Favorite Chocolates of 2022

Join me for a look back at my favorite chocolates of 2022! You can also listen to my year-end episode below, and then I’d love to hear your own favorites from the last year!

Cleveland Chocolate Belize Maya Mountain 60%

This bar is all warm mid-afternoon sunlight. Cleveland’s Rebecca Hess works with Uncommon Cacao’s very first origin to yield warm spice, honey, brownie batter, and pale fruit notes in an eminently satisfying bar.

Moka Origins Lemon Ginger 72%

Moka Origins Lemon Ginger 72% Uganda is a beautiful bar, with the impression of honey ginger tea with just a touch of dried lemon, supporting by the acidity of the underlying chocolate.

Nostalgia Salt City Coffee

This 70% dark bar from Nostalgia made with Dominican Republic Oko Caribe cacao doesn’t reinvent coffee chocolate, it just executes the concept extremely well. The rich, full coffee is haloed by acidic berry from the cacao, giving it a more espresso-like impression. The roast slope from chocolate to coffee is seamless. So thoughtfully done.

Triange Latte White Chocolate + Milk & Espresso

Triangle Roasters roast their own coffee and make their own bean to bar chocolate, so it’s only natural their coffee chocolate would be stellar. Their Latte White Chocolate tastes like a caramel macchiato, with some of the freshest roasted coffee flavors I’ve ever tasted in a chocolate bar. Roast and subtle acidity with notes of cinnamon…this is spectacular.

Violet Sky Rye Barrel Aged Almendra Blanca

I love Violet Sky’s creativity with barrel-aged cacao, and this Rye Barrel-Aged Almendra Blanca is a great example of why. Aging this Mexican cacao in Journeyman rye barrels results in a bar with—surprisingly—gin-like notes initially, with the peppery rye pushing forward juniper and pink peppercorn aromas with notes of red berries and a grassy note than reminded me of Queen Anne’s Lace. The flavor was more what would be expected, with sweet caramel layered over oak, and some sweet, shade-grown dark berries. Absolutely stunning.

Not Yr Sweetie Not Sacrificing Myself

This 55% vegan oatmilk bar is made with cardamom and coffee, and Tanzanian cacao from Kokoa Kamili. Released as part of Not Yr Sweetie’s Gender Pay Gap collection, the percentage in this bar represents the $.55 Latina women make on the male dollar.

The bar is bright and warm, with coffee and warm spice riding over grape, red berry, and moderate acidity.

Miette et Chocolat Beer Chocolate with Cerebreal & Lady Justice

Lady Justice and Cerebral Brewing collaborated on an Imperial Stout called Unconfirmed Details, which was aged in Laws whiskey barrel and conditioned on Ecuadorian cacao nibs from Miette et Chocolat and coconut. The cacao nibs had been aged in empty an empty Laws barrel first and then added to the Stout. After they were removed, Miette dried them back out and made a bar from them. The bar had a lovely rippled mold, and combined flavors of cocoa powder, oak, brownie, and subtle cherry.

Seattle Apple Pie a la Mode

Seattle Chocolate Apple Pie a la Mode is probably my favorite seasonal bar I’ve had this year. Indulgent but defined, with waves of apple, caramel, cream, and regal dark chocolate holding it all in, with flits of cinnamon and muffin crumble. Love love love.

Cacaosuyo Lakuna Peru 70%

This Lakuna Peru 70% was my first bar from Cacaosuyo, and I was pretty pleased. The aroma was rich and lively, with dark fruit and light peppery/floral spice, and on the flavor a warm acidity deep beneath the chocolate notes led to butter, banana, honey, brownie, strawberry, and a hint of sunny orange.

Jcoco Orange Blossom Espresso 61%

This is one of the most surprising bars I had this year. More candy than anything, perhaps, but delightful in its brightness. Candied orange peel, lightly spicy and nutty coffee, and all housed in classic chocolate. Winter sunlight, sweet but bright.

Chocolate Naive Black Sauna

There is something deep in the northern forests of the world that tugs at my heart, and a thread of it is buried in this bar from Chocolate Naive. I’ve never smelled a bar like it, and it popped images into my head rapid fire—mushrooms, forest moss, oak, cedar, a pine box filled with old quilts that’s been opened for the first time in years. A dark northern forest. The birch and pine forests of the Upper Peninsula, the ground spongy beneath your feet, a campfire far away through the trees. It’s all here in this bar. I can already tell it’s going to be gone too quickly.

Violet Sky Philippines Malah Na Bulong 77%

Malah Na Bulong is one of Uncommon Cacao’s newest origins, and it led with strong cocoa and slight woody notes on the aroma with just a touch of herbal spice, which led to an intense barely-sweetened hot cocoa flavor with a touch of vanilla and the moderate bitterness and slight astringency common to Violet Sky’s roast profile. This strikes me as an origin that would be ideal for using in chocolate beer, where that straight-ahead chocolatey flavor with some vanilla and earthiness could really help.

Latitude Dark Milk

This bar leans toward the “milk” rather than the “dark” at 49%, but its silky smooth texture and straight ahead chocolateliness has made it a lovely pairing bar, and an easy treat on many a work afternoon.

Hogarth Maple & Walnut

Nothing complicated here, just nostalgic childhood indulgence. I remember visiting fudge shops as a child when we would travel, and maple walnut fudge was always my favorite. One sniff of this bar, one bite, and I’m back enjoying those free samples and hoping my parents will buy some.

Manoa O’ahu Island Ko’olaupoko 70%

I could have chosen just about any Manoa bar here. This one bears the unmistakable spiritous house character of the maker, with plenty to make it unique. Rum, banana, red strawberry, and pale caramel in the nose deepen to berry balsamic on the palate, with grassy rum and moderate acidity.