Review - ZenBunni Chocolate

 

Well, this chocolate was certainly an learning adventure. I hope you're ready for something you've never heard of before, because this is about as original as it gets. Here in Los Angeles there's a trendy little street called Abbot Kinney. Lots of artsy places, stores carrying handcrafted products, and a coffee shop or two. And, happily, a little cubby hole of a chocolate shop called ZenBunni.

ZenBunni is a biodynamic chocolate company in Venice, CA, established in 2007. This was the first time I've ever come across the word biodynamic in relation to chocolate. Reading their website about how they source all their ingredients, I learned that biodynamic farming involves spraying the soil with crystal-infused water and takes into account the "influences and the rhythms of the sun, moon, and planets". The name ZenBunni comes directly from the two founders, Bunni and Zen. Everything they use is organic, raw, vegan, gluten free, and free of any refined sugars. Yep, I said raw. Meaning they do not roast their cocoa beans. And when they grind them, they do it slower, so the temperature doesn't get as high as it does with typical cacao processing. Heck, they even use omnidegradable packaging with vegetable ink!

The packages also have little descriptions on them of symptoms or issues that each chocolate should help with. For example, Mocha Mucha says it helps with fat burning, brain activating, cardiovascular protection, and increasing energy. I'm not sure if a tiny chocolate bar can really help with these types of things, but hey, who am I to judge.



I picked up a few bars during my first visit. Mucha Mocha, which includes biodynamic and organic hand-ground espresso, maple crystals, 70% cacao, and cane jaggery (and seems to now be called Mystic Mocha). Kathmandu Chai has biodynamic and organic ashwaganda, tulsi, vanilla, zenbunni chai spices, 70% cacao, and cane jaggery. Lavender Lamuria, which contains biodynamic and organic lavender flowers, salt, lavender labyrinth oil, 70% cacao, and cane jaggery.

So you can see there's a lot of unconventional ingredients in there. Not that this is a bad thing, of course. It's kind of neat and fun. The flavors are definitely original and the chocolate itself has a nice, not too sweet flavor. While all the ones I picked up were 70% chocolate, they taste like they could be 75%. Hopefully you also noticed in those ingredient lists above, instead of sugar, they are sweetened with cane jaggery. Basically, it's the boiled and reduced juice from sugar cane. Same raw materials as regular sugar, just not refined as much.

The bars are tiny, which makes them a bit expensive for their size, since they are $3 a bar.









I'm using two bars of their Original Topanga to make a drinking chocolate. While making the drink, it created an excellent froth, even though I used 2% milk. I tend to think a good froth is a result of using real chocolate, because the cocoa butter is still in there, which is the fat of the cacao bean. I have no idea if that's correct, it just seems to be what I've discovered. If I use cocoa powder as the main chocolate ingredient in a drink, it never froths. If I use whole chocolate, it usually will.

The drink is delicious! It's not very sweet and has a slight nuttiness, with just the slightest notes of almond. It also has a very creamy flavor, typical of drinks where I add some heavy cream to the milk. It's very pleasant to drink, and would make a wonderful midday or after dinner drinking chocolate.

And at this point, I was actually going to publish this post. Then, before I could, at my wife's workplace Christmas dinner, her coworker Angela surprised us with gifts of ZenBunni's actual packaged drinking chocolate! When I had visited, they hadn't yet been making this product. We left with the Kathmandu Chai Coco. I've enjoyed chai-infused drinking chocolates here on the blog before, and once I opened this package, like the other ones, I was blown away! The aroma of that chocolate mixed with the complexity of the chai spices is just magical. 

The packaging is extraordinary! Amazing artwork on the front, while the back has a bit of a Harry Potter feel, complete with a magical tale of creating the drink in a stupa high in the mountains overlooking Kathmandu.

In the instructions, they mention adding in a touch of grass fed butter or ghee. I made it as recommended, and even added that spoonful of butter made from the milk of grass fed cows.

Wow, creamy and amazing! Putting the butter in, I was a bit skeptical that I would be able to notice it, but in the time since my first mug of the drink, I've made it without the butter, and I really think it made it much creamier. It's really a wonderful drink, very relaxing and aromatic, and definitely out of the range of ordinary hot chocolates. They also have a Shiva Rose Coco, and I can't wait to have a sip of that! 

