Hottie, Chili and Cinnamon Dark Chocolate
by Zazubean Organic Superfood Chocolate

Everything you are looking for in an organic chocolate bar: great rich chocolate taste, good for the growers, good for the planet and good for you.

I know what you are thinking: "Not another chocolate bar". You and me both. Walk into any grocery store, health food store or coffee house and you will be assaulted by a sea of chocolate bars. Worse yet, the PureZing team was at Natural Product Expo West in Anaheim, where with every turn, every kind of chocolate was being stuffed into our faces by yet again another eager company staffer, each claiming to posses the best chocolate on the planet.

How do you choose? Well for me my chocolate selection used to be based on being soy free, organic and the packaging. Good news is I have since learned there is a lot more than a cute bear on the cover of a chocolate bar to make the chocolate memorable. And for all you chocolate aficionado’s, you are probably shaking your head in dismay at my selection process. However, with so much competition, you better be different, make a difference and produce a great tasting chunk o chocolate.

Enter Zazubean Organic Superfood Chocolate.

A little about the company. In 2003, a group of female friends ventured on a pedal powered excursion to an island off the coast of British Columbia. Although storage space on the bike trip was limited, chocolate was one item that found space in each rucksack. Evening discussion started about the worlds need for an organic, delicious gourmet chocolate made with superfood ingredients coupled with fair-trade ethical standards. The ladies engaged a number of experts including a Swiss chocolatier, an herbalist, and a food scientist. Thus Zazubean Organic Superfood Chocolates were born.

Now about the chocolate. Zazubean is committed to making great dark chocolate between 70% and 73% cacao by putting only exceptional clean ingredients into every bar that are organic, gluten-free, soy-free & GMO-free.

Today we are reviewing Chili and Cinnamon with Yerba Mate made of 70% dark chocolate with chili pepper, cinnamon and energizing Yerba mate. 100g full size bar, $4.50.

Organic Chili pepper is an excellent source of vitamin A, through its concentration of pro-vitamin A carotenoids including beta-carotene.

Organic Cinnamon, coming from the inner bark of tropical evergreen trees, is sweet and aromatic as well as being mildly hot.

Yerba Mate is an infusion of the leaves of a South American shrub containing three xanthines: caffeine, theobromine and theophylline.

Why does PureZing like Zazubean?

Besides the fact a pharmacist recommended this chocolate as one of the finest chocolates around and the best in her pharmacy, it was the taste. Look, I am no connoisseur of chocolate. Remember how I used to pick a chocolate bar? As long as chocolate was organic, soy free and had a cute picture on the cover, any chocolate would have done for me. Now I know different. So when a pharmacist recommends a chocolate bar, heck I listen.

What about the taste? At first bite all you taste is the smooth, rich warm chocolate. Next, at the back of your mouth and tongue you feel and taste the chocolate rolling and blending with the spice of the cinnamon. A little after that, the chili kicks in. It felt like a sensual fire warming inside your oral cavity. We found ourselves savoring every bite so we could appreciate the flavorful sensations created by eating the chocolate.

Now imagine the taste/sensual overload of Zazubeans other flavor infused chocolate in your mouth: Cheeky (banana and salted toffee with sensual maca), Squeeze (yerba mate in orange and ginger chocolate), Nutbar (coconut, almonds and camu), Lunatic (peppermint oil, cacao nibs and maca), Flirt (acai infused raspberry and cherry chocolate), Naked (cacoa nibs and vanilla) and Smooch (Vanilla Caramel Crunch delicious and decadent dark milk with cacao and a kiss of seal salt in a blend of Peruvian and Dominican Republic chocolate).

But there are other reasons PureZing likes Zazubean as well. They care. Zazubean IS THAT artesian company that really does have ethical concerns focusing on the wellbeing of you, the consumer, the growers and the planet.

Every time you purchase Zazubean chocolates you are making a choice to help farmers and their families have a better living by ensuring that they get a fair wage for their cocoa beans, coffee and sugar.

The Fair for Life Social and fair trade certification takes one step further. It guarantees that human rights are guaranteed at any stage of production that workers enjoy good and fair working conditions and that smallholder farmers receive a fair share.

Let me also explain what it really means to you for Zazubean to be 100% USDA certified organic: all ingredients in the chocolates are grown, processed and handled in a way that is consistent with the national organic standards. Meaning that the methods used integrate cultural, biological, and mechanical practices that foster cycling of resources, promote ecological balance, and conserve biodiversity, synthetic fertilizers, sewage sludge, irradiation, and genetic engineering may not be used.

Cocoa beans are one of the most pesticide intensive crops in the world. Because Zazubean cares about health, all the beans in our chocolate are organically farmed using traditional shade grown agriculture that is pesticide free which protects not only your health, but the species living in these organic cocoa producing areas.

PROS:

• Organic
• Non Gmo
• Vegan
• Gluten Free
• Soy Free
• Good for the growers, good for the planet, good for you
• Great Flavors

CONS: Man cannot live by chocolate alone?

Not available in the USA as of yet.

Where to buy:

OnLine (locator on website)

In Canada: Whole Foods, SavOn, Loblaws, and others.

USA: launching in 2015