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Simply devine and heavenly organic chocolate! I lived in Boston for a few months last winter and I think that Taza chocolate helped get me through the cold. I have been searching for a store in San Francisco that sells the 72% dark so I can stop asking my friends and family to mail me Taza via USPS.
The open houses are great too! Please open a factory out on the West Coast!
I am fortunate enough to be living in a city that produces chocolate and, oh, what good chocolate it is! I have not taken the factory tour...so until then, I'll keep this post brief.
I've seen the prices vary on these products in stores, however, I tend to always get mine at farmer's market. I love the yerba mate and Mexican chocolate flavors.
There is a place in my life for this chocolate.
There is still a place in my life for Guittard 91% Nocturne, too.. . .but. .
Taza chocolate is low temp roasted, stone ground, stone ground, stone. . .I've had a few too many of the chocolate covered nibs. Which are. . nutty, sweet, fruity, chocolatey. . and distinctly food like. As opposed to candy-like.
The mexican style chocolate with the Guajillo peppers almost made me do inappropriate things to the woman serving the samples. I now love her. Luuuuuuuv her.
Don't buy this chocolate for high falutin' enrobing of snootified truffles an' shit. It is grainy, fruity, earthy, nutty -you can taste the mahogany, wild grape and green of the shade rainforest of the Dominican Republic where they directly source their premium sustainably grown beans. It is it's own thing.
This is salt of the earth chocolate, that you can eat a lot of. At least I can. It still has as much zing to it as as as as as as as regular chocolate. I need to have some sedatives now. . .
I took the tour today. Small, handcrafted, farmer direct, organic, fair trade, local business.
Dude.
This is RIGHTEOUS chocolate, maaaan.
I had been meaning to go on this tour for quite some time now, but this was the first opportunity I had to actually make it happen. And it was good.
We got there late in an attempt to beat some of the crowd, but it was still really busy. Perhaps it was busier earlier in the day, but we had to fight through lots of people, some of whom were incredibly annoying (I'm talking to you, self-awareness-lacking dude wearing the sunglasses and crocodile dundee hat, who asked about 12 questions and acted like a know-it-all ass throughout the tour, then proceeded to repeatedly punch your fist into your hand aggressively when the child behind you whimpered. F you.).
The tour, unlike the aforementioned tool, was awesome. I enjoyed watching the video about the farmers who grow the cacao, and I think it's really awesome that Taza has such a great working relationship with these farmers. It was also cool to see their roaster and their winnowing machine, both of which are serious steel monsters. The whole process is fascinating, and the dude who gave the tour was clearly passionate about what he and Taza do on a daily basis.
When we got back to the shop, we got to sample all of the varieties and they were delicious, of course. I had tried most of them before, but it was first time trying both the vanilla and the almond, and they were amazing.
We are really fortunate to have such a conscientious business in our city. They are a model enterprise that is really showing that it is possible to be successful while being environmentally- and globally-aware, all the while making a fantastic product.
I love the mission of this company!!! (fair trade, organic, "bean to bar" "direct trade" process and philosophy). A lot of buzz words...here's one more: "slow food movement" which believes in "good, clean and fair" business....google it....
this review is for the talk they gave last night at the cambridge center for adult education on brattle st in cambridge(harvard sq).
the talk was thorough and covered topics such as entreprenurial growing pains and mishaps, how they got started, where the product comes from and why, the process, the equipment, stories from the beginnings....these guys are smart and their story is interesting. if you have an opportunity to see them talk, it is well-worth it.
oh yeah..the chocolate:
im a milk chocolate fan b ut even their 60% chocolate is palatable and enjoyable for someone like me.
also, they sell bags of raw cacao pods. they are good for you (antioxidants and such...) and taste like cocoa/coffee....yum!
I was fortunate enough to have a free Saturday morning and was able to swing by Taza's most recent open house. Who knew we had such a fabulous chocolate company perched right in our own back yard?
The open house was a bit chaotic. The tour consisted of a shuffle through a room with the roaster and winnower, along with a lecture and Q&A with one of the founders. There was also a small sample table, along with a large table set up for sales.
The Taza representative manning the tasting table wasn't an employee, just a friend-of-the-company, who didn't seem to know much about the chocolate and wasn't able to answer questions. I really would have liked to have done a formal tasting with the firm's founder, perhaps with some wine or other pairings.
