Dr Chocolate w Vosges, Trader Joe's and TAPS

Spring may be here, but that doesn't mean I'm not making my regular Dr. Chocolate appointments. Here's a recent few that I've eaten (and one case, drank!)

Vosges' Banana Victoria Bar

Cost of Session: $6.99 for a 3 ounce bar

Physician Marketing: "Grenadian nutmeg is freshly grated into dark chocolate before roasted walnuts and dried organic bananas from the big island of Hawaii are combined to create the Banana Victoria Bar. The flavors are reminiscent of pain d'epices, a French spice bread often served at the holidays. But, you will likely become so enchanted at first bite, you will be indulging in this bar year round."

Patient's Notes: An evolved version of their (now discontinued) Organic Habana bar, I thoroughly enjoyed the flavor & aroma of this one - a nuanced mix of banana bread and gingerbread - against a backdrop of smooth, rich dark chocolate and the occasional pieces of nuts and bananas. The predecessor's flavor profile (chocolate with plantains) was enjoyable, but the nutmeg & walnuts definitely kicked it up a notch.

My only gripe is that the banana pieces has a tendency to become taffy-like and stick to your teeth if you just let the chocolate melt on your tongue. And picking through my teeth for stray sticky bits isn't exactly something I want to do during my session.

Likelihood of Rebooking An Appointment: 8/10, the flavor is lovely but it's a bit of a hassle to deal with the banana pieces; there are other Vosges' bars that I enjoy more without the mess factor.

Trader Joe's Dark Chocolate Covered Powerberries

Photo credit to Elliot Plack

Cost of Session: $3.49 for 8 oz. bag

Physician Marketing: "Our dark chocolate covered powerberries start with centers of real fruit juice. Pieces made from the juices of acai, pomegranate, cranberry and blueberry, all known for their nautural powerhouse antioxidants and other nutrients. They are then enveloped in smooth dark chocolate, creating a flavorful confection that is sweet, tart and rich taste sensation all at once."

Patient Notes: Great for everyday appointments, they are not-too-sweet with juicy centers (reminded me of Gushers, but way less cloyingly syrupy.) And with all those berries wrapped up in the mix, I can almost feel less guilty indulging in these bite-sized morsels. Until being brought back to reality with their nutrition facts labels (180 calories for a handful.)

Oh yeah, it's also best to just chew into these choco-berry bits - it was a tad bit waxy when I tried to let it melt in my mouth.

Likelihood of Rebooking an Appointment: 9/10, yes - it has an overhyped 'health halo' but they're not that pricey and tasty overall.

TAPS Mocha Stout

Cost of Session: Went during their happy hour, so $4 for a 10-12oz. glass (looks like a tulip-flute hybrid)

Physician Marketing: "An Oatmeal Stout brewed with lactose (milk sugar), oats, three different types of chocolate added at three different stages of the brewing process, and a custom blend of Brazilian and Nicaraguan coffees from Costa Mesa's Portola Coffee Lab. Medium-bodied, roasty and chocolatey, finishing very smooth. (6.8% ABV)"

Patient Notes: Every now and again, I can go for a drinkable session -- and the Mocha Stout definitely fits that bill of getting me buzzed in more ways than one. This brew was a wonderful balance of contradictions, infused with deep chocolate and coffee flavors without being bitter at all, and a texture that tastes smooth and rich without being particularly hefty or heavy. And from taste alone I wouldn't have guessed it was almost 7% ABV, making this a dangerous appointment indeed.

Likelihood of Rebooking an Appointment: 10/10, pretty much a must-order anytime I see it offered on a beer menu or when I'm near either TAPS location. Especially since it's a limited-edition brew that's going to be around for only a few more weeks (and one I really hope they'll bring back again!)

Dr Chocolate Appointments w Trader Joe's, Chocolove & Vosges

Everyone may be making New Year's Resolutions, but I'm certainly not giving up on my Dr. Chocolate sessions; here's a recent few that I partook in:

Trader Joe's Caramel & Black Hawaiian Sea Salt bar

Photo courtesy of The Daily Morsel

Cost of Session: $1.99 for 3 oz. bar

Physician Marketing: "...filled with a buttery, burnt sugar caramel & Hiwa Kai, a blend of sea salt and volcanic charcoal harvested from pristine Hawaiian tide pools. The exterior of the bar is garnished with Maldon sea salt harvested from estuaries in Great Britain. The combination of luscious dark chocolate, rich caramel and crunchy salt crystals is simply sublime."

Patient's Notes: Just like their walnut-pecan toffee bar I highlighted in a previous Dr. Chocolate post, this is thinly-veiled copycat version of Vosges' Black Salt Caramel Bar. 

