December 05, 2010

Fearless chocolate



I've mentioned before that we have a store here called The Chocolate Shoebox that sells vegan shoes and chocolate, and I recently went there to look around. What am I saying, I went there for chocolate. I was with Bethany, and she's a bad-or-good influence depending on your point of view. While Bethany was picking out her chocolate, I was carefully examining labels, weighing my options. I'm a sucker for cool packaging and short ingredient lists. I didn't see my favorite brand, Rescue Chocolates because it had been moved to a new location, but I did find a lovely bar of raw, organic chocolate that seemed to be attaching itself to my hand. I loved the package design, the rough feel of the wrapper, and the fact that there were only three ingredients — organic raw cacao, organic rapadura, and organic bourbon vanilla.

The woman behind the counter offered that it was her favorite raw chocolate — but it was not a dessert chocolate. "Does it taste like dirt?" I (tactlessly) asked. "It's earthy," she said. I knew just what she meant. I've eaten raw cacao nibs and I'm not a big fan. Still, I plunked my $4.99 (plus 9.5% sales tax if you can believe that.) on the counter and took my earthy little bar of Fearless chocolate home.



I just want to be clear that this bar does NOT taste like dirt. It's delicious, really delicious, and I thought it was quite sweet. I wondered why it was considered raw, and found the answer on the box. The cacao is not roasted, and not heated above 118˚F, if this is important to you.

If you like dark chocolate, definitely try to find some of this wonderful stuff. It's great, and you can feel even better about buying it because one percent of the purchase price will go to a worthy cause, and the box is made from 100 percent post-consumer recycled paper.

Disclaimer: I bought this chocolate myself. No one asked me to review it or probably cares that I did, nor did anyone pay me. Darn.

30 comments:

  1. I love your dirt comment!!!!!!
    I once bought a bag of carob chips and sadly, had a similar reaction. I'd be a bit skeptical too!

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  2. "Does it taste like dirt?" I (tactlessly)"

    i love you

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  3. I'm going to the new Willy Street this week, and I'll look for it!

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  4. Is dirt considered raw? Personally I never eat anything under 119 degrees.

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  5. Oh no! Raw yummy chocolate! I'm glad my chances of finding it around here are minimal...could be bad if I had access to it! (Not that I won't keep my eye out for some). :)

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  6. As a fellow fan of Rescue Chocolate, I take your chocolate opinion very seriously!

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  7. You're so funny - if I can figure out how to get someone to pay me to blog about chocolate, I promise I'll share my secret with you.
    A store that sells vegan shoes & chocolate? Need to move in with you!

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  8. Now I've never heard of nor seen this brand before, but it looks absolutely adorable! I love the packaging, and the way the bars are molded... I might have trouble ripping them open and digging in!

    And seriously, that does sound like the coolest store ever.

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  9. Jessica,
    As I said, no dirt in this bar. Totally great from my point of view.

    DD,
    To me, some raw chocolate DOES taste like dirt. I don't eat chocolate for its "health benefits" so dirt doesn't work for me. I do like dark, dark chocolate bordering on "earthy."

    Claire,
    It's open? I thought the store would never happen, and now I'll miss the opening. Willy St. is the best.

    GiGi,
    Raw or not, I try to keep dirt off my menu. Chocolate, on the other hand can occasionally appear, and I definitely don't want any dirt flavors in my brand. In my humble opinion, "earthy" and "dirt" are entirely different flavors.

    Heidi,
    You mean you don't have a store selling vegan shoes and chocolate?

    Abby,
    Remember Abby, that my sweet tooth may not be as long as yours. Still, I thought the bar was pretty sweet, and if you like dark chocolate, this bar is GOOD.

    Shellyfish,
    Wouldn't that be fun — to be paid to blog about chocolate. We can dream. The store is pretty great, but I've never found shoes there that were comfortable for me. Chocolate, on the other hand ...

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  10. Hannah,
    This was the first time I saw the brand, too. It's based in Oakland and currently distributed west of Colorado and Texas, but will be available on the East Coast soon.

