Dagoba
The first chocolate we tried after reading about 'good' chocolate were two Dagoba organic chocolate bars. One was a chai ginger and the other was a dark chocolate. While the chai ginger tasted pleasant and interesting, it was the dark chocolate that was a real eye-opening experience for me.
When you open the chocolate bar, instead of large squares of chocolate the bar is scored into thin slivers that are less than half an inch wide. Much smaller than your average Hershey bar. Breaking it was a little more difficult, as the bar is thicker than average, too.
I took one sliver and put it in my mouth. I immediately noticed the rich chocolate scent while bitterness registered on my tongue. I thought to myself "this (bitterness) is why I've never liked/eaten dark chocolate". However my tastes have been changing and I now like some Merlot wines as well as Pinot Noirs, so I continued.
The second sliver began the real enlightenment; as before I noticed the bitterness, but then I guess my taste buds got more used to it and by the time I had finished that sliver I noticed a sweeter taste at the end.
I put the third sliver in my mouth and the bitterness had faded, or was ignored by my mouth, and I tasted flowers, then fruit! As my mind raced to identify the swiftly passing flavors I realized that this is what educating your palate really is!
The fourth sliver was pure ecstasy! I recognized flavors of cherries, a smokiness, flowers, maybe even coffee in the chocolate and the thought "OMG, I love dark chocolate" did pass my mind. I wondered how great it would be to sip some port or other dark red wine while eating this chocolate.
Alas, the fifth sliver that I placed in my mouth returned the bitterness. I had read in my research that when eating high quality chocolate the body tells you when it's had enough - because high content cocao is healthy for you for many reasons - and I realized that for the first time this is what was happening.
So I stopped eating the chocolate slivers after five teensy bites. Amazing, huh? That would be like stopping yourself from eating maybe two or three squares of a Hershey bar. But I was totally satisfied, actually did not want any more chocolate. And the taste lingered on my tongue for a long while afterwards - not the taste of sugar, too sweet - but somehow healthy and satisfying on a primal level.
I highly encourage you to test this out yourself - but beware, you may never go back to commercial-quality chocolate again!
Here's a link to another chocolate review of Dagoba bars:
http://www.facts-about-chocolate.com/dagoba.html
When you open the chocolate bar, instead of large squares of chocolate the bar is scored into thin slivers that are less than half an inch wide. Much smaller than your average Hershey bar. Breaking it was a little more difficult, as the bar is thicker than average, too.
I took one sliver and put it in my mouth. I immediately noticed the rich chocolate scent while bitterness registered on my tongue. I thought to myself "this (bitterness) is why I've never liked/eaten dark chocolate". However my tastes have been changing and I now like some Merlot wines as well as Pinot Noirs, so I continued.
The second sliver began the real enlightenment; as before I noticed the bitterness, but then I guess my taste buds got more used to it and by the time I had finished that sliver I noticed a sweeter taste at the end.
I put the third sliver in my mouth and the bitterness had faded, or was ignored by my mouth, and I tasted flowers, then fruit! As my mind raced to identify the swiftly passing flavors I realized that this is what educating your palate really is!
The fourth sliver was pure ecstasy! I recognized flavors of cherries, a smokiness, flowers, maybe even coffee in the chocolate and the thought "OMG, I love dark chocolate" did pass my mind. I wondered how great it would be to sip some port or other dark red wine while eating this chocolate.
Alas, the fifth sliver that I placed in my mouth returned the bitterness. I had read in my research that when eating high quality chocolate the body tells you when it's had enough - because high content cocao is healthy for you for many reasons - and I realized that for the first time this is what was happening.
So I stopped eating the chocolate slivers after five teensy bites. Amazing, huh? That would be like stopping yourself from eating maybe two or three squares of a Hershey bar. But I was totally satisfied, actually did not want any more chocolate. And the taste lingered on my tongue for a long while afterwards - not the taste of sugar, too sweet - but somehow healthy and satisfying on a primal level.
I highly encourage you to test this out yourself - but beware, you may never go back to commercial-quality chocolate again!
Here's a link to another chocolate review of Dagoba bars:
http://www.facts-about-chocolate.com/dagoba.html