I stumbled upon this little treat while browsing the Discover section on Kickstarter. I personally am more of a tea or hot chocolate drinker, than I am one to reach for a cup of coffee. That’s why when I saw these Jiva Hot Chocolate Cubes, I got excited. The pitch was even more appealing: Raw/Chemical Free/Vegan/Kosher/Non-GMO. Here is a little info off their Kickstarter page:
“When experimenting with new flavors we also played around with the idea cubes made with cacao grown from the mountains of Colombia. We stuck with raw, unrefined cane sugar and we found the finest Criollo type Cacao grown in the higher mountains of Colombia. Like wine, chocolate reflects the distinctive features of the region. The kind of cacao beans grown, climate conditions, and how the beans are dried and fermented vary from country to country. Colombia experiments with many types of cacao varieties but specializes on the Criollo type which is known for its flavorful, fruity richness. This strain is harder to grow but it proves to be worth the trouble.”
Once the cubes arrived, I boiled some water and threw in one these cute little chocolate rectangles into my favorite mug. Waited, but the cubes had a hard time dissolving due to an issue during production where “more pressure was needed to compress the cacao with panela” Well! My hot cocoa wasn’t as delicious as I would hoped, and didn’t really even taste much like any hot chocolate I’ve tasted before. However, it still had it’s own unique taste, but it was not very rich, which I feel is paramount for any hot chocolate.
I think with a little tweak in the recipe these things could be great. They also would come in handy while traveling or hiking. Note that during the Kickstarter Campaign I did not order any of the coffee cubes to sample, which have been getting great reviews. Maybe I should have tried those.
