Bienvenue, chocophiles! It's been a minute since I last posted, so this week I will be reviewing two bars. Both have a 63% cacao content, contain cocoa nibs, (actual bits of the bean chocolate is made from!), and both are made by companies that practice Fair Trade. They are the Madecasse Sea Salt & Nibs bar and the Alter Eco Dark Cacao bar.
Both of these bars represent a good everyday bar. Like a Peroni beer or a cup of Fage Greek yogurt drizzled with honey, these bars provide an effortless indulgence. With only a 63% cacao content, they are dark enough to have a lot of the benefits of dark chocolate, but are still light enough to be substantially sweet for those who prefer milk chocolate. They're the kind of bars you could pass around the table after dinner and most everyone would enjoy their piece thoroughly. Both are mid-priced, about $5 for just under 3 oz.
The Madecasse bar weighs 2.64 oz. The nutritional information on the back is in the metric system, so unfortunately I haven't been able to figure out how it stacks up. Besides the cacao bean content, sugar and our old friend the emulsifier soy lecithin, this bar contains chunky flakes of briny, slightly sweet sea salt. I've had many bars in the past that have combined chocolate with salt, (it's a flavor combination that is becoming about as common as chocolate and peanut butter), but this is one of the few I've had in which I felt the salt really enhanced the taste of the chocolate rather than distracted from it. The salt itself is incredibly flavorful and complex, and it seems to warm the mouth to wonderful effect when you encounter it.
The Madecasse Sea Salt & Nibs bar and the Madecasse company have won many awards. This bar won Best in Show at the Paris Salon du Chocolat, which is the largest chocolate show in the world. Last year, the company was recognized as the 2012 Leader of Change at the 3rd Annual Global Conference for Social Change. Though Madecasse is not Fair Trade certified, engaging in Fair Trade practices is a clear priority in their business model. The company was started by former Peace Corps volunteters in Madagascar who realized that they could make four times the impact of Fair Trade if they not only bought their cacao beans in Madagascar, but also produced their chocolate there. Now they've done it!
The Alter Eco Dark Cacao bar is Fair Trade certified, as well as USDA certified organic. Each bar weighs 2.82 oz. with 4g of fiber and 2g of protein per half-bar portion. This bar is vegan, soy and gluten free. Consequently, this bar doesn't contain any emulsifiers. When I noticed this on the packaging, I expected a rather gritty bar. Without an emulsifier to hold the ingredients together, this was a logical expectation. Surprisingly, this bar was extremely smooth--even more so than many emulsifier-containing bars I've had. This bar has a pure, straightforward taste with a strong fruity finish that reminded me of Bonne Maman raspberry jam. Although it is teeming with crunchy bits of cacao bean, the rest of the bar is sweet enough to balance out the flavor. In other words, if you are someone who enjoys cacao nibs, you will definitely appreciate that aspect of this bar, but if you're someone who is less familiar with nibs, you probably won't notice them too much in terms of taste.
Both of these bars represent a good everyday bar. Like a Peroni beer or a cup of Fage Greek yogurt drizzled with honey, these bars provide an effortless indulgence. With only a 63% cacao content, they are dark enough to have a lot of the benefits of dark chocolate, but are still light enough to be substantially sweet for those who prefer milk chocolate. They're the kind of bars you could pass around the table after dinner and most everyone would enjoy their piece thoroughly. Both are mid-priced, about $5 for just under 3 oz.
The Madecasse bar weighs 2.64 oz. The nutritional information on the back is in the metric system, so unfortunately I haven't been able to figure out how it stacks up. Besides the cacao bean content, sugar and our old friend the emulsifier soy lecithin, this bar contains chunky flakes of briny, slightly sweet sea salt. I've had many bars in the past that have combined chocolate with salt, (it's a flavor combination that is becoming about as common as chocolate and peanut butter), but this is one of the few I've had in which I felt the salt really enhanced the taste of the chocolate rather than distracted from it. The salt itself is incredibly flavorful and complex, and it seems to warm the mouth to wonderful effect when you encounter it.
The Madecasse Sea Salt & Nibs bar and the Madecasse company have won many awards. This bar won Best in Show at the Paris Salon du Chocolat, which is the largest chocolate show in the world. Last year, the company was recognized as the 2012 Leader of Change at the 3rd Annual Global Conference for Social Change. Though Madecasse is not Fair Trade certified, engaging in Fair Trade practices is a clear priority in their business model. The company was started by former Peace Corps volunteters in Madagascar who realized that they could make four times the impact of Fair Trade if they not only bought their cacao beans in Madagascar, but also produced their chocolate there. Now they've done it!
The Alter Eco Dark Cacao bar is Fair Trade certified, as well as USDA certified organic. Each bar weighs 2.82 oz. with 4g of fiber and 2g of protein per half-bar portion. This bar is vegan, soy and gluten free. Consequently, this bar doesn't contain any emulsifiers. When I noticed this on the packaging, I expected a rather gritty bar. Without an emulsifier to hold the ingredients together, this was a logical expectation. Surprisingly, this bar was extremely smooth--even more so than many emulsifier-containing bars I've had. This bar has a pure, straightforward taste with a strong fruity finish that reminded me of Bonne Maman raspberry jam. Although it is teeming with crunchy bits of cacao bean, the rest of the bar is sweet enough to balance out the flavor. In other words, if you are someone who enjoys cacao nibs, you will definitely appreciate that aspect of this bar, but if you're someone who is less familiar with nibs, you probably won't notice them too much in terms of taste.