 Ocho are bean to bar chocolate makers in Dunedin. We really enjoyed their Horopito and Kawakawa bar, we also tried our first 100% from them. We wanted to try some more. These 95g bars were bought online. Milk Chocolate and Beekeeper. Milk Chocolate 48%
Ingredients: Beans from Markham Valley, Papua New Guinea, Milk powder from New Zealand, sugar Sugars are 6.7g per 19g serving size. There is an aroma of fruity chocolate. The texture is creamy and smooth. The chocolate flavor is a fruity chocolate with raisin notes and is medium strength with a slight milkiness. It is very yummy. Beekeeper 70%
Beekeeper is a 70% single origin with New Zealand Manuka Honey, Bee Pollen and Puffed Amaranth. Beans are from Markham Valley, Papua New Guinea Amaranth is a gluten free, high protein grain. It is the same fruity chocolate fragrance, with an added aroma of bees wax and honey. The taste is also that smooth fruity raisin noted chocolate. There the texture of puffed amaranth. The honey flavor comes from behind as a slow build, then the chocolate takes prominence. The amaranth adds texture, but also a mild hay flavor note. Final Thoughts We liked these both very much. We have tasted a lot of milk chocolate that is very sweet, very mild and milky. Ocho milk chocolate was still very much a chocolate, with just a hint of milkiness. It is like a nice cuppa tea, we want to taste the tea, but we also like just that touch of milk. Ocho got this spot on in their chocolate. The fruity Papua New Guinea chocolate worked so well with the honey flavors in the Beekeeper. When we ate this, we were reminded of drinking a fruity wine or honey mead. These were both so good, they both got our only 2 Chocolate Gazette Rosettes given for this month.
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 We really enjoyed our last bar of Solomons Gold. We tried Velvet Nib. This time we ordered Dark Velvet 65% and Dark Caramel 70%. Solomons Gold are bean to bar chocolate makers based in Mt Maunganui. They work along with Cacao farmers and their communities in the Solomon Islands. Their chocolate is quite affordable. We bought ours online for $7.55 for the Dark Velvet 85g and $5.89 for the Dark Caramel 55g. We think our chocolate must have spent the weekend in our couriers hot van as it arrived in a gritty bloom state. However remelting them and remoulding them bought them back to yumminess.   Solomon's Gold Dark Velvet 65%
Ingredients: 65% cacao, organic coconut sap sugar, organic cold-pressed virgin coconut oil Sugars were 3.1g per 10.6g serving size. This chocolate was smooth in texture and strong in flavour. The dark chocolate also had notes of musky vanilla with a slight fruitiness. Solomons Gold Dark Caramel 70% Ingredients: 65% single origin of Cacao, organic coconut sap sugar, cocoa butter, natural caramel flavour. A butterscotch caramel flavour is the first flavour note with underlying dark chocolate. The chocolate flavour is fruity and gets stronger as the caramel fades away. These were both nice bars. The Solomon Island cacao does not seem as fruity as some of the other dark chocolates we have been trying. They are strong flavoured. They were a little strong for Johanan's tastes, but Joni and Bruce enjoyed them. We would like to explore more Solomons Gold Chocolate. Oh yes we did!
 We lean towards the milky side in our chocolate preferences, but we have been tasting some really beautiful dark chocolate from the New Zealand small batch, craft chocolate makers. Curiosity made us do it. We ordered two 100% chocolate bars to try. We bought: Ocho 100% Solomon Islands , and Foundry 100% Kilombero Valley, Tanzania Nothing but Cacao beans.... no sugar, no milk....... we wondered if they would be too bitter. OCHO 100% Beans from Tenaru, Solomon Islands
Flavor notes were: Slightly fruity, Bark, Molasses, Johanan said Marmite..... We could see this being really nice as a sauce ingredient for wild meats. It is full and earthy, but not bitter. FOUNDRY 100% This chocolate has 3 awards on its packaging. Silver Medal winner in the 2020 and 2021 Academy of Chocolate International Awards. Gold Medal winner in the NZ Chocolate Awards 2020.
