Uncommonly Good Chocolate Bars.

Uncommon Grounds, a Saratoga Springs coffee roaster with locations in Saratoga and Albany, and Barkeater Chocolates, an artisan chocolate company in North Creek, have teamed up to create two extraordinary chocolate bars.

Customers of Uncommon Grounds will now be able to purchase two decadent Barkeater Bars in their cafés; The House Blend Bar for coffee lovers and the Italian Roast Bar for coffee fanatics. After taking a sample of different blends, roasts and grinds of coffee into the Barkeater Test Kitchen, the clear winners emerged. According to Deb Morris, Co-Founder & Head Chocolatier of Barkeater Chocolates, “Combining coffee and dark chocolate is not a new concept, but it’s one we have definitely perfected with this exceptional coffee.”

The bars, currently being sold exclusively at Uncommon Grounds’ two locations, were put through rigorous taste tests until two perfect bars emerged. Morris adds, “Our intention was to create one great gourmet chocolate bar, but after experimenting with both coarse & finer grinds of the Italian Roast, we couldn’t deny its place in the winner’s circle.”

Jim Morris, Co-Founder of Barkeater Chocolates says, “Barkeater Chocolates and Uncommon Grounds spent years communicating through social media, making a partnership inevitable.”

Barkeater Chocolates is an artisan chocolate company in the Adirondacks where confections are made by hand in small batches. In addition to their standard chocolate offerings, they have collaborated with wineries, breweries and coffee houses to create custom chocolates with unique flavors that have an instant fan base the moment they are unveiled. For more information about Barkeater Chocolates, visit their website at www.barkeaterchocolates.comor call 518.251.GIFT (4438).

Married: Uncommon Grounds Coffee & Chocolate from Barkeater

In the beginning…truffles ruled the chocolate factory, social media was still a year away, and our primary mode of sales was through farmers markets, PTA craft fairs & church bazaars. My how far we’ve come!

If you’ve come this far on our website – you know that we offer WAY  more than truffles, we’re adding retailers every week, and our factory has grown considerably – in space, staff & equipment. And we’re still growing.

Our success however, is not measured in how many truffles, Barkeater Bars or Grown-Up Peanut Butter Cups we can churn out in a day (week…month), but how many customers continue to enjoy our confections and come back for more. And how purely emotional a chocolate purchase can be for some people (future post: some of the most touching & humorous gift notes we’ve sent out for our customers).

Visit our Facebook  page for a chance to receive our birthday gift to you!

Thank you for 4 wonderful years – we are looking forward to the next 40.

Giant Easter Egg Truffle

With Easter just one week away – and with 6 select retailers carrying our GIANT 1-1/4 lb. Chocolate Easter Egg Truffles – it feels appropriate to give a little history on the emergence of the Easter Egg tradition.

Eggs have often been associated, not surprisingly, with birth. Easter of course is a Christian holiday celebrating the re-birth of Christ. Interestingly enough, coloring eggs dates back 2,500 years with a tribe in Africa who painted the eggs for their Pegan New Year celebration, which occurred in the spring.

Over the centuries the egg has remained a symbol of Easter & rebirth – with different cultures throughout the world using the egg in many different ways. In the US, we have the Easter Egg hunt where children win prizes for collecting hidden eggs; and in parts of Europe, a game called Egg Tapping or Egg Dumping is played where participants try to break each other’s eggs with their own eggs. Eastern Europeans gave the White House the idea of Egg Rolling, which is played by children rolling their eggs down a hillside, or on the White House lawn. This is said to have symbolized the rock in front of Christ’s tomb being rolled away upon the resurrection.

Anyone familiar with Lent – the six weeks leading up to Easter – knows that it is common to fast or give something up in preparation for Easter. Eggs as a traditional Easter food emerged because it was tradition to give up meat and eggs during the period of Lent.

So what about the chocolate Easter Egg? This tradition dates back to the 19th century in France and Germany, where it was common to give out small, solid, bitter chocolate eggs at Easter time. The idea spread to England where the first mass-produced chocolate egg was created.

And here at Barkeater Chocolates, our eggs simply grew from the largest chocolate chickens around! Easter is not only a time of rebirth, but one of sharing and family traditions as well. And the Giant Chocolate Easter Egg truffle is helping maintain family traditions.

