Zazubean Cheeky

The Canadian chocolatier Zazubean makes interesting dark chocolate bars with unique flavours; this one features banana, salted toffee and maca. The cacao content is at 70%, while the cacao beans come from Dominican Republic and Ecuador. The ingredient listing is good, cocoa mass, cane sugar, toffee (cane sugar and whole milk powder), cocoa butter, bananas, sea salt, maca and vanilla. Most of the ingredients are Organic, while many of them are FairTrade. The bar is made in Switzerland. The tagline is "Be the Sassy Monkey".

How does it taste? The chocolate is good tasting, and melts well in the mouth. I don't get the banana at all, and the maca, if anything, has an underlying taste that might come from the chocolate, I can't tell. The salted toffee is very crunchy, I mean very crunchy, a little disconcerting. Overall, I would say that this is a good bar, not really that "Sassy", but not one I would buy again.

Kayer All Natural Xylitol Gum - Citrus

I've enjoyed most of the aspartame free gums sweetened with xylitol that I've tried. This one tastes pretty good; the citrus flavour is good. The gum is a little "chewy", ie. it takes more effort than others I've chewed. I've only seen it in one store.

Mum's Original Banana Powder

Mum's Original has a whole line of raw superfoods. This one features bananas from Ecuador, grown and ripened in the full sun, then dehydrated at a low temperature. They are then finely milled to create a banana powder that you can add to desserts, shakes and breakfast dishes. This has a very banana-y flavour, very good if you love bananas. One 200 g package costs between 9 and 10 dollars.

Red Velvet Apricots

We found these in a Middle-Eastern shop. They're at least interesting for their red colour, different than the orange of apricots I'm used to. I wouldn't say that they reminded me of velvet, the skin was smooth, but they are a good eating apricot, save for the higher price.

Two Herbal Thai Rices

These two rices we found for sale in a Thai Supermarket. The one is a sticky rice, flavoured with a favourite of mine, roselle (hibiscus). The other is a Jasmine rice flavoured with pandan leaf, a favourite of Thais, which imparts a good flavour and green colour to many desserts. Both of these did not really have strong flavours from what they were infused with, and the rice was not of high quality. More of an interesting experience than one I would seek to repeat.

Nestle Sublime

My colleague brought this back from Peru the other week, it's a favourite in Peru. It's essentially a chocolate bar with peanuts, and fairly good tasting if the chocolate is a little sweet, somewhat offset by the saltiness of the peanuts. Interesting, but not and no way my favourite.

Ananda Chocolate - Chocobane!

Ananda Chocolate is a Dutch chocolatier; they make chocolate locally, in this case from Ecuadorean cacao beans. The cacao content of this bar is 70%. The ingredient listing is good, cacao beans, dried banana puree, cacao nibs and non-gmo lecithin. All ingredients save the lecithin are Organic.

How does it taste? Horrid. OK, perhaps not so harsh a word, I tried by eating the whole bar, but this bar does not taste good at all to me. I can't taste the banana puree, or at least it does not taste like banana and chocolate together tastes (it should taste great!), rather there is a bitterness to this that is off-putting, not good bitter, like dark chocolate should be. The chocolate doesn't melt well and tastes chalky. The cacao nibs are also lost or non-existent in flavour. I like that they use Organic and non-GMO ingredients, and that the bar is wrapped in a biodegradable package rather than the regular foil. I just can't see me wanting to ever buy let alone eat this bar again.

Pacari Los Rios

The Ecuadoran chocolatier Pacari Chocolate makes wonderfully tasting chocolate bars using cacao beans from Ecuador; I've come to see that these beans make for an excellent chocolate bar. This one features beans from the Los Rios region in central est Ecuador. Pacari is an artisanal chocolate maker, they craft their chocolate in small batches using the finest ingredients. The ingredient listing looks good, cacao beans, evaporated cane juice and sunflower lecithin. The cacao content is at 72%.

How does it taste? As with all the bars that I've tasted from Pacari, this one makes for an excellent chocolate experience; the chocolate is smooth and melts well in the mouth, smells good and snaps well. Despite the high price for this what I call half-size bar, I would definitely buy this bar again.

Wild Garlic Greens

We came across this in a Korean supermarket; they told us that we could eat it raw in salads. I assume that you could also stir fry them, which we ended up doing. Don't really have any recipe for them, but they do taste interesting at least, not a strong garlic flavour. We're going to look for them again next year.

Taza Chocolate Chipotle Chili

The American chocolatier Taza Chocolate makes Mexican-style chocolate using Oaxacan stone mills. This one features chipotle chili powder; chipotles are smoke-dried jalapeno peppers from Mexico. The ingredient listing is good, organic cacao beans, organic cane sugar and organic chipotle chili powder. The cacao content is at 70%.

How does it taste? Whereas the Guajillo Chili didn't have much heat, this one packs a greater punch. Mixed with the smokiness and the bitterness of the chocolate, this bar makes for an interesting flavour. There is still the underlying crunchiness of the sugar, less so than bars with less cacao content I've tasted. Overall, I would say this is one of the more flavourful bars from Taza, and one I would eat again.

