Cadbury Luxury Selection 72%

Here at Chocablog there’s been an awful lot of wailing and gnashing of teeth about Cadbury’s and their tendency to punt out the same old safe as houses CDM, but with some new ‘other’ ingredient thrown in to create something different,

Well imagine my shock when I saw this. Four bars of 72% cocoa ‘Luxury’ chocolate. Of course I had to be waaay over the other side of the planet at the time, so I have no idea whether or not the UK or Europe will see this, but I took some heart from the fact that on the back of the box is written ‘Made by Cadbury Poland for Cadbury Trebor Bassett’ which to my mind implies that there may be some chance of this being released into continental Europe, if not the whole Union (which includes England, Mr. Cadbury Trebor-Bassett).

As you can see from the pictures, upmarket equals gold. Gold boxes, gold bar wrappers, gold foil – everything glows as you work your way to the bar.

The chocolate itself is dark, divided into squares very reminiscent of the classic Lindt bar. The chocolate itself has good, full cocoa aromas with hints of wood and leather. In the mouth it’s smooth, rich but never really bitter in the way that a lot of high cocoas content bars can be. The top notes are not really that toppy – this chocolate is almost like a ‘beefy’ milk chocolate with more sophisticated flavour base. After tasting my mouth was clean and uncoated, and definitely ready for more.

I liked this quite a lot. It doesn’t stand out by being unusual, but by offering a very pleasant taste experience. This is soft and gentle enough to entice milk chocolate eaters over to the Dark Side, yet it retains enough complex cocoa flavours to appeal to the more sophisticated chocolate lover. I’m not able to guess at a potential UK retail price, but I’m pretty sure that if Cadbury’s pitched this at the same level as supermarket ‘Finest’ brands they’d find themselves with an awful lot of customers.

Footnote: I’m also surprised that the same company which has failed to produce anything new or original in the UK for quite a few years has released this into the Middle East. While the UK in particular has undergone something of a chocolate revolution, Cadbury’s seem to have done absolutely nothing in terms of producing innovative or exciting new products. One would imagine that a company with a world class position and reputation would have been on top of the trend towards artisan made or higher quality products and responded accordingly with their own range of similar products. Instead, I tend to think of Cadbury’s as either resting on their laurels or sitting on their hands. My own personal hope is that this is possibly the start of that response. Whether the desire to expand into the connaisseur market is there (or even worth the effort) is debatable, but I enjoyed finding something this good from Cadbury’s. More like this, please!

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