Whole Foods Market Costa Rica Dark Chocolate

Whole Foods Market sells a lot of products, both organic and whole food, and has their own line or brand for things like sugar and flour. I was intrigued to see that they have now come up with their own line of chocolate bars, this one features cocoa sourced exclusively from the Duacari region of Costa Rica. I enjoy coffee from Costa Rica, their beans are world renowned, but they also grow cacao. The bar itself is made in Belgium, a country known for making good chocolate. The ingredient listing is good, chocolate liquor, sugar, cocoa butter and natural vanilla flavour; the cacao is Rainforest Alliance Certified. The cacao content is at 71%.

How does it taste? The chocolate at first reminds me of Costa Rican coffee, very flavourful but not with the bitterness associated with some cacao. There is a definite fruitiness to this cacao, what they describe as intense and rich and smoky (I would quibble about the intense part, like Costa Rican coffee, this chocolate is smooth and rich). This bar cost about $4-5. I would buy this bar again.

Cachet Costa Rica

The Belgian chocolatier Kim's Chocolates has a line of Limited Origin Selection chocolates, featuring cacao beans from a particular country (this one features beans from Costa Rica). The beans are also certified by the Rainforest Alliance, which ensures that production and farming methods are balanced against the needs of the local ecosystem and that these protect its soil, rivers and wildlife; cocoa workers also have access to proper housing, education, medical and safe working conditions. The ingredient listing is good, cocoa mass, sugar, cocoa butter and vanilla (natural flavour). The cacao content is at 71%.

How does it taste? I enjoyed this bar very much, the chocolate was very smooth and melted very well, and had almost a mousse-like texture and taste. I have not been able to locate this again (I bought it in a Chinese Supermarket) but would definitely buy and eat this again.

Melitta World Harvest Costa Rican Tarrazu

As you might know, I like and prefer coffee from Costa Rica, and am always on the lookout for new sources. I see that Melitta has brought out more recently their World Harvest line, featuring Organic coffee and coffees from Columbia, Guatemala and Costa Rica. Tarrazu is a County in the high mountain central valley of Costa Rica, and features rich volcanic soil for growing coffee. These are most likely Arabica beans, originally native to Ethiopia and Saudia Arabia.

I find this to be a good Costa Rican coffee, not as good as some I've drunk, but still with the Costa Rican flavour I like. The 1 lb. bag was about $11 and can be found in most supermarkets.

Interestingly enough, while looking up some info on the 'Net, I read that local coffee in Costa Rica is reduced in price, and it has been a very quiet dream of mine to go to Costa Rica to sample the coffee there freshly roasted, the local coffee is also tinted, to prevent it from being exported. I guess I'll have to watch out for that and perhaps drink at the tourist coffee plantation areas.

Toi, Moi & Café's Costa Rica Monte Verde Coffee

I found this Organic and Fair Trade and Special Grade coffee in a Lebanese specialty store, of all places; it was about $9. Toi, Moi & Café have made it their mission to render the coffee business more transparent (certainly I've always wondered where my coffee comes from, and why a lot of it just isn't very good). This is pretty good coffee, and my favourite bean, from Costa Rica. This is not only Organic, but is also Fair Trade (meaning more money is given to the growers). It is also what they call Special Grade, which means that it is of Arabica type, grown at an altitude of 1200 meters, should be hand-picked selectively and roasted to express all the flavours and aromas of the region. The beans are from the Monte Verde region of Costa Rica, and are Mid Roasted (neither Dark nor Light); they are also Filter Ground. I like how they say it has a Chocolate aftertaste, perhaps that is why I like it so much.

Saphara Costa Roasta

I had no idea that Saphara Coffee and Tea comes from Celestial Seasonings, I've seen it in various health food stores, and never associated the two. When I had the opportunity to buy their Costa Rican coffee, Costa Roasta (I keep on wanting to write Coasta Roasta, but it's Costa - makes more sense!), at half the price I've seen it at health food stores (why do health food stores insist on selling things at high prices? - just a rant), I jumped at the chance. I like coffee from Costa Rica, certainly more than the more universally loved Columbian coffee. This is a dark roast of the beans, which are ground a little coarser than other Costa Rican coffees I've tried. I like that the beans are roasted in Canada. This is a Fair Trade product, too.

The coffee, once made, is tasty, with good rich flavour. It's not the best Costa Rican coffee I've tasted, but better than some.

