Chocolove Strong Dark Chocolate

The American chocolatier Chocolove makes their bars from Belgian chocolate. This one features dark chocolate, and, as I've said before, is a showcase for their chocolate. The ingredient listing is good, cocoa liquor, sugar, cocoa butter and soy lecithin. The cacao content is at 70%.

How does it taste? Being a showcase for their chocolate, I think that this is a very tasty and enjoyable bar, bearing repeat samplings (similar to their Organic Dark Chocolate one at 73%). The chocolate snaps well and melts well in the mouth. The chocolate tastes fruity without the addition of vanilla. I would say that I would buy this bar again.

Chocolove Organic Dark Chocolate

The American chocolatier Chocolove makes their bars from Belgian chocolate,. This one features Organic dark chocolate, and, as I've said before, is a showcase for their chocolate. The ingredient listing is good, cocoa liquor, sugar and cocoa butter. The cacao content is at 73%.

How does it taste? Being a showcase for their chocolate, I think that this is a very tasty and enjoyable bar, bearing repeat samplings. The chocolate snaps well and melts well in the mouth. The chocolate tastes fruity without the addition of vanilla. I would say that I would buy this bar again.

Chocolove Ginger Crystallized in Dark Chocolate

The American chocolatier Chocolove makes their bars from Belgian chocolate, and I've enjoyed a few of their offerings. This one features crystallized ginger with dark chocolate. The ingredient listing is good, cocoa liquor, sugar, cocoa butter, soy lecithin, vanilla and crystallized ginger. The cacao content is at 65%.

How does it taste? I find this one comparable to Green&Black's Ginger, the ginger in it is strong and, like the other, also sweet at the same time, not sharp like ginger can be (though, I like ginger when it is sharp). The chocolate is good and snaps well. I would say that I would buy this bar again.

Taza Chocolate 70% Dark

The American chocolatier Taza Chocolate makes minimally processed chocolate using stone mills according to Mexican practices. This one is a showcase of their small batch, sundried cacao beans, these ones coming from Dominican Republic, as there are no additional flavours; the ingredient listing is good and short, cacao beans, cane sugar, cocoa butter and whole vanilla beans. The cacao content is at 70%.

How does it taste? The chocolate is fairly good, a good showcase of their chocolate, though the bar is not great, and suffers from the crunchiness of the sugar and cacao beans, because of the relatively large size of the stone ground ingredients - smaller size means smoother product, as your tongue can not distinguish very small size, interpreting the chocolate as smooth. I would, though, eat this bar again, given the chance.

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.

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.

Gimbal's Fine Candies Scottie Dogs

Gimbal's Fine Candies has been crafting candies since 1898. The recipes have been handed down through 4 generations. They cook their candies in small kettles. I came across this what looked to be All Natural Licorice; I do like licorice. These, however, are different than Panda Licorice, in that they are mostly sugar (corn syrup and sugar are the first two ingredients). It does have a good licorice flavour, and the Scottie dogs are kind of cute, but they stick to your teeth awfully, something I don't like. They also have carnauba wax and caramel colour. I don't think that I will try these again anytime soon.

Everybody's Nuts Pistachios European Roast

The American Company Everybody's Nuts sells roasted large California pistachios (and has a guarantee which states if you find an unopened roasted nut, you can send it in for a free bag - though, I found one, and can't get it - it's only open to Residents of the U.S.). They have several flavours, No Salt, Salt and Pepper, South of the Border (spicy) and European Roast (which I chose). European Roast is flavoured with salt and malt vinegar, and tastes fairly good (though I don't like some of the extra ingredients that make the flavour, including fructose and modified food starch). Next time I'll buy the No Salt ones (all the other ones have similar ingredient listings).

Annie's Homegrown Real Cheddar Bunnies

Annie's makes several better-for-you products, this one is a replacement for cheese crackers like Pepperidge Farm's Goldfish Crackers, and are in the shape of bunnies. They contain good ingredients, like organic wheat flour (though there is a Whole Grain version of the Goldfish Crackers that are fairly good), sunflower or safflower oil (so no hydrogenated oils), aged cheddar cheese (real cheese!) and real spices.

How do they taste? I like the cheese flavour better, though my toddler daughter doesn't much - and we really buy them for her! I would, and have, buy these again.

Katalyst Kombucha Ginger Devotion

The second of the kombucha I sampled from Massachusetts-based Katalyst Kombucha has one of my favourite flavours - Ginger. The ginger that is within is Hawaiian Yellow Ginger.

From the 'Net, I found out that Hawaiian Yellow Ginger is a rare cultivar (less than 1/10 of a percent), that is know for its superior pungency (like Thai ginger is more pungent than Chinese ginger) and depth of flavour. The root is also denser and less fibrous, and very yellow when you slice it open.

This is the kombucha that I tried that had the rather thick scoby on it; I found it a little disconcerting, but there was no real flavour to it, and it went down rather easily, not at all slimy, as I thought it might be. The ginger flavour is strong and shines through the kombucha flavour (which I find weaker in comparison); this is definitely the Hawaiian Yellow Ginger flavour. I would definitely get this kombucha again, of the two that I have tried from Katalyst Kombucha.

