Friday, December 23, 2011

Starbucks Dark Chocolate with Via Ready Brew Bar

Dark Chocolate with Starbucks Via BrewStarbucks has been in and out of the chocolate business a few times, the most recent large effort was in conjunction with Hershey’s and lasted less than two years.

These little bars called Starbucks Dark Chocolate with Via Ready Brew are found only at Starbucks cafes (not even on their website) and feature the Starbucks Via Ready Brew instant coffee as a flavor base. The packaging is simple and effective, it’s a tough paper and foil combination. The package says that this little chocolate bar is 100% natural roasted instant and microground coffee blended into rich, dark chocolate.

It’s rather small, at 1.2 ounces, but for such an intense thing, it’s an appropriate size. (And with a calorie count of 160 according to myfitnesspal, it’s not on the Starbucks website or the wrapper.)

Starbucks Via Ready Brew Bar

The bar shape and size is clever and incredibly portable, like a narrow and thick companion for your iPhone. The bar is in four little sections, the top is molded with some very nice typography.

The color of the bar is exceptionally dark, much darker and blacker than I usually see in just chocolate bars.

Starbuck’s has done an awful lot right with this little bar. The texture is very smooth but still intense. It’s about the coffee for the most part, but the elements of the chocolate are also in a strong supporting role.

Starbucks Ready Brew Bar

The coffee flavors are concentrated. It’s a little acidic, smoky and woodsy. The coffee notes are less intense, but don’t fight. The texture is smooth though the bar has a bit of a dry finish. The powdered coffee isn’t chalky or gritty at all, which is a great bonus over chocolate covered coffee beans.

There’s no indication what the caffeine content was on this bar, and as I’m sensitive to the stuff, I made sure to eat only half of this for breakfast this morning.

It’s a really strong bar, smooth for something with whole coffee beans in it, flavorful and nicely portioned. The price of $1.75 seems steep at first, but as a coffee replacement that you can pull out at any time, it’s a great deal. If you’re traveling, especially driving, and need to have something at the ready, this is a great option.

I’ve never actually tried the Via Ready Brew was a drink. I do, however, buy it for use in baking. I make an incredibly intense triple salty chocolate (cocoa, melted chocolate & chocolate chips) espresso cookies with Via Ready Brew. It makes the recipe ingredients insanely expensive (between the two bags of good Guittard chocolate chips and Via it’s about $11 for a batch, and that doesn’t include the standard ingredients). So if you have the money, I do think it’s much better than espresso powder or ordinary Folger’s crystals for baking.

Starbucks posted a bit about the ethical sourcing of the chocolate on their blog in two parts: part one & part two. One of the posts indicates a relationship with Tcho, but another blog reports that the chocolate bars are made by Santander.

Related Candies

  1. Sarotti Scho-Ka-Kola
  2. Starbucks Assorted Gum Drops
  3. Ginger Chews: Hot Coffee
  4. Javaz - Milk & Dark Chocolate Covered Coffee Beans
  5. Coffee Nips
  6. Starbucks Chocolate
  7. Caffe Acapella - Coffee Confections
  8. Pocket Coffee
  9. No Time & Black Black

POSTED BY Cybele AT 10:30 am Tracker Pixel for Entry     All NaturalCandyReviewStarbucksCaffeinatedChocolateCoffeeEthically Sourced8-TastyUnited States

Comments
  1. it looks as if Santandar is ethically sourced as well.

    http://www.chocolatesantander.com/english/socialResponsibility.html

    Comment by Rodzilla on 12/24/11 at 6:15 am #
  2. I just love dark Chocolate!!
    Now you make feel hungry

    Comment by fatim on 12/24/11 at 7:36 pm #
  3. A recipe for those cookies would be much appreciated!  They sound yum!

    Comment by Sania on 12/25/11 at 2:58 pm #
  4. I agree with Sania—that is a very intriguing sounding cookie!!

    Comment by Rebecca on 1/02/12 at 9:59 am #
  5. Cybele's avatar

    Took me a while to find it, here’s the Cookie Recipe I’ve been using.

    Comment by Cybele on 1/06/12 at 7:11 pm #
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