Beans from the Kilombero Valley, Tanzania. There is information about the origin of these beans when you look it up on their website that is really interesting: https://foundrychocolate.co.nz/collections/seriously-dark-chocolate/products/kilombero-valley-tanzania-100 This chocolate had more of a mineral, earthy, slightly astringent flavor note. There was also some honey notes that came through in the after taste. At 100% the differences in the single origins was the most obvious that we have tasted. These were not bitter as we thought they might be. No sugar though! It made us suck in our cheeks somewhat in our tastings, but hey, us Milkies gave it a go. To finish, we mixed them with a milk chocolate. Delicious!   With our last online order from The Chocolate Bar NZ, they popped in a little tasting tile from Kad Kokoa. Kad Kokoa are chocolate makers in Thailand. They get their cacao beans from Thailand Cacao farms. This tasting tile is from the Chantaburi province, located in the east of Thailand bordering Cambodia, extending down to the Gulf of Thailand.
The ingredients are Cacao 70% Organic Sugar 30%
The notes on their website say this chocolate has tasting notes of dried tropical fruit and brown sugar. This was a tangy dark chocolate. The tasting flavor notes from Joni, was some ginger that came through the end of the eating. This was nice. It is hard to source more here in New Zealand though. We will have to wait until The Chocolate Bar can source some more.  Bennetto Natural Foods Co, produces a range of chocolate that is Vegan, Fairtrade and Organic. They are based in Christchurch, New Zealand. They make their own chocolate there, but they have also recently partnered with a Swiss manufacturer to co-produce the 100g bars. The majority of cocoa is now sourced from Acopagro, a Fairtrade cooperative at the base of the Amazon Jungle in Peru. The bars have the most delightful artwork. All these different dressed up bird characters. We would happily have this art on our walls. The bars are available at various places, including some supermarkets, at around $6.50 - $10 for the 100g bar, depending where you shopped. We purchased the Amaranth & Sea Salt 100g bar. Amaranth and Sea Salt bar has dark chocolate, salt and puffed Amaranth. Amaranth is a gluten free, high protein grain. This bar is a 60% Cocoa and the ingredients are: Cocoa beans, raw cane sugar, cocoa butter, popped amaranth, sea salt, Madagascar vanilla beans. Sugars is 7g per serving size of 20g The fragrance is dark chocolate, and the taste is dark chocolate that is slightly salty. It has a nice texture and was enjoyable to eat with the puffed amaranth. We thought this chocolate was fine. We probably wouldn't have this flavor again now that we have tried it, but would be happy to explore more of the Bennetto Natural Foods Chocolate range.
The next in our series of exploring gifting chocolate available during the holiday season, in New Zealand supermarkets. Walkers Dessert Collection $3.49 from New World for a 120g box. These were really affordable, and to be honest they were so cheap we didn't think they would be that great. You know what? These fillings were really nice. We enjoyed this box of choccies. The chocolate is what you expect from the cheaper supermarket brands, but still these were yummy.
The flavors of the different desserts came through. Each was distinctive. The most bland, was the Key Lime Pie which considering it was a citrus and should be quite flavorsome, was really the only disappointment. We ranked them. Apart from the key lime pie, the rest is ranked on flavor preference, as the were pretty much on par to each other. We would buy these again. These were a nice surprise.
 We are really enjoying our exploration of vegan chocolates, especially how chocolate makers, make the milk chocolate varieties. Pana Organics is made in Australia and is available in various health and organic stores in New Zealand. Pana Organics says about their chocolate, that it is, "Made from vegan, organic ingredients with no refined sugar, and produced using minimal heat." We bought two 45g bars. Mylk, Fig and Wild Orange dark chocolate for $7.50 each. Mylk
Cacao 42% Ingredients include coconut milk powder, and sweetened with coconut sugar. Sugars are 4.4g per 15g serving size. The texture is creamy and smooth. The flavor is sweet coconut milk. We didn't get much chocolate flavors. This was pleasant, but not very chocolatey. Fig and Wild Orange
Ingredients include, Cacao 55%, Figs 10%, wild orange essential oil. Sugars are 3.2g per 15g serving size. You can taste the chocolate in this one. There is also orange flavor. The texture of the chocolate is smooth and then you get the crunch of the fig seeds. The flavor of the figs comes in the aftertaste. We liked the packaging and the cute size. The squares make a nice bite. These were pleasant. We're glad we tried them. We are not sure if we'd it buy again, probably not these flavors anyway, but always curious to try something new. 