Regardless, Taza chocolate is something special. They don't conch their chocolate, which gives it a grainy texture and seems to bring out a lot of flavors I never knew chocolate had. Taza chocolate makes most other chocolates taste almost bland. I wasn't fond of their hot chocolate, but the nibs - crushed cacao beans coated in chocolate - were simply amazing.
There will definitely be a place for Taza at my next wine & chocolate tasting!!!
"I May Be Stoned On Beer and Taza, But You've Been Walking Through My Life Dead."
Taza makes the only 80% bar that I can tolerate. High-end European and West Coast bars above 65% coat my palate with waxy bitter burnt smoke. In contrast, Taza's most potent offering is, unbelievably, their best product--fully tapping the potential of a fresh and minimally processed single varietal cocoa.
The concept and execution are radical, in the true sense of the word, meaning returning to it's roots. If this was wine, Grand Cru, baby.
Taza is too modest, graininess be damned. A swirl of Polyphenols and Flavonoids come to foreground immediately, even if I am somewhat immune to the chocolate Endorphin effect, I could not deny the complex slew of neurotransmitter activity hitting me. No Conching is definitely the way to go, especially if you got the Direct Trade goods to back it up.
While that 80% was quite the high, munching on Chocolate Covered Nibs during coding sessions keeps the brain sharp and on target.
Take the hit, but not while operating heavy machinery or automobiles.
Great real chocolate for chocolate lovers. I also like that they support fair trade and use organic incredients. Wonderful for our area.
Taza, Taza.
I'm writing this about the mail order service, because it needs to be said that like the chocolate which has been reviewed by others, the service is great!
I ordered about 10 lbs of various bars yesterday to put together in baskets with spiced nuts that I made to give as Christmas presents to my nieces and nephews. I paid about seven bucks to have it shipped and it arrived - - da-dah -- TODAY. Granted, it only came from Somerville to Brookline, but they must have got it packed up and shipped out immediately to arrive the next day. That's so much better than driving over there through the insane traffic or doing the mall crawl to buy lesser chocolate.
I'm impressed. And grateful. Now for those nuts....
I was in Debra's with Kathy S., and picked up a 60% dark bar.
I gave a bit to Sweetie Darling, and she didn't like it all.
Well, good. She won't filch it from me.
The texture is grainy, but I expected that. The first bite has some weird flavors to it, that I was iffy about, but then they disappear into a complex medley of fruity/earthy flavors. And then, the chocolate endorphins kicked in. Eyes roll back, the earth moves.
I also looked very stoned, for a while. I can't even imagine what this chocolate would be like, if you paired it with smoking some skanky nugs.
I'm not even going there.
I will try it with some nice dark red wine, though.
Yum I love all Taza chocolate products. I'm a huge fan of chocolate and have tried just about everything in the Taza line. The factory tour is very informative with a great demonstration of the different types of equipment used in processing the raw product. You'll see that the owners are sincere chaps and really committed to their philosophy of fair trade and fair business practices. I love the fact that the product is so pure and very little processing is done. My three year old niece loves Taza chocolate, by the way. It's actually delicious without the excess of sugar and no added milk products. They wouldn't consider adding a chemical to it. I just bought a bar at The Sherman Cafe a couple of days ago. It's become a bit pricey..I think about $8 or $8.50, so SAVOR it slowly!
Loved the factory tour, the old machinary they use, the packaging, the fair trade price they pay the farmers in the Dominican Republic, but when all was said and done I just didn't care for the chocolate itself. Beware that Taza only makes dark chocolate and I found it to be a little too grainey for my tastes.
With that said I still think the tour is worth checking out, but I'm not so sure I will be purchasing more of their products. FYI - I noticed that they sell many Taza products at Russo's in Watertown.
Like the other recent reviews, I went to the open house on Sat 5/2. My friend lives in the Winter Hill section of Somerville so it was a comfortable walk from her house (and a good way to burn calories before the chocolate sampling!). The tour was very informative and I'm a big geek, so I love to see how things get made. I was particularly impressed with the winnower machine.
I like dark chocolate, so I was pretty pleased with the wares and bought some for myself and as presents. There is no place to buy Taza chocolate on the south coast (in fact, some of the workers gave us a card to find their chocolate in our area, and then they didn't know what the 'south coast' was when I tried to explain that their chocolate is not sold in my corner of MA). Unfortunately most of my friends thought the dark chocolate was too strong (their loss!). Prices are a little high but I think it's worth it for the quality and the bean-to-bar aspect.
