Friday, April 3, 2009

Endangered Species: Dark Chocolate w/ Goji Berries, Pecans, & Maca

Firstly, let me just say: I got my comeuppance when I dissed goji berries a couple weeks ago. My mom bought me this bar (again, Eden Gourmet in South Orange, NJ) and -- what could I say? 

The deal with Endangered Species Chocolate is that it gives 10% of profits to nonprofit organizations in support of "species, habitat, and humanity" -- they change their partners every two years or so. The inside wrapper gives you information about how to support endangered species and sustainable forest farmland, and humane working conditions for farmers, etc.

It also teaches you a thing or two about the spider monkey -- at least this bar does. "Acrobatic and swift, spider monkeys travel in foraging groups seeking tasty seeds and fruits." I guess the idea is that the spider monkey would like this particular bar, which sort of has some of that stuff in it. I would never feed an animal chocolate. Here are some stats:

Endangered Species: Dark Chocolate w/ Goji Berries, Pecans, and Maca
Cocoa content: 70%
Notable ingredients: goji berries, pecans, maca, organic chocolate liquor
Origin: Blend, made in USA

Maca is an herb -- or maybe a root -- harvested in the Andes. Endangered Species says it enhances your energy and stress-handling abilities; Wikipedia says maybe it improves libido and semen quality. Goji berries, in case you've never had them, are little red puckered things that grow in China and appeal to health food people. Pecans are pecans.

What's funny about this bar is that I can hardly detect ANY of the aforementioned ingredients in it. If I break off pieces I can kind of make out flecks of pecan, but I neither see nor taste the goji or the maca. ES doesn't talk about how it mixes in the ingredients, but I suspect some sort of infusion thing is going on. The chocolate itself is great -- snappy, consistent texture, sweet, and finally, thick. I am sick of thin, pointy bars of chocolate that hurt the roof of my mouth. So I feel that this is a wonderful bar of chocolate that I could easily mistake for being solid dark. I'm choosing not to detract points for that because at the end of the day, I just want to HAVE KNOWN good chocolates. A-.

NB: I tagged goji under fruit.

2 comments:

  1. people don't use "NB" enough anymore.

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  2. Excellent post! I am a huge fan of goji berry too. I used to spend a lot unnecessarily on expensive diet programs but now I know the secret. Going green is what is best. Thanks for sharing this information with us.

    ReplyDelete