Guittard Chocolate Review and a "Bittersweet" Giveaway!!

Finally, I'm back! My mom is in town. My students took their final exam last week. I had to do a lot of grading and a study session with my students. Now, I will be turning in final grades tomorrow, and then I can say that I am done...well, for now.

This summer I did not get a teaching job for the first time since I've been a grad student here, but I'm okay with that because I officially paid off my car, and I need to just focus on my qualifying paper/dissertation proposal. So, I will be working on the paper all summer and am looking forward to that. I'm glad that I won't have to grade, teach, or prepare lessons all summer. It will be a different experience for me, but I'm ready for it.
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Anyway, I received a special package in the mail! Want to know what's inside? Click here for more.

Think you know already?
Oh, you looked at the title of post and figured it out?
AHHHH!
Well, Guittard contacted me a few weeks ago and sent me some chocolates to review. When I walked up to my apartment door, I was greeted by a box from Guittard that was much bigger and heavier than I had expected.
So, I know you're itching to know what they sent me, right? Well, here we go and no collage photos today!:
Here is the roundup of everything. I can't believe how much they sent me!

1. One pound (500g) of Kokoleka Hawaiian 55% Cacao Semi-sweet Chocolate

2. One pound (500g) of Complexite 70% Cacao Bittersweet Chocolate

3. One pound (500g) of Kokoleka Hawaiian 38% Cacao Milk Chocolate

4. 6 2-oz (56.7g) bars of chocolate (see below for more details)

Here is the Nocturne Dark Chocolate Bar, an extra dark bar with 91% cacao! It is described as a multi-bean blend with red fruit and nut notes encased by a solid, dark chocolate base.

Side note for the reviews mentioned below: As I stated already, my mom is in town visiting me, and she loves chocolate much more than I, so I asked her to taste some of the chocolate and to include her impressions on this post. I told her to allow the wafer to sit on the tongue for awhile, then to suck on the wafer slowly, and then try to saver the taste in order to gain a good judgment of how the chocolate tasted.

Although my mother and I are not fans of dark chocolate, we tasted these bars for this review.

Memoria's review: I licked one square of the bar and could not go any further because of the lack of sweetness. I think this bar would be a good addition to a baked good as opposed to just eating the chocolate as is. With the addition of sugars and other ingredients, it would be fantastic for dark-chocolate lovers.

Memoria's Mom: I have to agree with Memoria on the evaluation of this bar. It had no sweetness at all, but it was rich in true chocolate density. Therefore, I believe that it will add great flavor to any dish which calls for baking chocolate. Just be sure to add lots of sweetening, you know, stuff!

Here is the Quetzalcoatl Dark Chocolate Bar with adding spices at 72% cacao mass, which means there's no added cocoa butter.

Memoria's Review: This is a true dark chocolate bar with enough added sweetness to enjoy as is. I even liked this bar. I licked it first and instantly tasted the difference from the Nocturne bar. I promptly took a bite and was more than satisfied. It really does have a smooth, soothing taste.

Memoria's Mom: With this bar, I was pleasantly surprised and satisfied. It had a good balance of sweetness and tartness to make a positively superb chocolaty product. It was not a bitter as the Nocturne bar, but not as sweet as the wafers. I remember nodding my head in approval and thinking that my daughter could really make something scrumptious with this chocolate!
5. Cocoa Rouge Cocoa Powder: I will be posting a review about this product in the near future. This cocoa powder is described as "Unsweetened rare red Dutch-process cocoa powder for baking and hot chocolate". It can be substituted for unsweetened baking chocolate. I look forward to using this product!

6. Grand Cacao Drinking Chocolate: I will be posting a review about this product in the near future. It is described as "fine Dutched cocoa with ground chocolate for hot chocolate and baking." It can substituted for unsweetened, Dutch-process cocoa powder and an equal amount of sugar. How cool is that?!

and wait! There's more!
7. Bittersweet Chocolate Couverture Wafers (72% Cacao): See below!
8. Semisweet Chocolate Couverture Wafers (61% Cacao): I will be posting a review about this product in the near future.
9. Milk Chocolate Couverture Wafers (38% Cacao): See reviews below.
10. White Chocolate Couverture Wafers (31% Cacao): I will be posting a review about this product in the near future.

That's a whole lot of chocolate! I already have plans for the wafers, so stay tuned!

Milk Chocolate Couverture Wafers:
Memoria's Review: I tasted one and allowed the sweet, milky chocolate to luxuriate on my eager tongue. It was so good. I'm not a fan of eating chocolate on its own, but I think I could have eaten a few more wafers.

Memoria's Mom: Okay, the Chocolate Converture Wafers were sweet and flavorful. I could have eaten the entire bag (which I would have done had I time and world enough)! Anyway, unlike my daughter, I AM a fan of eating chocolate for its own sake, and I really felt each wafer was a delectable treat with a rich and creamy texture!
Some of you may know that I'm not a fan of bittersweet chocolate. In fact, whenever a recipe calls for the dark stuff, I substitute it with semi-sweet and rarely with milk chocolate. Therefore, since Guittard has been gracious enough to send me so much chocolate, I have decided to host a BITTERSWEET CHOCOLATE GIVEAWAY!!! I know there are a lot of foodies out there who love dark chocolate, so this is for you.

One lucky winner will be getting the following:
1. One (1) box of Guittard Bittersweet Chocolate Wafers,
2. One (1) pound of Guittard Bittersweet Chocolate,
3. Two (2) Guittard Nocturne Bars, and
4. Two (2) Guittard Quetzalcoatl Dark Chocolate Bars!TO ENTER: All you need to do is tell me what you would love to do with this chocolate and/or go to their website and tell me what you would want to try. Giveaway open to residents of Canada, United States, and Mexico.
DEADLINE: Tuesday, May 18th at midnight Central Time. Good luck!