Taza Chocolate Review

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Happy Friday!!! So glad the weekend has arrived, especially since it’s a relatively open one in terms of schoolwork. The gentle homework schedule won’t last, so I’m savoring it while I can.

A few months ago, I gave a glowing review to Lulu’s Raw Chocolate:

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Today, I’m here to review Taza Chocolate, which comes to us from Somerville, MA. Many of you have already told me that you’re great Taza fans, which I love to hear, because I am, too! I first found Taza chocolate years ago (my friend Liz mentioned them to me), and it was love at first bite. Since then, the company has grown considerably, and I’ve also found out that one of the principle chocolate makers at the company and I have a good friend in common. It’s a small world.

Taza chocolate is stone ground in a traditional Mexican style (one of the founders of the companies first tasted stone ground chocolate in Oaxaca, and it inspired him start the company). This means it goes through a mill and stone refiner that look something like this:

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The chocolate that results does not have the texture of conventional chocolate: instead, it has a granular mouthfeel. This sounds weird, I know, but it’s really delicious; if you’ve ever had a disk of Mexican drinking chocolate, it’s the same exact idea, except Taza chocolate isn’t as sugary-sweet. It strikes me as sweeter than regular dark chocolate, but it’s subtle nonetheless, and it features such cool flavors as salted almond, ginger, and salt & pepper.

When the folks at Taza sent me some samples to review, then, I was pretty excited!

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I received three of the classic “disks,” (salt & pepper, vanilla, coffee, and pure), and a bar of the 87% dark. The disks were, as expected, totally divine; the salt and pepper was by far my favorite of the bunch, but the vanilla was second place. I had never tasted one of the bars before, and I’m very glad I did. A friend and reader, Elizabeth, recently mentioned that the texture of Taza is a little too “different” for her (or so I gathered); the bar itself, though certainly more grainy than regular chocolate, was far more reminiscent of a classic, good quality dark chocolate bar. If you’ve tried Taza chocolates and found them to be a bit foreign, I’d recommend the bar for sure!

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Taza’s earth, animal, and human-friendly ethos includes commitment to recycling, direct trade, carbon neutral shipping, energy conservation at on site where the chocolate is produced, and cycle delivery to local shoppers in Massachusetts. I love it! And of course, the chocolate is 100% vegan, as well as gluten and soy free (or rather, every nutrition label I’ve seen has been gluten free and has not mentioned soy lecithin; if you have food allergies, do your homework before you take me at my word).

Best of all, Taza is proud of its unusual production, and has a totally transparent manufacturing process. Please check out their awesome factory tour, and note that you can enter the batch # for your chocolate to learn how it was produced.

Chocolate is one of my greatest pleasures as a foodie; I adore it, and I enjoy finding new raw and vegan brands. Taza has certainly tickled my tastebuds, but more than that, the company has always impressed me with their unusual production process, their fidelity to the brand’s original identity, and their consciousness of the people they trade with, and the planet they trade upon. If you’re a fellow chocolate lover like me, I really recommend giving these disks a shot. After an initial moment of surprise at the texture, you’ll be able to savor the subtle and distinctive flavor, and with any luck, you’ll be as infatuated as I am.

On that sweet note, happy early weekends to you all.

xo

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    31 Comments
  1. You are not supposed to eat the disks. It’s meant to be melted. It’s Mexican hot chocolate.

    • The discs are meant to be eaten. I am a Mexican American, and my mother and I eat them as they remind my mother of home. The plain ones can definitely be used for hot chocolate and mole, however the flavors like coffee, salted almond, and Guajillo chili are made to eat right out of the wrapper 🙂

  2. Found you by checking to see if Taza is indeed raw. Given to me by one of my clients……..this is the best chocolate I have ever tasted!!!!

  3. Have you ever tried Fine & Raw chocolate? They’re a Brooklyn based company and I think they’re raw chocolate is some of the best!

  4. All this talk of Taza Chocolate has peaked my interest. I love chocolate and the great flavors listed here sound fun and delicious.

    Does anyone know if they sell a raw version of their chocolate candies?

  5. I just recently tried the Taza salted almond chocolate disks and was surprised by the grainy texture, but surprised in a good way. It felt like an adult chocolate. Not something you’d necessarily reach for if you needed a chocolate fix, but not short on flavor, texture, or satisfaction-potential either. Lovely review, thanks for sharing!

  6. i saw these at one of my fave coffee haunts called espresso a mano! i really wanted to try the chipotle chili one but it was like $5! is it worth it? wait…scratch that. chocolate is always worth it! next time, it’ll have to be my java sidecar 🙂

  7. Ever since I heard of this company, I have wanted to go visit on the factory tour. I haven’t yet, but I am sure I will at some point. Love that they are all vegan, no need to worry about cross contamination.

  8. I’ve never heard of Taza, but will have to try it. I just went to visit their website and they look like such a great company. Is this something that is sold in stores or just online? Thanks for sharing!

  9. Brilliant! I’m happy to hear that you think these taste slightly sweeter than their standardly-conched dark chocolate counterparts, and ever happier that the flavours I haven’t tried get the tick in your books. Ack, I should’ve put these on the list of what my brother should get me from the States! 😛

  10. I am sitting here eating a piece off of a vanilla TAZA disc as I catch up on my reader! I love this company. I, too, am a chocolate fan but we stopped buying conventional chocolate last year after learning about the slave trade. I agree about the grainy taste – I found it strange at first but now I really like it. The salted almond has been my favorite flavor so far, but it sounds like I need to give the salt and pepper a try!

  11. My boyfriend lives in Somerville, we just visited the factory last weekend! We were hoping to take a tour but it was full so we’re planning to go when we return from Italy. We sampled and bought chocolate, of course, and I just love the mouthfeel of it. My favorite was certainly the salt and pepper, the boyfriend loved the coffee, and we both really enjoyed the 87% dark bar. Can’t wait to take the tour!

  12. so I LOVE love Love LOve loVE your blog and just have not commented. HOWEVER, I could not be more thrilled that THIS is the first comment I’ve posted because today I bought raw cacao nibs at Whole Foods for the first time! … on to TAZA no, for, me eh!? I think I might…why is it that I was just SO PROUD of myself for doing something cheerful and wonderful toward my health by purchasing the little power food? 🙂 cheers Gena, Jasper Naomi! PS. I love your blog (did I say that, already? 😉 )

  13. Great about the choccie but I’m here to tell you how much I LOVE your tomato bread Gena! Made it yesterday and had to interrupt enjoying a piece of it slathered with avocado and sliced tomato, to write you this 🙂

    Have a great weekend!

    • Oh, Heather, I’m so flattered! It has been too long since I made it, actually…time to remedy that 🙂

  14. I adore Taza chocolate. I live in the Boston area, and first discovered it at a nearby farmer’s market. I think my favorite is the salt & pepper (it’s so unique), although I’ve yet to try the vanilla and ginger flavors. Those sound amazing too!

  15. Thanks for the review on these. I admit, “granular mouthfeel” is a little worrisome just because I like really smooth textured chocolate…then again, a little texture may be a fun twist. Salt and pepper AND vanilla AND coffee…all of those sound so interesting and I’d love to check them out!

  16. The vanilla taza just warms my heart. The orange and ginger flavors are also pretty good. I’ve always meant to go on a factory tour since it’s really not that far away but never find the time. You can really taste the difference when it comes to bean to bar chocolate.