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  11. A whole post dedicated to a chocolate bar - I love it! You're a girl after my own heart. I'm not a candy fan, but I like desserts...and chocolate. $4.99 is a little steep for this girl's budget, though. Is the 1% worthy cause poor vegans? I'm so glad it didn't taste like dirt. And, how do you have a perfect bite in that chocolate?? I want to see you bite some of my food now.

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  12. Blessedmama,
    I thought I needed something short and sweet after the last post. I'm not a big candy fan either, but I appreciate a good (small) piece of chocolate now and then. It is expensive, but the cost is relative to its value, and reflects the higher cost of fair trade, and quality manufacturing. And it keeps us from buying too much. I'm being too serious, aren't I?

    I'm (pretty) sure you're joking about the "bite," but I'll take the opportunity to say the bite mark is on each bar to represent the 1% donation. Maybe it IS the 1% donation. I have to say I find the missing bite on my bar (not the donation) a bit disturbing, but I'm dealing with it.

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  13. Haha! The only reason cacao nibs taste bad is because they are just shells of cocoa beans broken up. Raw chocolate usually has sweetener in it to make it more palatable. I need to get over there to the shoebox!

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  14. I love me some good dark chocolate.

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  15. Aimee,
    Yes, the chocolate bar had sweetener. The Shoebox has a large selection of (expensive) chocolate in general, and a nice selection of raw chocolate choices.

    Melody,
    The darker the better as far as I'm concerned.

    Vittle,
    Thanks for stopping by. I like dark chocolate and this was just right.

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  16. Hilarious! They bit your chocolate for you! You shoulda heard me chuckle. Did you see my comment I made on your other site a few days ago? You are so talented! I'm going to check it out again.

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  17. I love dark chocolate! I would eat it even if it did taste like dirt. ha
    I've never had cacao nibs though. I've been wanting to try them, but haven't found any yet. I guess I need to just order some. :o)

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  18. Blessedmama,
    Yeah, they took a bite out of my bar.

    Michelle,
    I would eat it but I might not enjoy it. This is much better.

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  19. That sounds like a great chocolate. I love roasted cocoa nibs, I think I never had the raw version.

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  20. Mihl,
    I like it, but truthfully, I can't tell that it's raw.

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  21. If you like good quality chocolate, you should check out Paulina from Raw Life's chocolate... :)

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  22. I saw you won Ricki's giveaway--congrats! :-)

    Courtney

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  23. Catching up, as usual!
    I love chocolate, but I know what you mean about raw cocao nibs! 'Dirt' is the word! I have to 'hide' it in yummy stuff so as not to taste it too much... Unlike you, I try to justify eating chocolate by telling myself it's good for me! Antioxidants and so on!

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  24. yumm! they were giving out free samples of this at boise co-op a couple days ago so i got to try a little nibble...$5 is too much for me to pay for a chocolate bar, even from a cool company like that one, unless it's a really special occasion...anyway i concur, very tasty stuff! although i did have little specks of strangely mucilaginous somethingorother (cacao probably?) floating around in my mouth for a few hours afterward.

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  25. Megan,
    I looked her up on the Internet and the chocolate does sound good. Next time I'm in Adelaide, I'll get some. :)

    Courtney,
    Thanks. I'm feeling especially lucky this week.

    Penny,
    Yes, of course I justify it as being a healthy dietary supplement. And it is, isn't it? :D

    Emily,
    It was, I think, just about the cheapest bar in the store I was in, so my perspective got skewed. I didn't experience the aftereffects you described — weird. I eat chocolate very slowly, and I still have about half of my bar left, but haven't noticed any after-particle experiences.

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  26. so cool! my best friend's brother in law started this company! some of the early rounds of chocolate were only so-so, but I agree that he has really refined his product! I love them so much, and I LOVE the cute packaging and the little "bite" out of the bar. I don't usually like all the raw chocolate I've tried, but I really love these ones. So smooooooth!

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  27. Amey,
    I'm glad I tasted the perfected product! It was nice and smooth and soooooooo dark. mmmmm. It's cool that you know the company's founder. Tell him I said "hi." :D

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  28. Gauri Radha गौरी राधा12/18/10, 10:08 AM

    Sounds very good!!

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