Organic Chocolate Review & the Cleanest Veggies You Can Eat!

Hello Everyone!!!

Whew! What a busy week!!! We managed to get two whole radishes this week!!! Not enough to do my sauteed radish dish, but certainly enough to throw into a potato salad! I also was able to put some cilantro in the salad and, yes, I had some dill from my herb garden too!!! (I do have to say, harvesting the dill while it was young definitely made the flavor much more strong.) Lad pulled a couple of the Egyptian Walking Onions (too many in one area) and garlic as well. Everything in the garden seems to be coming along nicely...but with this rain today, I'm not sure what the garden will look like tomorrow!!

OK. Last blog I told you I was going to review various organic chocolate bars. I decided against adding the ones labeled "natural" because that term is misused and generally unregulated, so I couldn't be sure of my information.

As a disclaimer: I must say I am totally and thoroughly in love with chocolate. No chocolate is "bad" to me...there's just different degrees of "scrumptiousness" :):)

I reviewed five different organic milk chocolate bars. I also had a hand from Hana and Lad in the taste testing. Hana was a little more discriminating in her taste. Lad? Not so much!:) So here they are:

365 Organic: This is the Whole Foods brand. As a whole it was "OK." I noticed it had "swiss" on the label, so I was thinking "Ooooh!!! I love swiss chocolate." But honestly, this one seemed the weakest in terms of smoothness and taste. It claims to have 36 percent cacao, which is pretty much in line with most. It just tasted a bit weak. Hana was in agreement. Lad? Not so much.:) The "up" side? One percent of sales are donated to the Whole Planet Foundation to help end world poverty.

Dagoba: This milk chocolate had a 37 percent cacao label on the front. I thought this was pretty smooth and VERY close to one of my favorites (although not organic) Vosges. I liked this a lot. Very smooth and creamy taste. Hana wasn't thrilled with this one. Lad? Well, he thought it was fine :) The inside of the label has some nice info on the Dagoba company. A portion of the proceeds (doesn't say how much. I'd like to know that, right?) is donated to help fund tree planting projects in Costa Rica. Lastly—I love the quote on the label—"You can deprive the body, but the soul needs chocolate."

Newman's Own: With 34 percent cocoa (notice the different spelling) you would think it would be fairly tasty. Not so. It is along the lines of Czech chocolate, however, I think Czech chocolate tastes MUCH better. High caloric content and fat content makes this bar unappealing. This was the only bar that did not let us know any information on the inside of the label about their product. There is a small blurb stating we can go to their website to see about the commitments they're making through their organice chocolate program. But I'm not really sure what that means. Again, Hana wasn't thrilled with this one and Lad, well, let's say he was least pleased with this one.

Equal Exchange Chocolates: I adore the packaging on this one. Very attractive and definitely draws you in. With a 38 percent cacao content this one tasted pretty good. Very smooth and creamy. Left a nice aftertaste. I liked this one a lot. However, it was also the second most expensive at almost $4.00/bar. Equal Exchange had farmer partners who join this co-op and these co-ops are run by the farmers themselves. It is a worker owned Fair Trade company and the farmers that participate have formed co-ops in the Dominican Republic, Panama, Peru and Ecuador. Through Fair Trade, these farmers have been able to invest in the quality of their infrastructures that allow communities access to safe drinking water, health centers and the building of schools. Kinda worth the extra cost for all that is done down there. Right? (By the way, Hana loved this chocolate. Lad? Not so much!)

Green & Blacks: The 34 percent cocoa in this makes it one of the best we sampled. This is a small bar that is pricey, yet packs a big punch. Awesome in every aspect. The inside of the label has a bit of info, but certainly not as much as the others. It pretty much said they work hard to make sure the cocoa is grown using sustainable and bio-diverse farming methods. I did not get a chance to check out the website, however, I have to say this bar tasted AMAZING! Even Lad and Hana liked it!

All of the chocolate bars had the label "USDA Organic" on them...not sure of how stringent their rules and regulations are. I will research that. Now, again, I wouldn't say "No" to any of them...but the Green & Blacks definitely had the smoothest, creamiest taste. I highly encourage you to try them yourself.

In my last blog I told you I would talk about the Egyptian Walking Onions. Well, I was so busy tasting choclate I didn't have a chance to do some proper research on them. I am going to save that until next blog...and hopefully, I will have figured out how to put a picture of them up! Recipes next week, as well! (Yes, you can call me lazy!!!)

Lastly, I came across this article on the Huffinton Post. It talks about what the cleanest vegetables are that you can eat. Meaning-least amount of pesticides and "stuff." Check out this link to see the list.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/14/clean-fifteen-low-pesticide-produce_n_876580.html?ref=tw

I really appreciate you reading about my chaos! I am by no means a pro at this stuff...however between Lad and I, we will try any way we can (and use every square centimeter in our yard) to grow our veggies, fruits and herbs!

Thanks for reading! Until next time...Eat Well and Enjoy your food!!!!!!!