This drinking chocolate is definitely recommended, and if you order, be sure and mention you heard about them here on Melting Mug. And if you try it, please come back and let me know what you thought of it. 

Review - Lady Chocolatt, Los Angeles

Los Angeles isn't exactly known for chocolate, but we've got a few hot spots around town if you keep your eyes open. Lady Chocolatt is on Wilshire Blvd, and I'd driven by this place quite a few times before finally getting the chance to stop in. It's a small place, easy to miss, despite the vivid yellow storefront. On a nice, relaxing Saturday afternoon, my wife and I happened to be in the area, so we stopped in.

It's a cute, small place, very bright and clean inside. Everything is painted that pleasant yellow color, and the shelves were perfectly stocked. They have a nice selection of artisanal chocolate bars, as well as all the crafted chocolates in the display case.

Walking in, I was immediately excited by the menu! Check it out - there's just as much drinking chocolate as there is coffee! That's rare to find! We spoke with the owner, who served us our chocolate candies and my drinking chocolate. He also explained to us that Lady Chocolatt only uses imported Belgian chocolate in all their products.

The place is just filled with truffles. It's always hard for me to pick in these situations where so many look so good. I picked out an orange peel hazelnut, and when I mentioned I had a chocolate blog, the owner gave me the creamy hazelnut, saying it was their best one.


Orange peel hazelnut was great! The orange was subtle, but really nice. All the flavors were present and discernible. The creamy hazelnut was also great, very smooth and creamy.





In comparison, eating the hazelnut truffle second made the orange stand out more in the first truffle. The hazelnut is a really great truffle, I can see why it's their signature one. It's hard to decide which was better when both were amazing.

As for the drinking chocolate, I ordered the extra dark. It was very thick and rich, very dark chocolatey. The owner told me it was a 72% chocolate, a ganache made with a mixture of heavy cream and water. This drink wasn't sweet at all, which was nice, it made it taste more like an 80%. Also, after eating the sweet truffles, this drink almost seemed more like a coffee than a typical sweet hot chocolate.

Really great drinking chocolate, definitely on my Top 10 list of LA hot chocolates. I'm excited to return and try more of the flavors and learn a bit more about the chocolate used in the drinks. If you swing by Lady Chocolatt, be sure and tell them you read about them on Melting Mug!

Review - Twentyfour Blackbirds

Last summer my wife and I got away for a weekend to Santa Barbara, CA. Santa Barbara is a gorgeous little beachfront town, and it always feels like vacation there. And as it turns out, it's becoming a bit of a hot spot for artisanal chocolate!

On a previous trip to Santa Barbara, we had discovered an amazing chocolate shop called Chocolate Maya. Nothing but artisanal chocolate from floor to ceiling, Chocolate Maya is kind of a ground zero for chocolate lovers. So of course, when we are in town, it's always on our list to visit.

However, on this particular trip, we discovered another shop. Isabella Gourmet Foods is a great little grocery off of State Street. They sell really great local and artisanal products out of their very cozy shop. I picked up some twenty-four blackbirds drinking chocolate and a canister of Golden Door Ginger Cookies.

Twenty-four blackbirds was started by Michael Orlando while he was busy working as a marine scientist. In a short time, the chocolate won, and he moved to making chocolate full time. It didn't take long for his small company to begin selling a drinking chocolate.

The ginger cookies were also made locally by an interesting company called Golden Door. Their website is a bit overwhelming. I can't tell what exactly they do. They seem to be a resort destination, they have a speaker series, they sell food products... a bit of everything, I guess.

To complete the full Santa Barbara drinking chocolate experience, I picked up a handmade mug and creamer at another local craft store. I sadly didn't get the woman's name who made them, and cannot read it from the bottom of the stoneware.

I absolutely love the colors of them, and the faces are made completely by hand, with the designer using her fingers and fingernails to create them. Really beautiful work!

So lets talk about that chocolate!

