramel left everything else to dominate. The good news is though, the bourbon is present in the flavor but not really until the finish. It's lighter, but definitely distinguishable. The salt and then the sweet sugars dominate with the bitter chocolate leave the bourbon hanging on in the finish.

Texturally the caramel was awesome. It's burnt and salty at the same time with a gorgeous burnt rust color. It has a texture midway between runny caramel and caramel mou. The nougat was also soft and chewy. Right where you want it to be. Not too hard and not too chewy. Soft and easy. It just needed that extra crunch with more pecans.

It's an excellent bar full of big flavors, but it needs more pecans and more bourbon. I could be a raging alcoholic who just wants more booze at any cost, but realistically it's a subtle approach with the bourbon. It's the right size for all the flavors it packs and for how sweet and rich it is. The salt balances it out and makes it addicting like a fat crack rock. Not that I know anything about that. I wonder if David Briggs could make this even more ridiculously good by adding caramelized or cinnamon sugar pecans in the nougat.

 

 

Bacon Caramel

Bacon Caramel, pecan nougat, and 72% Ecuador chocolate.

 

 

Much better appearance with a shiny surface. The aroma dominates with big smoky bacon and rich chocolate. Did I mention crack in the previous review? Yeah, times that by 10 for this bar.

Same issues with the skimpy pecans. Again, it needs that break up with the chewy caramel and chewy nougat. I also think this could have benefited from crispy bacon in the caramel for added texture. It certainly had all the bacon flavor, but the crunch factor was missing again. It should be like their Country Ham bar. As with the bourbon bar, I could be a raging bacon-holic in my need for more bacon in this bar, but realistically it's a textural issue. It needs crunch some where, why not add bacon bits?

The chocolate has a less dominating flavor on this bar, but it's bitterness is very present. Bitters not acidity. The salty burnt caramel wins again, and the nougat rounds out the sweetness. The dominate flavor though is of course the smoky bacon. It's all in there. Sweet, salty, burnt sugars, chewy nougat and smoky bacon. How could you not love this thing? It's very sweet and rich. When you do get a bit of pecan in the bar, it adds a really nice layer of depth to the flavor. Needs moar!