Vosges Oaxaca Chocolate Bar - Holy Crap!

Has anyone else tried the Vosges Oaxaca Bar? This "exotic candy bar" is 75% (!) cacao, dosed with guajillo and pasilla chillies. At $6.00, it ain't cheap, but then again, 1/8 of the bar is about all anyone but the deepest chocolate fiend could want at one sitting. The darkness and strength of the chocolate combined with the sweat-inducing chillies yield the first candy bar to which I would ever apply the word "thrilling."

Well, that certainly sounds worth looking into. Do you remember where you picked up this wonderful candy?

David Hammond wrote:Well, that certainly sounds worth looking into. Do you remember where you picked up this wonderful candy?

I bought my $6.00 wonder bar at Provenance, on the 2500 block of N. California, right here in Logan Square. But no doubt, you could get one at either of Vosges official outlets in Chicago (520 N. Michigan and 921 W. Armitage). Or, there's this dude I know who can score for you.

These chocolate bars, along with other exotically flavored bars and truffles, as well as ice cream and hot cocoa, are available at the Vosges shops.

Although I haven't tried the Oaxaca bar, I've found that with others, like the Black Pearl (wasabi and ginger), my preference is for their truffles. To my taste, ganache makes a better for medium for spices than straight chocolate.

Vosges Haut Chocolat
888/301-YUMM www.vosgeschocolate.com
951 W. Armitage Ave., Chicago, 773/296-9866
North Bridge, 520 N. Michigan Ave., Chicago, 312/644-9450

I'm a longtime admirer of all chocolates Vosges including the Oaxacan.
And, in general I ain't a cacao afficianado.

That being said, the proprietess is a total, jetsetty, yoga, Che Guevara on t-shirts flake.

Thankfully, her chocolates are just too damn good.

Christopher Gordon wrote:That being said, the proprietess is a total, jetsetty, yoga, Che Guevara on t-shirts flake.

Thankfully, her chocolates are just too damn good.

Yes and yes. The following load of crap is quoted from the copy on the back of the Oaxaca Bar label:

"Chillies lure with an addictive, magnetic pull ... Your immune system will thank you for the the antioxidants and vitamins chillies bring ... as your blood vessels course with life and your metabolism increases, sit back and enjoy the natural high" (emphasis added).

Oh, please! Yep, she hits the New Age trifecta of magnetism, antioxidants and a "natural high." Collect them all! Distribute to your drum circle! And that reference to vitamins is disingenuous at best. The only vitamin above trace levels is "A," at 6% of the U.S. RDA. If you're only getting 6% of your vitamin A from a 190 calorie serving of candy (2.5 servings per bar), then FYI: Unless you're on a 3,000-calorie diet, this ain't really a good source of vitamin A.

Nevertheless, this is an amazing candy bar, so just ignore the hippy-dippy crapola and dig in!

Me, I favor the product promise on the box of Devil Girl chocolate I have in my office.

1. Delicious taste
2. Quick, cheap buzz
3. Bad for your health
4. Leads to hard drugs
5. Waste of money
6. Made by sleazy businessmen
7. Exploits women

7 Evils in One!

You know, Hammond, it's your penchant for one-upsmanship that has alienated you from so many here on the board. Bastard.

JimInLoganSquare wrote:You know, Hammond, it's your penchant for one-upsmanship that has alienated you from so many here on the board. Bastard.

There was no way I was going to let Christopher Gordon's gratuitous slam to Che Guevara t-shirt wearers go by without some kind of response.

David "Oak Park's Last Surviving Guevarista" Hammond

David Hammond wrote:

JimInLoganSquare wrote:You know, Hammond, it's your penchant for one-upsmanship that has alienated you from so many here on the board. Bastard.

There was no way I was going to let Christopher Gordon's gratuitous slam to Che Guevara t-shirt wearers go by without some kind of response.

David "Oak Park's Last Surviving Guevarista" Hammond

Well, as you know, David, you have special dispensation (in the manner of the holy fool) to wear your Che t-shirt as, when and where you wish. All others, please re-read and pay special attention to Mr. Gordon's post. And enjoy a Vosges Oaxaca Bar!

Ahhh...devilgirl...she could drive any guy crazy!

Saw this in the Milwaukee Art Museum this past weekend -- my husband was coveting the Devil Girl lunchbox. His birthday is next week. . .

