Taking Seconds: Booja Who?

What good is being a weirdo vegetarian if you’re not trying tons of weird food? Thought I’d give it a shot, and see if it was worth taking seconds.

Product: Booja Booja Organic Chocolates. One tiny box.

I am not a chocoholic.

Just wanted to get that out there to begin with. Not. A. Chocoholic. I don’t buy the chocolate-is-like-hot-gooey-love, all-girls-are-addicted tripe. It’s just a confection. Some of it is really good. And some of it is pretty craptastic.

I’m also not a fan of… fancy. One of the things I hate, hate, hate about being a vegetarian or practicing-home-vegan (which is my name for it at the moment) is that everything is so… complicated for some people. Fancy. Requiring frequent visits to specialty stores, outlays of cash, and hard-to find ingredients. Satisfying the single most important human urge, for nourishment, should be a lot simpler than some people make it. So, when D. brought home this raw vegan organic fancy-pants-gold-edges-special chocolate truffle, I let it sit on the counter for a couple of days. Um, actually, for a week.

See: Me, not a chocoholic. Also see: Me, not a fan of fancy. And so.

In the realm of chocolate, to me, dark is best, 70% cocoa + is even better. This was dark. This was right. Even pre-home-vegan, I didn’t care for milk chocolate (but I’d be interested to hear what people who enjoy the newly discovered vegan milk chocolate bars have to say. Soy milk+chocolate seems an obvious one; odd this doesn’t seem largely available), but this was gloriously dark, and even the box was black, so that wasn’t the issue. I didn’t really know what the issue was, so after a week of moving this tiny cute box around, I finally decided it was time to actually eat the contents. And so. I studied it.

Raw Ecuadorian chocolate? Seriously?

I love the phrase “award-winning.” What does that actually mean? Who came up with these awards?

And it’s not like I haven’t nibbled on cacao nibs, but raw? WHY DOES IT HAVE TO BE RAW? Chocolate isn’t cooked. It isn’t ever cooked. It’s just tempered, like it has to be, in order to have any sort of solidity. So, why was this some “raw food” foodie thing?

Eventually I realized I was stalling. I opened the box and examined the truffle-y looking square. It looked normal enough. It smelled like regular… cooked chocolate, or whatever. So I took a nibble.

Ecuadorian chocolate is intense. It’s acidic, bold and powerful, and if you’re a chocolophile who is like those coffee and wine people, you could probably go on about the notes of citrus and hazel and deep smoky bass drums and the screeches of the parrots in the rainforest. All I could say was, “Mmprhgh!”

Strong. Dark. Luxurious. The cocoa furring the sides is outright bitter, an unsweetened coating to affront the tastebuds and make the mouth involuntarily water. As your teeth sink into the filling, which is delectably soft, rich, and fragrant, the bitterness takes a backseat to the more complex notes of coconut. This plain dark truffle is impeccably balanced between bitter and sweet, subtle and stated. I began to see the awards making sense.

There are tons of people with opinions about how to eat dark chocolate truffles best — a rich red wine or heavy port; champagne; beer, which …just boggles the mind, but someone may well comment and defend that one; a rich, nutty cheese like a fresh brie, a washed rind Taleggio, or simple Edam — you can pair these truffles with all manner of things. I immediately thought of coconut, ginger, then Bosc pears when I had my first bite. Something fresh and mildly sweet would do very nicely to mingle with the acidic richness, and then clear the palette.

Imagine my glee to discover that Boja Boja makes raspberry truffles. Ooh.

The one thing that intrigued me the most about this whole truffle eating experience, though, is the one thing I didn’t notice. The raw. The vegan. The whole Big Deal Special Foodie-ness of it all. It was just… chocolate. Very, very good chocolate, yes, don’t get me wrong, but it tasted …like chocolate normally made. That’s probably a good thing. No grittiness. Nothing… weird. Just chocolate. Anyone could eat this.

Of course, the kicker is even if you fear the fat, you probably should indulge in a raw cacao treat every once in awhile. The raw cacao/chocolate bean has the same antioxidant power of a basket of blueberries, which means it is very good for you. Since the Boja Boja truffles don’t strangle the product with tons of sugar and heat, it’s a pretty safe bet that you actually get some of the health benefits of the cacao this way. And since it’s really quite tasty — intensely flavored so you don’t want to overdo, this is definitely an all around winner. Good thing there’s two in the package — that’s just enough for second helpings.

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