And the flavor combination is simply amazing! The bold dark chocolate is nice foil for the buttery-rich caramel, and it's elegant accentuated by that perfect sprinkle of salt.

The only demerit is that this bar is rather messy to eat, the caramel is runny & liquidy and the bar rarely snaps at the demarcated boundaries. Of course, this makes portion control hard since you'll be tempted to just eat the whole bar rather than deal with a sticky mess for the next sitting.

Likelihood of Rebooking an Appointment: 7/10, would be a 9 or 10 if not so gosh darn messy to eat.


Chocolove's Ginger Crystallized in Dark Chocolate

Cost of Session: $2.50 for 3.2 oz. bar

Physician Marketing: "Australian crystallized ginger in smooth Belgian 65% cocoa content dark chocolate. Upon eating, the chocolate gives way to soft sugar-coated moist chunks of ginger. The transition from chocolate to ginger on the finish leaves you feeling surprisingly stimulated and wanting more."

Patient's Notes: Anyone who's gone eating or drinking with me knows I'm a sucker for ginger, and this certainly delivers on that front -- there are plenty of this palate-pleaser throughout the whole bar. A little spicy, a little chewy and a little crunchy (from the sugar coating,) it's a delightful palate-tingler.

As for the chocolate itself, it's decent if a bit a generic -- dark enough that you taste the cacao, but not much else. It's also ever-so-slightly waxy, making it more of a chewing chocolate rather than one you simply allow to melt on your tongue. Not necessarily a bad thing, given the chewy of nature of the encapsulated ginger anyways.

Likelihood of Rebooking an Appointment: 8/10, affordable and tasty overall - only wished the chocolate was more of a "meltable on tongue" kind.


Vosges' Smoke & Stout Caramel Bar

Cost of Session: $7.50 for a 3 oz. bar

Physician Marketing: "Rogue's Chocolate Stout + Alderwood smoked salt + burnt sugar caramel + 70% dark chocolate . . . Your senses of sight, smell, and taste will collectively surrender to the inebriating potion that spills out of this chocolate bar. Rich, dark chocolate stout and Alder wood smoked salt are combined with soft, oozing caramel and encased in deep, dark chocolate."

Patient's Notes: Reading the description, I can see so many ways this bar can go wrong (is it going to wreak of stale beer or overpowered with smoke like a BBQ gone awry?) but being a longtime Vosges addict fan, I trust them to know what they're doing. And indeed, this bar is a wonderful balance of flavors, the stout & smoke notes come in kisses & whispers, making this bar a curiously addictive one.

And while the flavor profile is overall better than the TJ caramel bar, it too suffers the problem of too-runny caramel and unreliable bar breakage. And oh yeah, it's also over three times as pricey.

Likelihood of Rebooking an Appointment: 7/10, also marked down for caramel runniness -- tempted to also demerit for pricetag, but the eccentric ingredients & combo of flavor (how often are you going to find a beery chocolate?) makes a worthwhile... if occasional... treat.

Dr Chocolate w Trader Joe's, Fearless & Moonstruck

Anyone following me on twitter knows that I go to therapy once a day, therapy with #DrChocolate - a quick respite from the hum-drums of the workday, usually in mid-afternoon. Just a quick bite of a bar, or occasionally a few truffles, is enough to bring balance & peace into my life. And it inoculates me from diving face first into a six-layer, molten lava cake with hot fudge sauce...

But alas, not all Dr Chocolates are alike, and I figured it'll be fun every now and again to blog about my recent therapy sessions, if they were worthwhile and whether I'll book another appointment again.

These past two weeks my sessions included:

Trader Joe's Dark Chocolate Bar: Toffee with Walnuts and Pecans

Photo courtesy of Dark Chocolate Diary

Cost of Session: $1.99 for 3 oz. bar

Physician Marketing: "The Caramel Toffee bar is infused with a crunchy, salty toffee, crafted from a third generation recipe. We've added pieces of pecans & walnuts for extra crunch and even more rich flavor. Both of these are artisan-made chocolates for which you might expect to pay art-gallery level prices."

Patient's Notes: A thinly-veiled partnership/copycat of Vosges' Exotic Caramel Toffee Bar (down to the "third-generation" part, Vosges' site noted the toffee is a tribute to the chocolatier's grandmother). 

The major notable difference between the two is cacao content (70% for the TJ bar, versus 45% for Vosges.) Which wound up being my major gripe for this bar--I generally gravitate towards dark chocolate but this is one exception where "deep milk chocolate" worked so much better, with its creamy, subdued character blending harmoniously with the buttery toffee and softly-crunchy nut bits (and I do mean bits, those looking for significant chunks of nuts should find another therapist.) With the dark chocolate, the bold, intense cacao flavor kinda works against the other components of this bar.

