Darker than Black, Week 19: Raaka Virgin Chocolate Ghost Pepper
This is another non-random chocolate selection. I realized that it's not even that hot today--I went out of the apartment briefly to go to the store and it was slightly cool in the shade--but it's going to be really hot coming up, and it's traditional that eating spicy food is a good way to deal with hot weather. Of course, the physiological method behind that is that spicy food makes you sweat, which cools you down, and feeling sweaty is about the second-worst feeling I can think of that I have to deal with on a regular basis (the first is feeling oily, which is why I typically hide inside because I hate the feel of sunscreen but also don't want to get burned).
Huh. Double-checking, apparently there's an inverse correlation between distance from the equator and spiciness of native cuisine. Neat!
And thinking on that, maybe part of the reason that I do well in the summer mornings on the way to the L is that I always eat a hot breakfast. Hot miso soup, hot tea, rice fresh from the rice cooker...I do end up sweating sometimes. It's part of why I rotated around so now I eat and then take a shower. Which probably counteracts any effects of the food, actually. Hmm.
G-g-g-ghosts!
This was not as spicy as I was expecting, though it was spicier than my initial low expectations. I mean, it's ghost peppers, right? Everyone knows about ghost peppers, the being-punched-in-the-face of spicy foods. I figured that biting into it would be like a kick in the teeth, but I should have expected that a gourmet chocolate company is not going to want its customers' primary impression of their product to be "aaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!"
The first bite wasn't spicy at all, and I waited around a bit for it to show up. And it did, as a bit of warmth in the back of the throat and the roof of the mouth. Then, as I kept eating and devoured my half of the bar, the spice kept building and building, until it had reached the level I like by the end of my half. If I had eaten the whole thing, it might have gone past that threshold.
See, I like spicy food a lot, but I don't like food that's so spicy that it obliterates any taste the food has. If all you can taste is burning, you might as well just eat the habanero pepper stuffed with Jalapeño cheese appetizer from Heaven on Seven, like ashiri_chan, softlykarou, and I did that one time, where the whole point is that it's an test of your resilience. Like what happened with the tantanmen incident. This didn't do that and was better for it. The chocolate was sweet, and ghost peppers bits were spicy, and the spice built in a way that made its presence known but was never so obvious that I couldn't tell I was eating chocolate anymore.
I thought this one wasn't in general production, but checking the website shows me that it is, so enjoy!
It has hidden depths.
softlykarou's OpinionI have to admit I was a little worried about this pepper. I've eaten foods that have used higher Scoville peppers before and been...burned. That said this was a very delicate, judicious use of the ghost pepper. There's still a mild burn in my mouth but I'm not running for milk/lime juice. Raaka's chocolate is, as usual, smooth and with a nice snap as I bite into it. It's a nice no larger textures bar with a spicy kick to it. I'd eat this again for sure.
Editor's note: Semagic wanted to change Scoville to "Muscovite." I wonder what the Muscovite scale for measuring food would be. What degree you feel that all life is meaningless and futile after you eat the food?
Additional editor's note: Link in softlykarou's commentary added by me.
I'm really tempted to order more of this since it's in general distribution, and probably would if we didn't have an entire bag of chocolate plus all the chocolate that we get just to fuel my desserts. Plus we can't eat Raaka's chocolate as fast as they send it to us because we always save it in case we want to use it for Darker than Black. But we don't want to make it all about a single company, so maybe we should just eat some of them and open up more fields? We're going to Japan soon, and we'll bring some chocolate home if we can figure out some way to do it without it melted. Or we'll write it there and post it later. Something will happen!
Huh. Double-checking, apparently there's an inverse correlation between distance from the equator and spiciness of native cuisine. Neat!
And thinking on that, maybe part of the reason that I do well in the summer mornings on the way to the L is that I always eat a hot breakfast. Hot miso soup, hot tea, rice fresh from the rice cooker...I do end up sweating sometimes. It's part of why I rotated around so now I eat and then take a shower. Which probably counteracts any effects of the food, actually. Hmm.
G-g-g-ghosts!
This was not as spicy as I was expecting, though it was spicier than my initial low expectations. I mean, it's ghost peppers, right? Everyone knows about ghost peppers, the being-punched-in-the-face of spicy foods. I figured that biting into it would be like a kick in the teeth, but I should have expected that a gourmet chocolate company is not going to want its customers' primary impression of their product to be "aaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!"
The first bite wasn't spicy at all, and I waited around a bit for it to show up. And it did, as a bit of warmth in the back of the throat and the roof of the mouth. Then, as I kept eating and devoured my half of the bar, the spice kept building and building, until it had reached the level I like by the end of my half. If I had eaten the whole thing, it might have gone past that threshold.
See, I like spicy food a lot, but I don't like food that's so spicy that it obliterates any taste the food has. If all you can taste is burning, you might as well just eat the habanero pepper stuffed with Jalapeño cheese appetizer from Heaven on Seven, like ashiri_chan, softlykarou, and I did that one time, where the whole point is that it's an test of your resilience. Like what happened with the tantanmen incident. This didn't do that and was better for it. The chocolate was sweet, and ghost peppers bits were spicy, and the spice built in a way that made its presence known but was never so obvious that I couldn't tell I was eating chocolate anymore.
I thought this one wasn't in general production, but checking the website shows me that it is, so enjoy!
It has hidden depths.
softlykarou's OpinionI have to admit I was a little worried about this pepper. I've eaten foods that have used higher Scoville peppers before and been...burned. That said this was a very delicate, judicious use of the ghost pepper. There's still a mild burn in my mouth but I'm not running for milk/lime juice. Raaka's chocolate is, as usual, smooth and with a nice snap as I bite into it. It's a nice no larger textures bar with a spicy kick to it. I'd eat this again for sure.
Editor's note: Semagic wanted to change Scoville to "Muscovite." I wonder what the Muscovite scale for measuring food would be. What degree you feel that all life is meaningless and futile after you eat the food?
Additional editor's note: Link in softlykarou's commentary added by me.
I'm really tempted to order more of this since it's in general distribution, and probably would if we didn't have an entire bag of chocolate plus all the chocolate that we get just to fuel my desserts. Plus we can't eat Raaka's chocolate as fast as they send it to us because we always save it in case we want to use it for Darker than Black. But we don't want to make it all about a single company, so maybe we should just eat some of them and open up more fields? We're going to Japan soon, and we'll bring some chocolate home if we can figure out some way to do it without it melted. Or we'll write it there and post it later. Something will happen!