Two-for-One Thanksgiving: Divine Mango Coconut & Salazon Pumpkin Beer Sea Salt

Here's another out-of-season post that's been needing to be finished for a while. :-) 

There are many things that get more complicated when your family is scattered halfway across the world. It's more expensive and time-consuming to see the people you care about, it's harder to get everyone in one place, and the visits are usually short, few, and far between. However, when it happens, the results are pretty magical. The planning for the 2016 Thanksgiving was pretty crazy - we had to coordinate 11 people and travel from three states across four days at two different locations, and handle the logistics of two entire Thanksgiving menus.

The result was a gorgeous, soul-nourishing two-parter. Episode 1 was in beautiful Woodstock, NY, at my grandmother's cozy cottage. Mom and I flew up from Texas, and we got to meet Will's delightful girlfriend, Nina, and spent the whole day talking, laughing, and singing in the kitchen while cooking up copious amounts of traditional Thanksgiving fare.

The next day we took a long, goofy, lovely walk into town, stopping on the way to thoroughly enjoy an old-fashioned playground, and winding up at the local market to get some hot apple cider and browse the selection of charming local and artisanal foods. 

From there, Mom flew back to Texas, the four sibs and Nina piled into Will's van, and it was on to Philadelphia and Thanksgiving #2! Andrew met us there (having celebrated Thanksgiving proper with his family back in Texas), where Dad and his girlfriend, Nilmini, hosted us all at her gorgeous house, and I got to execute my first full-fledged Thanksgiving menu (GAAAAH!!) with an Indian fusion theme, including a jeweled rice pilaf, curried mashed potatoes, from-scratch garlic naan, habanero and goat cheese stuffed mushrooms, and Indian rice pudding with cherries and bourbon hard sauce for dessert. (Kudos to everyone for helping make it happen!) It was exhausting and beautiful.

I also got to catch up on snuggles with my girl, Ursula, who's starting to get rather grey around the muzzle, but is still every bit as sweet and energetic as the day she came home to us in Austin as a baby puppy all those years ago. The pumpkin pie samosas made a lovely breakfast, and our last day in Philly we took a delightful excursion into town to get drinks at a fancy-pants bar on a boat (Lonely Island would be so proud), and grabbed an amazing veggie Philly cheese steak at the Royal Tavern, before getting on the plane headed home. 

(And yes, in several pictures I am wearing a bright pink coat with pink corduroy pants. Somehow I didn't really make that connection when I was packing for the trip. As Andrew would say, I make decisions.)  

It was a lovely trip, and we enjoyed several bars of chocolate along the way but these were the most notable, which, although thematically a little disparate, made an interesting pairing for our Thanksgiving prep and travel.

Photo Credit: thechocolatewebsite.com

Item: Dark Chocolate with Mango & Coconut 
Percentage: 70% cacao 

Made By: Divine Chocolate
Made In: Cacao grown in Ghana, processed into chocolate in Europe
Purchased At: Whole Foods - Arlington, TX
Purchase Price: $3.59

Review: Divine delivers again! They maintain a particularly high concentration of cocoa butter in their chocolate, which means it melts deliciously, and they consistently get the sweet/dark balance juuuuuuust right. The mango is dominant here, while the coconut lurks in the background, which suits me just fine. There are actually distinct little dried (not freeze-dried!) mango bits, which stick in your teeth and make the process of munching a bit more... erm... lasting than chocolate usually is. However, it's a whimsical and successful combination, just so long as you've got a toothpick handy.     

Recommend, with some dental floss

        AND

 

Photo Credit: Salazonchoc.com

  
Item: Dark Chocolate with Sea Salt & Pumpkin IPA
Percentage: 72% cacao 

Made By: Salazon 
Made In: Maryland
Purchased At: Whole Foods - Arlington, TX
Purchase Price: $3.99

Review: Such a shame. I really wanted this one to work. If it had been what I wanted, it would have been basically tailor-made for my father, who loves every one of these things. Alas, it was a whiff. The chocolate itself comes across as oddly bitter, which is probably a result of the beer, which doesn't make much of an appearance at all except in the aftertaste. The pumpkin and beer both take a back seat to the sea salt, which dominates the whole party and just leaves you wondering why the chocolate tastes a little funny. I'd love to see this idea done properly, but I'll definitely need to keep looking. In the meantime, if you're looking for a Salazon bar that actually works, stick with the sea salt and almond, which is MUY NOM.   