Oh yum. Just yum. I can't get enough Taza chocolates.
I eat A LOT of chocolate (a chocoholic, you could say) and this stuff is different. It's stone ground, so it has a gritty texture to it that I love, almost crunchy. It comes in a ton of flavors, and none use more than just a few ingredients, all of which are organic, vegan, and better than fair trade. Better than fair trade, you say? Yes! They actually buy their cocoa beans direct from farmers in the Dominican Republic, thus cutting out the middle man altogether.
Sure, their chocolate bars will run you about $5, but savor it. Pair it with a glass of red wine or a good craft beer (tricks I've learned at one of their many free tastings around town).
My favorites:
80%-- dark chocolatey deliciousness
60%-- has a naturally fruity taste, without actually having fruit in it
Cinnamon-- even better than it sounds?!
Nibs-- Just get them! God they are like crack!!!
Support this unique local chocolate company by visiting their Union Square chocolate factory, or by buying one of their chocolate bars at a local shop around town. I buy mine at Cambridge Natural's, Diesel, Formaggio, or Magpie, but they sell them all over.
My rating of Taza keeps ever creeping upward. Well, there is no higher than five stars, so I guess this is it! I've been enjoying and craving Taza's chocolate bars all the more lately. I'm thinking for some it's an acquired taste. Also, I could just really like the current batch.
See good chocolate (i.e. any chocolate with a significant percentage of cocoa beans, vs. overly processed, mass produced crap like Hershey's) always varies batch to batch, whether or not the makers choose to recognize the fact. The beans themselves will vary, even single origin ones, and all the qualities of the chocolate will shift accordingly. Again, to make a wine comparison, every year of wine from the same vineyard or the same year from different vineyards tastes different, because of growing conditions and how it was aged and the like. It's why I really appreciate brands like Taza that label their bars with the batch number and bean origin, so if you have one you think is particularly yummy or not quite up to snuff, you can then buy accordingly.
All of the bars I've been enjoying lately have been the 70% ones, batch 149, Bean Origin: Dominican Republic. (Why I am sharing this tasty secret with the internets, I do not know.) The fruitiness is a little more banana-y than just the red berry flavor, and it's a well rounded, delicious bar. I should lay in stock of them while they're available, except having that much chocolate on hand sounds like a dangerous, though delicious, plan.
You know how when people review wine, they start talking about how it tastes of things like… Read more »
This place is fantastic, you have to take the tour to truly enjoy what will melt in your mouth. You will not regret the unbelievable taste and texture of these locally made chocolates.
I was lucky enough to find out about the Taza Open House a few days ago and since I'm an admitted chocoholic, I actually planned my Saturday around this delicious (and free) event. The tour was short, but very interesting and informative. And the chocolate was absolutely delicious. It was not your typical chocolate. Because it's stone ground, the chocolate has texture, as opposed to being smooth. You could taste the pure love and care that went into making this treasure in each bite (and I had quite a few) . Consider me a Taza fan for life!
Ahh Taza Chocolate.
Tried a variety at the Yelp Event at Savenor's.
Let's put it this way:
Hershey's Milk Chocolate=Buick Century (taste buds driving grandma's car)
Hershey's Special Dark=Ford Crown Vic (taste buds driving grandad's car)
Taza 60% Dark Stone Ground Chocolate=Harley-Davidson Low Rider (taste buds rumbled)
Taza 70% Dark Stone Ground Chocolate=Moto Guzzi Monster (taste buds rattled)
Taza 80% Dark Stone Ground Chocolate=Suzuki Hayabusa (taste buds smoked)
Taza Chocolate Mexicano=Vincent Black Lightning (desert wind blows over taste buds as they cruise down ribbon of highway, wind in hair)
Taza Chocolate Covered Nibs=Tricked-out Vespa (taste buds lovin' life)
The Mexican Chocolate is the BOMB!!!
Eat it. Love it.
All choco-lovers are advised to take the Taza Open House factory tour! I'm not sure if they hold these periodically, but I'm on the mailing list and received notice that they were doing tours today.
