[1] Each morning, we enjoy one Probiotic Bite with our first cup of coffee (Abacus Photo).

[2] The bites are made from organic 70% cacao (dark chocolate (photos #2, #3, #5, and 6 © Ele Chocolates).

[3] Tempting, but you can only eat one a day, the effective dose.

[4] It begins with single origin, organic, Fair Trade certified cacao beans (photo © Tetiana Bykovets | Unsplash).

The Nibble doesn’t typically cover health and wellness foods. But we were treated to a jar of Probiotic Bites from Ele Chocolates and we liked them so much, that after our initial supply ran low we became a monthly subscriber.

After several months, they’ve become such a part of our morning ritual that they’re our Top Pick Of The Week.

With Mother’s Day coming up, we’re gifting bottles to several of our friends.

What if you could start the day with a piece of chocolate that’s delicious, healthful, and probiotic, yet contributes just 62 calories along with your morning cup of coffee or tea? (It can be consumed without any beverage at all.)

Designed as a functional supplement, the delicious flavor comes from single origin, organic, Fair Trade certified, 70% cacao dark chocolate. The innovative product is made by Ele Chocolates, a partnership between of one of our favorite artisan chocolate lines, The Cordial Cherry (another Nibble Top Pick Of The Week), and Synbiotic Health, a biotech company specializing in probiotics.
 
 
WHAT’S IN THEM?

The ingredients are simple: cacao, coconut oil, and billions of friendly microorganisms from specific probiotic strains. The magic comes from how they’re put together.

The Bites:

 
Below:

> How do Probiotic Bites help your system?

> Why two particular strains are used.

> Where to buy.

> About Ele Chocolates.

> About Synbiotic Health.

Elsewhere on The Nibble:

> What is probiotic food?

> Probiotics, prebiotics, and synbiotics.
 
 
PROBIOTIC BITES: HOW DO THEY HELP?

While these statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration.

Probiotic Bites are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent illness or disease.

Ele says that taking one Probiotic Bite a day can help you maintain a healthy and balanced digestive and immune system.

Their tests have shown that the Probiotic Bites:

Standard probiotics, like the “live” ones found in some yogurts, often die off in the stomach. These two strains were selected using in-vivo selectio” (iVS) and in-vitro enrichment (iVE), techniques used to find the “tough” bacteria that can actually reach the gut alive and perform functional tasks like producing vitamins or calming inflammation.

These two specific strains of probiotic bacteria were developed by Synbiotic Health.

Bifidobacterium adolescentis, iVS-1®, is naturally occurring in the human gut and is chosen for its “ecological fitness,” meaning it’s particularly good at surviving the journey through the digestive system and colonizing the gut.

 
Bifidobacterium longum, iVE-15®, is one of the most well-researched probiotic species. The iVE-15 strain is specifically selected for its ability to thrive in the human microbiome.

 
 
GET YOUR PROBIOTIC BITES

We don’t give healthcare advice. We also don’t use probiotic supplements—we don’t need them.

So we can say, as an avocational user: We’re in it for the chocolate. It’s a happy and healthy way to start the day. To us, Probiotic Bites are a treat.

If you do take probiotic supplements, consult with your healthcare provider for advice.

One consideration might be the cost. With a 10% discount for monthly subscribers, a 30-day supply is $45 a month.

Is it worth $1.50 a day—or is it even possible for many budgets—to enjoy a piece of good-for-you chocolate?

We can only say that it makes us happy to wake up each morning and head to the kitchen to make coffee and enjoy our Probiotic Bite.

> The Bites are sold on the company website as well as on Amazon.

While there are rave reviews, i.e. “this solved my problem,” on both sites, we were surprised to see a couple of lower reviews on Amazon because the purchasers didn’t like the taste.

Frankly, we love the taste…but as we all know, chacun à son goût, to each his own taste.
 

[6] A year’s supply. Actually, you can get your monthly refills in sustainable brown bags.
 
 
ABOUT ELE CHOCOLATES

“Ele” (pronounced EL-uh) is short for “Elemental,” a name that reflects the company’s mission to support health at its “elemental core.”

The name signals that the product is a fundamental building block for gut health, rather than just a standard confection.

