Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Seeds of Change: Dark Chocolate with Mango and Cashew

Seeds of Change 61% Dark with Mango and CashewsLong before Hershey’s got into the organic chocolate act by buying Dagoba in 2006, Mars bought a small organic & heritage seed company called Seeds of Change in 1999. Since then, Seeds of Change also became an organic food company (sauces, grains & frozen meals) and launched a line of organic chocolate bars.

Seeds of Change is dedicated to preserving food diversity and promoting organic growing techniques and food worldwide, and cacao is definitely one of those plants that needs that sort of nurturing. In addition to using organic ingredients they also donate 1% of their net sales to advance the cause of sustainable organic agriculture worldwide. I tried their bar called Isle of Skye last year, which I thought was an excellent and noteworthy crisped grain in milk chocolate bar.

Seeds of Change 61% Dark with Mango and CashewsThis year, while browsing ExpoWest, a natural & organic products trade show in Anaheim, I found out that Seeds of Change has shifted their product line. They changed the names of their bars, dropped a few of them and added some more classic versions (a plain dark chocolate bar, for instance) and also redesigned all their packages. (I did love their previous wrapper images.)

I was excited to see the new package, which is a wallet style paperboard package with three individually wrapped bars inside. Perfect for portion control, great for keeping all pieces fresh and excellent for sharing. The three bars in a reclosable package may look familiar ... Dove introduced it last year.

The Seeds of Change version has little plastic wrapped bars instead of foil.

I picked their 61% Dark Chocolate with Mango and Cashew as the intro to this new look & product line.

Seeds of Change 61% Dark with Mango and Cashews

The little bars are nicely molded, shiny and with a crisp snap. They’re scored into four pieces - the whole bar weighs only an ounce.

I like the thickness of it, as it allows a nice bite and a slow melt of the bar.

The dark chocolate is smooth and silky, it has a quick melt and a lot of cocoa butter feel on the tongue. Unfortunately it’s not a vegan bar, there’s milkfat in there.

The flavors are pretty simple. It’s rich coffee & woodsy flavored chocolate, a little bit of dark charcoal and then some grassy notes of the cashew pieces. The little dried mango bits are a little fibery but pack a powerful punch of tangy chew - kind of orangy-citrus with a hint of peach and green tea.

The little inclusions are rather small. The cashew pieces weren’t big enough to be crunchy, which is too bad, because I think the buttery crunch of cashews would really bolster this bar.

As it is, the shining star here is the chocolate followed by the mango notes. Aa good, fun taste combination.

The complete list of products in their line is now: Milk Chocolate (43%), Milk Chocolate with Puffed Grains (formerly Isle of Skye), 61% Dark Chocolate, Dark Chocolate with Cherries & Vanilla, Dark Chocolate with Coconut. It’s an interesting array because besides the plain chocolate, the flavors are different from the usual offerings when standing in the chocolate bar aisle. I’ve seen Seeds of Change at drug stores (Long’s Drugs in California). Oddly enough, Seeds of Change also just sent me some of the other new bars, so I’ll have reviews of those soon, too.

In recognition of Earth Day, Seeds of Change is running a contest (deadline July 21, 2009) - submit you video, photo or essay to tell the world what you’re doing to make a difference.

The Grand Prize winner will receive 365 days of Seeds of Change(r) Organic Chocolate, plus a variety of our other Seeds of Change Organic products. The runner-up will receive a sampling of Seeds of Change Organic Chocolate and our other Seeds of Change Organic products.

I buy their sauces and think they’re very tasty and usually well priced for organic products.

Related Candies

  1. Chocolate Dipped Altoids - Creme de Menthe
  2. Organic Zootons
  3. 3400 Phinney: Fig, Fennel & Almond and Hazelnut Crunch
  4. Zotter Candy Bars
  5. Terra Nostra Pocket Bars
  6. Green & Black’s Ginger Chocolate
  7. Dagoba Hazelnut
Name: 61% Dark Chocolate with Mango & Cashew
    RATING:
  • 10 SUPERB
  • 9 YUMMY
  • 8 TASTY
  • 7 WORTH IT
  • 6 TEMPTING
  • 5 PLEASANT
  • 4 BENIGN
  • 3 UNAPPEALING
  • 2 APPALLING
  • 1 INEDIBLE
Brand: Seeds of Change (Mars)
Place Purchased: sample from ExpoWest
Price: retail $3.50 a bar
Size: 2.99 ounces
Calories per ounce: 140
Categories: Chocolate, Nuts, United States, Mars, Kosher, Organic, All Natural

POSTED BY Cybele AT 9:01 am Tracker Pixel for Entry    

Comments
  1. I’m in shock. Not only did it come as a surprise that SofC is owned by Mars, but I can’t believe they’ve changed their packaging and line. I love, love, love the old wrappers and have even collected them. I could have sworn I saw them at Whole Foods on Sunday - must be old stock.

    While I’m glad they’ve kept the puffed grains bar (yum!), it’s sad to ones like the pecan bar go. Cashews are a delicate nut and I find the flavor does not hold up in small pieces. Of course, now I’ll have to go try this bar again and see if they’ve improved on the old version.

    Comment by KateC on 4/22/09 at 11:00 am #
  2. The cashews, mangoes and dark chocolate combination intrigues me.  I wonder if they have it in wholefoods in NYC.

    Comment by ian on 4/22/09 at 11:52 am #
  3. Hey Cybele

      Have you seen the new M&M’s made to promote Transformers? They are called “Strawberried Peanut Butter”. I purchased them but have not tried them yet and was wondering if you had tried them, what you thought.

    Comment by Jennifer on 4/22/09 at 12:38 pm #
  4. Mmm, I love dark chocolate and mangoes, so I’ll have to look for this one. Trader Joes has these great chocolate-dipped dried mango pieces which I always indulge in whenever I go grocery shopping there… It’s a pity it isn’t crunchy, because I always love a bit of crunch to my chocolate.

    Comment by toast on 4/22/09 at 12:40 pm #
  5. Sera's avatar

    That sounds like such an awesome flavor combo. I’m going to keep an eye out for it now. smile

    Comment by Sera on 4/22/09 at 3:58 pm #
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