This chocolate bar is the result of one of Chocolate Alchemy's chocolate-making kits. When I first opened the contents, I thought that I had received a large bag of oats (not such a strange concept since many chocolate makers use oats / oat milk powder as a dairy substitute in chocolate making). However, the bag actually contained roasted Pataxte nibs, which are commonly known as Jaguar Cocoa. The unusual, beige colour of the bean comes from the fact that it is theobroma bicolour, not theobroma cacao (classic cacao). Theobroma bicolour contains less fat and more protein and fiber than theobroma cacao. According to John Nanci (the Chocolate Alchemist), "[t]here is no cocoa flavour, with the predominant flavour being a cross between...
The countdown to Valentine's Day has begun. Whether you want to express your love to your significant other, a close friend, or even yourself, we have a number of fun ideas to help you say "I love you." Our raspberry toffee bar has been a favourite among our customers since its release three years ago. We're thrilled to announce that starting this year, we are making the raspberry chocolate in-house. We've also reintroduced the heart-shaped marshmallows, which are strawberry flavoured and dipped in our milk chocolate.For a more playful twist, try our conversation hearts or heartbreaker, both of which come in a dairy-free version.If you prefer a more classic gift, we have salted caramels dipped in milk or dark chocolate, as well as a limited edition Valentine's Day bonbon collection. And,...
This newsletter is not my review of a movie starring Rachel McAdams and Ryan Gosling but rather a share of the DWN 'bible.' I was inspired to write this newsletter by my friend Tommy Aird, who recently opened a whole-grain bakery in Vancouver. Chefs are notoriously secretive about their recipes, so I thought that I would share a little bit about the brown notebook that is always moving around the factory.The notebook was a gift from my friend Michelle, and it's where the first six recipes that launched DWN were created. The front few pages include bar mold sizes and the weights for each tumble, followed by recipes transcribed from the craft chocolate class I took with Mackenzie Rivers. I then added tabs for almonds and hazelnuts thinking...
The warming smell of holiday spices have been swirling around the factory for the last two months in preparation for the upcoming holidays. We are delighted to share this year's seasonal additions. Returning this year is the eggnog bar; rum-soaked cocoa nibs ground into a spiced mylk chocolate. Cranberry powder and juniper-infused cocoa butter are ground with cocoa nibs to create the cranberry juniper orange bar, garnished with candied orange pieces to create an explosion of seasonal flavours. Both bars are naturally dairy-free as well as our other seasonal favourites; the black forest bar, the dark chocolate spearmint bar and the forest bar. In the fall, we created two flavours that have become pretty popular and will stick around for a while. The cinnamon toast bar is a rich cinnamony milk chocolate with crispy...
This topic has been on my mind for a while since I realized that we make three chocolate bars that present in a very similar colour but have different genetic make up.The original purple DWN bar is the black currant and cardamom bar, which is classified as a fruit bar. The colour occurs naturally from the amount of freeze-dried black currant powder that forms its base, which is ground with cocoa butter and organic cane sugar. There is no cocoa bean in this chocolate. The berry fizz bar starts in the same way as any dark chocolate with cocoa butter, cocoa nibs and sugar. However, the juicy colour of this chocolate comes from the addition of freeze-dried berry powders. I really like this technique...