The company was founded in 2022 as a collaboration between Melissa Stephens, the artisanal chocolatier of The Cordial Cherry, her daughter, Hannah Humeniuk, and biotech company Synbiotic Health.

The CEO of Synbiotic, a customer of The Cordial Cherry, reached out to propose combining their chocolate-making expertise with his company’s probiotic strains.
 
 
ABOUT SYNBIOTIC HEALTH

Synbiotic‡ Health is a biotechnology company that specializes in the research and development of “ecologically advanced” probiotics and synbiotics. Unlike many supplement companies that simply market existing strains, Synbiotic Health is a research firm that discovers and licenses its own proprietary bacterial strains.

The company is considered highly respected within the scientific and nutraceutical communities due to their academic pedigree and rigorous approach to clinical validation. The company was founded in 2017 by four prominent microbiome researchers, world-renowned experts in gut ecology and fermentation.

Their lead strain, iVS-1®, is backed by peer-reviewed human clinical trials published in high-impact journals like Microbiome and Applied and Environmental Microbiology.
 
________________
 
*Maldigestion is the biological process of what is happening (or not happening) in your gut. Lactose intolerance is physical symptom: how you feel because of maldigestion.

†Inulin (FOS) (25 mg) is sourced from organic Jerusalem artichokes. Xylooligosaccharides (XOS) (15 mg) are sourced from organic cane sugar.

‡More terms to know:

Synbiotic is the “1+1=3” of gut health. It’s the combination of a probiotic (the live bacteria) and a prebiotic (the fiber “food” that helps those bacteria grow).

CFU (Colony Forming Units) is the measure of how many billions of live, active bacteria are in each chocolate bite.

In-Vivo Selection (IVS) is is the process Synbiotic Health uses to pick bacteria that have been proven to survive inside a living body, rather than just in a petri dish.
 

CHECK OUT WHAT’S HAPPENING ON OUR HOME PAGE, THENIBBLE.COM.

If you feel like popping along with us, below you’ll find:

> The caramel corn recipe without corn syrup.

> Why do most recipes include corn syrup?

> The difference between popping corn and sweet (table) corn.

Elsewhere on The Nibble, dig into:

> The history of caramel corn.

> The history of popcorn.

> The history of corn.

> The year’s 13 popcorn holidays.

> More popcorn recipes.

There are two types of caramel corn:

While “caramel” is often used as a catch-all term, the richness and depth of the real caramel sauce used in this recipe come from the emulsion of fats and sugars. Commercial “caramel corn” is typically made with a simple sugar-and-oil glaze.

 

[7] We like to serve a bowl of plain caramel corn with separate mix-ins, so people can customize their own. The photo shows chocolate chunks, peanuts, and pecans, but you can offer anything from bacon or dried cherries or cranberries to M&Ms and toffee bits (Abacus Photo).
 
 
RECIPE: CARAMEL CORN WITHOUT CORN SYRUP

For a salted caramel version, increase the salt to 1 teaspoon and add a light sprinkle of flaky sea salt over the top just before baking.
 
Ingredients For 8 Servings

 
Preparation

1. PREHEAT the oven to 250°F. Lightly grease a large roasting pan or oven-safe bowl.

2. MAKE the caramel: Beat the softened butter, brown sugar, and salt until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. The mixture should be smooth and creamy.

3. COMBINE the popcorn and caramel: Remove any unpopped kernels before coating. Place the popped popcorn and optional 1 cups pecan halves in the pan. Drop spoonfuls of the caramel mixture over the popcorn and toss gently but thoroughly, to coat as evenly as possible. Tip: We grease our hands with butter to hand-toss.)

4. BAKE AND STIR. Bake at 250°F for 55 minutes, removing the pan every 15 minutes to stir and redistribute the caramel coating. This low-and-slow method ensures even coating and proper crisping without burning.

5. COOL. Spread the finished caramel corn onto a sheet of parchment paper in a single layer and allow to cool completely, about 25 minutes. The caramel will crisp up as it cools.

6. BREAK into clusters and serve. You can serve the optional mix-ins (photo #7) and let people customize their corn. Store in an airtight container for up to one week.
 
