All was not lost though - I found a decent solution for when I am stuck downtown where there are fewer raw friendly places and I need my cacao fix. I went to the Bristol Farms in the basement food court to see if there was anything raw in the chocolate section. Pickings were slim - the only kind they carried was Righteously Raw, so I bought the Chocolate Maca Bar. Organic Cacao Butter, Cacao Powder, Dates, Hunza Raisins, Mesquite Powder, Maca Root Powder, Agave Nectar, Coconut Oil, Vanilla Bean and Himalayan Pink Salt and nothing else. No additives, just pure ingredients. It definitely did the trick. Because of the Maca, it didn't have a super chocolatey or very sweet taste - it had this complexity to it that was a nice surprise, and the way the shell cracked in my mouth to reveal the flavor lurking underneath made for a nice oral experience. I had some samples of their other bars - Caramel and Goji - at the SF Greenfestival, and remembered the caramel one as being really good, but will have to try it again sometime to describe it more accurately.
I think I might need to have a chocolate taste-off on here one week to showcase all the best raw chocolate products out there as there are so many tasty options. If you're a raw chocolatier who would like your product to be included in a taste-off, contact me directly at criticalpath [at] gmail [dot] com to arrange for delivery of samples.
If you want to find Earth Source Organics Righteously Raw chocolate bars in your own area, you can check here.