Order your Egg online until April 3 or visit Hudson River Trading Company in their North Creek or Queensbury stores, Cafe Sarah in North Creek, Young’s Pharmacy in Averill Park, The Jonesville Store in Clifton Park, Chatham Flowers & Gifts in Chatham or the Ansel Gurney House in Marion, Massachusetts for your delicious taste of Easter tradition!

Delicious Barkeater Chocolates Romance Truffles

It’s no surprise that chocolate and February go together like movies and popcorn. It’s also no surprise that in just about every February issue of every magazine published, there will be some interesting chocolate facts. Here’s a sampling of some wild facts we learned this month:

The flavonoids in chocolate can help prevent brain cell death and thus be included in a diet that can help prevent Alzheimer’s Disease (Livestrong.com).

High consumption of chocolate leads to a significant decrease in risk for stroke, heart disease & reduction of blood pressure (NYTimes.com)

Germans consume the highest amount of chocolate per year (International Cocoa Organization)

Most of the world’s cacao beans are grown in Ivory Coast (Food Network Magazine)

God Gave us Chocolate to Make up for Brussels Sprouts (Barkeater Chocolates)

Have an awesome February and a great Valentine’s Day!

Barkeater Chocolates Peanut Butter Cups

As we wind up this very, very busy holiday season (thank you all!) – we are already working ahead for our usual Valentine’s Day rush and our fundraising season kick-off! Making thousands of gourmet chocolate hearts at the end of December may seem a bit out of place- but this is our most popular time for helping organizations raise money. That translates to a lot of Barkeater Chocolates’ Valentine’s Day confections being sold by school groups and non-profit organizations in the next 30 days.

Enjoy your December holidays and New Year celebrations wherever you are! Here in our corner of the Adirondacks – there may not be much snow yet – but there is a mountain of chocolate still to be made.

Truff-Ales at Davidson Brothers

Beer is to chocolate like a hand is to a glove. Not just a welcome treat, but perhaps a necessary one.

Barkeater Chocolates of North Creek announces its collaboration with Davidson Brothers Brewing Company in downtown Glens Falls. Diners are now able to end their meal with five decadent dark chocolate truffles using Davidson’s Red, IPA, Oatmeal Stout, Scotch & Smoked Porter brews.

The confections debuted in early December and have already proven to be extremely popular. The staff at Barkeater Chocolates is making hundreds more to keep up with demand.

Barkeater Chocolates, located in the Adirondacks, is an artisanal chocolate manufacturer that specializes in handcrafted European-style chocolates made in small batches using wholesome, often organic ingredients. While select retailers throughout the Capital Region, Hudson Valley & Adirondack mountains sell a variety of Barkeaters’ many confections, the Truff-Ales will live at Davidson Brothers’ downtown location.

Combining beer and chocolate is not a new concept to Barkeater Chocolates. They have been producing Ubu Truffles for the Lake Placid Pub & Brewery for nearly a year. Interestingly enough, when Barkeater Chocolates first opened their doors in early 2008, one of their first truffle flavors was the Stout Truffle.

For more information on Barkeater Chocolates & their gourmet confections, check out their website at www.barkeaterchocolates.com or call 518.251.GIFT.

Chocolate Covered Cricket?

When we polled the people who “like” Barkeater Chocolates’ Facebook page on what’s the wildest thing they’ve ever covered in chocolate – we got what we asked for. Phoebe did not particularly like chocolate covered jalapenos; while Jim took a big bite of chocolate covered bacon.  However, the most interesting answer (that we can actually quote) was from Sarah – who told us that her kids really enjoyed their chocolate covered crickets.

As for the crickets; we don’t plan on offering that line of confections any time soon. However, much of the world does enjoy a feast of insects. Western civilization has pretty much shunned the much loved grub & fly larvae panini; but those in Asia, Africa & Australia don’t seem to be hung up on whether they eat fire roasted ants with their tomatoes.

We pride ourselves on unique chocolate confections (Wasabi Ginger Truffle, anyone?), but at this time, we’re not bringing scorpions into the test kitchen. At least, not yet…

Women Love Chocolate

Did you know that 70% of Barkeater Chocolates’ thousands of Facebook “likes” are from women? This little statistic isn’t too far off from the national average that touts 75% of chocolate purchases are made by women. According to a study from 2007 done at the University of Wisconsin, females across the food chain are chocoholics – including rats. Hmmmm. Scientists aren’t sure why more women than men appreciate chocolate – but they do know that chocolate is good for you with its antioxidants and mood elevating qualities. And it’s a known fact that women live longer, on average, than men.