It lasts about a half hour and you learn all sorts of cool and interesting facts about how they source, roast and grind their cacao beans. There were all sorts of yummy chocolate samples, including hot chocolate. Co-owner Alex was so enthusiastic about his company and product, you just couldn't help but get excited as well! Of course, he was also really knowledgeable about the whole manufacturing process and did a great job explaining each step. For instance, I had no idea that each bar is handmade and each batch of chocolate requires about 340 lb. of cacao beans...
Anyway, my favorite is the Mexican chocolate, which has the most interesting slightly grainy texture from the mix of sugar and cinnamon. While the bars aren't cheap, they are quality goods and you can a feel warm 'n' fuzzy that you're supporting a local business that is investing in fair trade and the people who are actually farming your chocolate beans.
Yummy! Local Somerville chocolate! I have tried the varieties, and while I enjoy them all, they love one point for not having a milk chocolate......I am much more of a milk chocolate sort of girl. Despite that, the 60% and 70% chocolates are awesome, and is the Mexican chocolate, which I will get my hands on before it get's cold to make Mexican hot chocolate, which is one thing I miss from growing up and missing it from the west coast.
Head's up if you're looking for this and are in the Union Square area: they sell it for sure at the Sherman Cafe (HIPPY CRUSH!) and they sell it at Savenor's.
I might see if they have tours/store-I haven't looked into it, but it would be awesome if they did for my nerdy interests!
Jessika D. and Jenny N. have some excellent reviews of this place, but what have I learned from my Taza open house tour this past weekend?
Pluses:
1. Excellent hot chocolate drink made from Shakey pure shaved chocolate and milk.
2. Townies in Somerville warehouse making near handcrafted chocolates in small batches.
3. Guilt-free fair trade goodness.
4. Minimal processing to retaining maximum cocoa bean flavor.
5. Jessika D. and Paul were there.
6. No Golden Ticket needed (plus they had golden pipe hand rails. Good recall, Roni E.).
Con:
No Taza Oompa Loompas!
This is a review of the bars, not the place:
Chocolate is supposed to be smooth, not grainy.
Tazo Stone Ground Chocolate is grainy.
"But it's stone ground!" you say. To me, this sounds like an excuse for not conching it long enough. As Wikipedia states (http://en.wikipedia.or...):
"Chocolate prior to conching has an uneven and gritty texture. The conching process produces cocoa and sugar particles smaller than the tongue can detect, hence the smooth feel in the mouth. The length of the conching process determines the final smoothness and quality of the chocolate. High-quality chocolate is conched for about 72 hours, lesser grades about four to six hours."
Corners have been cut with this chocolate. It has not been conched for long. It's not too grainy to eat, but would be better melted and used in hot chocolate.
One of the joys of chocolate is the mouth feel: the way it melts at mouth temperature (if it was properly tempered) and how smooth it feels. This one just doesn't cut it. I won't be buying it again.
Rated only 1 star because not only did they cut corners, they priced it as high as a truly premium chocolate.
Update: I received a very long and ernest note from someone who does marketing at Taza. He attempted to explain that they do take care in making their chocolate and that the gritty texture is intentional as part of some kind of "American tradition" in chocolate making.
Unfortunately, there is no such tradition of gritty solid chocolate in the Americas. Here's my response to his note:
Thanks for your extensive reply.
I don't doubt that you use care to prepare your chocolate bars, however that grainy texture is just bad in my opinion. I'm sure that your stone mill will produce a perfectly good creamy texture if you leave your chocolate in it an extra 48 hours.
And appealing to an "American tradition" is either disingenuous or misinformed. In ancient times, chocolate was a drink, not a bar. Chocolate bars were invented in Europe, and perfected by Lindt . There was never any tradition of solid chocolate in the Americas.
As Wikipedia puts it:
"At the end of the 18th century, the first form of solid chocolate was invented in Turin by Doret. This chocolate was sold in large quantities from 1826 by Pierre Paul Caffarel. In 1819, F. L. Cailler opened the first Swiss chocolate factory. In 1828, Dutchman Coenraad Johannes van Houten patented a method for extracting the fat from cocoa beans and making powdered cocoa and cocoa butter. Van Houten also developed the so-called Dutch process of treating chocolate with alkali to remove the bitter taste. This made it possible to form the modern chocolate bar. It is believed that the Englishman Joseph Fry made the first chocolate for eating in 1847, followed in 1849 by the Cadbury brothers.
