Stoneground cacao<\/h2>\n
Carolyn McRae Collen and her husband, Randal Collen, started Cacao\u2019s Meow in 2019 after Randal spent several years developing his own methods and machinery for bean-to-bar chocolate making. In addition to stone-grinding the cacao, which gives it a distinctively grainy texture, his chocolate has a few other distinctions.<\/p>\n
Cacao Meow\u2019s beans are\u00a0single origin from the Bahia region of Brazil. We don\u2019t see a lot of Brazilian chocolate here. And this is the first local maker that I have seen using Brazilian beans exclusively.<\/p>\n A bigger distinction is their approach to sweeteners. Aiming for healthy but tasty chocolate, all of their bars are 80% cacao, sweetened with coconut sugar, cane sugar, and a touch of monk fruit extract. The idea is to get an 80% bar to taste more like the sweeter 70%, which is more palatable to most people.<\/p>\n Monk fruit is one of those sugar alternatives that chocolate makers are using now to meet market demand for sugar free chocolate; and it\u2019s one of the better ones in my opinion. It doesn\u2019t have that weird cooling sensation that blocks the flavor of the chocolate. Still, it\u2019s not as satisfying as real sugars in chocolate, and it\u2019s hecka expensive \u2014 like 6\u201310x as costly as plain sugar.<\/p>\n If you don\u2019t need to absolutely avoid sugar \u2014 just want to limit your intake but still want to enjoy chocolate \u2014 I think Randal\u2019s approach to sweeteners is a good one. High cacao percentage chocolate is often bitter. And sugar alternatives aren\u2019t as satisfying\/don’t taste the same as real sugar (plus ingesting too much of them has an unfortunate side effect \u2014 you can google it if curious). So sweetening 80% with a sugar and monk fruit blend seems pretty genius.<\/p>\n Finally, their flavor menu is interesting. They don\u2019t offer a straight-up single origin bar. (They use Forastero<\/a> beans, which are not considered the highest quality beans, so probably better mixed with other flavors and not showcased.)<\/p>\n Instead, they have 15 flavors that include more typical ones like Salted Almond to next-level Chili Pepper, with a smattering of extra-healthy combos like Pomegranate & Goji Berries, and culminating in the truly unusual Lemon Mulberry. There is a strong California vibe too with ingredients like figs, apricots, almonds, pecans, and lemons.<\/p>\n They offer a discount on buying 6 or more bars from their site, so after asking for recommendations from Carolyn, we got 6 of their best sellers. The bars were packaged in foil lined kraft paper pouches with cute graphics illustrating the flavors inside.<\/p>\n While the packaging was attractive, I was disappointed with the bars\u2019 visuals. They are handmade with a custom mold, but the bars had holes and excess chocolate around the edges. Luckily these dings don\u2019t affect flavor.<\/p>\n The first bar I tried was the Tart Cherry Almond. It was an unusual experience. The bar smelled like raisins and tobacco. It had a soft break, and was full of little pieces of almonds. The almond treatment was a good idea. It gave the bar a nice crunch and strong almond flavor. The chocolate itself had a grainy texture, which all of the bars had, so the crunchy bits helped minimize the graininess.<\/p>\n The bar was unexpectedly salty, and while it had a tartness, it didn\u2019t taste particularly cherry to me. It was more of a savory chocolate. It melted quickly \u2014 the bars are very thin \u2014 with no coolness or other weird sugar-substitute aftertaste. (FYI: Depending on the flavor(s), a thin bar that melts quickly is good for experiencing the full flavor of the bar.)<\/p>\n I liked the Fig & Sea Salt bar better. The sea salt sprinkled on the back gave a first hit of salt that was overtaken by the chocolate as it melted. Fig was the last experience with a crunchy fig seed texture, but not a pronounced fig flavor. The next piece was better because it had more fig in it.<\/p>\n This happened in more than one bar; the flavor distribution was uneven. The Fig & Sea Salt\u00a0had visible clumps of fig in it. I liked the pieces that contained more fig. I\u2019d recommend that if your first sample doesn\u2019t seem like the flavor listed, try another one \u2014 especially if there are visible inclusions. The bars are infused with flavors (added during the tempering process, as I understand), but some of the bars benefited from inclusions.