How it Was Made: The Limited-Edition Red Coconut Curry Bar (or) Dang! that’s good

2 Replies

The three of us at Patric Chocolate spend just as much time brainstorming new chocolate bars as we do producing our classics. The Limited-Edition chocolate bars have been a fun and delicious outlet for us to keep the creativity flowing as they continually challenge us to bring you the most exciting new flavors. A big part of the challenge is sourcing the best ingredients that enhance and highlight our incredible chocolate.

Chiles and spice are not necessarily groundbreaking in the chocolate world these days, but it’s a combination we especially love. Our daily lunches here are usually accompanied by jalapeno this or Sriracha that so it’s not a stretch of the imagination for any of us, but we wanted to take it a little further.

chiles for our red coconut curry bar

Fruity and spicy? Sweet and spicy? Spicy and spicy? We had a lot of ideas and then it hit us…

The Red Coconut Curry Bar!

But figuring out a way to convey such complex and distinct flavors through chocolate took a lot of time to work out, because lucky for all of you, we were not about to dump a bottle of fish sauce into our refiners.

A large part of our ingredient search was the coconut. First we tried toasting our own coconut.  Then we ordered a lot of coconut from other companies– a lot doesn’t actually begin to cover it– we ordered shredded coconut, coconut chips, raw coconut, toasted coconut, sweetened and unsweetened coconut, and we tried blending coconut oil into the chocolate too.  Nothing excited us.  But then, we struck gold.

coconut for our red coconut curry bar

“Dang!” exclaimed Aimee as she munched on a handful of toasted, sweet & salted coconut chips?  “Why are these so good?  What makes them so much better than the others?”

“Dang!” shouted Sara, “these coconut chips are unreal!”

The key was coconut from a company called “Dang.”

We went with Dang coconut, because it was the tastiest coconut we had ever tasted. “Dang” is a new company based in San Francisco, and also happens to be the name of the owner’s mother, who grew up in Thailand. This flavorful Thai coconut is Gluten-Free, perfectly sweet, and has a wonderful crunchy texture from its light roast, with just a hint of salt. The crunch of this coconut is the perfect match for the bite of this bar. We know that you’ll enjoy our latest blend of dark chocolate, Dang coconut, spicy chiles, ginger, and pure lemongrass & lime essences in this chocolaty version of a Thai favorite.  We’ll be surprised if you don’t exclaim “Dang!” yourself.

See you in the chocolate bar aisle,

Alan “Patric” McClure
Founder & Head Chocolate Maker

We have crafted only 600 Red Coconut Curry bars, so don’t delay, place your order today (10% discount coupon: AMDAWO8FAZX2):

LIMITED EDITION (April): RED Coconut Curry
$8.99

Happy Valentine’s Day to all of you!!

Leave a reply

We are busy on Valentine’s Day molding Mizzou CRUNCH chocolate bars, but we haven’t forgotten about how special all of you are to us.  Without you, our loyal customers, Patric Chocolate would cease to exist, no matter how delicious our chocolate might be.

Thanks again for making it possible for Patric Chocolate to have one more excellent, chocolate-filled year on this earth!

Very best,

Alan–Founder & Head Chocolate Maker

Valentine’s Day Gift Released!

Leave a reply

So, earlier this week I introduced the idea of a sassy chocolate bar.  You may recall the shock, awe, and absolute astonishment that our very own Sara underwent after tasting that bar.  Here is a photo reproduction of this event:

Sara Shocked at sassy limited-edition bar

All kidding aside, this is an incredible bar.  Here is a little more about it:

Imagine the culmination of flavor that stems from blending only cacao, whole milk, organic cane sugar and a pinch of sea salt, but in just such a way that they end up tasting exactly like browned butter and sea-salted burnt caramel were mixed right into the refiners with the chocolate.

If your imagination is pretty accurate, your mouth is currently watering.

This is the flavor of our limited-edition Sweet & Sassy milk chocolate bar.  We’ve never tasted anything like it, and it is the perfect gift for the month of love!   Please note that there are only several hundred left before they’ll be all gone.

Sweet & Sassy Bar

Here is the problem.

I forgot to tell you about something else important.

We have ALSO put together another special gift for Valentine’s Day, and by my count, there are still about 20 boxes of them left.  So, here is more about that too; the pièce de résistance:

bonbons

We have hand-crafted only a handful of these lovely gift boxes with red ribbon.  Each box contains:

  • 2 hand-painted blackberry port bonbons
  • 2 golden-flecked salted caramel ganache bonbons

These are all made in-house, from bean to bar to bonbon, which is quite rare and quite a feat.

Let me repeat that with a little more detail:

We source the cacao, hand-sort it, roast it, winnow it, create a special chocolate recipe that takes months to perfect, and then refine the beans, organic cane sugar and cocoa butter to make some of the finest chocolate imaginable.  ONLY THEN do we begin the process of hand-decorating and molding these little chocolate jewels, filled with house-made ganache so decadent that words can really not describe the experience.  This is bean-to-bar-to bonbon!

You can check them out here while they last.

I’d tell you to enjoy them, but that would be the understatement of the year.