You can also get the Vosges chocolate bars at Hannah's Bretzel and the Intelligensia coffee in the Monodnack building downtown. The Red Fire is my personal favorite. We hide them from the kids.

Suzy

Vosges chocolates in a fairly wide variety, including Oaxaca, are also available at Fox & Obel (not too much of a surprise there) and Whole Foods.

if you love the bar, you should try the oaxacan hot chocolate @ the vosges shops...

i didn't know Markoff did yoga, now i have to stop buying her chocolate.

I purchased and sent out Vosge Chocolates as client gifts during the holiday season last year. The Vosge company was so nice to work with, they accepted an Excel spreadsheet with my contacts and did the wrapping and shipping for me.

Several of my clients called and/or emailed me back to tell me how much they appreciated this Chicago-based gift. Much better results than the standard Harry & David gift basket.

I'm not one to repeat myself, but my clients will be getting the same thing this year. They'd be disappointed if they didn't.

http://www.vosgeschocolate.com/

We walked by a Vosges storefront in NYC when we were there recently. Also spotted Intelligentsia coffee being served in Seattle.

A couple of months back I had a meeting with an extraordinarily wealthy female about a possible project. A sampler box of Vosges was placed close enough to beckon me. Between brain storming bursts, her phone would inevitably ring and I was left to my own devices as she discussed financing some quasi-anti-establishment arty "event."

I skip dessert gladly and rarely crave anything sweet. Yet my eyes continually wandered over to the chocolate sampler, the creative names of the confections and their exotic ingredients. When I was eventually offered one, I took it reluctantly. Yowza. Next phone call my salivatory glands blinded me and I grabbed another while she was distracted. And another. And another. I hope I left some in the box.

As I left the meeting, I heard her instruct her aide to order more chocolates. I did not get a call back on the project.

I bet somebody wore the Che t-shirt to the "event."

-ramon

Olivia's Market at about 2010 W Wabansia has the full line of Vosges bars at $6 a pop. I picked up a Oaxaca, but after our immensely filling meal at Sol de Mexico, we haven't cracked it open yet.

gleam wrote:Olivia's Market at about 2010 W Wabansia has the full line of Vosges bars at $6 a pop. I picked up a Oaxaca, but after our immensely filling meal at Sol de Mexico, we haven't cracked it open yet.

Hold off until you have more or less fully digested your big meal. Maybe wait until tomorrow. And, really, just one small piece is PLENTY.

One piece is, indeed, plenty.

Ten minutes later I'm still feeling the warmth of the chiles in my chest.

gleam wrote:Ten minutes later I'm still feeling the warmth of the chiles in my chest.

I've pretty much sworn off Vosges, though it seems I'll be picking up a Oaxaca Bar in the next day or three.

Tempted by temptation yet again.

Enjoy,
Gary

leek wrote:We walked by a Vosges storefront in NYC when we were there recently. Also spotted Intelligentsia coffee being served in Seattle.

Last we were in Manhattan wandering Soho, I just had to stop in at the local Vosges outpost. Much more minimal design(mostly white with one extremely high counter halving the already slim space), smaller selection, great Aztec hot chocolate...and packed to the gills.

Whoa, I see from the site that they've got a few new bars I haven't found in the stores yet. Goji berries! OLIVES!!! Those look a little bizarre but I'm going to have to try them. The dark chocolate-matcha one looks not bizarre, just really good.

I really like the Vosges bars. The Barcelona one is really good although I wish it was made with dark chocolates. The Oaxaca is fabulous as is the Black Pearl. Overall I think I like the flavored Dagoba bars better-- the lavender and blueberry one is very interesting, but they don't have as much of a variety, at least that I have seen.

Seriously, I am obsessed with that chocolate bar. I got one as a gift and now I am hooked. And for those of you "who can only eat a bit or two," I wish I had your sense of control. I generally break off a couple squares, go to the living room thinking, "surely this will be enough, after all it is so rich." But I love it soooo much, that in know time, I am unwrapping it again, breaking off more squares. It is so good.

Sam's wine and liquor on north and clyborn sells voges. I have tried the black pearl as well; it is good, but does not rival the chili pepper/chocolate combo.