<\/p>\n I shared the Apricot Ginger Pecan bar with some of my usual tasters. I wondered how they would react to the stoneground texture. They were divided, with one very firmly in the \u201cit\u2019s good\u201d texture camp, a few not caring either way, and a couple preferring smoother couvertures. Taste descriptions included earthy; good ginger flavor \u2014 mild, but distinctive; and not enough\u00a0apricot. A couple didn\u2019t care for the drying sensation afterwards (happens often with higher percentage cacao). And one suggested\u00a0roasting the nuts for more flavor.<\/p>\n The bar I liked best, surprising me, was the Maple Pecan. Maybe because I grew up in maple syrup country, I rarely like maple translated into other mediums. But this bar was good. It smelled of maple, and had an immediate, authentic maple flavor.<\/p>\n The addition of finely chopped pecans was great. The bar was a little bitter and grainy, but the small\u00a0crunch from the nuts and maple pecan flavor minimized that. It\u00a0reminded me of the texture and taste of fudge. I think the crunchy texture from the chopped nuts is a good way to counter the grainy texture of the stoneground chocolate.<\/p>\n The other 2 bars we tried, Nibs & Sea Salt and Coffee Almond, were good. I liked the crunchy nibs in the first \u2014 and like the Fig & Sea Salt \u2014 the salt hit immediately, but disappeared quickly. The Coffee Almond had\u00a0good coffee and almond flavors, but wasn\u2019t very chocolatey. Like the other nut bars, the\u00a0almond pieces were a good size to cover the graininess.<\/p>\n As you have probably guessed by now, I fall into the smoother couverture camp when it comes to chocolate texture. But I still would be interested in trying some of Cacao\u2019s Meow other flavors, such as Peppermint Nibs, Salted Peanut Butter, and the unusual Lemon Mulberry. And if you like the texture of stoneground chocolate, or if you are interested in the health aspects of lower temp chocolate processing (a step or two up from raw chocolate), less sugar, and the inclusion of superfoods like turmeric and goji berries, you should give their bars a try.<\/p>\n Cacao\u2019s Meow bars are available online and in SFBA grocery and specialty food stores, such as Oliver\u2019s Market<\/a>, Andronico\u2019s Market,\u00a0Star Grocery<\/a>, Diablo Foods, and Rainbow Grocery.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u201cHealthy\u201d chocolate with interesting infusions<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":27527,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,884,169],"tags":[636,657,254,1254,589,239,590,416,561,1287,331],"class_list":["post-27655","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-chocolate","category-north-bay","category-reviews","tag-almond","tag-apricot","tag-cacao-nibs","tag-cacaos-meow","tag-cherry","tag-coffee","tag-fig","tag-maple","tag-pecan","tag-petaluma","tag-sea-salt"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chocolatebythebay.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27655","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chocolatebythebay.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chocolatebythebay.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chocolatebythebay.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chocolatebythebay.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27655"}],"version-history":[{"count":24,"href":"https:\/\/chocolatebythebay.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27655\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41805,"href":"https:\/\/chocolatebythebay.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27655\/revisions\/41805"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chocolatebythebay.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27527"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chocolatebythebay.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27655"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chocolatebythebay.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27655"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chocolatebythebay.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27655"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Some](\"https:\/\/chocolatebythebay.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/Cacao-Meow-bars-1.jpg\")
Sweet mix<\/h2>\n
More flavor options<\/h2>\n
![\"Cacao](\"https:\/\/chocolatebythebay.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/Cacao-Meow-bar.jpg\")
Rough start<\/h2>\n
![\"Fig](\"https:\/\/chocolatebythebay.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/Fig-and-Sea-Salt.jpg\")
![\"Maple](\"https:\/\/chocolatebythebay.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/Maple-Pecan.jpg\")
My surprising fav<\/h2>\n
Final notes<\/h2>\n