Humanyms

Hachez Cocoa D’Arriba vs. Hershey Extra Dark

The Goods

Hershey’s Extra Dark: Flavor
I’d heard good things about Hershey’s Extra Dark. It’s 60% cocoa, (a little low) but its ingredients start out promising, of unsweetened chocolate, sugar then cocoa powder, milk ingredients, cocoa butter, soya lecithin and those [nasty disembodied] “natural flavors” [pulled out and re-added added separately].

I can’t say that first bite impressed. It’s got a wee bit of chalkiness, an intense flavor and a flat heaviness to the taste. Its not smoky per se and can’t be a chemical taste exactly but there is a bitterness and acidity that some might call the good darkness of the chocolate. (Perhaps someone with a more black coffee-palate might enjoy it more.) The sugar seems very strong in aftertaste. Soya lecithin in anything always leaves that gumminess in aftertaste (as eating cheap ice cream). It was sold at a drug store for a couple dollars for 100g as I recall.

The Hershey Extra Dark has 35% of RDI of iron (per half bar, which at that dose has enough caffeine and chocolate-whatnot to induce an insta-coronary in me, or in the very least no sleep for a day or so.) Still it’s nice to know its nutritional. The Hachez, for the about the same size serving, has under 5% of RDI of Iron. Something’s clearly substantively substantially different between the two.

Comparison of Texture

Starting at equal ambient temperatures of 29 degrees:

The Hershey seems to break easily but with a grain. It rolls eagerly into a ball or tube between the fingers and quickly creams.

The Hachez breaks smooth with a snap and crumbles between the fingers, makes a ball that stays firm for longer, then creams. It has a higher melting point, closer to body temperature.

Hachez Cocoa D’Arriba: Flavor

What about flavor of the Hachez? Hachez I tried before, but a different variety. I didn’t know what to expect from Hachez again but the first taste was an eyebrow-pop — delicate, fruity and it changed in the mouth to other pleasant depths. It is 77% cocoa yet has a creaminess to texture. Its ingredients are cocoa mass, cocoa butter, sugar and bourbon vanilla; a fairly different beast here.

As time passes the Cocoa D’Arriba sweetness releases to a sharper dry slightly bitter aftertaste which is still more mellow than any point in the Hershey’s Extra Dark. This Hachez seems more like a dessert chocolate, not as “adult candybar-like”.

Cost and Source
Hachez seems hard to come by, except at European bakeries that also carry chocolates. It was $4 for 100g. Prices, of course, don’t tell the whole story. The price could go towards any part of the company’s costs, marketing, transport, farmers, executives or to balance a cost losing other part of the business. But in this case, the extra money did bring in a better texture.

Hachez claims for its product include being a fine-grade of cocoa, a mild tasting variety from Ecuador. Hershey doesn’t tout where it’s cocoa comes from for this item. Does it have blended origins or that is just not its marketing angle for its customer base? My wild guess it that the Hershey cocoa comes from Africa where 70% of cocoa imports come from, most of that from Cote d’Ivoire, according to the Progressive Policy Institute.

Ecuador, where this Hachez is from is the #4 importer of beans to the US, tends to grow lower yield varieties, some shade-grown and co-ops.

Hachez has a focus on craftmanship. Hershey’s focus is on a wider-product scale is about socially responsible cocoa growing in in Cote D’Ivoire, Ghana, Cameroon and Nigeria, recognizing family-businesses that include children but putting controls to avoid forced labour, and to add farmer education of best practices.

What makes us Buy Chocolate?
Chocolate purchasing is more than grabbing one off a shelf. Dark chocolates are moving into a niche of people who cut back on coffee to serve the same role with a more virtuous tilt, or more decadent tilt. Something makes one to be chose one over another, for some,

For whatever cluster of reasons the mainstream trend towards darker and higher-cocoa content chocolates continue. The Candy Industry Newsletter says,

Combined, Dove, Ferrero, Ghirardelli, Hershey Dark, Lindt, Mon Cheri and Perugina grew 32.2% for the period ending Dec. 25, 2005, according to NCA and IRI data. “Some might make an argument that Hershey Dark and Dove don’t constitute gourmet chocolate, but if we took them out, that percentage would be even higher,” maintains Corcoran. The top three reason why gourmet chocolate sales are growing, according to the NCA—“all the good news surrounding dark chocolate and antioxidants, they’re sexy, and the big commitment at retail,” Corcoran explains.

The antioxidents can be delicate things though. Sun-dried rather than factory-processed cocoa beans are higher in antioxydents. Dark chocolate doesn’t guarantee antioxydents any more than brown-colored bread guarantee healthier. (Could be molasses-added.) Still health claims do make an impact. When antioxydent-boost of blueberries were announced, sales more than doubled.

Household Tip: This brown sugar softener clay actually works, and overnight. From cement brick to store-bought looseness, the wet clay slowly releases its moisture to make sugar useable again and can soften up raisins again too. Much better than the slice of bread or microwaving tricks.

Just Heard: Tapestry on CBC interviewed Elizabeth Gilbert, who wrote Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman’s Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia. She sounds like a delightful person in voice. Her journey seems an lively, humorous, thoughtful and intense one. I’ve seen the cover around book stores but never opened it. At the library, it’s hot. 8 copies and over 40 people on the waiting list. On the other hand, I’m about 3 dozen books ahead of myself at the moment…hm.

Listening Microskill Self-Disclosure: If you’re listening, or talking, share the floor with give and take, making your turn taking relatively short. Be wary of over-offering, or blitzing the person with too much information at once. There is no hurry. You have a lifetime, or you don’t, but “too much” can’t be absorbed.

Featured Quote: from James Wiley, M.D., You Just Can’t Hardly Believe It, General Store Publishing, 1989, p. 54,

Word Chain: tinder the tender musing, rusing, bruising, loosen the losings and gains, strain from the expectations, sail to the now, tent you and I under the comforter forts of our knees, the filtered light of sheet making soft the loft of our breaths.