Raven’s Range
Blather around a virtual range

Ghirardelli is a San Francisco staple and despite being “gourmet” is very easy to get hold of. The packaging had a band stating “New” so I assume that they just recently branched out into making milk chocolate. I bought my bar in Rite Aid in Redding.

One of the reasons this bar came home with me was that I found the packaging so attractive. A rich solid dark blue color fades towards black at the edges and contrasts with the golden-colored, slightly metallic back which matches the Ghirardelli inset on the front. A picture of two pieces plus some curled-up chocolate shavings promises “rich, slow-melting milk chocolate indulgence.” The packaging is simple and sumptuous. I also have a strong liking for dark blue.

Curiously, this 3oz bar also says it’s 85g, which is interesting because last week’s chocolate claimed 3.5oz and 85g. I did some conversions and 3.5 oz is actually 100g, so somebody made a boo-boo.

The ingredients were: Sugar, whole milk powder, cocoa butter, unsweetened chocolate, soy lecithin and vanilla.

The bar claims two servings, each of 220 calories with 13g (21% RDA) of fat (8g (41%) saturated, 0g trans fat), 10mg of cholestorol (3%), 30mg (1%) of sodium, and 26g (9%) carbohydrate, consisting less than 1g of fiber (3% of RDA–this makes no sense to me) and 24g of sugars. There is 3g of protein and 2% of the RDA for vitamin A, 2% for vitamin C, 8% of the RDA for calcium and 4% of iron. I found that two pieces (half a serving) were perfectly satisfying.

The outer wrapper was cardboard (you tear off a perforated corner) and glued to the inner wrapper, an attractive golden-colored foil that set off the gold on the front. This foil was reminiscent of vaccuum packs in that it had to be torn to release the goodies inside and therefore didn’t rewrap gracefully.

The chocolate was divided into eight large squares embossed with the Ghirardelli logo. The chocolate pieces were quite thick and I realized straight away that one piece was too large to just let melt in my mouth. This was chocolate designed for biting, and in fact the bite was nice, clean and satisfying. The chocolate broke fairly cleanly with a pleasing snap. The scent was of rich, sweet chocolate with an underlying aroma of cocoa. I don’t know what the percentage of cocoa is in this chocolate.

When I tasted the bar, I split each square into two. The chocolate melted slowly with a velvety feel, just as promised on the wrapper: “Take time to slow down and feel yourself melt with every bite. Savor the complex symphony of intense velvety chocolate as the rich flavors surround your senses. Enjoy as the chocolate pleasure lingers. Ghirardelli–Moments of Timeless Pleasure.”

Sensual much? :: grin ::

This was a very pleasant chocolate, feeling nice in my mouth and also tasting good. The sweet creamy flavor was more prevalent, with the cocoa a pleasing offset to make it not too bitter and not too sweet. There was one problem, though–the sugar created a harsh, acid “burn” flavor which wasn’t at all what the doctor ordered. This harshness stayed in aftertaste, slightly marring an otherwise very good piece of chocolate.

This chocolate was manufactured in San Leandro, California. I have yet to spend time at Ghirardelli Square in San Francisco, but I really should–it’s on two historic registers! Ghirardelli, founded in 1852 and now owned by Lindt and Sprungli, is the USA’s longest-continually-operating chocolatier.

At their original location you can see the chocolate being made and enjoy one of their famous hot fudge sundaes. They manufacture “from bean to bar” which is one of their major distinctions. As you might expect, the founder, Domingo Ghirardelli, was an Italian immigrant who came over for the gold rush and ended up selling to the miners instead. He made his own confections, hit a different kind of gold, and the rest is rather nummy history.

The Ghirardelli website has information about the history of the company, the products, as well as chocolate and chocolate-making in their nicely-named Chocopedia.

Subscription links

If you enjoyed this post, please consider subscribing to the Raven's Range RSS feed! Click here for the raw feed or links to feed readers.

If you liked this, you might also like these

• Endangered Species Chocolate: Smooth Milk Chocolate (0)
• Cacao Reserve by Hershey’s: Premium milk chocolate (2)
• Homecoming (0)
• Time to break out the chocolate (0)
• Unwinding (0)