A Note About the Company: As much as I didn't care for the bar, the company is pretty cool. Salazon is a 100% organic, vegan, fair-trade certified chocolate company built on the premise that simple, salted dark chocolate is one of the greatest energy bars there is. They single-source their beans from the Dominican Republic and (usually) keep their bars pretty simple and streamlined. True to their backpacking roots, their trail series donates at least 2% of their profits to the Pacific Crest, Appalachian Trail, and Continental Divide conservancy associations.

Avoid
  

With love, Kat

The River Song: Divine Dark Chocolate with Raspberries

Photo Credit: Kimberly Shryack Johnson

There is, perhaps, nothing quite so quintessentially summer as floating down a river with a cooler of drinks surrounded by people you love. So, as August comes to a close and we face the myriad pumpkin drinks, dark nail polishes, sweater dresses, slightly grungier lawns, and proliferation of Halloween stuff that accompany the onset of fall, I packed up the car, nabbed my stalwart travel companion, Taryn, and drove down to New Braunfels to join a large group of other friends in floating down the Guadalupe for one last summer hurrah. 

Photo Credit: Taryn Staley

It had been far, far too long. I had forgotten how magical it is. 

After getting past the first gasp-worthy shock of the ice cold river creeping up your legs, and the initial logistical hassle of getting everything inflated, configured, tied, settled, and launched, there is an magical, expansive, untethered feeling that sets in just as you round that first bend and the launch point disappears. No gadgets, no notifications, no to-do lists, no shouda-woulda-coulda. You can't rush the river. You very quickly realize how comfortable you are with doing nothing at all. There is absolutely nothing in the world to do except sit back, enjoy the water and the good company until, without warning you're at the end.  

I had also forgotten how conducive the water is to extended philosophical musings. Major kudos to dear friend and fellow fan-of-talking-about-serious-things, Cord, who bore the brunt of my aimless, introspective ramblings.

Photo credit: Beth Horst Vinson

Four hours wasn't nearly long enough (although my sunburned knees might disagree...).

 Although I ended up a bit *ahem* over-served on the river and slept through most of the afternoon, it was still a thoroughly delightful day, and we managed to roust out in time to catch my good friends with the Mark McKinney Band play the closing set over at the River Road Ice House.

Granted, as relaxing as the river is, the sun, the water, and the drinking can take their toll, and I got back to Arlington on Sunday feeling like I needed a weekend to recover from the weekend. Fortunately I had some help in that department: extensive snuggles with the fur children, coupled with a fluffy adventure novel and some 70% cacao therapy had me feeling right as rain in no time. (Except for my poor knees. Ow.)
 

Regardless, after almost an entire summer on dry land and many years away from the river, it was reassuring how intuitive it was to get back to it. And now that I have my own tube I will certainly be returning to the river sooner rather than later. It won't be years before my next float. 


Item: Dark Chocolate with Raspberries
Percentage: 70% cacao 

Made By: Divine Chocolate
Made In: Cacao grown in Ghana, processed into chocolate in Europe
Purchased At: Whole Foods - Arlington, TX
Purchase Price: $3.59

Review: Divine does good, solid snacking chocolate. Nothing too adventurous or remarkable, but absolutely reliable and top-of-the field for the price point. The time-honored chocolate/raspberry pairing works very well here - their nice, fruity 70% dark is a good base for the tartness of the raspberries. Texturally the freeze-dried raspberry bits are a little odd, but more interesting than off-putting, and not overly fussy. That might be a mood thing, though. I'm kind of fickle when it comes to textures in my chocolate. And the fruit/chocolate ratio is spot on. 

Recommend

A quick note about the company: With US headquarters in D.C., Divine chocolate is 45% owned by the Kuapa Kokoo fair-trade cocao farmer's co-op in Ghana, supporting transparent, accountable, and democratic business operations. Their misson broadly encompasses supporting cacao farmers in earning a fair living for themselves and their families, empowering women in Ghana to participate across all areas of the industry, and to support environmentally friendly cacao cultivation. Originally launched in the '90s to be the first fair-trade brand in the UK to compete with mass-produced chocolate, Divine has been thriving ever since, finally coming to the US as recently as 2007. 


With love,
 - Kat