Category Archives: Chocolate

Free Seedlings and Chocolate — Catch Them If You Can

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Dagoba's popular lavender blueberry chocolate bar. (Photo by Crystal Munoz)

Representatives of Dagoba Organic Chocolate of Oregon will be handing out free chocolate bars and herb seedlings in six locations in San Francisco and Berkeley, today through Sept. 13.

The catch? You can find out the general locations and the dates, but not the exact times the freebies will be handed out. Dagoba says it’s a stealth, guerrilla-type operation to maintain the sense of surprise. (Uhh, I’m sure that makes sense in some universe.)

Be on the lookout in Justin Herman Plaza and Union Square in San Francisco today; the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market in San Francisco on Sept. 6; Golden Gate Park in San Francisco on Sept. 7; the University of California at Berkeley campus on Sept. 7; and the Berkeley Farmers’ Market (Center Street at Martin Luther King Jr. Way) on Sept. 13.

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Sweet Pick-Me-Up

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Sugary booty

If you’re shopping till you’re dropping at San Francisco’s Union Square area, revive yourself by ducking into Fiona’s Sweetshoppe on Sutter Street.

The gumball-size shop is a candyholic’s dream. Owner Fiona Frie is a medical doctor who moved from the United Kingdom to San Francisco, and decided to take a break from medicine to open this darling candy store that’s stocked with candy from England, Scotland, and around the world. I don’t know about you, but that definitely sounds like a better drug of choice.

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Chocolate With A Techie Pedigree

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That’s what you have in TCHO, the only chocolate factory in San Francisco that actually makes confections from cacao bean to candy. Located on historic Pier 17, the company was founded by former space shuttle technologist, Timothy Childs, who launched it with Louis Rossetto, co-founder of Wired magazine.

TCHO (the name is a combo of “technology” and a nickname for chocolate), is in the process of revamping an old steel molding line from a German castle to make it state-of-the-art with video monitors and computerized control systems. TCHO hopes to open its doors to the public for tours in early 2009.

Meantime, the chocolate is available for purchase online. What makes this chocolate company even more tech-friendly is that it does public beta tests on all its bars. Anyone who wants to shell out $10 for two 50-gram bars in plain brown wrappers can try them and send in their comments before the final formulations are completed.

TCHO uses “common sense” labels to simplify the descriptions of the chocolate bars. The first one, launched earlier this year, was “Chocolatey.”  “Fruity,” a bar that supposes to be reminiscent of fruit without having any really in it, was launched a month ago. And lo and behold, this morning, “Nutty” arrived in my mailbox to try.

I’ll use my patented scale of 1 to 10 lip-smackers, with 1 being the “Bleh, save your money” far end of the spectrum; 5 being the “I’m not sure ‘d buy it, but if it was just there, I might nibble some” middle-of-the-road response; and 10 being the “My gawd, I could die now and never be happier, because this is the best thing I’ve ever put in my mouth” supreme ranking.

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Enjoy Luxe Chocolate in San Francisco; Mention FoodGal To Get A Discount

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Chocolate heaven. Photo by Jared Cure.

Confectioner Coco-luxe has opened its first store, and lucky San Francisco is home to it.

At the 1673 Haight St. (at Cole Street) shop, unwind with a big mug of Coco-luxe’s own hot cocoa served with fresh, handmade marshmallows. For an extra boost, get it with an espresso shot made with beans by local roaster, Blue Bottle Coffee.

Drink up.

Nibble on a green tea, “dreamy orange,” or malted milk truffle. Or get tempted by the array of chocolate bars in such creative flavors as “Monkey’in Around” (with banana chips, cocoa nibs, and a sprinkle of sea salt), and “Good Fortune” (with candied ginger and actual bits of fortune cookies). There’s even a cute selection of “to-go gifts,” and I mean to go. The chocolates are arranged in whimsical cardboard suitcases.

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A New Texture in Chocolate Bars

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Taza Chocolate of Somerville, Mass. offers a different taste sensation in chocolate bars. Using certified organic chocolate grown on small farms in Costa Rica, Mexico, and the Dominican Republic, the bars have a distinctive texture from traditional Mexican stone grinding that’s quite different than any other chocolate bars on the market. The result is a bar that’s very minimally processed.

A 3-ounce bar is about $6 and available on the company’s web site, as well as at Mollie Stone’s in San Francisco, Rainbow Grocery in San Francisco, and Yali’s Cafe in Berkeley.

I’ll use my patented scale of 1 to 10 lip-smackers, with 1 being the “Bleh, save your money” far end of the spectrum; 5 being the “I’m not sure I’d buy it, but if it was just there, I might nibble some” middle-of-the-road response; and 10 being the “My gawd, I could die now and never be happier, because this is the best thing I’ve ever put in my mouth” supreme ranking.

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