The Darkest Alter Eco has to Offer

As we approach that time of year in the Northern Hemisphere where we might start baking again, I think of the higher cacao content chocolate as an ingredient and not as a treat to enjoy itself. The previous review we posted for Alter Eco's Blackout line of bars looked at their 85% category. Today we're looking at two bars with 90% and one that is 100%. Hopefully it will not surprise you that I tried each bar by itself and then in a recipe. Alter Eco sent us these three free bars in exchange for our testing and writing about them. No other form of compensation was received for honestly sharing our experience with these products today.

Have you ever tasted baking chocolate? I have; it isn't pleasant. So faced with this fact, I had to decide who best to test these bars when it was still getting into the 90s and humid where I live. Do I tough it out for you all and try a bit on it's own? Do I melt it and mix it with something I know I like that is a bit sweet? I decided back on the bar itself.

Mint Blackout has "peppermint crunch" (made with organic raw cane sugar, organic peppermint oil, and organic cocoa powder) in it so I tried this solo so I wasn't risking detracting from that added flavor. Let me begin by saying that when I see "Mint" I do not think peppermint so this isn't going to taste like I would think simply from the name of the flavor. As soon as I wrapped this bar I was hit by a strong peppermint fragrance. The neat thing about peppermint is that it isn't just a smell for a sensation you get that is cooling. Since the bar was already broken, I just snapped off one of the smaller sections because I know this should be bitter... And it is! The peppermint crunch is quite crunchy but really too small to see. The flavor isn't so much peppermint until a dozen or so chews into a piece and even then the cooling sensation is stronger than the taste. Even the small piece I tried was intense and it created a cocoa buzz for me immediately.

If we look at the nutritional information for the 100 and the 90 percent bars, you can see the small differences.

To test them, I melted one square of each and added 6 tablespoons of 50% less sugar added dried cranberries. One of my favorite snacks in the is dried fruit with dark chocolate but this was darker than anything I've tried before. 

The first difference I noted is that the 100% melted completely in the same amount of time that it took to get the 90% half melted. Note: I stir chocolate by hand once it is about halfway melted so I was surprised that the darker bar didn't burn even slightly. There was a noticable difference between the bitterness of the darker bar and the 90% when I tasted just the melted square on its own. I would not do more than taste each of these however because of their intense bitterness. When the cranberries were added, they toned the 90% down enough that I could really enjoy it, but it did increase the tartness of the cranberries. However, with the 100% bar, the tartness was increased even though the cranberries within two chews toned down the bitterness enough for me to also enjoy this.

In terms of baking or candy making, I would recommend either the 100% or the 90% bar. I think the Mint Super Blackout will appeal to only a small number of people. All three earn Sacrament Status for their quality even if on their own there were too bitter for me.