I don't know there website has chocolate growing in trees?

100 percent natural means anything can be in it....hmmm

Here is some random history that I remember hearing. Aside from growing great coffee beans Guatemala grows some of the best cocoa beans in the world. This is due to the fact that the ancient Mayans (edit: and other societies in the region) had a variety of uses for the cocoa bean from obviously enjoying its great taste in foods but apparently some medicinal uses as well. The bean was so highly prized that it was used as a form of currency. Most of the "commoners" couldn't really enjoy chocolate on a regular basis, however, as its high value made it highly sought by the nobles and other wealthy people in their society. The point is the bean dates back so far in this region that they have developed tons of different techniques for cooking it and using it, and they've really had a huge amount of time to perfect their recipes for chocolate. That being said I bet this is some great chocolate so I will most likely be in for one.

GaleForce wrote:Here is some random history that I remember hearing. Aside from growing great coffee beans Guatemala grows some of the best cocoa beans in the world. This is due to the fact that the ancient Mayans had a variety of uses for the cocoa bean from obviously enjoying its great taste in foods but apparently some medicinal uses as well. The bean was so highly prized that it was used as a form of currency. Most of the "commoners" couldn't really enjoy chocolate on a regular basis, however, as its high value made it highly sought by the nobles and other wealthy people in their society. The point is the bean dates back so far in this region that they have developed tons of different techniques for cooking it and using it, and they've really had a huge amount of time to perfect their recipes for chocolate. That being said I bet this is some great chocolate so I will most likely be in for one.

your paraphrasing skills are awesome.

The price per bar comes to $2.499_ before shipping or $2.999_ including shipping which seems steep but as far as I can tell is actually not that bad of a deal for a shipped premium bar of chocolate.

Just one example compare to Lindt, a very well known and regarded brand, which is $3.50 - $8.00 per bar.

vinithehat wrote:it's sugar. dietarily identical.

ty!

Kao1138 wrote:The price per bar comes to $2.499_ before shipping or $2.999_ including shipping which seems steep but as far as I can tell is actually not that bad of a deal for a shipped premium bar of chocolate.

Just one example compare to Lindt, a very well known and regarded brand, which is $3.50 - $8.00 per bar.

Yea but you know Lindt is smoking good!

vinithehat wrote:your paraphrasing skills are awesome.

Actually I had to study South American culture during Spanish courses in college (needed four semesters to graduate). During my fourth semester, in order to keep people interested in a subject they were otherwise just grinding to get through, we had a two weeks where we studied South America culminating in a paper assigned about South American culture. I chose to write something about Mayan society. I found the information on chocolate and found it particularly interesting to show how they bartered goods. I did major in Sociology and Economics, and since I was very interested in sociology I decided to write the paper like a sociological study. So yeah, I am paraphrasing, but I did the research almost two years ago so I don't remember any of my sources. If you can find some feel free to post them. Four years of college definitely taught me you have to back claims up with information so I did feel a bit uncomfortable posting that, then again this is a forum and it is random stuff I happen to remember so I just posted it up.

So that being said, since I knew that about chocolate in the region but never had the opportunity to try any I find this offering from W.W to be very tempting. I've been buying too much extra stuff lately though so I need to decide if I should really spend the money on ten chocolate bars.

EDIT: I meant Central and South America. Everything that wasn't present day Mexico. Honest oversight, hell it's only a subcontinent at best. ;)

Two ounces is a little more than half of the size of an 'average' chocolate bar, so the price is very high. However, money is no object to the true chocoholic.

GaleForce wrote:we had a two weeks where we studied South America culminating in a paper assigned about South American culture. I chose to write something about Mayan society.

Except... Guatemala is not in South America. Neither were the Mayans (although some of them were in Guatemala). Just sayin'.

selira wrote:Except... Guatemala is not in South America. Neither were the Mayans (although some of them were in Guatemala). Just sayin'.

You're right, I should have said Central and South. I was referring to everything South of Mexico, and since they did overlap both areas it was an acceptable topic. Central America is quite small in comparison to South America and since it has a large concentration of Spanish speaking countries it was grouped together in the study of the entire region. Mexico was an entirely different unit though; Anything that was just in present day Mexico wasn't an acceptable topic for the paper. We even had to memorize the present day capital cities of every Spanish speaking country in North and South America which sucked, but I guess it doesn't hurt to know. Was a lot to memorize the night before the exam though, especially since there was maybe two questions total where that had to be known to answer correctly.

http://i.imgur.com/SD1P9.jpg

(Yeah, I did pretty bad in the course, but it was Spanish and I put minimal effort into it. I'm not great at learning different languages.)

selira wrote:Except... Guatemala is not in South America. Neither were the Mayans (although some of them were in Guatemala). Just sayin'.