JimInLoganSquare wrote:yield the first candy bar to which I would ever apply the word "thrilling."

Jim,

Pretty darn good, though I was hoping for, what I've taken to calling, a Sarah Silverman moment. Maybe it was the fact it was eight thousand degrees outside, but I didn't find the chile heat overly strong. At $6 for 3.3oz the Vosges Oaxaca is not going on my short list.

While at Whole Foods I did, however, stumble across a terrific fig spread, Organic Adriatic Fig Spread from Croatia. Had it yesterday with Capriole fresh goat cheese, topping a NY Bagel and Bialy raisin bagel w/cream cheese this morning.

Also bought a hunk of Wisconsin Antigo Stravecchio Parmesan, which I found flavorless with a slightly waxy mouthfeel. Not cheap either. Speaking of not so good, why in the hell can't Whole Foods pick up it's game on the house made baguettes. To paraphrase RevrendAndy, it's like "white bread with a good crust" except WF's crust isn't all that good.

Enjoy,
Gary

G Wiv wrote:

JimInLoganSquare wrote:yield the first candy bar to which I would ever apply the word "thrilling."

Jim,

Pretty darn good, though I was hoping for, what I've taken to calling, a Sarah Silverman moment. Maybe it was the fact it was eight thousand degrees outside, but I didn't find the chile heat overly strong. At $6 for 3.3oz the Vosges Oaxaca is not going on my short list.

Sorry it wasn't all you'd hoped for, but there may be a couple of reasons you were not as thrilled with the Oaxaca Bar as I. First, I think there is no doubt you have a higher tolerance for and appreciation of highly-spice foods than do I, and your impression of the peppers as not "overly strong" is probably connected to that. I wasn't fanning my face and running for the spigot, but I did sense a mild burn and it raised a mild case of brow-sweats that you probably didn't experience. Second, it was not just the peppers, but also the extraordinarily high cacao content - 75% - that grabbed my attention in the store and was a major part of the "thrill" when I got it home. I'm not sure I've ever eaten a chocolate bar with that high a percentage of cacao, and for me, it was eye-opening. In fact, to the extent your expectation of being thrilled by the Oaxaca Bar was keyed exclusively to the (perceived) high-spiciness factor, and not the combination of spice and chocolate overload, then that may have prejudiced your taste (and it was also probably my fault for not providing a better explanation of wherein the "thrill" did lie for me). But, de gustibus...

For us the darkness of the chocolate wasn't a major surprise -- we have a 10lb bar of blommer's bittersweet chocolate, which is in the 70%+ range in the house.

It's not a particularly spicy bar, but the chiles do give me some warmth in my chest after I've swallowed them.

What did impress me was how well the bar was made. It had that great glossiness and snap you only get from perfectly tempering chocolate.

gleam wrote:For us the darkness of the chocolate wasn't a major surprise -- we have a 10lb bar of blommer's bittersweet chocolate, which is in the 70%+ range in the house.

But was that 10-lb bar advertised as a "candy bar" or as "baking chocolate?" And this is related to your other comment:

gleam wrote:It had that great glossiness and snap you only get from perfectly tempering chocolate.

You can tell me if I am wrong, but I doubt the 10-lbs of Blommers is as well-crafted as the Vosges bar. I guess what got me was to find such an incredibly dark chocolate, made and marketed to be eaten as a snack or dessert in itself, and not just as an ingredient. (Not that I haven't sneaked my share of baker's chocolate, just that I hadn't seen it perfected and sold to the end-user rather than the cook/baker.) Maybe just my provincialism showing again! Dang it ...

No, the bittersweet is not meant for eating out of hand. We use it for baking (although we also eat it out of hand). But if you tempered it it'd have the same snap and gloss of the vosges bar.

Chunks from the bar are especially good in a chocolate chunk cookie.

Anyway, Valrhona, Lindt and many others have been selling candy bars in the 70% range for a while, so it's not really such a rare thing.

gleam wrote:Anyway, Valrhona, Lindt and many others have been selling candy bars in the 70% range for a while, so it's not really such a rare thing.

I've probably walked right past these bars without seeing them, or at least not noting the cacao percentages. Maybe Vosges is noteworthy more for the prominent placement of that information on the front of the wrapper? Anyway, a minor point. Thanks for the heads-up on other high-cacao chocolate bars!