This time I'm taking a look at a couple selections from Tcho chocolate. Tcho is a trendy chocolate maker in Berkeley, CA, with the slogan of "New American Chocolate". Their bars come in a huge variety of flavors. I wouldn't say they are one of my favorites, but I do buy their bars when I come across them, mainly because of the interesting, fun flavors.
TCHO has some fascinating ties to the technology world. One of their founders, Timothy Childs, worked on vision systems for NASA's Space Shuttle, and their current CEO and President (Louis Rossetto and Jane Metcalfe, respectively) are co-founders of Wired magazine. Pretty cool!
I've enjoyed their drinking chocolates for quite some time now, at least a couple years. Long enough that their packaging tins have changed design, in fact! The square tin is their older style, the cylinder is the latest.
The flavors of Tcho's that I'm enjoying today are their Regular Drinking Chocolate and the Superberry Drinking Chocolate. Oddly, it looks like they don't sell the Superberry flavor anymore. Wonder why? I attempted to contact them to ask why, but haven't heard back as of publishing this review.
I made a small portion, closely following the directions on package. Superberry was very interesting, unlike most of the other flavored drinking chocolates I've had. It tasted of deep, dark chocolate with an infusion of raspberries and blueberries. Definitely not your ordinary hot chocolate, which really makes it a shame that they no longer sell it. It's fruity, but not overwhelmingly so. I actually wish there was a bit stronger of a fruity tang to it. Still, a great variation on the standard hot chocolate.
For their Regular Drinking Chocolate, there are multiple instructions for the drink. I did the instructions for the shot. Very rich and dark, with tangy notes, very slightly fruity, but not at all like the Superberry. Very tasty, but more than a shot of this would be a lot, unless you took your time drinking it and had something to dip in it. Drinking this chocolate definitely brings out the intense flavors and subtle notes in a way that you might miss if this was a bar chocolate.
All in all, I would definitely recommend Tcho drinking chocolates. Delicious chocolate, definitely a treat if you're still only used to the powder packet varieties of hot chocolate. It's sad to see their Superberry off the market, as the world of quality drinking chocolates can certainly use all the gourmet varieties it can get. Maybe some online sellers still have it in stock? If you find it, give it a shot!