Make a Date with Dateolate Chocolates

I've not sure I've ever tried a date, you know the fruit, before. Dates are not indigenous to where I grew up and simply weren't part of the cuisine I grew up eating. So when I was contacted by Sweet Saffron, LLC, about their Dateolate product, I jumped at the opportunity. Dateolate is a chocolate confection made with Medjool dates, dark chocolate, and a lot of nuts. It came in this lovely box, so beautiful that I think you wouldn't need to wrap it for a gift. Before we look inside, let me deal with the legal matters. I received this box of chocolate from the Sweet Saffron, LLC, in exchange for testing out the product and writing about it on this blog; no other form of compensation was received for sharing my experiences today.

When I opened the box there was a hint of chocolate even though it was covered by a bit of padding to keep it safe. The cleave cut out corner allowed me to easily remove that padding. What I found beneath it was lovely, don't you think? It raised some immediate questions in my mind that were not answered by the box, letter, or the notecard that came with it. Normally chocolates are made in different shapes and with different colors when they are different flavors. The ingredients for Dateloate are fairly simple: Medjool dates, chocolate, cashews, pistachios, walnuts, dried coconut (not so thrilled about that last one, but I'll do my best to ignore the flavor and texture). I checked with the company and discovered that all the ingredients are in each one. It shouldn't matter which I eat then, but I'll try a few different shapes to make sure.

The big difference between this and other confections are that three pieces are 100 calories, a much lower calorie count that you'd get with three equally sized dark chocolate I've had in the past unless they were made with a sugar substitute. This doesn't have that, sugar is an ingredient for the chocolate, it is just that dates are the first ingredient. In fact, in terms of nutritional values on the box, sugar it the primary cause of calories, with fats a far second and protein down at 1/3 gram per piece. A lot of fruit while almost entirely sugar is low calorie per volume so this makes sense, though I'd expect more protein from the nuts. Let's see how much nuts there are in one but cutting a piece open.

As you can see the nuts and dates are inside. Even cut open, the primary fragrance is that dark chocolate. Did you note the design on the back of the piece? It was not the only one, though the others had the same hearts on them.

Let's eat one now, the cut one.

It is soft, it doesn't make a crunch at all when I bit or chew even though I can feel the tiny pieces of nuts when I spread out the filling onto my tongue.. The flavor is first that dark chocolate, then what I'm guessing is a lightly sweet date, and a bit of general nut flavor. The date flavor builds up with each bite but the chocolate never disappears. It reminds me of a sweet chocolate caramel in many ways but without the intense stickiness; it is slightly sticky to my teeth but not for long as it melts in my mouth.

I shared these with two other assistants who help me with these reviews from time to time. They both did not like it as much as I did, not even close, which confirms the fact that chocolate is a matter of individual tastes. One of them, our Mocha Acolyte, was thrown by the different shapes and decoration. Even though she knew the insides were the same mixture of dates and fruits, she was surprised because it is not what chocolate consumers expect.

Wow! I am impressed and you all know how hard it is to impress me. Given that I was told that only 10% of these are the dark chocolate, that chocolate really stood up strongly against the other flavors. I still offered these to some other people but given the calories and the wonderful experience eating these, I was tempted to keep them all for myself. Dateolate earns Sacrament status here on The Chocolate Cult. I recommend you check them out as soon as possible. You know Father's Day is fast approaching in the USA and daddies like chocolate, too.