Café Britt Organic Costa Rica Coffee

The idea of Organic and shade grown coffee from Costa Rica appealed to me on several levels: Organic, elimating the use of pesticides and using organic nutrients to nourish the coffee plants; shade grown, to preserve the diversity of plant and animal life as well as the soil; and Costa Rican, because I really like their coffee beans. Tasty. This coffee from Café Britt is a darker roast than others I have had, or perhaps because it is Organic, there is an intensity of flavour. Certainly it is good, and makes strong coffee. Better than the President's Choice Costa Rican that I normally drink, and only about three dollars more (for all the benefits I noted before). I definitely would buy this again, assuming that the store I found it in keeps stock of it.

President's Choice Costa Rican Coffee

I have a love affair with Costa Rican coffee. Well, not so intense a love affair, as it's fairly hard to find coffee beans from the Central American country in most supermarkets. So, when I found that Loblaws had a line of ground coffee beans from various countries known for their coffee, including Colombia, Kenya and Costa Rica, I hoped I had a potential source for the coffee I prefer. There was a time when I thought it had disappeared, at one time they came in cans, and, for a little while, I couldn't find them anymore, but they reappeared one week in the bag form you see them as now. The beans have been medium roasted, and then fine ground. Costa Rican coffee are Arabica beans, the ones used for this product are grown high in the mountains, but there is no indication of which region in Costa Rica.

Is this the best Costa Rican coffee I've drunk. No. But that might have more to do with when they were roasted, and how long the package has been open, than whether the beans were really premium when they were picked. I like the flavour of the coffee when it is made, and, though I have had better Costa Rican coffee, made from fresh roasted and ground beans, that is something that I have not found a good source for.

President's Choice Pineapple Juice

My brother especially likes pineapple juice, often when we go out for a meal, he will order it. I was intrigued then to find this new product by President's choice, that contained the juice of three Costa Rican pineapples, and purported to taste freshly squeezed. I am always leery of claims like that, it rarely lives up to the hype. I have tried juicing pineapples before, it tastes great that way, but you need to drink it fairly quickly, as it will begin to go brown. The container of juice is priced at just under four dollars, which is far less than what it would cost to buy three pineapples and juice them, let alone getting rid of the pulp and waste. Did it live up to its marketing hype? I would say yes! Quite fresh tasting, very sweet, without the underlying slight bitterness you can get from juice that is old.

Yipy Vanilla Chocolate Bar

I noticed this in the vending machine at work, I thought at first that they had spelled vanilla wrong on the wrapper, it is spelled vainilla, as you might be able to see, the extra i giving it the 'I am extra good' vain-ness. When I paid the fifty cents for it, really it should have been no more than twenty-five, and examined it closer, I found out that it was manufactured in Costa Rica, and thus the word for vanilla was spelled correctly. The chocolate bar was not that good, it did smell very vanilla-y, there's a thin enrobing of chocolate round not-so-crispy wafers with some sort of, I guess, vanilla creme in-between. This vending machine is done by an independent supplier, I wonder where he bought these from, though I can see that they have a best-before date, at least. One wonders, sometimes, how long things have been in a vending machine.

Origin 64

I came across this chocolate box in Walmart, of all places, Lily O'Brien's is the first Irish chocolatier that I have come across. These dark chocolate pieces have a cacao content of 64%, the cocoa beans coming exclusively from Costa Rica, the Trinitario varietal. According to the info in the box, this chocolate boasts a delicate woody bouquet enhanced by a bittersweet cocoa aroma. I can certainly say that they taste really good, melt in your mouth easily, snap apart satisfyingly, all around a great chocolate. They make a number of different chocolates, some filled, some just pure chocolate. They recommend, too, eating these alone, with the curtains drawn and the lights turned down, and to not tell anybody the reason for such, to 'keep them in the dark'.

A new coffee I found this weekend

I really like Costa Rican coffee, and have found several sources for it, both whole bean and ground, also an instant version for a while, but this new source is not organic, it's fair trade coffee from a Canadian company! Fair trade involves working with coffee farmers to give them fair prices for their coffee beans, as opposed to the large corporation approach, which has been, to give the farmer a small amount for their goods, then resell them at much higher prices and profits. The Canadian company utilizes a solar-powered facility to roast the purchased organic green beans. I saw coffee from Peru and Costa Rica at this store, but they have coffees from all around the world. I can say that the Costa Rican coffee that I made this morning was quite good, mellow, one of the better cups of Costa Rican coffee I've had. Find out more about them here.