TrulyObscure - article - domicilia - trulyrandom - Small World - New Tree: Hit and Miss

This is Chocolate Week here at Truly Obscure, and we’re looking at some interesting, expensive, excellent, and mediocre ways of ingesting your RDA of cocoa.

In Part I of Chocolate Week, we mentioned how one of our favorite cacao regions was Tanzania. Small World (from Lake Champlain Chocolates) apparently feels the same way, because they created a sauce that is 75% cocoa and from select Tanzanian beans.

It’s easy to use- just put the small glass jar in the microwave for a little while- and it’s incredibly tasty. Tangy, dark, and perfectly smooth, you couldn’t ask for a better chocolate sauce. It’s not cheap- $12 a jar- but 12 ounces will last quite a while. Available online and in select stores.

On the other hand, our high hopes for a perfect run of chocolate experimentation were dashed by NewTree. They have an interesting idea: “infuse” extracts of various kinds into Belgian chocolate, for combinations like Forgiveness (dark chocolate and lemon) and Tranquility (milk chocolate with Lavender).

Maybe it’s just because our samples were a little old, but every piece we tried failed, and a few spectacularly. The texture, mouthfeel, and appearance of these chocolates were the worst of any in our sample set, and the flavors were unfortunately not much better. It could be the odd extracts they add: “NeOpuntia®, a natural cactus extract” to the Forgiveness or guarana for example. Whatever it is, despite the cute packaging, multiple sizes, and reasonable price ($5-6 a bar) we can’t recommend NewTree.