Best,

Alan McClure

Founder & Head Chocolate Maker

Pre-Valentine’s Day Sass: New Limited-Edition Chocolate Bar

5 Replies

One thing that most people probably wouldn’t accuse me of is being sassy.  In a few days, however, that might just change as our February limited-edition chocolate bar has plenty of sass to spare.  If burnt caramel and sea salt get your mouth watering, then you’ll be hooked.  The official release will be onThursday the 7th, so keep your eyes peeled.

-Alan “Patric” McClure

Head Chocolate Maker and Founder

Sara Shocked at sassy limited-edition bar

Sara, absolutely stunned about February’s sassy limited-edition bar (Thanks for the photo C. DeBra)

An invitation…

1 Reply

At Patric Chocolate we diligently work day in and day out to bring innovative and delicious bars that satisfy and impress all of your chocolate craving hearts and mouths. Your feedback is always important to us and with the start of the New Year we want to have a more interactive space to share all of our exciting developments with you from inside our workshop. The three of us that make up Patric Chocolate are passionate and proud of the work we do and want you, our valued customers and friends, to join in our passion with us. Not only do we want to share our chocolate with you, we want to tell our stories, explain our work, and spread our knowledge to each of you on a new level. This is your invitation to take a peek inside our workshop, meet the people behind the chocolate, and truly understand what makes Patric Chocolate unique.

I’m Sara Trikenskas, 1/3 of Patric Chocolate and well, I’m a chocolate maker. I’m going to be the primary voice behind the blog and I intend to try my best to bring you (virtually) inside our factory. I will be answering your questions, sharing recipes (for uses of Patric Chocolate in your kitchen), photos, and many other fun things!

I want to hear from you! What do you want to know about us?

Please feel free to contact me with any questions, comments, concerns, and or winning lottery tickets at: SaraT@Patric-chocolate.com

To Blog or Not To Blog

Leave a reply

So, since I started this blog, Facebook has really taken off, and I am far more active at communicating in that medium. I haven’t posted to this blog in well over a year, and I don’t anticipate continuing it. Still, I hesitate to delete the posts as I believe that they have a great deal of relevant and useful information for chocolate lovers. That being the case, at least for now, I’ll be leaving the blog running, but inactive.

Continue reading →

scotch_choc

Single-Malt Scotch Whisky: The Fine Chocolate of the Beverage World

7 Replies

Since I have been scarcely old enough to consume alcoholic beverages, I have had an interest in Scotch Whisky. At the age of 21 as I tried to figure out what in the “spirits” category appealed to me, I kept feeling drawn, again and again, to Scotch. At first I just ordered whatever was affordable, but gradually I became more interested in pricier blends, and upon arriving in Columbia, MO to finish my B.A., I was introduced to the multifaceted world of single malts. I’ve never looked back. Now I have enough familiarity with the whisky-making process, various distilleries, and their geographical locations and styles, that I don’t feel completely lost, but at the same time, I realize that there is a great deal left for me to learn, and so I persevere–let me tell you, it’s a tough life. ;-)

Continue reading →

Ilenesmall

Working at Patric Chocolate: Guest Blogger Ilene

4 Replies

I started working for Patric Chocolate when I moved to Columbia about seven months ago. As a self-professed dark chocolate lover, I was looking forward to my new gig, though I would quickly learn I didn’t quite realize what I was getting myself into. It didn’t take long to recognize that my narrow view of fine dark chocolate and the reality of it were quite different. Below I shall relay my thoughts and experiences here at the factory (my coming of age story, if you will) in an informal blog for your reading pleasure:

Continue reading →

bars1

Chocolate: The New Fine Wine?

4 Replies

Those of you who have heard me speak, who follow this blog, or my tweets at http://www.twitter.com/PatricChocolate, know that I always dwell upon the many similarities between fine chocolate and other fine foods, with a specific emphasis on wine. I do this not because I want to charge more for fine chocolate, but because I truly believe that the similarities are clear when carefully considered, and that my comments will help people to think about chocolate in new and different ways. Of course, I work with chocolate each and every day, so this is something that is on my mind more than it will be for the average person, but lately the issue has been on my mind even more than usual.

Continue reading →

Patric Chocolate Nib-Chip Cookies

6 Replies

What is delicious, buttery, chewy and chocolatey all at once?

That’s right, Patric Chocolate Nib-Chip Cookies.

Here is the recipe that will become a staple in your home:

Ingredients:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp kosher salt
1 tsp baking soda
½ lb unsalted butter (two sticks)
1 cup dark brown sugar
¾ cup white sugar
1 tsp real vanilla extract
1 egg
¾ cup Patric Chocolate’s Roasted Cacao Nibs

Procedure:

  1. Preheat oven to 375 F. Adjust oven rack to middle position.
  2. Combine flour, salt and baking soda in bowl.
  3. In a mixer cream the butter and mix in sugars.
  4. Add the vanilla and egg to the butter mixture and beat to combine.
  5. Beat the flour mixture into the butter mixture until just combined.
  6. Stir in the Patric Chocolate Cacao Nibs.
  7. Refrigerate dough until cool and stiff.
  8. Drop by rounded teaspoons onto a good quality baking sheet (thin black baking sheets are not good options).
  9. Bake for about 10 minutes and remove from oven. After several minutes remove to a rack to cool.