Mission Chocolate Romeo & Juliet White Chocolate, Cream Cheese and Guava Bar

Arcelia Gallardo of Mission Chocolate takes enormous pride in introducing Brazilian flavors to the world by highlighting them in her one-of-a-kind chocolate bars. This Romeo & Juliet is one of the prettiest and most romantic chocolate bars in the Barometer Chocolate collection.

Inspired by a delicious food pairing popular in Brazil, this is the bar you should try if you think white chocolate is not sophisticated enough for you. What is this perfect pairing, you may ask? It’s a soft, dense, salty cheese (queijo minas or queijo mineiro) topped with sweet guava paste cut into the shape of a heart. This treat is referred to as “Romeu E Julieta” and Arcelia was captivated by it because she noticed that the delicacy always seemed to put a smile on the face of anyone who tasted it.

What could be better than guava paste and cream cheese? How about guava paste and cream cheese embedded in luscious white chocolate! The taste sensation is greater than the sum of its parts. See for yourself!

Mission Chocolate bars are a rare find in the United States. I am so proud to welcome a few of Arcelia’s gorgeous, inspiring and luscious creations to the Barometer collection. For the love of chocolate, please take this opportunity to savor one (or more!) of these precious gems!

Arcelia Gallardo is based in São Paulo, Brazil. She grew up in California, and thanks to her Mexican heritage, savoring authentic drinking chocolate was a regular household ritual. Arcelia was quite shocked to discover the candy that her peers referred to as “chocolate” since her palate was unaccustomed to overtly sweet and simplistic flavors. She ate this candy, but to her heart, mind and palate, it bore no resemblance to chocolate.

After graduating from college, Arcelia became fascinated by the history of chocolate and earned her living teaching people about cacao. Before dedicating her life to chocolate, Arcelia traveled through Europe for five months to learn about desserts, pastries and chocolate. That adventure sealed the deal. After savoring and studying the best-loved desserts of 16 countries (and magically losing weight in the process), Arcelia moved to Berkeley, California and became the chocolatier of her very own shop.

The shop was successful and she enjoyed her work, but she became ever more curious about crafting chocolate bars directly from the bean rather than melting down chocolate to create bonbons. She visited her neighbors at nearby (and world renowned) Dandelion Chocolate and requested an internship! It was a surprising move for someone as well-established as Arcelia, and even the fine folks at Dandelion were puzzled by her desire to study bean-to-bar chocolate making, but they graciously invited her in and trained her...so well, in fact, that they wanted her to stay on and continue making chocolate for them.

Arcelia had other plans, though. She and her husband were expecting to move to Brazil and she knew she would start her own bean-to-bar chocolate company there. The name she decided upon was “Mission” as an homage to her former San Franciscan district where she lived and learned at Dandelion to transform beans into magical bars of deliciousness.