However, the major bonus is that this is only a $2 (versus $6-8 for a Vosges bar of the same size.) I can readily overlook the more intense, possibly harsher, taste for that price. And it's probably slightly healthier too, what with all those extra antioxidants in dark chocolate.

Likelihood of Rebooking an Appointment: 9/10, due to the extremely reasonable price

Fearless Chocolate's 70% Matcha Green Tea & Peppermynt

Cost of Session: $5.99 for 2 oz. bar online, I got mine @ a discounted $4.99 at local market

Physician Marketing: "Peppermint cool-kisses the milky mist of Matcha in a rich raw cacao, merging the two most anti-oxidant rich foods on the planet." Also, note that their marketing includes having a "bite" taken out of the chocolate bar to symbolize their charitable commitments.

Patient's Notes: I was skeptical about this bar -- anything with peppermint (or as they preciously called it, peppermynt) can easily go South fast and wound up tasting like toothpaste or chewing gum. But I wound up snapping this bar up because it also had matcha tea added, and because it's made with organic raw cacao, thus devoid of typical additives like soy lecithin or refined sugars (in fact, they even opt out of agave nectar, using rapadura instead as sweetener.)

Unfortunately, when I opened this bar, I discovered that it had bloomed and the texture was definitely less-than-ideal--slightly grainy instead of the expected silky-smooth. Thus this became more a chocolate that I chewed instead of letting it sit on my tongue to melt. But having said that, the flavor is a pleasant surprise, with the cooling mint and roasty green tea coming in delightful wisps and tinges and surprisingly well-synced with the fruity notes of the chocolate itself.

Likelihood of Rebooking an Appointment: 7/10, though might adjust it higher/lower depending on if next bar's bloomed too.

Moonstruck's 68% Chile Variado Bar

Cost of Session: $4.25 for 3 oz. bar online, I got mine @ $3.99 in Portland

Physician Marketing: "A chocolate bar with a kick! We infuse our decadent dark chocolate with Ancho and Chipotle chiles, resulting in a bar that features a finishing hint of spice, just as chocolate was originally enjoyed."

Patient's Notes: I'm a lover of spicy chocolate (be it from chilies, ginger or even wasabi) so I'm always on the lookout for new varieties to try. This particular bar is a great one to try even for the heat-averse, with just a slight, lingery kick and a little roasty smokiness. The chilies also does a great job complementing the chocolate's aroma (strongly advise you rub the bar & have a sniff before taking a bite.) Finally, I love how incredibly smooth this bar is. Just let it sit in your mouth and let the mini-fireworks show commence on your tastebuds.

The only ever-so-minor demerit is that this is one whole bar (as opposed to sectioned off squares like the other two above) that makes portion controlling just a wee bit harder.

Likelihood of Rebooking an Appointment: 8/10, though I got this bar in Portland and doesn't seem likely I'll find it in a store in Southern California.

Recipe 24: Slow Cooker Hot Mulled Wine

This mulled wine recipe is fast becoming my favorite holiday party cocktail to bring to cold-weather potlucks and parties-- steaming hot and bursting with citrus and sweet spice aromas, it's absolutely heavenly to sip on over a chilly night while everyone mix 'n mingle.

And the best part is that prep work is minimal and guests can serve themselves, so you can enjoy the party too rather than obsess about mixing and refreshing drinks. That is until the entire batch disappeared in 30 minutes (which is what happened @ the soiree I brought it to.)

Here's my recipe (adapted from Epicurious' version) that makes about eight five-ounce servings:

Ingredients:
1 bottle dry red wine (I used Old Moon Zinfandel from Trader Joe's, retailed for $3.99)
2 lemons, sliced into wheels
1 orange, sliced into half-wheels
1-2 cinnamon sticks
2 star anise pods
1.5 cups sugar
1.5 cups water
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon ground allspice
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon freshly-ground pepper
3 ounces orange liqueuer (optional, I used Grand Marnier)

Directions:
1. Prepare the spiced syrup (can be done the night before) by bringing the water to a simmer, then add the sugar, vanilla extract & the ground allspice, ginger, nutmeg, cinnamon and pepper - stir until sugar is dissolved.
2. Turn on a six-quart slow cooker to the HIGH setting, and combine the spiced syrup with the bottle of red wine, citrus slices, cinnamon sticks & star anise pods. Give it a quick stir, then cover it and let it sit for about an hour (or when it starts to simmer.)
3. Bring the slow cooker down to a LOW or WARM setting, add the orange liqueur and the mulled wine is ready to serve! (Also, the wine-soaked fruit is absolutely tasty to nibble on!)

And for all those designated drivers and others who'd rather not get spirited away -- I'd imagine this formula to be delightful for a spiced cider too. Just use 25 ounces apple juice or cider in lieu of the red wine -- and of course, no liqueur. Cheers!