Exclusions and Chocolate

In recent years, there has been a movement toward "naked" chocolate bars. That is, the fruit and nuts that traditionally were mixed into the chocolate before molding (referred to as "inclusions") instead are only partially mixed into the chocolate or sprinkled over the top (similar to bark). (Does that make them "exclusions"?) This gives a particular aesthetic to the chocolate, which reads to many as handmade or artisanal, and plays well in the current marketing context where consumers increasingly want transparency about the ingredients in their food and the health benefits of particular ingredients, like nuts, are being used to sell products whether they are "healthy" or not. Given that nuts in particular can be finicky to work with in chocolate, this approach to working with them in chocolate does address the issue of fat migration in the chocolate, but it probably lessens the keeping limit of the bars because the nuts themselves are exposed (and not enrobed in chocolate). It also fundamentally changes the experience of the bar.

A few weeks ago, I purchased a chocolate bar made by Chocolate Voyageur at the Fête du Chocolat at the Fortress of Louisbourg. When I read the label, which stated that it was 76% dark chocolate with candied sunflower seeds, I made the assumption that the sunflower seeds would be mixed into the chocolate. It came as a bit of a surprise when I opened the package and found they had been sprinkled over the top of the chocolate. 

The candied sunflower seeds (roasted with maple syrup) was said in the tasting notes to "balance the citrus notes" of the chocolate. I'm not sure that I got the citrus notes. Instead, the chocolate was more fruity to me. While the sunflower seeds added crunch and a little sweetness to the Papua New Guinea chocolate, the bar wasn't as balanced as I might have hoped (a touch more salt might have done the trick). The "exclusions" were sprinkled over the chocolate and not pressed into it, so the seeds didn't adhere to the chocolate and fell off as I snapped off a piece of the perfectly tempered bar. Consequently, I didn't experience the components of the bar in an integrated way where they enhanced each other, but rather as two separate components that played well together.

This flavour combination, however, does have me thinking. Recently, I've gotten into making my own nut and seed butters. Roasted sunflower seeds combined with sea salt and honey is having a moment in my life right now. And after trying this bar, it occurs to me that a sunflower seed gianduja could make for a delicious centre. Enrobed in chocolate and decorated with a roasted sunflower seed or two on top? Sounds good to me!

How about you? Do you prefer your chocolate to have inclusions or "exclusions"?