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Dagoba Lavender Blueberry 59% cacao

Chris Urban — Tue, 04 May 2010 01:00:17 +0000

I tell you folks, if you’re in a store somewhere, and they sell chocolates, and they carry some or all of the Dagoba line, you need to pick one and try it. I happened to be in the Hershey’s store in Times Square (yeah, I know, but that’s another story) and quietly hiding on an endcap somewhere were some of Hershey’s other prized possessions: Dagoba and Scharffen Berger chocolate bars!
Yes, dear reader, Hershey’s owns Dagoba, and has since 2006? 2007? (Note: and Joseph Schmidt, too) Dagoba represents a nice organic trophy for their collection – I would imagine Hershey dare not tear it down and replace it with some slick over-marketed Special Dark/Dove amalgam of chocolate atrocity.

Anyway, on to the more interesting topic: this chocolate. We’ve had a number of Dagoba chocolates, some more interesting than others, and some, like the organic single origin line, have very distinctive flavors. This one, with its fruity floral focus, is just okay. I know, right? Weird hearing me say a chocolate is just ‘okay?’

Well, it is okay – it’s got a fairly good consistency and decent mouthfeel; the lavender is not overbearing, and the bits of blueberries are not too big or chewy. It’s in the right league of cacao levels – we like it in the upper 50s to mid 60s. So, it’s okay enough to enjoy. But it doesn’t knock my socks off. And that, dear reader, is the whole point of our pathetic part-time journey: to find a chocolate that knocks my socks off.

Dagoba organic chocolate Lavender

Chris Urban — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 18:24:30 +0000

We really like some of these Dagoba bars we have managed to find. We hadn’t noticed this one before and were immediately intrigued by the concept: blueberries and lavender.
This has a really great aroma and mouthfeel – the lavender is a wonderful complement to the blueberries. Like other Dagoba dark chocolate, this has a relatively high cocao content – 59% – and is all organic. The lavender bouquet hits your mouth first, and riding in under this wave comes the dark chocolate and then closes out with the blueberries. A real nice three-part movement of chocolate.
Four year old: “It tastes like flowery and bread a litle bit. And a little bit of strawberry.”

Dagoba Super Fruit dark chocolate

Chris Urban — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 00:44:31 +0000

The third chocolate in our Dagoba trilogy this evening is the Super Fruit. Made with acai powder, goji berries and currants – where does these guys in Oregon come up with these ingredients? It’s not like we walk into a Trader Joes and find this in the dried fruit and nuts section… So goji berries are really wolfberries, grown predominately in the Chinese Himalayans, and have a sweet taste and when dried, the consistency of hard raisins.

Another dark chocolate (for those keeping score, this is 74% cocoa like the spicy Xocolatl) this is interspersed with currants and berries, and it works well. There’s a slight sweetness and light fruity scent that develops, gently overlaying the thick bitterness of the chocolate. I’m attracted to ginger, but I have to say I like this bar better than the lemon ginger.

Dagoba Xocolatl dark chocolate, chilis and nibs

Chris Urban — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 23:38:18 +0000

So I’m reading this label and wondering what the heck ‘nibs’ are. Are nibs to cocoa beans what giblets are to turkey? Turns out, it’s probably what you expect it to be: roasted cocoa beans, broken into smaller pieces, essentially a purist’s version of chocolate chips.

Back to the chocolate – like the Lemon-Ginger chocolate from Dagoba, there’s a good, solid dark chocolate base, (this is 74%, the lemon-ginger is 68% dark cocoa) and is made with evaporated cane juice in place of sugar. For spices, this has chilis, nutmeg and maca (another little-known South American herb known for increasing libido, among other things).

On first bite, you enjoy the dark chocolate, and roughly ten seconds later, the chilis kick in. There’s good heat here, but it’s short-lived. It’s enough to savor, and is complemented well by the traces of nutmeg.

Dagoba Organic Chocolate Lemon Ginger

Chris Urban — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 22:20:50 +0000

Found this other organic chocolate line from Oregon – a nice base chocolate, with crystallized ginger and a hint of lemon. The chocolate is well-made, smooth and even-tasting: not too bitter, not too sweet. Ok, so maybe for my taste it’s not too bitter, I admit I like chocolate on the bitter side, to better enjoy the true flavor of the cocoa beans. I think a contributing factor to the semi-sweetness of this chocolate is that Dagoba uses evaporated cane juice instead of sugar? This is a nice chocolate, but it’s just okay – not tremendously memorable.