Joni is a big fan of Whiskey. Whiskey and Chocolate is definitely her happy place. As part of our exploration of gifting chocolate that is available in a New Zealand supermarket around the holidays, we bought, Doulton Liqueur Chocolates flavoured with Bourbon Whiskey. 150g box with 18 chocolates. Cocoa solids 50% Bought from New World for $4.49 The filling is quite runny and has a bit of a whiskey bite. The dark chocolate is there but it is a bit of a background note. There is quite a waxy, slight plasticky texture to the chocolate.
For the price, these were ok. The chocolate wasn't great, but the Bourbon flavour was nice.
Continuing our reviews of the gifting chocolate available in New Zealand supermarkets over the holiday season. We bought Chocolatia Assorted Pralines in a huge 800g bag for a cheap $9.95 at Countdown. There is 8 different flavors. Made in Italy.
There is something joyful when you get a pile of choccies, and this is a big pile. It is quantity over quality though. The flavours are very bland. Even the cappuccino, coffee flavour was barely there. Also some of the flavours tasted the same even though the chocolates were supposed to be different. We wouldn't buy them again. It was hard to rank these, as they are all pretty much the same, but here is our final ranking, top is the best.   The hot weather has arrived. It is full on Summer here in New Zealand and it felt like the time was right to visit the beach. Raglan is a beach town on the West Coast in the North Island of New Zealand. There Mike Renfree, makes bean to bar, ethical and organic chocolate bars. You can buy from the website store, but there is also various stockists around New Zealand. We bought ours from Be Organics at Mount Maunganui. The bars can be bought in 2 sizes, 50g and 90g We chose beachy flavors to us. A morning coffee watching the waves under the coconut palm trees.  Coco Loco - Vegan Coconut Rough Ingredients: Ecuador Cacao Beans 32% Coco butter 8% Desiccated Coconut 20% Coconut Milk Powder 20% Organic raw sugar. Sugars 3.2g per 12.5g serving size. The fragrance is coconut. There is the Coconut Rough texture from the desiccated coconut, but the chocolate is lovely and smooth and melts away with a mild chocolate taste. The aftertaste is coconut with a hint of chocolate.  If you like Coconut Rough, you will like this. It is the perfect Summer feel bar. Nice chocolate, with prominent Coconut flavors. We liked the use of Coconut Milk Powder rather than dairy for this.  Solomon Islands Coffee 62% Ingredients: Solomon Islands Cacao Beans 60% Cacao Butter 2% Coffee Beans 10% Organic Raw Sugar. Sugars 3.8g per 12.5g serving size. The aroma is a fruit, earthy chocolate with a hint of coffee. The taste is a strong roasted coffee with a fruity dark chocolate in the background. There is also an earthiness underlying flavor in the chocolate and towards the end and in the aftertaste there is a little bitterness from the coffee beans.  This is really like eating your morning cup of coffee. It is a slap in the face wake up call. The coffee flavor then disappears quite fast and our are left with some chocolate flavors. We weren't so keen on the slight bitterness flavor in the aftertaste.
Final thoughts: We would definitely buy Coco Loco again. It is definitely up there amongst our favorite coconut, vegan chocolate. We have had quite a bit of coffee chocolate as it's one of Joni's favorite flavors. Raglan Coffee was nice, not one of our top 3 coffee chocolate, but if it was a choice of buying this bar or an actual mochaccino drink, we would choose the bar. We have our eye on some more Raglan flavors now. There is some single origins we want to try and a caramel and cacao nibs chocolate that sounds really good. |
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August 2024
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