ZOMG, Candy!

After the success of my first chocolate tasting (notes here), I held a second one with the extra bars. Unfortunately, by the time the second tasting rolled around, most of the bars had bloomed thanks to New Haven humidity and temperature fluctuations and a lack of air conditioning. The Vosges chocolate bars were the only ones that survived because their wrappers are airtight. We tasted them anyway, and all the flavors were there; it’s just that the textures were all wrong. Sadness. Here’s what we tasted, with my notes:

• Green and Black’s milk, 34% - sweet, yogurty flavor; tastes like a Cadbury mini-egg. Thick texture.
• Dagoba milk, 37% - slightly fruitier than the Green and Black’s with a dusky finish.
• Vosges Macha (Japanese macha green tea in 41% deep milk) - woodsy dirt flavor, brittle texture. Tastes like green tea, as it should. I don’t like the taste of green tea, but if you do, this bar is true to its name.
• Vosges Woolloomooloo (roasted and salted macadamia nuts, Indonesian coconut, hemp seeds in 41% deep chocolate) - I’ve reviewed the truffle version of this bar. Nicely nutty, smells of coconut.
• Vosges Goji (Tibetan goji berries, pink Himalayan salt in 41% deep milk) - fruitiness to the bar; goji berries just taste like red berries. Saltiness works, I think.
• Vosges Mo’s Bacon Bar (applewood smoked bacon, alderwood smoked salt in 41% deep milk chocolate) - I bought another one of these bars because it’s such a great conversation piece for tastings.
• Chocolove dark chocolate, 55% - nuttiness to the flavor, which starts off sweet and has a long finish. Vanilla notes? Thick texture.
• Nirvana Single Origin Granada, 60% - fairly straightforward cocoa flavor with a strong roasted taste.
• Scharffen Berger 62% semisweet - fruity notes, sweet finish

• Vosges Calindia (Indian green cardamom, organic California walnuts, dried plums in 65% Venezualan dark chocolate) - strong spice flavor. Can taste the sweetness of the plums and feel where it adds texture.
• Nirvana Single Origin Santa Domingo, 67% - strong earthiness, dirt flavor. Not at all well received (the wrapper promised herbal tones, which must have been the dirt flavor people complained about).
• Green and Black’s Maya Gold (orange and spices) - on first taste, strong notes of pepper with a light orange finish. On second taste, orange flavor stronger. Many people said the bar tasted like marmalade.
• Scharffen Berger 70% bittersweet - super fruity with a cocoa finish
• Dagoba Conacado, 73% - nutty
• Dagoba New Moon, 74% - sweeter than the Conacado with a dark fruitiness
• Dagoba Xocolatl, 74% with chilies and nibs - slight fruitiness to the chocolate. STRONG chili flavor that wallops your taste buds on first impact. Not the way I like my chili chocolate.
• Endangered Species 88% Extreme Dark (panther) - vanilla scent with a nice smoky flavor.
• Ghirardelli 100% baking chocolate - completely dries up the mouth. Worse than the 100% La Maison du Chocolat bar.

My tasting notes, as promised. I loved how I was able to notice the subtle differences between the bars by tasting them all together. For example, when I first tasted the Scharffen Berger Extra Rich Milk, I thought it was sweet and yogurty. Tasting it right after the Chocolove Milk and the Papua single origin bar, the Scharffen Berger bar suddenly took on smoky qualities.

• Chocolove Milk Chocolate (33%) - thick and creamy, coats the tongue heavily; vanilla and caramel notes
• Nirvana Belgian Chocolates’ Papua single origin (35%) - dull and greasy looking, coffee smell, vanilla and yogurt flavor
• Scharffen Berger Extra Rich Milk (41%) - dusky, smoky flavor, soft snap with a thick and heavy melt, lingering finish
• Endangered Species Smooth Milk (52%) - earthy, pepper flavor
• Vosges Naga Bar (41%) - a bit grainy with a great snap, coconut flavor
• Vosges Mo’s Bacon Bar (41%) - smells smoky, bacon bits give it a large grain, super salty bar
• Vosges Red Fire or Oaxaca Bars (55%) - starts off sweet but the chili burn and the heat builds, a finish that lingers in the back of the throat
• Chocolove Ginger Crystallized in Dark Chocolate (65%) - sweet, sugar flavor, light ginger and citrusy notes
• Chocolove Strong Dark (70%) - earthy aroma, greasy texture
• Lake Champlain Single Origin Sao Thome (70%) - sweet and fruity notes
• Vosges Creole Bar (70%) - sweet start, coffee finish that lingers, a creamy melt around the coffee bean and nib bits
• Scharffen Berger Antilles (75%) - my favorite of the bunch - a sharp snap on a glossy, dark bar, creamy melt, lingering finish
• Lake Champlain Single Origin Tanzania (75%) - banana notes, thinner melt, unpleasant finish that’s buttery and lingering
• Scharffen Berger Extra Dark (82%) - bitter tobacco notes with a slightly sweet finish
• La Maison Du Chocolat Coro (100%) - bitter start, dries out the mouth
• Valrhona Gianduja Noisette (no %, but super, super light milk) -super soft, almost like fudge at room temperature, quite soft, creamy, heavy, and thick with strong hazelnut flavors

It’s been a while since I posted a chocolate party review. I’m going to finish up the chocolate party posts next week so I can move on to covering my winter break candy tour. Consider these part of cleaning out my candy backlog.

Endangered Species Chocolate (BUY!) donates 10% of their profits”to help support species, habitat and humanity,” and they use their chocolate bar wrappers to raise awareness about endangered species. Some bars are organic, and I think all are fair trade. My bar was all about the wolf, and it was delicious.

Even though this dark bar boasts a high cacao content of 70 percent, it wasn’t bitter at all. If anything, I’d deem it bittersweet, and I found it surprisingly sweet for dark chocolate. The bar had an exceptional, heavy snap and a great dark finish. The almonds (in tiny pieces) added another smoky component to the bar, which worked nicely. Finally, the bar was visually gorgeous, with a deep, dark, rich color and a lovely gloss.

The bits of cranberry inside the bar were quite noticeable. You can see a piece of one poking out in the photo. They were dried pieces of cranberry, like raisins (or craisins, I guess). Usually the cranberry pieces melded nicely with the dark finish, but every once in a while a chunk of cranberry would be too big, too sweet, and too distracting.

At first I didn’t find this bar to be too exceptional. Sure, it was great dark chocolate, but so what? Yet I found myself reaching for more… and more… and more… It turned out to be quite addictive, enough so to earn a ZOMG! rating from me. Many thanks to my friend Katie for buying it for me. My friends’ ratings placed it 7th with a score of 3.5/5. I should note that the people who liked it really liked it.

My bar was just one of 15 varieties. I can’t wait to taste my way through more.