New Options for Dark Chocolate Lovers

Did you know there are some pretty awesome health benefits of dark chocolate? Some of these benefits include lower blood pressure, improved memory, maintains blood sugar levels, boosts your metabolism and protects your skin from UV rays. So many great reasons to eat chocolate! Maybe we should consider changing the phrase “An apple a day keeps the doctor away” to “A piece of dark chocolate a day keeps the doctor away.” I don’t know about you, but I sure like the sound of that! Well, we have some new dark chocolate to tell you about…for health reasons, of course!

This post is sponsored by Ritter Sport. As always, all opinions are entirely our own. Please read our disclosure policy for more information.

 

What Are Cacao Percentages?

To be honest, I typically lean more toward milk chocolate when trying to satisfy my sweet tooth, so when I see cacao percentages on dark chocolate packaging, I am not entirely sure what it means. After a little bit of research, I discovered that the percentage is basically telling us how much of the bar, by weight, is made from cacao beans and that higher percentages indicate that the flavor is more intense and less sweet.

German chocolate maker, RITTER SPORT, has just released a new line of 100g Cacao Selection Dark Chocolate. RITTER SPORT obtains their cacao from Nicaragua, Peru and Ghana. Climate, soil conditions and processes all play a role in the different tastes of RITTER SPORT chocolate. Below are descriptions of their three new Cacao Selection chocolate bars.

The 55% Cacao Selection

Deliciously smooth milky chocolate with a dark chocolate twist made with single origin cacao from Ghana.

The 61% Cacao Selection

A scrumptious dark chocolate made from single origin cacao from Nicaragua offering nutty notes.

The 74% Cacao Selection

Intensely delicious with fine, fruity, spicy notes. Produced from single origin Peruvian cacao.

How Do They Taste?

You can definitely taste the difference in intensity as you move from 55% cacao to 74% cacao. As a fan of milk chocolate, the taste of the 55% cacao was more familiar to me because it still had a nice hint of creaminess. The 74% cacao took me a bit out of my comfort zone. The flavor was more intense and bitter than what I am used to. Not in a bad way, though. I enjoyed the fruity and spicy notes it had to offer. The 61% cacao was a perfect balance between the other two selections. A tasty dark chocolate for someone new to the dark chocolate game.

Five Fun Facts About Ritter Sport

RITTER SPORT has been making chocolate for over 100 years! Below are five fun facts about their company.

1. RITTER SPORT has always been a family owned business. The company is currently being run by the third generation of the Ritter family and the fourth generation is already active in the company!
2. In 1932 the founder of the company, Clara Ritter, noticed that football fans would grab a bar of RITTER SPORT chocolate and stick it in the front pockets of their sports jackets. But the long bars tended to break in their pockets. So she decided to make the chocolate bar into a square, as it is known today. The bar is the same weight as the longer bars, just more compact.
3. The company invented the snap-open pack in 1976, making it much easier to open a bar of chocolate. They still use the snap-open pack to this day!
4. RITTER SPORT offers over 20 varieties of chocolate. Almost every variety is produced on a weekly basis, so their chocolate is always fresh.
5. On Fridays, their employees receive a chocolate care package for the weekend!

More Delicious Chocolate

Below are a few other tasty chocolate bar varieties that Ritter Sport offers. Our personal favorite is the Milk Chocolate with Coconut Filling. Yum!

Milk Chocolate With Coconut Filling

This bar does not contain whole nuts. Instead it has plenty of firm, shredded coconut flakes which gives the fine milk cream its especially exotic taste.

Milk Chocolate With Honey Salted Almonds

From their 100g Nut Selection, this bar contains a bit of honey, a touch of a salt and whole almonds. It is made with their crunchy milk chocolate.

Milk Chocolate With Cornflakes 

This chocolate bar features crispy cornflakes in creamy chocolate! The flakes are produced and selected according to strict quality standards.

Where To Buy Ritter Sport Chocolate

If you haven’t tried a RITTER SPORT chocolate bar yet, we highly recommend checking them out! And with the added health benefits of dark chocolate, let’s just say you are under doctor’s orders! Even though their chocolate is from Germany, it can be found in most major grocery store chains throughout the US. But if you are having trouble finding their chocolate, they have a neat where to buy feature on their website!