Tag Archives: gourmet chocolate

A Chocolate Bar With An Unusual Ingredient

A new chocolate bar that uses Coffee Flour. And yes, that's a mound of Coffee Flour on the plate.

A new chocolate bar that uses Coffee Flour. And yes, that’s a mound of Coffee Flour on the plate.

 

Jcoco’s newest chocolate bar tastes of cherries.

Yet there are no actual cherries in it.

Instead, its fruity taste comes from discarded coffee waste, otherwise known as the pulp leftover when a coffee bean is extracted from its fruit.

Canadian company Coffee Flour, which has offices in Redwood City, started working with coffee farmers five years ago to turn coffee waste into a type of gluten-free flour. Now, food manufacturers are starting to use coffee waste in new products like this chocolate bar.

Coffee flour has more iron per gram than spinach, more fiber than whole wheat flour, more protein than kale, and more potassium than a banana.

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Forget Black Friday; Make It A Brown One (As In Chocolate) Instead

Yes, this is pretty much how I ate this fantastic spread.

Yes, this is pretty much how I ate this fantastic spread.

 

See that hazelnut spread above?

I’d like to tell you that I came up with all sorts of inventive ways to use it in baking. But the truth is that I ate that entire jar of Nuubia Hazelnut Spread simply by the languid spoonful, day after day, until it was emptied.

I’m not ashamed. Because it was that irresistible.

So forget braving the malls today. Just do yourself a favor and go Nuubia’s online site to order a jar instead — for yourself or your chocoholic friends. Or take a trip to the Nuubia store/cafe, which just opened this year in the lobby of the Twitter building in San Francisco, or to its Pleasanton headquarters that has an artisan kitchen.

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A Spook-A-Licious Halloween with Woodhouse Chocolate

Woodhouse Chocolate says "boo'' in the sweetest way.

Woodhouse Chocolate says “boo” in the sweetest way.

 

Woodhouse Chocolate in St. Helena has long been one of my favorite chocolatiers.

First off, its chocolates are incomparably smooth and creamy.

Second, its shop on Main Street is like the Tiffany’s of chocolates. They are displayed like precious jewels, making enjoying even one bonbon feel like such a special indulgence.

When samples of its Halloween offerings arrived on my doorstep to sample, I couldn’t wait to dig in.

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‘Tis the Season for Chocolate

TCHO Drinking Chocolate makes for an exquisite cup of chocolate goodness.

TCHO Drinking Chocolate makes for an exquisite cup of chocolate goodness.

 

Really, what would the holiday season be without some fine chocolate?

Not nearly as sweetly satisfying, that’s for sure.

Here are some recent samples that I’ve enjoyed trying that would make ideal stocking-stuffers for the chocoholics in your life.

TCHO Drinking Chocolate Crumbles

They look like little dusty pebbles of chocolate, but what’s in this canister of TCHO Drinking Chocolate Crumbles holds the key to one of the most luxurious tasting cocoas around.

Made by San Francisco’s TCHO chocolate company, this product is made from cocoa beans, cane sugar, cocoa butter, cocoa powder, lecithin and vanilla bean. Just add a couple of tablespoons to an espresso cup of hot water, and stir. The result is an incredibly rich, deeply chocolatey drink that will make you swoon.

You can enjoy the drinking chocolate either hot or cold. You can even use it to make a chocolate sauce to top your favorite ice cream.

A 250g canister is $11.95.

Brazilian Brigadeiros

Brigadeiros are almost like the chocolate truffles of Brazil. No wedding, birthday party, convention or holiday in that country is complete without them.

Brigadeiro.me has brought that traditional sweet to San Francisco. The company makes them with butter, condensed milk and Belgian chocolate. Choose from an assortment of flavors including lemon zest, pistachio, vanilla cookies and coconut.

A beloved Brazilian sweet comes to San Francisco.

A beloved Brazilian sweet comes to San Francisco.

They are quite soft and creamy. Less dense than fudge, the texture is almost like that of a very thick mousse.

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