Product Review: Shaman Organic Chocolate
Unlike most, I am not a chocolate lover, rather I am a chocolate liker. Still, when you get the yen there is nothing else that will satisfy. I just have that yen less often.
When I do get that yen, though, I may very well sate it with Shaman Organic Chocolate, which can satisfy both the sweet tooth and the tree hugger in you.
Shaman Organic Chocolates support the Huichol Indians, a small tribe that lives in the Sierra Madres of central western Mexico. Profits from the chocolate, which is Fair Trade and organic, allow them to maintain their traditional way of life in three villages and build a high school in said villages, in lieu of being forced to work on pesticide-ridden tobacco farms, which I think we can all agree would suck.
Given the chance to support native peoples who just want to weave a blanket or a bunch of wealthy Swiss guys who need another sun roof for their BMWs, the answer is clear. But how does the chocolate taste?
There are several options, from 82% dark chocolate to milk chocolate, plain or mixed–with things like Macadamia Nuts & Hawaiian Pink Sea Salt. I tried out the Dark Chocolate with Green Tea & Ginger, myself, and actually found it quite nice–and I’m not usually a dark chocolate person. It was rich, but not overwhelming, and the green tea and ginger gave it a nice little crispiness (neither of those flavors was really present; I think they just served to cut the potential overwhelming-ness of dark chocolate and make it smoother).
Also, as I have recently realized, if you’re not into just eating a dark chocolate bar just as is, you can certainly use a chocolate bar like this to bake with. I recently made a German Sweet Chocolate Pie for my food blog, and that basically just involved melting a dark chocolate bar with a little bit of milk in the pot before folding it into the cream base for the pie. For the sake of the blog, I went out of my way to find German chocolate (which, it turns out, Godiva is), but if I made this pie again (and I might, people really dug it), I would happily put in the Shaman Chocolate for sure (the extra dark or dark chocolate bar, specifically). I guess I’ll change its name to Mexican Organic Fair Trade Chocolate Pie? Yes, much better.
For more info about Shaman Organic Chocolate, click here.
For the recipe for the Chocolate Pie that you could use Shaman Chocolate in, click here.