King's Zen Tea King's Jasmine Pearls

King's Zen Tea has a number of very interesting teas, this one is a green tea that is scented with jasmine blossoms, using a 9 century old technique for tea scenting. The tender green tea leaves and buds (these come from Fujian Province in China) are then hand rolled. The jasmine smell of this is quite strong and intoxicating, the green tea is quite good as well, yielding a good cup of tea to enjoy.

Taza Chocolate Ginger

The American chocolatier Taza Chocolate makes artisan chocolate using traditional Mexican (Oaxacan) stone mills. This one features the flavour of ginger. The ingredient listing is good, organic cacao beans, organic cane sugar and organic powdered ginger. The cacao content is at 70%. The ingredients are also all Organic.

How does it taste? Normally enjoying ginger, in chocolate and in other dishes, I wonder why powdered ginger was chosen over stone grinding ginger slices or using ginger juice, that would have provided for a better flavour. There is a definite ginger flavour to this bar, which I enjoyed. The chocolate itself did not have quite the same amount of crunchiness to it; because it's 70% cacao content, that would lead me to believe that it's the sugar that isn't ground enough in their other chocolate bars, and leads to the disconcerting crunchiness. While this is one of my more favourite of Taza's offerings, I don't think that I would buy this bar again.

Taza Chocolate Vanilla

The American chocolatier Taza Chocolate makes artisan chocolate using traditional Mexican stone mills. This one features the flavour of whole vanilla beans; vanilla is a normal ingredient in a lot of bars, so this should showcase the taste of their cacao. The ingredient listing is good, organic cacao beans, organic cane sugar and organic whole vanilla beans. The cacao content is at 50%. The ingredients are also all Organic.

How does it taste? This should be one of their showcase chocolate bars, there is very little to flavour the chocolate and spoil the experience of the bar. Once again, Mexican chocolate, stone ground chocolate, makes for a crunchy bar, that one has to get used to. I did not taste the whole vanilla beans at all. The chocolate otherwise was reasonably good, though not one I really enjoyed. I don't think that I would buy this bar again.

Taza Chocolate Guajillo Chili

The American chocolatier Taza Chocolate makes artisan chocolate using traditional Mexican stone mills. This one features the flavour of guajillo chili, a chili with a small amount of heat, normally used for making salsa for tamales in Mexico. The ingredient listing is good, organic cacao beans, organic cane sugar and organic dried guajillo chilis. There is no indication of cacao content. The ingredients are also all Organic.

How does it taste? If you are looking for heat, and I do like some of the chocolate and chili pairings I've tasted, and I like moderate to high heat, this is not the bar for you. This has a very mild heat to it, almost not there even. The chocolate does suffer from a crunchiness to it (and Mexican chocolate, stone mill ground chocolate, would); it's not smooth to the tongue like the European chocolates. I don't think that I would buy this bar again.

Taza Chocolate Yerba Maté

The American chocolatier Taza Chocolate uses traditional Mexican stone mills to grind chocolate, creating an, in their words, intense and full-flavoured chocolate for eating and drinking. Each package contains two discs of chocolate. The flavour of this bar is of yerba maté, a herb from Central America that is used as a natural caffeine alternative; I've drunk yerba maté off and on for years, when I feel tired, it perks me up. The ingredient listing is good and short, organic cacao beans, organic cane sugar and yerba maté powder. There is no indication of cacao content, but the cacao beans come mostly from the Dominican Republic.

How does it taste? Because it's stone ground, the chocolate and the sugar are not quite ground smooth enough, there is a crunchiness to the chocolate that is not unpleasant, but disconcerting if you are used to smooth melt-in-your-mouth chocolate. The yerba mate brings an underlying slightly bitter herb-y flavour that is not unpleasant, but needs getting used to. I wouldn't say this chocolate is either intense or full-flavoured, but interesting enough that I would like to eat other of their offerings. Now I read that they have discontinued this particular flavour, there seems to be not enough of a demand for it; from my point of view, I didn't like this enough to mourn its loss.

Hami Melon Cake

Pineapple cakes are a popular treat in Asia, there are lots of different fruits available as alternatives. This is the first time I've seen one of my favourite fruits, hami melon, as the main ingredient. And I was very pleased to discover that it actually tasted and smelled like hami melon! Would have wanted more jam in the cake, but still great. It puts me in mind to make some hami melon jam.

Aiello Ciocolady Menta

I've tried several of the Italian chocolatier Aiello's chocolate bars before, Liquirizia being my favourite. This one is fairly similar ingredient-wise to all the others, cocoa mass, sugar, cocoa butter, soya lecithin as emulsifier, vanilla and mint oil (0.1%). The cacao content is at 53%.

How does it taste? Aiello's chocolate is good, a good eating chocolate, the mint in this bar is not too strong; if you like mint and chocolate together, then this is a bar you might like. I far prefer the Liquirizia certainly, but this one is good now and again, despite the $5-6 price tag.

