Darker than Black, Week 13: Theo Chocolate Black Rice Quinoa Crunch
Back in 2013, softlykarou went to Seattle as part of a psychology conference for NASP. I didn't go, because she was in grad school and we didn't have much money and I wasn't sure I wanted to spare the vacation days, but while we were there she told me about this amazing chocolate she found there. We talked about bringing it back, but eventually decided against it because I am a penny-pinching miser and I figured that a few chocolate bars wasn't worth the cost. I figured that I'd end up visiting Seattle and get to try Theo Chocolate at some point in my life, and that point turned out to be a lot sooner than I thought--a few months later, True Nature (our local hippie organic food co-op, before Whole Foods opened up nearby and they moved away) started carrying Theo Chocolate, and now Whole Foods carries it too.
Also, we're signed up for a chocolate subscription box service now. So much for my earlier worries about spending money on chocolate.
Most of the Theo Chocolate I've tried has been the plain 85% cacao dark or the 70% cacao coconut, which I used to get by the bundle before I realized that Walgreens carries Lindt 90% cacao and that I liked that better. Whole Foods has several other variaties I've never seen before, including a cherry almond variety, salted almond, ginger, and this one, which was the one I thought might be the most interesting and so the one that I picked for Darker than Black. If it were entirely up to me, I probably would have grabbed the cherry almond one, and maybe I'll still do that sometime in the future. But for now, let's see how quinoa goes with chocolate.
Plain packaging in classic white with dark brown.
What I expected when I bit into this was a high-end Crunch Bar, but I was pleasantly surprised to find that wasn't the case. For all the black rice and quinoa in here, I didn't actually taste any of it. There was a bit of crunch to the texture and a satisfying mouth feel of the non-chocolate bits snapping, but the taste was all chocolate. It might even be better than plain chocolate, actually, since crunchy is one of my favorite textures for food. If the 90% cacao chocolate that I usually ate had this texture, I'd probably be my favorite chocolate in the world. Of course, that would go against the whole point since it'd dilute the amount of cacao there, but it would give it a good texture.
As I mentioned above, I actually like this better than I would have had it had more of a Crunch Bar-esque taste. I used to really like Crunch Bars, but I eventually stopped eating them, partially because I just don't really like milk chocolate anymore, but mostly because it was way more crunchy than chocolate, or at least higher on the crunchy ratio than I would like. It's like the rice krispie treat of chocolate (which is a negative for me, if that wasn't clear). This is several orders of magnitude better than that.
It's visible but not tastable.
softlykarou's OpinionI realize I've been eating more sweets because the chocolate tasted more bitter than I expected...too much fruit I suppose, but those cherries aren't going to eat themselves! I liked the puffy crunch of the quiona/forbidden rice. It tasted like a darker crunch bar to me which I enjoy because I like crunchy things. I think if there had been some flavor in the forbidden rice or quiona then it would have really made this bar one of my favorites. I liked it, I'd eat it again but I don't know if I'd seek it out.
On the other hand, I'd absolutely seek it out. This was great, albeit something that I probably shouldn't eat as often as I scarf down 90% cacao chocolate. A surprisingly good find.
Also, we're signed up for a chocolate subscription box service now. So much for my earlier worries about spending money on chocolate.
Most of the Theo Chocolate I've tried has been the plain 85% cacao dark or the 70% cacao coconut, which I used to get by the bundle before I realized that Walgreens carries Lindt 90% cacao and that I liked that better. Whole Foods has several other variaties I've never seen before, including a cherry almond variety, salted almond, ginger, and this one, which was the one I thought might be the most interesting and so the one that I picked for Darker than Black. If it were entirely up to me, I probably would have grabbed the cherry almond one, and maybe I'll still do that sometime in the future. But for now, let's see how quinoa goes with chocolate.
Plain packaging in classic white with dark brown.
What I expected when I bit into this was a high-end Crunch Bar, but I was pleasantly surprised to find that wasn't the case. For all the black rice and quinoa in here, I didn't actually taste any of it. There was a bit of crunch to the texture and a satisfying mouth feel of the non-chocolate bits snapping, but the taste was all chocolate. It might even be better than plain chocolate, actually, since crunchy is one of my favorite textures for food. If the 90% cacao chocolate that I usually ate had this texture, I'd probably be my favorite chocolate in the world. Of course, that would go against the whole point since it'd dilute the amount of cacao there, but it would give it a good texture.
As I mentioned above, I actually like this better than I would have had it had more of a Crunch Bar-esque taste. I used to really like Crunch Bars, but I eventually stopped eating them, partially because I just don't really like milk chocolate anymore, but mostly because it was way more crunchy than chocolate, or at least higher on the crunchy ratio than I would like. It's like the rice krispie treat of chocolate (which is a negative for me, if that wasn't clear). This is several orders of magnitude better than that.
It's visible but not tastable.
softlykarou's OpinionI realize I've been eating more sweets because the chocolate tasted more bitter than I expected...too much fruit I suppose, but those cherries aren't going to eat themselves! I liked the puffy crunch of the quiona/forbidden rice. It tasted like a darker crunch bar to me which I enjoy because I like crunchy things. I think if there had been some flavor in the forbidden rice or quiona then it would have really made this bar one of my favorites. I liked it, I'd eat it again but I don't know if I'd seek it out.
On the other hand, I'd absolutely seek it out. This was great, albeit something that I probably shouldn't eat as often as I scarf down 90% cacao chocolate. A surprisingly good find.