Daniel Peter, a Swiss candle maker, joined his father-in-law's chocolate business. In 1867, he began experimenting with milk as an ingredient. He brought his new product, milk chocolate, to market in 1875. He was assisted in removing the water content from the milk to prevent mildewing by a neighbour, a baby food manufacturer named Henri Nestlé. Rodolphe Lindt invented the process called conching, which involves heating and grinding the chocolate solids very finely to ensure that the liquid is evenly blended."
What you're doing may be well-intentioned but it's misinformed. Making excuses for inadequate conching is equivalent to selling your chocolate untempered and then excusing the gritty crystaline structure as being true to some tradition.
Producing an inferior product intentionally is really no better and arguably worse than producing one by accident.
Taza Chocolate is a wonderful new boutique chocolate maker. They source their own beans from Central America, then roast and grind them in their own factory. They're selling some of their own chocolate bars.
They also run a weekly Chocolate Lounge every Thursday night at the Mariposa Cafe, in Central Square, Cambridge. Stop by there for a cup of hot chocolate, or some chocolate fondue!
Alright, Jessika's book report pretty much said it all. Kenny and Jenny pretty much added everything I would have said... well except that Kenny left out the golden hand rails on the stair case that gave it the Willy Wonka feel. I agree the Oompa Loompas would have topped it off.
Overall result - I totally support this place and they did a wonderful job with the tour! Alex was awesome and very enthusiastic.
I will be ordering some gifts for the holidays from Taza and supporting my local chocolate company.
Taza is an educational, fun place to visit. I went with some Yelpers to an open house here. It is tucked away off of Cambridge street around some scrap metal/automobile crushing yard, which was a little scary at first.
Taza is a new company, (they put out their first chocolate bar in February), and are still a small time operation. The owners are former co-workers from Zip Car who followed their dreams and started this little chocolate factory. You gotta support that.
All of the beans are bought from farmers in places like Costa Rica, Domican Republic etc.... We were told that they pay above fair trade prices and make sure that the farmers get a direct cut.
The place smells wonderfully of chocolate. Intoxicating. When we came in there were samples available before our tour started. The chocolate is so rich and pure. The Mexican chocolate is the best as it tastes like bananas!! I also bought a peanut butter cup which was really yummy. Tasted like real peanuts, not some peanut butter flavoring.
We were shown all of the machines used to make the chocolate and had the whole process explained. It is quite interesting and if I even try to go into detail, I won't explain it correctly. So I won't try. Needless to say it is fascinating. All of their machines are used (most came from the Domican Republic) and refurbished for them.
Currently, their chocolate is sold in 125 locations.
I am so glad I came here. I think it is good to support small business owners like this especially since they practice fair trade. Free chocolate is also good, as is a good old educational experience.
Recently instead of dinner I had a whole pack of nibs...
The Nibs are like crack - they are the perfect snack to have at work. So, so good!
I'm still not 100% on the chocolate yet - the grainy bit takes some getting used to, and it's a bit fruitier than I prefer. But, they are always making new flavors, and I think the vanilla could be a winner!
Really, it's also their business practices that are awesome. In addition to everything cool about the production, they sell at farmers markets and often bike the stuff over to market. The owners are both big bike people. I like that!
But seriously, try the nibs. There's nothing else like them around!!
I took the factory tour and had a blast, It's fun and I learned a lot about the chocolate making process. Even if you have been on a chocolate factory tour (hello, Hershey), take this one, because it'sdifferent from other chocolate factories. You will learn some cool information. You can sample the chocolate before & after the tour, and they have chocolate for sale as well. I like the chocolate-covered nibs, the 60% bar, and the drinking chocolate. They just came out with new flavors in the drinking chocolate, which is exciting. Anyways, the tour is a good time, so take it & buy some locally made, direct trade chocolate!
We attended their open house today thanks to the events listing here at Yelp. It was great to see one of the owners talking about the process and getting to see how they make their chocolate. The machines used to grind up the beans originate from Mexico and use grinding stones, which was a very cool fact to learn (and see!). The hot chocolate samples with a hint of orange zest was awesome! I can't wait to try a batch here at home. This company obviously has ethics: fair trade farm practices, and the ingredients are certified organic. Lovely.
Neighborhood: Davis Square
Category: Specialty Food
Neighborhood: South End
Category: Chocolatiers and Shops
Neighborhood: Davis Square
Category: Grocery
Somerville, MA
Category: Tea Rooms
Neighborhood: Kendall Square/MIT
Category: Thai
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