It comes with an instruction card and some bits of information about how the chocolate was made. Hand wrapped in craft paper and tied with twine, the packaging is minimal and perfect. Their regular eating bars are decorated with bird artwork and molded with a beautiful leaf impression.

Also on the card is instruction on making a chocolate syrup from the bars. The bars are small, 1 ounce each, which lets you perfectly control how much you're going to make. Simple and to the point, the smooth, flat bars smell amazing as you unwrap them.

I made mine with 2% milk, and I used the creamer to bring along a bit of heavy cream, which I added as I enjoyed the drink, giving it a creamier, less concentrated flavor and bringing out different flavor notes.

The cookies were the perfect snack to serve with it, as well. I'm not a huge fan of serving chocolate cookies or snacks with a chocolate drink, so the strong ginger flavor really paired well with it. And the cookies are crisp, which, of course, is perfect for dunking!

I can't recommend twenty-four blackbirds drinking chocolate enough. It's a really amazing drink, and is definitely helping to raise the bar of what should be expected of a hot chocolate. This is top-of-the-line hot chocolate, the exact kind of drink that made me realize everything that was wrong with hot cocoa from a packet. If you like hot chocolate, this absolutely cannot be missed.

Review - Tcho Superberry & Regular Drinking Chocolate

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.

I also tried the drinking chocolate in a milder mix, using 1½ cups of milk and the same 3 tbsp of chocolate that the directions call for. It created a very mellow hot chocolate. Very dark, not sweet at all, and none of the fruity tanginess that it had as a stronger shot. It is very good, especially as a morning drink.



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!

Review - Ghirardelli Drinking Chocolate

We're pretty lucky here in Los Angeles. As an entertainment city, LA is one of the most popular tourist destinations in America, with Hollywood Boulevard being one of the biggest draws out here. It is, quite literally, Hollywood. It's where the famous Chinese Theater is with all the hand prints in cement. It's where the stars line the sidewalks. So naturally, we've got a lot of places for tourists to spend money.

Almost directly across from the Chinese Theater is Disney's El Capitan Theater. Next to that, there used to be a Disney Store. Much to my great pleasure, a couple years ago, they turned the Disney Store into a Ghirardelli Chocolate Shop!

If you're a chocolate lover, there's no way you can walk by here without taking a peek inside. And once you're in, they hand you a free tasting square of chocolate to really trap you! Works on me every time.

Ghirardelli is, in my opinion, one of the better mass market chocolate makers. Sure, they are a huge company, but take a look at their ingredients list. They use quality stuff (mostly), and you can taste it. They don't overload their products with fake or overly processed ingredients. At least, not in their plain chocolates.


I've used their chocolates many times in making my hot chocolates, and using their squares is one of the easiest ways to have an exceptional dessert drink. I was very excited when this store appeared, because now I'd get to experience what they believe to be the ultimate hot chocolate.

The menu has a couple hot cocoas and a drinking chocolate. Maybe they change this seasonally? That would be great if they did! On this occasion, I went with the decadent drinking chocolate. That's always my favorite, and the best way to just really enjoy the flavor of the chocolate. 

To wait for my chocolate I took a seat at a small table next to a column with this great poster explaining how chocolate is made. I love things like this. I think most people still just think of chocolate as coming from a big factory rather than from a plant in a forest. Chocolate really is just a plant, like a salad or a plate of broccoli. It doesn't become bad for you until you begin adding sugar (and other filler ingredients).

My drinking chocolate was served in a small mug with nothing accompanying it. I could tell instantly that this was a real melted chocolate, just as described on the menu. That's always preferable to any kind of cocoa powder mix, and also explains why they didn't include a little square of chocolate on the side to enjoy with it, like they do with their sea salt hot cocoa.

It was a very nice drink, and it wasn't served too hot, so I was able to start in on it as soon as it arrived. It was sweet and thick, and while overall it was a bit more on the sugary side, it actually had unexpected notes of smokiness. That was very nice, however, overall the experience was more akin to eating a candy bar than having an artisanal hot chocolate. By the time I was close to finishing, it was getting too sweet, but thankfully, the portion size was just right, and it ended perfectly.

Worth a stop if you're in Hollywood and in the mood for a better-than-coffee-shop hot chocolate!