An American Chocolate Road Trip with Wild Ophelia, Beef Jerky Chocolate

Just when you think you've seen it all, they come out with Beef Jerky Chocolate! Now, this is one chocolate combination you don't come across often.

Wild Ophelia, sister company to the very popular Vosges Chocolates, is an all natural American brand that combines chocolate with ingredients sourced from small American farmers and food artisans.

With a very Southern flair, Wild Ophelia offers flavors such as Beef Jerky, Southern Hibiscus Peach, New Orleans Chili, Sweet Cherry Pecan, Smokehouse BBQ Potato Chips and Peanut Butter and Banana.

In true Katrina Markoff style, everything has a story. And here is the one of "Wild Ophelia". On a small ranch house in Leipers Fork, tennessee, Wild Ophelia was nicknamed such because of the smart plans she hatched while a kid. Instead of making pocket money serving lemonade, she would serve her experimental creations such as chocolate dipped beef jerky and fresh peaches with hibiscus, hence the inspirations for the Wild Ophelia chocolate line up.

Also similar to Vosges Chocolate, the Wild Ophelia bars have tasting tips. Here is the one for the beef jerky bar: "Close your eyes, breathe. Let the plains of Wyoming roll on your tongue as you snap the chocolate in your mouth. Beef jerky, smoked paprika and deep milk chocolate deliver the power of the magical cacao bean".

The beef jerky chocolate was really good. The beef jerky bits were small enough to blend with the chocolate creating a very nice uniform flavor that wasn't overpowering.

The artwork inside the chocolate box is adds a nice design touch too.

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Ki' Xocolatl Chocolate

I've got another great product to share...I get very excited when I do.

When I met up with my friend, J, who recently got back from her vacation in Mérida, Mexico, she presented me with this beautiful flashy bright pink box. When I looked down, I noticed that it was chocolate from Mexico, Ki' Xocolatl chocolate to be exact. I looooooove exotic chocolates, so this was the perfect gift for me.

Ki-Xocolatl is a collaborative project between Belgian chocolatiers Mathieu Brees and Stephanie Verbrugge, and cocoa producers of Chiapas and Tabasco in Mexico. Ki-Xocolatl means delectable chocolate in the Mayan and Nahuatl languages.

The company works directly with the farmers of the Chiapas and Tabasco regions, and the cocoa is organic certified. Instead of insecticide, the fertilizers are a mix of plants, veggies, and cocoa by-products.

J brought back the dark chocolate with pink pepper bar for me. It was a smooth, dark chocolate with a hint of pink pepper. Subtle and not too strong. This bar also had hints of all spice, which was different.

Other flavors include: semi-bitter chocolate with chili and spice, and chocolate with milk and Cocoa seed Criollo Tostado

The only Ki' Xocolatl boutique is situated in Mérida, so if you're lucky enough to go, check it out.

Tienda Ki'Xocolatl
Santa Lucía
Calle 55 Número 513
Entre 60 y 62
Colonia Centro
C.P. 97000
Mérida, Yucatán

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Vosges Exotic Caramels + Marshmallow

I thought my love affair with Vosges Haut-Chocolat was over, but clearly, it is not. On my way back from Memphis, I flew through the O'Hare airport, where I bumped into the very familiar Vosges Haut-Chocolat stand.

"I've got an hour and a half", I thought to myself. "Won't hurt to look. I've tried pretty much everything I wanted to."

Boy, was I wrong. Vosges has expanded its product line to offer so much more than chocolate bars, truffles, and hot chocolate mixes. I saw chocolate covered tortilla chips, peanut butter bonbons, chocolate covered mango, caramels, books, and more. I was in awe with all that was offered. I was like a little kid in a candy shop.

Of course, I had to buy something. I wasn't sure what I was going to buy, but I needed to buy something. After much contemplation, I finally decided on the exotic caramels.

I chose the 4-piece Exotic Caramels, which fit nicely into my carry on luggage. These were the 4 flavors + interesting tasting notes that came with the caramels:

Crema: Argentinean dulce de leche + Costa Rican cashews + milk chocolate.
Vosges recommends pairing this with Quilmes mild beer to allow the "sweet caramel flavors of dulce de leche echo through".

Sunshine: Tupelo honey + milk chocolate + bee pollen.This was a very soft caramel with a nice strong, sweet honey taste. If you are feeling adventurous, try eating this chocolate "with spice rubbed corn on the cob between bites."

Maple: Canadian maple sugar + maple syrup + walnuts + dark chocolate.
The walnuts in this semi-soft caramel provided mild hints of bitterness. Vosges recommends eating this one with "steaming Canadian maple-cured bacon."

Tarte: blood orange + Campari® + dark chocolate + hibiscus powder.
This was a refreshing citrusy caramel. Mirror the ingredients in this caramel with a "tall glass of fresh blood orange juice and Campari® on the rocks."