You are correct-- they are Meso-americans...

Kao1138 wrote:The price per bar comes to $2.499_ before shipping or $2.999_ including shipping which seems steep but as far as I can tell is actually not that bad of a deal for a shipped premium bar of chocolate.

Just one example compare to Lindt, a very well known and regarded brand, which is $3.50 - $8.00 per bar.

Aren't Lindt bars a lot bigger too? Perhaps we can compare by saying these bars here are $1.25 per oz (shipping not incl.) and the lindt bars range from $0.79 - $1.00 per oz

Prepare your wallets. In 5, 4, 3, 2, and 1....we have WOOT LAUNCH.

GaleForce wrote:Actually I had to study South American culture during Spanish courses in college (needed four semesters to graduate). During my fourth semester, in order to keep people interested in a subject they were otherwise just grinding to get through, we had a two weeks where we studied South America culminating in a paper assigned about South American culture. I chose to write something about Mayan society. I found the information on chocolate and found it particularly interesting to show how they bartered goods. I did major in Sociology and Economics, and since I was very interested in sociology I decided to write the paper like a sociological study. So yeah, I am paraphrasing, but I did the research almost two years ago so I don't remember any of my sources. If you can find some feel free to post them. Four years of college definitely taught me you have to back claims up with information so I did feel a bit uncomfortable posting that, then again this is a forum and it is random stuff I happen to remember so I just posted it up.

So that being said, since I knew that about chocolate in the region but never had the opportunity to try any I find this offering from W.W to be very tempting. I've been buying too much extra stuff lately though so I need to decide if I should really spend the money on ten chocolate bars.

EDIT: I meant Central and South America. Everything that wasn't present day Mexico. Honest oversight, hell it's only a subcontinent at best. ;)

You had me at chocolate.

Greshmahg wrote:Guatemalan chocolate?! Not exactly Dutch, Danish, or Belgian.

Pass.

FYI: Where does chocolate come from?

Honestly where the beans are grown is not nearly as important as which variety they are.

Lindt and 90% of the other chocolate bars on the market use the cheaper, higher yield and lower quality Forastero beans, Only the best chocolates use Criolo and Trinitario beans.

This seems like it will be better than lindt (Which is saying almost nothing.. they are the bottom rung of the high end chocolate ladder) And I'd pay 3$ to try it, but 30$ is a steep price of admission to try something when you aren't sure if its decent quality or not. Soy letchin makes me assume it isn't if we don't know the bean type

Also what the heck is this "Triple Single Origin" buisness, first time hearing the buzzword.

Electros wrote:Honestly where the beans are grown is not nearly as important as which variety they are.

Lindt and 90% of the other chocolate bars on the market use the cheaper, higher yield and lower quality Forastero beans, Only the best chocolates use Criolo and Trinitario beans.

This seems like it will be better than lindt (Which is saying almost nothing.. they are the bottom rung of the high end chocolate ladder) And I'd pay 3$ to try it, but 30$ is a steep price of admission to try something when you aren't sure if its decent quality or not. Soy letchin makes me assume it isn't if we don't know the bean type

Also what the heck is this "Triple Single Origin" buisness, first time hearing the buzzword.

The Criollo bean genotype is indigenous to Guatemala-- and is also the highest quality cacao variety...

Sunshine3296 wrote:You had me at chocolate.

LOL I'd rep you if I could!

Electros wrote:Also what the heck is this "Triple Single Origin" buisness, first time hearing the buzzword.

I've heard "single origin" batted about for chocolate before. Chocolatiers like to compare it to single malt scotch... instead of blending a lot of different places, years, kinds, whatever, you're trying a specific place at a specific time.

When I went on a tour of Theo, a Seattle "bean to bar" chocolatier, they said that soy lecithin is used by "lesser" (from their perspective) chocolate makers as a replacement for some (or all!) of the cocoa butter. Soy lecithin is cheaper, and it makes the chocolate ship better.

Theo Chocolate costs a lot more than this, though. Tons of "high end" popular chocolate manufacturers use soy lecithin... aforementioned Lindt etc. If you enjoy Lindt and similar chocolates, this will probably taste good.

It is kind of weird that they're trumpeting triple single origin, which is a total chocolate snob thing to do, and then they're using soy lecithin... which is something chocolate snobs like to get their snob on about.

oh wow. it's a good thing there isn't a chocolate.woot, or I would be broke and you guys would have to come up with a color for the super black box. :P

Red_Six wrote:How big is one bar?

