Dante Confections: 98% Organic Stevia sweetened bars, Turtles, and Truffles

It is unusual to find both traditional and organic high intensity chocolates under one roof, but Dante Confections straddles these two often disparate areas. Their handmade truffles are lovely little domes of shiny, well-tempered white, milk or dark chocolate encasing ultra rich, smooth ganache centers infused with 25 different flavors. From liquors, to fruits, to eggnog, to peanut butter, and mint, there is something for everyone. They come in petite and large sizes. I found the petite version offered up a few bites of snappily textured chocolate against velvety centers. The flavors are on the mild side, so if you are someone who loves a hint of Grand Marnier, for example, and doesn’t want an alcohol wallop, these would be perfect.

In addition, I sampled their milk and dark chocolate Turtles, also available in white chocolate. Every chocolatier seems to have their own rendition of these classic treats. Dante’s are huge 2″ rounds with thick layers of chocolate encasing a super chewy caramel. The very fresh and crunchy nuts, either pecans, cashews, or almonds, are embedded at the edges. The whole experience is quite decadent: über-chocolatey, with a very satisfyingly caramel presence, and enough whole, roasted nuts to keep you coming back for another bite.

On the other end of the spectrum are Dante’s 98% chocolate bars sweetened with stevia. There is the traditional bar, and a Fair Trade, organic variety. Both would surely sate anyone’s craving for the densest chocolate experience this side of a roasted cacao bean. While not for the faint of heart, their flavor profile is almost hard to discern because the intensity just blows your taste buds away. A friend of mine was crazy about them. He loved the thick texture, super slow melt, and lack of sugar. Stevia adds some sweetness, but it definitely doesn’t make these bars sweet. To my surprise, I actually found the original rendition a bit gentler on my palate. It is interesting to note that one bar, 45 grams, gives you 70% of your daily requirement for iron, 7 grams of fiber, and 7 grams of protein. Both of these 98% extreme chocolate bars provide one of the strongest, most concentrated chocolate experiences out there. If you are looking for a wild gustatory ride, this is it.

You can buy the bars from Dante’s website, on the right side of this page, or on Amazon.

Ethereal Confections

The dictionary lists celestial, heavenly, and spiritual as synonyms for ethereal. Delighting in chocolate’s gifts can bring spiritual joy, and a heavenly sense of bliss; so, I can see how sisters-in-law Sara and Mary Ervin chose Ethereal for their chocolate’s brand name. At the same time, chocolate is a very grounding substance. As a matter of fact, I would actually suggest eating a piece can root you in the moment as well as a Zen koan. All that notwithstanding, Ethereal’s chocolates are divine.

The packaging is just as appetizing as the chocolate. Whether it is the cellophane windowed sleeve that shows off strawberries, rose petals, and pink peppercorns in one of their Artisan Dark Chocolate Bars, or the beautifully painted cardboard wrapping of their Meltaway bars, the attention to detail and aesthetics is obvious before your first bite.

I sampled three of their offerings, starting with a French Vanilla & Salted Almond Meltaway bar. This looks like a flat, scored 66% dark chocolate bar, but it is far from your typical experience. Inside is a celestial, silky firm mousse of roasted almond olive oil, vanilla balsamic vinegar, organic coconut oil, sea salt, and organic chocolate. While that combination may sound more spacey than the Wrath of Khan, it works incredibly well. The beautifully tempered dark chocolate shell melts into the velvety center as all the flavors coalesce, each working seamlessly with its partner for a riveting effect.

Their 66% Artisan Dark Bar with Strawberries, Rose Petals, and Pink Peppercorns is a joy to behold, and a completely different experience from the Meltaway bar. Here, each ingredient holds its own, yet overlaps with the others like a gustatory Venn diagram. I loved the punch from the peppercorns, the tart sweetness of organic freeze dried–yet still soft–strawberries, amped up with floral notes from the rose petals.

After tasting these bars I immediately went to their website and ordered a variety of other treats.

My last Ethereal exploration was their Peanut Butter Nom Noms (1.25 ounces), which provided an intense hit of peanut butter, dark chocolate, and sea salt. Think of a bon bon with a fairly firm center enrobed in glossy, crisp chocolate, with a sprinkle of sassy, crunchy salt crystals on top.

If you derive joy from perusing chocolate websites that cater to people with somewhat jaded palates, I would strongly suggest you meander around Ethereal’s. Don’t say I didn’t warn you, though, Sara and Mary’s creative combinations may have you reaching for your Visa card.

