dorchadas: (Darker than Black)
[personal profile] dorchadas
​On Friday [personal profile] schoolpsychnerd and I took a trip out to the suburbs to visit my parents. We managed to get on the express train, shaving twenty minutes off the trip, and then had a delicious dinner of salmon and vegetables with my mother's homemade ice cream pie for dessert. We came back on Saturday, later than we usually do since I'm feeling less time-crunched than I normally would what with my upcoming week of vacation, and spent most of the rest of the day at home. But we went out to dinner and on the way, we bought some chocolate.

We went to Appellation, the restaurant inside Pastoral, the wine, bread, and cheese shop in Andersonville. The food was excellent--I got a steak that came with a negi-and-mushroom cream sauce--but relevant to this blog post is that on the way out, we bought some cheese and chocolate. Chocolate we'd never seen before, but which looked intriguing and, well...quaint

Week 47 packaging

Look at that picturesque natural scene.

I will tell you a secret, dear reader. I thought this chocolate would be stupid bullshit. When I turned over the package, these are the words that greeted me:
Every spring, processions of local dairy farmers and their cattle leave villages at the foot of the Swiss mountains to climb to the lush alpine pastureland that will be their home in the months ahead. Their departure is marked by festivities as the villagers give husbands, fathers and brothers a rousing send-off. The young boys and girls wear local costume and accompany the procession as it leaves the village. Some of the boys are dressed as herdsmen and carry carved milk pails, like the boy of the MilkBoy logo. Once on the alps, the cows eat their fill of juicy green grass until the onset of autumn, when the farmers descend to their villages and their return is celebrated by great festivities.
Plus pine oil. I mean, come on. Emoji Blah blah blah

But when I unwrapped it and broke it in half, both [personal profile] schoolpsychnerd and I smelled the faint scent of pine in the air. Not strong enough to smell like a cleaning product, but strong enough that it was easily noticeable. And then when we took the first bite, it tasted like the chocolate had been infused with gin. There was a subtle pine flavor united with the cacao taste, like I had drunk a sip of gin and then eaten some chocolate to pair with it. After all the badly-blended to simply bland chocolate I've had during this blog series, to find a chocolate where the flavors go together so well is a delight.

And it was only 60% cacao, but I think the pine flavor made it taste darker. Do I need to start drinking gin with my chocolate? That can be arranged.

Week 47 chocolate
I do like the alternating leaves, though I wish they had used the flowers at the bottom of the logo.

[personal profile] schoolpsychnerd's Opinion
Back in the early days of Darker Than Black, I took every nifty add in promised on a label as a sign of awesome and fun things in chocolate. Alas, while I still hope, I am somewhat more skeptical of things added to chocolate (looking at you, hojicha chocolate). After having [personal profile] dorchadas read the back label to me, I pulled a muscle in my face rolling my eyes. But still, chocolate is chocolate and I was curious about the pine. Dear readers, I was wrong! This chocolate was amazing and like I am sad that I finished eating it because now it's gone and I need to buy more. The pine was light enough that it was almost like gin, a tang with the perfect smell of the Pacific Northwest (ok, now I'm getting pretentious). So worth it. If the cost were not prohibitive, I would eat this chocolate in my lunch every day and die a happy woman.
The cost is not that prohibitive! The cheese and chocolate together were $9, which is less than we've paid for just the chocolate sometimes. This might not be an every-day thing, but it could easily be an every week treat!

Date: 2017-Jul-18, Tuesday 03:36 (UTC)
tilmon: pink flowers (Default)
From: [personal profile] tilmon
I will buy this someday, but only because you two actually ate it and liked it. Reading the words "pine oil" on a chocolate bar would otherwise have me noping away from the candy display at light speed.

Date: 2017-Jul-18, Tuesday 17:30 (UTC)
From: [personal profile] st_chair
I've tasted tar chocolate and wasn't a fan, but you've made pine tree oil sound delicious. If I ever see that chocolate, I'll definitely buy it and taste some myself.

I love the picture and the text on the wrapper! So idyllic! I kinda doubt the dairy farmers hang out with the cows all summer in this day and age, but I want to believe.