Lake Champlain Organic Bars: Dark Spicy Aztec
January 25, 2008 - chocolate
Let’s begin with the reviews from the harshest critics we know – first from the four-year-old: “Darker brown, kind of little bit spicy, like it a tiny bit. When I try to bite it, it’s alittle hard – can I have some water?” Two-year-old: “More, more, good!”
So this bar is real reason we’re here – our never-ending quest in search of a spicy, chili-pepper laced dark chocolate, the Aztec fountain of youth. From Lake Champlain Chocolates in Vermont comes a nearly-perfect bar of it. Starting with a dark, but not too dark, chocolate bar, add cayenne, cinnamon and, are you ready for this? pumpkin seeds, an interesting New World ingredient. On one hand, it’s an interesting component for texture and taste, but then enjoying the smooth dark chocolate seems modestly interrupted by the seeds. The seeds are whole, intact, and when you break the bar into scored pieces, you may see a seed peeking out. The flavor is nice, and we wonder how it might be if the seeds were broken or ground – would their flavor impart differently? Or is it the intended effect, similar to the effect of the pockets of salt in the Milk Sea Salt bar?
But, we freely admit, we are nit (or nut?) picking – this is still an overwhelmingly wonderful bar. We reviewed the spicy hot chocolate mix from Lake Champlain, and we made note of the selection of cayenne, that we felt there might be benefit in adding ancho or chipotle peppers. This argument still stands for this bar – the pumpkin seeds and cinnamon are nice, lighter, higher notes, but it wouldn’t it be nice if there were some lower, ancho bass notes to add to this Aztec chorus?
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