I skipped the recommended pairing notes, and ate these caramels on its own. My favorite of the four? The Bee Pollen + Honey Caramel. I loved the softness of this caramel, and the honey instantly warmed my soul (I work on emotions). With the cold we've been experiencing, it was much needed.

As I was paying for the caramels, I chatted with the clerk, where we then started to compare notes on our favorite Vosges products. She mentioned that her new go-to products were the peanut butter bonbons, and the caramel marshmallows. I instantly knew I had to try one of the two.

I opted for the marshmallow only because it was the most portable. They are sold individually, and it was the smallest of the two.

The marshmallow was a Madagascan vanilla marshmallow, topped with sweet caramel, coated with dark chocolate, and then sprinkled with caramel toffee bits and French Guérande grey sea salt.

Katrina Markoff, you have proven yourself to be a chocolate goddess.
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On a completely separate note, my good friend BB just delivered a healthy, beautiful baby daughter. Look how precious she looks...only 7 days old. Awww.

Check out my other Vosges Haut-Chocolat posts:
Vosges Boutique, Chicago O'Hare Airport
Vosges Haut-Chocolat: Black Pearl Bar and Red Fire Bar

Vosges Haut-Chocolat
O'Hare International Airport, across from Gate B6
Chicago, Illinois, USA
Telephone: 773-894-4613

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Theo Chocolate

One of my addictions while travelling is buying exotic looking chocolate. This is somewhat ironic because, personally, I don't even like chocolate all that much.

Nonetheless, I gravitate towards the cocoa treats when I'm away from home, and I'm especially vulnerable to smart packaging and designs.

My latest discovery is Theo Chocolate. I saw these cool choco bars while perusing through my favorite grocery store, Whole Foods, in Houston.

Theo chocolate is the first and only organic and Fair Trade chocolate factory in the US. I had no clue that almost all US organic chocolate was manufactured in Europe.

It wasn't Theo's great organic and Fair Trade story that initially attracted me, it was their eclectic packaging design by Hungarian-American designer, 'KittenChops'. She has a very unique spin to design and collages, and her blog KittenChops is a great place to read about her inspirations and ideas. Clients and companies she's worked with include Starbucks, and The Seattle Times.

Theo Chocolates have a wide range of flavors, both traditional and exotic. I picked up two bars.
The first was the coconut curry bar. This was by far the most exotic flavor I saw. This was a milk chocolate bar made with 40% cacao.

Coconut Curry Bar

Both the coconut and curry flavors were prominent, and besides those two ingredients, this bar also contained fenugreek, paprika, and cardamom. This bar was really different, and I definitely enjoyed it.

Coconut Curry Chocolate

The second bar I picked up was the bread & chocolate. Made with 70% cacao, this dark chocolate bar adopts a traditional European food pairing. A real image of cat fur is used to fill out the cat in her design. Using real images with illustrations is characteristic of KittenChops designs.

Bread & Chocolate Bar

This bar reminds me of a refined version of Nestle's Crunch Chocolate bar. Bits of dehydrated French bread is mixed in with the chocolate, providing a distributed crunch with each bite. There is also a nice sea salt flavor to balance the sweetness of the chocolate.

Bread & Chocolate

Theo Chocolate

3400 Phinney Avenue N.

Seattle, Washington, USA

Telephone: 206-632-5100

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Cocoa Nymph Chocolate

I'm baaack! San Diego was a blast. The weather was fantastic, the food was good, and I had lots of fun in the sun.

I'm heading to Sydney in a few days, so I'll try really hard to squeeze in a post or two about my food adventures in San Diego in between now and when I leave.

My sister-in-law just got back from her trip to Vancouver, and of course, brought back some edible goodies for me. This time, she brought me Cocoa Nymph chocolate.

Cocoa Nymph is a local Vancouver chocolaterie that was started by former civil servant, Rachel Sawatzky. She started out by making chocolates for her co-workers as a hobby. They enjoyed them so much, that, she was encouraged to sell her cocoa delights. Well...the rest is history. You can watch a great video on Rachel's inspirations, and her story on how she got started on the Cocoa Nymph home page.

Cocoa Nymph carries a range of chocolates and confections including truffles, marshmallows, toffee, and candied pecans. They have a great shopping section on their website where you can pick and choose your personalized box of individual chocolates, and then have it effortlessly shipped to your door.

I received two chocolate bars: Urban Nymph and Sea Nymph.

Urban Nymph is a 45% deep milk chocolate bar with coffee and caramelized cocoa nibs. This was my favorite of the two. There was a nice strong coffee aroma throughout the bar, and the cocoa nibs were fun to eat. You can taste the love in this chocolate bar.

The Sea Nymph bar is 64% dark chocolate with fleur de sel and bits of Cocoa Nymph's English toffee. Of the salt and toffee, I expected the toffee to be the more prominent flavor. Au contraire. I didn't taste a lot of English toffee, but there were little surprising pockets of sea salt throughout the bar.

