Dagoba ‘Seeds’
Dagoba is clearly a chocolate company with worthy ideals and ethics behind it. This US company was founded relatively recently in 2001 by Frederick Schilling. He had the novel idea of aligning the cocoa bean turning into chocolate with alchemy and has travelled the world to find the right type of cocoa beans grown organically and sustainably.
Dagoba’s beans are sourced from Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Peru and Madagascar and Schilling ensures that they are farmed organically, sustainably and a fair price paid to the farmers and invested in their communities. Sounds good, doesn’t it?
Well, ethics or not, the chance to eat some chocolate laced with hemp seeds was too good to miss. The 68% cocoa content wasn’t too shabby either and we all know that pumpkin and sunflower seeds are immensely good for you.
Other ingredients include evaporated cane juice (instead of sugar), Balinese salt (for ethical reasons) and, in their words, “love”. Awwww, bless their sweet little hearts.
Now comes the really un-fun part of this job. This is where I’m going to be considered mean-spirited evil and anti-organic, anti-fairtrade and anti sustainable industry when in actual fact I’m none of those things. It is just that this bar tasted like, well, nothing, actually. Sure, there were crunchy seeds and a nice little salt kick but the actual chocolate was utterly and totally indistinguishable.
I even sat there, on a 29C day outside, waiting patiently to enable each segment to soften a bit so that the flavours of the chocolate could more fully emerge and reveal themselves but nope. There was literally no discernible chocolate taste – it might as well have been (now brace yourselves) carob. Yes, carob – it felt like chocolate and clearly help bind the assorted seeds together but there was no cocoa-ey taste.
Then I tried putting it straight on the tongue and hoping it would dissolve into the taste buds directly but it just didn’t. This was proving to be very, very puzzling and disappointing. Therefore, my suggestion is that you can buy this bar in order to try nibbling on some hemp seeds and for good intentions but do not kid yourself for one second that the actual chocolate is going to be anything other than an invisible let down. Sorry.
Information
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- Filed under dagoba, dark chocolate, organic, pumpkin seed, sunflower seed, us.
I’ve found all the Dagoba bars to be very hit and miss, though I’ve yet to be disappointed byt the xocolatl or the lavendar. As a fellow Aussie, though, I’d love to know where you found these! My experiences with Dagoba occurred when I was in the US and I didn’t realise they could be found here too.
I like their Chai bar, which is Milk, mostly because it’s not strong on cloves. But they’re pretty stingy on their inclusions.
Dagoba has been owned by Hershey’s since 2006. (It’s under their Artisan Confections brand.)
Hi Hannah
I actually found them in a cafe in Flemington, Melbourne, but I’m trying to get in contact with the importing company to try their other flavours (the lavender one you mention sounds particularly interesting), so that I can review more and see which ones ARE good.
Hi Cybele
Stay tuned for my Chai review…
I’m very partial to their roseberry, which to me is one of the best chocolate/raspberry combinations out there. But I suppose that’s partially because the chocolate flavors are pretty mild, and the raspberry flavor is excellent and authentic.
Interesting to read this one as I’ve been tossing up whether to try this brand out or not (a little on the expensive side – ok if the choccie’s worth it though!)
I might give Rebecca’s suggestion a go and try the raspberry one…
… and here’s me thinking that Dagobah was the planet Yoda came from! *is geek* 😀
Pity the Chocolate doesn’t taste good… oh well, back to the green and blacks for guilt reduced choccys
Thanks Kath – I might have to get in touch with you about secret spots for chocolate buying in Melbourne if I manage to make the trip over there this year 🙂
I believe I tried most of Dagoba’s flavoured bars when in the US(except the ones with crystallized ginger, as I love ginger as a spice but not in that form), and agree with Cybele that some are very stingy on the inclusions (I remember tasting no mint or rosemary in the bars that were meant to have those flavours, and nuts are always few and far between). However, the two that I will keep buying are the lavendar bar (odd, because I don’t actually like the smell of lavendar) and the Xocolatl bar – but I love chilli in chocolate and nibs!
Longtime lurker ahoy…
They may not keep or travel well? I haven’t had that one yet, but I’ve been very happy with all the ones I have so far, as long as I don’t lose them behind something else in the fridge or get them too close to expiry.
Well, some chocolate just doesn’t have it. Dagoba’s milk chocolate hazelnut and their mint dark chocolate bars are very good.