Celebrate Endangered Species Day with Chocolate

Friday, May 20th, is Endangered Species Day which was created to raise consciousness about the number of animals on our planet that are in jeopardy of extinction. There is a chocolate company that also is focused on this issue: Endangered Species Chocolate Not only do they give back money to help protect endangered animals but this company isn't far from where I live. Endangered Species Chocolate is headquartered in Indianapolis about an hour or so north of me. I should ask them if I could get a tour of their headquarters at some point and write it all up for you all to read about. What do you think, Sisters and Brothers? This company sent us four bars of their new Natural Dark Chocolate with Caramel and Sea Salt in exchange for testing it and writing a honest review about the product; no other form of compensation was received.

The first thing you'll notice on any Endangered Species bar is the animal on the cover but inside the first wrapper you'll also find more information about that animal. Sometimes people who enjoy the bars from Endangered Species Chocolate will simply refer to the flavors by the animal so this would be The Bald Eagle Bar. The information in the first wrapper tells you about the animal. You'll learn about the cover animal's habitat, some interests facts about her life, but also about threats to the population, most of which are a result of human actions. You'll also learn about where Endangered Species donates money and where you can donate money if you are concerned about the particular animal.

This is a 60% cacao bar which isn't too dark, a little light for my prefered tastes but should be good for most of you if you love caramel and a bit of salt with your chocolate, too. But let's actually break some open and really check these bars out. When I opened the wrapper the first scent was salt with a hint of chocolate; when I broke open a square of it (I didn't do the greatest, job, I know) there was a light sweetness that reached my nose. The chocolate should break fairly easily (unless you were me the day I tested this) into 8 squares but it does make a sharp snapping sound. Biting into also makes a sharp snap and the first couple of bites are noisy as well. The initial flavor was the salt, a hint of chocolate, then a burst of buttery sweet when I bit into the pillow of caramel. The fades faded back into a salty caramel before settling into a nicely sweet, semi-dark chocolate. The caramel is not stick though as you can see in the photo it is fairly thick. I really liked this bar a lot as did the folks who helped me test it out.

There we have it, the newest bar in the large line up of bars from Endangered Species Chocolate. If the Natural Dark Chocolate with Caramel and Sea Salt bar sounds good to you, please look at your local grocery and mass merchandise shops to see if you can find them. Where I live, I can walk and within 5-10 minutes I could buy these buys at a half dozen different stores. They are Sacrament Worthy so what is keeping you from going out and finding one today? Remember you can break it into eight squares to share, four squares to consume one full serving, or just go crazy and eat the entire thing. Whichever you choose, you can feel good on multiple levels when you buy and eat this chocolate bar.