Idilio Origins Ocumare No. 3 With Raspberries

Posted by in Chocolate Reviews on July 8 2011 | Leave A Comment

Idilio Origins are a Swiss chocolate maker who did rather well in this year’s Academy of Chocolate awards, winning a total of three awards, including a gold. This particular bar is not one of their award winners, but you can probably see why it caught my eye.

All that deep pink isn’t part of the packaging. The underside of the chocolate is evenly coated in finely milled freeze dried raspberry powder. I’ve not seen a bar so completely covered in freeze-dried fruit before.

As you might expect, the aroma is almost exclusively raspberry rather than chocolate, but underneath all that pink, the chocolate is a Venezuelan bean from Ocumare, and 72% cocoa solids.

Turn the bar over, and it looks a little more conventional.

All that raspberry powder is slightly sticky, so when you break off a chunk, it does have a tendency to stick to the fingers. This chocolate is perhaps not as practical as it is pretty.

The instant hit of flavour you get when you taste a piece is almost overpoweringly sharp for a few seconds, but they layer is so thin that it very quickly fades away to almost nothing. By the time you get around to tasting the actual chocolate, the raspberry is gone, but the assault on the taste buds means you’re not going to pick out subtle flavours here. It’s a pleasant, smooth dark chocolate.

Unfortunately, while I like the idea and appearance of this chocolate, it just doesn’t quite come together for me. The raspberry is too intense and it fights with the chocolate rather than complements it. It’s obviously made with quality ingredients, I just don’t think they go together in this form.

If you love freeze dried raspberries more than you love chocolate, then this might be a bar for you, but personally I’d have preferred something a little more subtle.

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Comments On This Post

  1. yasmin butt

    I absolutely love the idea of freeze dried fruit in chocolate, I think this would have worked really well if they’d blended it in rather then coating a side of the bar. Divine do a great bar of dark and raspberry which is excellent value for money. I once had strawberry and chocolate at Gorvett &Stone which thrilled me.

  2. Oh, shiney pink!

    At least it looks good!

  3. Bob

    I had this once! http://twitpic.com/23hxg I remember being excited, and then enormously disappointed when I actually got it out the wrapper and tried to eat it. Had to tap it on the table to knock off the excess powder, but then the powder stuck to your fingers anyway when snapping bits off. As you say, too intense, then some half decent chocolate: I’d rather just have the half decent chocolate. A good idea on paper maybe, but not in real chocolate-life.

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