Simple pleasures

Simple pleasures in life aren't too expensive like the two chocolate bars I have today. Nothing crazy, nothing too complex, just simple and delightful.

PB&J Milk Chocolate bar and Cocoa Truffles from Trader Joe's. TJs always has these nice little tasty surprises. Both of these are products of Canada.

PB&J Milk Chocolate bar - gooey raspberry jelly and salty peanut butter in milk chocolate

Cocoa Truffles - rich dark chocolate truffle covered in cocoa

Grenada, Patric and Askinosie

Three rich dark chocolates this week

Grenada Dark Chocolate 71%
Dark, bitter sweet, complex cocoa flavor, slightly piquant almost like coffee

Grenada is a tropical chocolatier from Grenada in the Caribbean. They make single-origin dark chocolates. This specific Grenada 71% dark chocolate won the silver medal from "The London Academy of Chocolate Awards" in 2008. They pride for their complex chocolate flavors and it truly is different and intense.

Patrick Rio Crunch 
Rich luscious, intense with cocoa nibs, mildly salty, complex chocolate flavor from the cocoa nibs

Patrick Rio Crunch is a rich dark chocolate with cocoa nibs and sea salt. Patrick is an American chocolatier from Missouri. He built his own custom chocolate-making facility. His bars are sold since 2007 and he has won several accolades for his chocolate. He sources his beans from South America. After tasting several bars of dark chocolate in the last couple of weeks, we find Patrick's dark chocolate the best. The quality of the bar is very good. This bar is an exclusive at the Chocolate Garage. Chocolate Garage is my newest craze. The garage is a place run by Sunita de Tourreil who loves chocolate and sources the best of chocolate from around the world. She also hosts tasting events.

Askinosie Dark Milk Chocolate with Licorice
Dark, chewy and crunchy, mild sweet licorice flavors, sweetly spicy from anise

Askinosie Licorice bar is probably the only form of licorice I will ever like. It is sweet, chewy and has a nice texture from anise. Licorice and anise add such complexity to the dark chocolate. I have tasted Askinosie malt chocolate some time before which was just as good. The licorice is sourced from Lakritsfabriken, Sweden and this specific one is made with rice flour making it gluten free. This bar also has goat's milk, not that you can taste it.

Oh Askinosie was started by a criminal lawyer of 20 years. You know whats in store :)

Amedei Tuscany: Two for one

Amedei is the cioccolato of the week. Amedei bars have the perfect color, texture, and best flavors. Amedei Hazelnut Cioccolato is my only favorite milk bar. Here's a little story about them. Their chocolate is really a piece of art.

Amedei Gianduja (Hazelnut)

Milk chocolate with silky smooth texture, beautiful hazelnut flavor. 

It has the right mix of cocoa butter and hazelnut. It tastes like a piece of dessert in a bar. I have four dark chocolate bars at home and I crave for this one everyday.

Amedei Toscano Blond (Peaches and Apricots)

Dark and crunchy chocolate with dried fruits. Dark chocolate with fruity flavors in the beginning and ends with fruit essence notes. This was my boyfriend's favorite. He had the bar all to himself. 

Where to get it: Secret :) 

Great Cioccolato from Tuscany. Enjoyed every bite. 

Madecasse Pink Pepper and Citrus

Madecasse Pink Pepper and Citrus 

Ingredients: 63% Cocoa, pink pepper, vanilla, combava fruit 

 Weirdly peppery, mildly fruity, a little hint of citrus, decently smooth 
Where to find: Whole foods

Every Madecasse bar is made in Madagascar.  This bar unlike Tcho gets its flavors from additions. This has Combava fruit and pink peppers. Combava fruit is kaffir lime which is used in southeast Asian cuisine.
This bar does not have overpowering citrus flavor but does taste too much of pink pepper. Flavor is good but the bite is not too luscious and silky. I might have been pampered too much by Tcho.
However you can feel the high quality ingredients with every bite. Its a fun change from my regular Tcho or Trader Joes truffles. I have Madecasse vanilla essence and it smells and tastes like no other. Desserts and cookies come out so much better.

Enjoy!

Tcho 99% Chocolate

Tcho 99% Chocolate
http://www.tcho.com/shop/chocolate/bars/91594

Intense Cocoa, not sweet, not bitter but cloyingly cocoa-ey which made it unpalatable. 
Tcho tasting notes: Insanely rich, not bitter. Roasted nut and espresso notes with accents of toasted malt and dried fruits
Where to find: Zombie Runner :http://www.zombierunner.com/about/palo_alto_store/, Whole Foods

I was so looking forward to getting a bite of this 99% chocolate. I am not a purist; I must admit that I could barely swallow it. It was not bitter/sweet but intensely cocoa-ey. We dint touch the bar after this first tasting. But of course I am not going to throw it away.

On new years eve, my boyfriend and I were doing a movie marathon. At about 11:30pm on Dec 31, 2012, I decided to bake a chocolate lava cake to welcome 2013 with a chocolate lingering in the house. And conveniently there was no cooking chocolate or chocolate chips. It was too late to buy and I was too determined to give up. I decided to use this 99% chocolate bar for my lava cake. It was the best ever lava cake. Indulgent, intense, sweet and buttery. 99% chocolate made the lava cake atleast a 1000 times better. It was sinfully indulgent and beautiful. I did not try to balance it with whipped cream or ice cream. Every bite was a decadent welcome to 2013 :)

I followed this recipe (http://satrupa-foodforthought.blogspot.com/2011/04/women-chocolates-and-jealously.html). Thanks Satrupa for the quick and easy recipe.
Substituted dark chocolate with my 99% bar. I dint add any liquor. The chocolate flavor does not need anything to open it up as it is already intense. Do not increase the sugar. But do add some vanilla to get a little sweeter flavor. This is delicious stuff.

This is my unassuming sweet indulgence:

Tcho Dark Chocolatey

Welcome to Chocolate Tastings. I am Archana. My love for chocolate and my "theres-better-fish-in-the-sea" attitude gets me to taste new varieties of chocolate every few days. I wanted to keep a diary of all my chocolate tastings. I would love to hear from everyone on their favorites and also suggestions on what I should try.

I am going to kick this off by adding my favorite chocolate so far: Tcho Dark Chocolate
http://www.tcho.com/shop/chocolate/bars/11134

My tasting notes: Silky deep rich chocolate, fudgey.
Tcho's tasting notes: Intensely Fudgey, hints of roasted malt and caramel
A small square of Tcho Dark Chocolate is my perfect end to dinner and day. I look forward to this little bite each day.

Where to find: Whole Foods

My boyfriend introduced me to Tcho a few years ago and we have atleast one bar in the fridge always.
Tcho is a San Francisco based Chocolatier. It was started in the year 2005. Tcho feels like a nerdy chocolate. No wonder  its CEO and President are co-founders of Wired magazine and Wired.com. Oh, by the way, each of their bars is made from single origin cacao beans. And all the flavor profiles developed in their chocolates are solely from cacao beans with no addition of nuts/fruits. Thats pretty amazing.

Their design of packaging is very tasteful too. Look for their flavor wheel to pick your favorite. I am thinking of using this design for my iphone app.

Hope you enjoyed this Dark Chocolately Tcho, my first tasting.