What I loved doing after dinner was take small alternating nibbles of each chocolate bar until I had my sugar fix. I'd take a small bite of the Urban Nymph, then a small bite of the Sea Nymph, then back to Urban Nymph, and so on. It was heaven!

Cocoa Nymph
3739 W. 10th Avenue (at Alma Street)
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Telephone: 604-222-4477

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Vosges Boutique, Chicago O'Hare Airport

En route to San Diego, I had a 3 hr layover at the Chicago airport yesterday. Sick with a cold, I was antsy to get to my destination, and spent the entire time circling around and around the airport.

I was tired of the countless bookstores, and mediocre food joints I encountered, so when I saw this beautiful purple + white Vosges Boutique full of chocolate goodies, I got excited.

Vosges Boutique, O'Hare Airport

Vosges boutiques are steadily expanding across the States, and so is their line of sweets. They have boutiques located in Chicago, New York, and Las Vegas, and their product line has expanded to offer ice cream, chocolate marshmallows, cookies, and caramels.

I've been meaning to purchase a thank you gift for my friend who hosted the Cordon Bleu dinner night, and this was the perfect opportunity to do so. She is a huge fan of truffles, so I got her a 4-pc truffle gift set, and two mini exotic chocolate bars (Woolloomooloo + Oaxaca bars).
For myself, I purchased a Mo's Bacon Bar as per Jenny T's suggestion a little while back.

Vosges Haut-Chocolat

The Woolloomooloo Bar is a deep milk chocolate bar with roasted & salted macadamia nuts, Indonesian coconut, and hemp seeds.

The Oaxaca Bar is Tanzanian bittersweet chocolate with Oaxacan guajillo y pasilla chillies.

And finally, Mo's Bacon Bar is a savory and sweet snack that contains applewood smoked bacon, and alderwood smoked salt.

I couldn't open the truffles, but the box listed a bunch of exotic ingredients such as ginger, wasabi, curry, candied violet flower, paprika, Chinese star anise, fennel, and ancho chili powder.
If you want to read about my past experience with the Black Pearl Bar, and Red Fire Bar, click here.

On a totally separate note, I spotted Wayne Newton yesterday. I only knew it was him because people kept going up to him, and asking to take a picture with him. He was on the same flight as I was, and it turns out, he is also staying at the same hotel as I am. Wish I could say I am a huge fan, but he's no Ferran Adria or Gordon Ramsey :-) I quickly snapped this photo while he was talking to a fan.

Wayne Newton at O'Hare Airport

Vosges Haut-Chocolat Boutique
O'Hare International Airport, across from Gate B6
Chicago, Illinois, USA
Telephone: 773-894-4613

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Vosges Haut-Chocolat: Black Pearl Bar and Red Fire Bar

While wandering through Whole Foods Market in Hillcrest, San Diego, I came across this wonderful wall of chocolates that resembled a complete set of exotic, rare, collectible books waiting to be discovered.

It was so enticing that I had to pick some up to try. What I'm referring to are the exotic candy bars made by Vosges Haut-Chocolat. Vosges has marketed themselves as a high end exotic chocolate retailer. The bulk of their boutiques are in Chicago, where the founder Katrina Markoff is from, and Markoff personally chooses each spice and flower that go into Vosges chocolates.

Vosges chocolates are not just chocolates. They take you on a journey around the world through their use of rare herbs, fruits, and spices. Vosges Haut-Chocolat has also partnered with different companies to create inspiring sets such as yoga + chocolate, cheese + chocolate, and beer + chocolate.

My exotic choices were the Red Fire Bar and Black Pearl Bar.

The Black Pearl Bar is dark chocolate infused with wasabi, ginger, and black sesame seeds. I have to warn you, this is not a chocolate bursting with flavor so don't gobble these down and expect to taste everything it encompasses. Instead, the flavors are very subtle and delicate. You need to take small bites, and savor the flavors. Besides the crispy black sesame seeds, the other flavors were so subtle, I would have missed it if I didn't concentrate as hard as I did :-)

The Vosges tasting notes describe the flavors well, "Commence with the taste of ginger, followed by earth cacao notes, mellow wasabi reminiscent of coriander and finish with black sesame seeds, rich in nutty texture".

The Red Fire Bar was a different experience. I tasted the flavors instantly, and enjoyed this one much more. It contains Mexican ancho & chipotle chillies, and Ceylon cinnamon.
Here are the tasting notes "Taste the sweet cacao, fruity and acidic with spice rounding out the finish. Feel how the chillies warm you after each bite".

These Vosges exotic chocolate bars are gluten free, dairy free, and vegan friendly.

Vosges Haut-Chocolat

Vosges Guide on How to Eat Chocolate

Vosges Boutique Locations

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