Katalyst Kombucha Schizandra Berry

What I though was a new flavour offering from Fairy's Tonic turned out to be kombucha from an American company called Katalyst Kombucha, based in Massachusetts. Kombucha has lately really intrigued me, and I was glad of the opportunity to try a new source of this mysterious elixir. The flavour was Schizandra Berry, and I first thought it was a fantasy flavour, but the schizandra berries are apparently grown right in Massachusetts, they add berry puree to their kombucha. This is also fully Organic.

From the 'Net, I found out that Schizandra Berry is a berry native to China and Japan, the fruit has sweet, salty, bitter, hot and sour taste (and is called wu wei zi, meaning five taste, fruit in China). The berries contain phytochemicals that have been shown to be anti-bacterial, a cardiac tonic, antioxidant and anti-depressant. Besides phytochemicals, Schizandra is also rich in minerals, vitamins and essential oils.

First thing I noticed was the layer of scoby (Symbiotic Colony of Bacteria and Yeast) on the bottom of the bottle, and another I bought had a thick strand of scoby floating on the top. The bottle fizzed upon opening the cap, a good indication of fermentation. I found this to be an interesting flavour, kind of subtle, and I don't get the five tastes (but perhaps that's the fruit itself rather than as part of a more dominant flavour. I don't know that I would buy this particular flavour again, and don't really have a good source for it (I bought this at Essence of Life in Kensington Market).

Dove Almond Dark

My beautiful Bride likes dark chocolate with nuts, and especially with almonds. This bar from Mar is a dark bar, at 60% cacao content, though is more correctly a mixture of dark and milk chocolate. The ingredient listing, when broken down, is okay, dark chocolate (sugar, cocoa mass, milk ingredients, soy lecithin, cocoa powder, flavour, artificial flavour), milk chocolate (sugar, milk ingredients, cocoa butter, cocoa mass, lactose, soy lecithin, cocoa powder, artificial flavour), almonds, sunflower oil. The packaging is different than previous Dove bars, there are three individual portions, good for a single serving.

How did it taste? Not bad, though I don't particularly care for the ingredients. The almonds were small pieces, and my beautiful Bride thought it would be better with whole almonds. I don't think that I would buy this bar again.

HK Anderson Braided Twists Honey Wheat

The second of two pretzels from the Lancaster Pennsylvania baker HK Anderson I tried, having found these in a Chinese supermarket, is a more traditional tasting pretzel, though it is also less traditional, in that is comes in the form of braided twists; some three normal stick pretzels are twisted to make one large pretzel. They taste like pretzels should, pretty good.

HK Anderson Pretzel Bites Honey Mustard

HK Anderson has been making pretzels since 1888 in Lancaster Pennsylvania, though, oddly enough, I found this in a Chinese supermarket. I have enjoyed honey mustard pretzel bites, bought at Bulk Barn, and these are fairly similar. The pretzels are the dry pretzels, and the honey mustard is not strong nor overwhelming, a good version of these, though I don't know if I could regularly find this product anywhere in the Mississauga area.

Endangered Species Supreme Dark Chocolate

This is another offering from Endangered Species, which features the Chimpanzee on its packaging. These intelligent and human-like primates are facing many threats, including deforestation, bushmeat trade, exploitation for entertainment and use for biomedical research, which could lead to them being extinct in our lifetime. This bar is just chocolate, with a cacao content of 72%. The ingredient listing is good, cocoa mass, unbleached water, filtered beet sugar, lecithin and natural vanilla.

The good dark chocolate that is within other bars from Endangered likes exposed, without extra flavourings, and, if you like just chocolate, then this is a good bar to just eat. I probably would buy this bar again, but I like some of Endangered Species offerings better.

Cape Cod Cranberry Candy - Dark Chocolate with Cranberries and Almonds

The US confectioner Cape Code Provisions makes many products with cranberries, also other fruit, this one is a dark chocolate bar, at 48% cacao content, with dried cranberries and almonds. The ingredient listing is fairly good, though a little long and the first ingredient is high; sugar, chocolate liquor (processed with alkali), cocoa butter, milk fat, soy lecithin (as an emulsifier), vanillin, natural flavours, dried cranberries (cranberries, sugar and sunflower oil) and roasted almonds.

How did it taste? Pretty good, though not as sour as I would expect with cranberries. The chocolate was fairly good tasting, the nuts were crunchy, and there was the only occasional sweetness "pocket" where you hit a large cranberry. I don't know that I like this enough to buy it again, and I don't have a reliable source for it.

Endangered Species Intense Dark Chocolate with Cocoa Nibs

The theme of this chocolate bar from Endangered Species is the Bat, perhaps one of the most misunderstood animals in North America. They can eat up to 1200 mosquitoes every hour. One of my fondest memories is sitting and looking up to watch several circling bats around dusktime, catching insects. Again, this is an animal that is declining in numbers due to human encroachment, whether it is through habitat destruction, direct killing, vandalism and disturbance of their mating and hibernation colonies, and the direct effects of the pesticides that are sprayed on insects.

The cacao content of this bar is 75%. The ingredient listing is good, cocoa mass, unbleached water-filtered beet sugar, soy lecithin, natural vanilla and roasted cocoa bean pieces.

How did it taste? Pretty good, the dark chocolate is fairly good, the cacao nibs give it a good interesting crunch (though because of them, I didn't melt the pieces in my mouth, but rather chewed them). My beautiful Bride enjoyed it as well. I would buy this bar again.