Nicobella Munch

Just as the ecotone, that transitional zone between two ecological communities, is not exact, so, too, the area where chocolate and food overlap. Nicobella’s line of Munch chocolates is both food and confection. Perhaps, because they are so good for you, and not too sweet, it is easy to think of them as a food; yet, their delicious crunch and deep, satisfying chocolate flavor makes them taste like a treat. That is not surprising, as Nichole Dandrea is both a registered dietician and chocolatier.

I sampled all three varieties, made with 75% organic, Fair Trade Kallari dark chocolate, and sold in 2 ounce bags. Each type is rich in omega-3 fatty acids, lignans, protein, fiber, and antioxidants.

Maple-nut munch are clusters of maple coated roasted pecans and just a touch of sea salt. The combination of sweet and salty, with a abundance of textural interest makes these a fantastic mid-afternoon snack.

Omega munch is chock full of candied walnut and toasted flax seeds. This one’s texture is a little different, as the small toasted flax seeds add a second type of crunch, and the walnuts feel robust and filling. Another great choice when you need some energy, protein, and fat to keep your motor running.

Coco-nut munch is texturally different since it is saturated with unsweetened toasted coconut, giving it a much chewier texture. This variation offered yet a third riff on crunchiness, as the whole roasted almonds punctuated a softer textural profile with their super crunchy presence.

Since each is different from its sibling, I would suggest trying all three. If you sign up for Nicobella’s e-newlsetter she will send you a 20% off coupon for your first order, just in case you want some extra incentive.

Jean-Marie Auboine Chocolatier

If you are looking for culinary cred with your bonbons, Master Chocolatier Jean-Marie Auboine has it in abundance. His curriculum vitae includes Alain Ducasse’s famous restaurant Le Louis XV where he assisted in earning them Michelin’s highest honor: three stars. Chef Auboine continued his distinguished career at several other Michelin-starred restaurants which included Chateau de Mercues in France, Hotel Beau Rivage in Geneva, and La Pyramide Vienne in France.

So, it was not a shock to find Jean-Marie’s confections sublime in their purity, packaging, and, most importantly, gustatory appeal.

Two of his newer confections are called Chocolate Fingers. These dark chocolate enrobed ganache rectangles, each about four inches long, are supremely delicious. The mint variety was redolent of fresh mint, while the banana nutmeg with crunchy bits under its couverture, was like a chocolate meditation. In my experience, banana can be a very tricky flavor because of its inherent sweetness. Here, however, the nutmeg added complexity and piquancy to the fruit’s richness. A truly memorable experience.

Next, I sampled the assortment of boxed chocolates, each in a perfectly tempered thin chocolate carapace.

Torroncino Praliné, adorned with a micro dot of pale yellow fondant on its almost black shell, was a delicately crunchy delight.
The Raspberry & Jasmin Tea’s flavors were seamlessly balanced, with the fruit’s acidity playing off the tea’s fruity edge.
Organic Vanilla, also enrobed in dark chocolate, was a purist’s dream in a super dark ganache.
Unique and immensely satisfying, the Coffee and Mascarpone Cream had two layers of filling. With its contrasting colors, slightly different textures of ganache and cream, and faint cheese undertones, it was a decadent surprise.
The sweetest and most subtle morsel in this group was the Accacia Honey dark chocolate ganache in a milk chocolate couverture.
Kalamansi Jelly and Earl Grey Tea Ganache was another layered affair, perfectly chewy, yet melt-in-your-mouth jelly played against a velvety dark ganache.

(Kalamansi Jelly is made with a fruit called Calamondin or Calamansi, native to the Philippine Islands. It is also known as the calamondin, golden lime, panama orange, chinese orange, acid orange, calamonding, or calamandarin in English. It is believed to originate from China and has spread throughout Southeast Asia, India, Hawaii, the West Indies, Central and North America. The plant is characterized by wing-like appendages on the leaf stalks and white or purplish flowers. Its fruit has either a spongy or leathery rind with a juicy pulp that is divided into sections.The fruit is available year round in the Philippines and is usually seen in its unripened dark green state, but if left to ripen it turns a tangerine orange color. Calamansi is believed to have anti-inflammatory properties.)

The Dark Chocolate Double Sea Salt Caramels were unlike anything I have ever had. A chocolate caramel square sat on top of a buttery one, both bathed in dark chocolate and sprinkled with sea salt. The texture was a little chewy and a little soft, with just the right amount of sweetness and salty presence. Immensely satisfying.

Blueberry Pearls came in a pretty red box with a window on top revealing red and white spheres with a luminescent sheen. If you love white chocolate and berries, this is for you.

I also tried an adorable slightly free-form Dark Chocolate Marshmallow Teddy Bear, and a cornucopia of other non-chocolate treats including:

Assorted Caramels which contained an absolutely divine Vanilla Hazelnut with large pieces of super crunchy, roasted nuts in a creamy-chewy caramel with smokey undertones.