IKEA Choklad Mörk

I've tried some of IKEA's chocolate bars before, most of them being milk chocolate kinds; this is the first one I've seen that has a decent percentage of cacao content, 70%. The ingredient listing of this bar looks good, cocoa mass, sugar, sunflower lecithin as emulsifier and natural vanilla flavour. The chocolate is produced in Spain, but I can't seem to find out the origin of the cacao.

How does it taste? Fairly good, much better than their other lower cacao content ones, the chocolate smells very good. I would say this is a good eating chocolate, not bad for the $2 I paid for it as well. I would definitely eat this one again.

Chocosol Darkness

I've tried and enjoyed the Hemp Gold bar from the artisanal Canadian chocolatier Chocosol (too bad I missed their chocolate exhibit on Family Day at the ROM!), this is another bar of theirs that features their chocolate front and center. The ingredient listing is very short, cacao, cacao butter and raw sugar. There is no indication of cacao content, but it is definitely a dark chocolate bar; certainly given the name!

How does it taste? Chocosol's chocolate is a treat to eat, and this definitely showcases their art. The chocolate is smooth and full of the goodness good dark chocolate gives. I would definitely seek this bar out.

Chocosol Hemp Gold

I've read and heard so much about the artisan Canadian chocolatier Chocosol (too bad I missed their chocolate exhibit on Family Day at the ROM!), and definitely wanted to try their chocolate; I've mostly seen them at various Farmer's Markets in the Toronto area - they travel by bike to and fro. This bar contains one of my other favourite ingredients, hemp, in the form of hemp seeds. The ingredient listing is short, and, well, not sweet, but good, cacao, hemp nut, cacao butter, maple butter and sea salt. There is no indication of cacao content, but it is definitely a dark chocolate bar.

How does it taste? This definitely lives up to the hype and could become one of my favourite chocolate bars, despite its cost. The hemp nuts give it a little crunch that is a little disconcerting but not off-putting, and the maple butter gives it a good flavour that is not overwhelming, but makes the good chocolate better. I would definitely seek this bar out.

Pacari Merken Aji Ahumado

The Ecuadoran chocolatier Pacari makes some great chocolate bars; I've enjoyed very much several of them. This bar uses a spice from Ecuador called Merken, which is used traditionally by the indigenous Mapuche people of Chile, and is a combination of heat and smokiness. The ingredient listing is good, cacao beans, cane sugar, merken (chili, cumin, salt) and sunflower lecithin. The cacao content of these Ecuadorean Origin beans is 60%.

How does it taste? Very good, as I've said I've enjoyed the taste of all the bars I've tried from Pacari. They are a little expensive, but well worth the treat. This bar is not too spicy, for those wary of the heat, and the merken spice works well with the chocolate. I would buy and eat this bar again.

Camino Raspberries

The Canadian chocolatier Camino makes its chocolate bars from FairTrade ingredients (FairTrade means the grower receives a greater selling value for their product); it also uses Organic ingredients. The bar is made in Switzerland for Camino. The cacao content of this bar is 65%. The ingredient listing is good, cacao mass, golden cane sugar, cacao butter, whole cane sugar, raspberries and ground vanilla beans.

How does it taste? The chocolate is good, tasty. What I didn't care for in this bar is the dried raspberries, which ended up tasting like raspberry "seeds", like they had taken the fruit out of it and left the seeds. Enough said. I don't think that I would buy this bar again.

Equita Mint

Equita is a Canadian chocolatier from Montreal who makes its chocolate bars from FairTrade ingredients (FairTrade means the grower receives a greater selling value for their product); it also uses Organic ingredients. This bar is made in Switzerland for Equita. The cacao content of this bar is 61%. The ingredient listing is good, cacao mass, cane sugar, mint crisp (cane sugar and natural mint flavour) and cacao butter.

How does it taste? The chocolate is good, tasty. The mint is not overwhelming, like some mint bars I've tried (perhaps spearmint rather than peppermint), and the mint crackle gives the bar a chewy crunchy mouthfeel to it, kind of like eating minty-chocolatey-sugar, which I admit I liked. I would buy this bar again.

Aiello Ciocolady Latte Nocciole

Most of the Italian chocolatier Aiello's offerings are dark chocolate; this is the first I've tried that is milk chocolate. It also has hazelnuts, a favourite of mine. Being milk chocolate, the cacao content is low, 33%. The ingredient listing is okay, sugar, whole milk powder, cocoa butter, cocoa mass, hazelnuts (20%), soya lecithin as emulsifier and vanilla.

How does it taste? This is my least favourite of Aiello's chocolate bars, despite the whole hazelnuts. It is a good milk chocolate bar, the chocolate is flavourful, but it just does lend itself to repeat eating. It suffers from the whole hazelnuts being on top; when you break the bar, you often don't get an even amount of milk chocolate per hazelnut. I don't think I would buy this bar again.

GT's Organic Raw Kombucha - Citrus

I like kombucha, and certainly some of GT's flavours, especially Gingerade, this one gets its extra flavour from lemon juice. I would say this is a pleasantly zingy kombucha, really good if you like lemons. Another fallback kombucha if my ginger one is not available.