Tip

 
 
WHY DO MOST CARAMEL CORN RECIPES USE CORN SYRUP?

Corn syrup (photo #6) is a functional ingredient that prevents crystallization.

 
When making caramel corn, specifically, it enables a:

 
But it doesn’t impact the flavor, so we’re more than happy to use only brown sugar and butter in our recipe instead of brown sugar and corn syrup.

Brown sugar contains molasses in it, which has some natural resistance to recrystallization. Combined with butter and a low-and-slow baking method, we achieve a very satisfying result.

It may be slightly softer and less glassy than a corn syrup version, but we don’t notice.

[1] Treat yourself to some homemade caramel corn made with real caramel (photos #1 and #2 © National Popcorn Board).

[2] It’s as easy as pouring caramel sauce over popcorn.

[3] How about mixing in chopped bacon (photo © Evan Dempsey | THE NIBBLE)?

[4] Here’s a fun recipe: triple caramel fudge with dulce de leche, caramel candies, and caramel corn (photo © Betty Crocker).

[5] In January 2014, Baskin Robbins’ Flavor of the Month was Movie Theater Popcorn: popcorn-flavored ice cream, butter popcorn crisp pieces, and a salty caramel ribbon. Make your own version with your ice cream flavor of choice topped with caramel sauce and garnished with caramel popcorn (photo © Baskin-Robbins).

[6] Nice for popcorn balls, but not for our caramel corn (Abacus Photo)!

What’s the difference between the corn kernels we eat (sweet corn, a.k.a. table corn), and the kernels we pop?

They are actually quite different varieties of corn:

Corn (Zea mays) has several distinct varieties:

 

[8] Popcorn and sweet corn are quite different subspecies (Abacus Chart).
 
________________
 
*Sweet corn’s high sugar content makes it primarily a human food crop compared to starchy field corn. Beyond human consumption, it’s used for livestock fodder (corn cobs, stalks, and leftover kernels), cosmetics (corn syrup is used in toothpaste and mouthwash), medicine (husks and corn silk are sometimes used in traditional medicine to treat issues such as bladder irritation), industrial applications (the starch is used in adhesives and bio-plastic), and in some cases, biofuels (while field corn is the primary source, the sugars in sweet corn can be used for ethanol production).
 

CHECK OUT WHAT’S HAPPENING ON OUR HOME PAGE, THENIBBLE.COM.

[1] The classic: Japanese yakitori, a cousin to Middle Eastern kebabs (Abacus Photo).

[2] The new: pizza on a stick. Here’s the recipe (photo © The Cookie Rookie).

[3] PB&J on a stick. Here’s the recipe (photo © Taste Of Home).

[4] Tornado potatoes (a.k.a. Chip Sticks, Potato Springs, Potato Twisters, Ribbon Fries, Rotato, Spiral Spuds, Twisted Taters, and who knows what else) are always fun, and you can make them at home. Here’s the recipe (photo © Grumpy Recipes).

[5] Hot Dogs In A Sweater. Here’s the recipe (photo © Taste Of Home).

March 28th is one of the quirkier food holidays: National Something On A Stick Day.

From before written history, meat on sticks (no plates and cutlery in those days) to the accidental invention of the Popsicle in at the beginning of the 20th century…

…to cheesecake on a stick, deep-fried candy bars on a stick, ravioli on a stick, and everything else on a stick, humans have been eating food from strips of wood.

In fact, there’s even a second holiday to celebrate food on a stick: July 11, National State Fair Food Day.

In case you can’t decide what, exactly, you want on your stick, here are some suggestions.

Elsewhere on The Nibble:

> 10 more on-a-stick ideas, including macarons on a stick!
 
 
SOMETHING SAVORY ON A STICK

 

[6] The classic: corn dogs. These are made in an air fryer! Here’s the recipe (photo © Taste Of Home).
 
 
SOMETHING SWEET ON A STICK

 

[7] Waffles on a stick are a breeze to make. Here’s the recipe (photo © Food 52)..
 
 
NOUVELLE-ON-A-STICK

CHECK OUT WHAT’S HAPPENING ON OUR HOME PAGE, THENIBBLE.COM.