The Strawberry and Vanilla Marshmallow Bar was a long rectangle of pink and cream colored marshmallow that reminded me of cotton candy with its airy texture and innocent sweetness.

Soft Honey Nougat was studded with candied orange, almonds, hazelnuts and infused with organic honey.

The chocolate covered caramels and ganaches were boxed in lovely brown and orange hard cardboard jewelry-type boxes with magnetic closures, just adding to the elegant Jean-Marie experience.

Askinosie: Salt Flakes & Pistachio with Ancho Chile in 62% Dark Goat’s Milk Chocolate

With Valentine’s day approaching, you may want to send a message that your love is not just sweet but spicy, not merely pretty to look at but provocatively complex. What better vehicle than chocolate to make your point? The name of Askinosie’s new bar is almost long enough to be a poem: Salt Flakes & Pistachio Play Hopscotch on the Dark Goat’s Milk Chocolate Ancho Chile Altar.

Shawn Askinosie is always on the cutting edge of fanciful combinations. What’s notable about this bar, aside from the 68% cocoa with goat’s milk, is how the variety of textures and flavors work so harmoniously. The edgy astringency of Maldon sea salt with its oceanic subtext, a well-tempered yet creamy texture, wonderfully crunchy pistachios, all set ablaze with Ancho chile. The bar’s heat and spiciness is quite perfectly calibrated.

As those of you who gravitate towards chile and chocolate know, this combination can be very finicky. Too much heat and the crucial balance is lost, too little and you’re left dissatisfied, yearning for more.

Askinosie’s new bar is beautiful. Scattered with chartreuse nuts and little flakes of salt, it delivers aesthetically as well as providing a fantastically different experience from everything else on the market.

So, if you are looking for some exciting chocolate to rattle your cage, try this new bar. It will have your taste buds rocking with depth, crunch, sweetness, creaminess, heat, and a pinch of salt.

Lily’s Sweets: Stevia Sweetened 55% Dark Chocolate Bars

Sugar is sugar and stevia is stevia. Stevia sweetens with a slightly different taste from sugar; but, unlike other sugar substitutes, it has been used for centuries.

The leaves of the stevia plant produce a very sweet non-caloric glycoside-containing substance that is approved in the United States as a dietary supplement.

If you want to avoid sugar, Lily’s offers up a quartet of bars: Plain, Almond, Coconut, and Crispy Rice. Each serving, about half a bar, or 40 grams, has 160-170 calories, 11-12 grams of fiber (they add Inulin), 25% of your RDA for iron, and 2-3 grams of protein.

My first sample was Coconut. Crammed with an abundance of tiny shards of dried organic fruit, it had a very appealing chewy texture. Crispy Rice was my favorite as its super crunchy texture played off the stevia-sweetened chocolate to the advantage of both. Almond was studded with small pieces of dry roasted nuts and delivered both flavor and texture, while the Plain is for all you purists. Personally, since stevia is different from sugar I preferred the bars with inclusions as they added complexity by introducing other flavors and textures. However, if you are already a fan of this sweetener, the plain rendition might be your favorite.

These 3 ounce bars are scored into 30 little rectangles, each with an imprint of the word chocolate, just in case you forgot what you were eating. I found this very sweet and amusing. The paper wrappers come in four different designs, all evocative of a tropical garden with stylized trees, flowers, and a hummingbird in a lovely color palette. You can even download a monthly screen saver from their website under “free stuff.”

In addition to noting Lily’s uses organic brown rice for their Crispy bar, I was delighted to see they buy non-GMO and fairly traded chocolate.

Endangered Species 48% Milk, 72% Dark with Sea Salt and Almonds, and 72% Dark with Cherries

As much as I adore dark chocolate, I am always on the lookout for great high cacao content milk bars. Endangered Species has a 48% rendition that offers up the same velvety texture you would expect from a high end milk chocolate with an edginess that makes it far more interesting than your typical bar. I only sampled the plain, but you will be happy to know it also comes with almonds or cherries. If you love milk chocolate, but want more dark chocolate health benefits, this is the answer. I must confess, I immediately went out and bought a few more of these, they were so delicious and desserty.

I also tried their other two new bars. The Dark Chocolate with Almonds and Sea Salt is infused with tiny bits of nut and crunchy salt crystals. The shiny, well tempered dark chocolate has an audible snap, while the tiny crunchy pieces of salt and almonds almost popped with texture. 72% Dark with Cherries was an excellent conflation of dried fruit, with its tangy sweetness and appealing chewy texture, in the same very adult dark base. Here, the coffee undertones in the chocolate danced a lovely pas de deux with the cherries, each enhancing its partner.

Though all three bars are worth trying, the 48% plain milk is truly a stand-out.