100 kilopascals.

Thanks Woot for being up front about the allergy warnings! My grown child has a peanut allergy and it's rare to find good chocolate that isn't "contaminated" by the equipment used to manufacture it. The only thing more difficult is finding that information on websites selling speciality products.

GaleForce wrote:Actually I had to study South American culture during Spanish courses in college (needed four semesters to graduate). During my fourth semester, in order to keep people interested in a subject they were otherwise just grinding to get through, we had a two weeks where we studied South America culminating in a paper assigned about South American culture. I chose to write something about Mayan society. I found the information on chocolate and found it particularly interesting to show how they bartered goods. I did major in Sociology and Economics, and since I was very interested in sociology I decided to write the paper like a sociological study. So yeah, I am paraphrasing, but I did the research almost two years ago so I don't remember any of my sources. If you can find some feel free to post them. Four years of college definitely taught me you have to back claims up with information so I did feel a bit uncomfortable posting that, then again this is a forum and it is random stuff I happen to remember so I just posted it up.

So that being said, since I knew that about chocolate in the region but never had the opportunity to try any I find this offering from W.W to be very tempting. I've been buying too much extra stuff lately though so I need to decide if I should really spend the money on ten chocolate bars.

EDIT: I meant Central and South America. Everything that wasn't present day Mexico. Honest oversight, hell it's only a subcontinent at best. ;)

wikipedia is more an good enough for the troglodites on here!!

mmmmmm...chocolate...garghghghhhhh

Electros wrote:
Also what the heck is this "Triple Single Origin" buisness, first time hearing the buzzword.

the bars use single origin cocao, vanilla and cane juice. single single single... triple single!

Wish it was a variety pack with differing amounts of cocoa. Ten bars of the same could be a bit much.

I couild use some Cedar Grove Bermuda triangle in about 12 hours with a nice cab..

Greshmahg wrote:Guatemalan chocolate?! Not exactly Dutch, Danish, or Belgian.

Pass.

Where do you think the Dutch, Danish or Belgian got theirs?

I've got a couple of birthdays I'd like to use this for...but not until sep/dec. Whats the recommended storage for chocolate (or if the constitution of this chocolate makes a difference somehow?) or should I not even undertake the task...I live in Maine, and we just left the freezer-like time of year, like yesterday...summer temps can range from 70-85ish.

Thanks in advance anyone, and everyone

I hope this is almost as good as amano. I'm almost out of the rest of my amano so I'm in for one set.

Nothing about being Fair Trade.

Facebook pages says, "Group for those who enjoy natural, fine, 100% Guatemalan Chocolate, with a concious side."

I'm glad they're at least awake, if bad spellers.

I hope this will help clarify What is Single Origin Chocolate?

hostahelen wrote:Where do you think the Dutch, Danish or Belgian got theirs?

If those companies don't care about the child slavery issue, they probably get it from Cote d'Ivoire.

The lack of free trade certification on this chocolate concerns me, even with the website statement that they pay over market price.
On the plus side, it's vegan.

brucedoesbms wrote:FYI: Where does chocolate come from?

Heaven!

"No chemicals are utilized in the production-period"

Are not cocoa, cane juice and vanilla chemicals?

It's been a long time since I watched Bill Nye the Science Guy, but I'm pretty sure that everything is made of chemicals.

Rain Republic has been producing bean-to-bar chocolate since 2005. We are currently in our second year of export.

How is this a launch?

Just bought this for my son who is a chef. I'll let him determine the quality for cooking, but I'm guessing he will be pleased with his birthday gift - Thanks wine.woot!

tytiger58 wrote:Yea but you know Lindt is smoking good!

Lindt, as luxury chocolate brands go, is well below what people really go nuts on. Try Vosges or Theo if you want super-premium chocolate.

Where you're looking at $5-7.50 a bar.

This is a very, very good deal, from what I can tell, but of course, for a product launch it's tough to tell. But if you're comparing this to Lindt, you're not in the right market.

brucedoesbms wrote:Is evaporated cane juice the same as sugar?

it is a type of sugar. the non sugar beet kind

eastercat wrote:If those companies don't care about the child slavery issue, they probably get it from Cote d'Ivoire.

The lack of free trade certification on this chocolate concerns me, even with the website statement that they pay over market price.
On the plus side, it's vegan.

Fair Trade certification has become increasingly problematic - at this point much of the most ethical product buying *isn't* fair trade. I wouldn't take the lack of certification to mean anything one way or another.