So…maybe women are simply hard wired for survival. Interesting.

And what kind of chocolate do women (and men) like? According to our own Facebook feedback on gourmet chocolates; 53% of our dark chocolate lovers eat it because they love it unconditionally – and another 34% will eat it because it’s healthy. But simply on a taste comparison…46% of our loyal chocoholics will choose the sweeter milk chocolate versus 40% who will choose the more decadent dark. That leaves 14% of Barkeater fans who stick with white chocolate and are proud of it.

So what kind of chocolate do YOU like?

Percentage of Cacao

OK – We understand that if you’re reading this post you probably already know what the little numbers & words on your chocolate labels mean. You know – all those percentages and descriptions such as semi-sweet & bittersweet. And while we don’t mean to dumb it down, it’s worth going through one more time, now that the holidays are knocking on our doors. Let’s face it – when you’re shopping for gifts at the rate of a race car driver, you’re not going to be paying all that much attention to the labels – so this little refresher course is just a way to cement it in your brain so you can concentrate on which wrapping paper to buy.

Percentage of cacao will be present on most gourmet chocolate bars. But here’s the thing – they will most likely be present on only dark chocolate bars. And what really is a dark chocolate bar? Does it mean there is no milk fat in it at all? No. In fact, there are many dark chocolate bars with some milk fat added in for texture and taste. So let’s back up for a second. The percentage of cacao in a bar refers to the ratio of cacao to other ingredients (such as sugar). A 60% bar will have more sugar than a 70% bar. The higher the percentage – the more bitter the chocolate. Good for you health wise – but depending on your personal taste preferences – maybe not good tasting. Some people will eat a 90% bar – most of us prefer to use that for baking cakes.

That said – in the US – there isn’t any magic number that defines what percentage of cacao has to be present in order to define chocolate as dark. Usually, we consider it dark chocolate at 60% or higher, but lower percentages have also been referred to as “dark.” Milk chocolate generally comes in at about 30-40% cacao, but again, this varies widely depending on brands and other ingredients like cocoa butter. Either way – you will almost never see a cacao percentage on a milk chocolate bar.

So what’s the deal with semi-sweet or bittersweet? Again, there are no set guidelines. Typically, bittersweet is darker than semi-sweet; but one brand’s bittersweet might be sweeter than another brand’s semi-sweet.

Wow – now that was helpful wasn’t it? Your best bet is to just read the ingredients. If chocolate is the first ingredient, you’re in good shape. If sugar is the first ingredient – that’s a big clue you’re not exactly getting the best chocolate money can buy.  Stick with chocolate that tastes delicious, and you won’t go wrong.

Though bloom may very well happen in production (or on the store shelves), when you have a piece of chocolate at home and it blooms – it is typically the result of where and how it was stored.

The next question you probably have is (we pride ourselves on reading minds): Can you refrigerate or freeze chocolate? The short answer is yes. But in order to prevent sugar or fat separation – you must take steps when cooling your chocolate. If you purchased chocolate and left it in your car – or your bag on a very warm and sunny day – you may be quick to throw it in the refrigerator before eating. While doing so won’t make your chocolate toxic – it will make it bloom. Drastic temperature changes are a quick way to get that whitish film on top of your chocolate. The best solution (provided your chocolate didn’t melt into a gooey soup) is to simply get the softened chocolate to room temperature (preferably in a room that’s about 70 degrees or less). Once you have done so – if you still wish to refrigerate it to firm it up – do so in a sealed bag (or it’s original packaging) for just a few minutes – then put it back to room temperature without removing the bag unless you plan on eating it right away.

If you are hoping to freeze the chocolate to extend it’s life or to resist temptation – freeze it in an airtight bag. When you take it out – do not remove the bag until it has reached room temperature. Condensation will separate the sugars in the chocolate and they will dissolve along the top – causing the same whitish tint.

If these steps still don’t prevent the bloom – it’s entirely up to your preference as to whether or not you eat it. Though the texture may change – there is nothing at all bad about eating bloomed chocolate.