Thorntons Milk Chocolate with Tonka Bean

Posted by in Chocolate Reviews on July 22 2009 | Leave A Comment
Thorntons Milk Chocolate with Tonka Bean

Another of the ever-expanding range of Thorntons slabs, this one is 38% cocoa milk chocolate infused with Tonka Bean.

In case you didn’t know, Tonka Bean isn’t something that was used to make tough toys for tough kids back in the 1970s, it was in fact once used as a cheap substitute for vanilla (presumably back when vanilla pods were hard to come by).

Thorntons Milk Chocolate with Tonka Bean

At 38% this bar is definitely at the top end of the milk chocolate scale, but it has surprisingly delicate flavours. The cocoa flavours are very light and the Tonka Bean adds an underlying vanilla/nut combination with a gentle hint of spice which makes the overall taste extremely moreish. It’s quite sweet (in fact it’s over 46% sugars) but somehow the sweetness doesn’t detract from the flavours. The lightness of the flavours is reflected in the mouthfeel. While it’s packed full of lovely light cocoa flavour, it doesn’t cloy the palate at all. Eating one chunk just leads to another, and there’s no ‘overload’, as the mouth is left clean and ready for the next piece.

I can see why Dom has nominated this as his favourite slab to date. It’s a damned fine example of top notch (and dangerously easy to eat) milk chocolate. The light, almost fruity flavours of the cocoa combine extremely well with the Tonka Beans infused with cocoa butter. I enjoyed this quite a lot, but I doubt I could monster a whole slab on my own, purely because of the sweetness, but if you love your milk chocolate you’re quite likely to find yourself making one or two of these disappear quite rapidly.

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Comments On This Post

  1. Dom (Chocablog Staff)

    I have a sweeter tooth than you, but this is definitely my new favourite milk chocolate.

  2. It sounds utterly divine – dare I say it, but I’ve been craving milk chocolate over dark chocolate lately. Heresy!

  3. I did not know that about the Tonka Bean! I’ll have to check my local import store to see about finding Thorntons.

  4. Aji

    Hi Guys!

    I was wondering about Tonka beans so I went back to this old review. I read from the FDA (US) website warning about tonka beans being used as imitation vanilla (as you mentioned above that it was indeed used as a cheap substitute). It contains certain toxins that cause thinning of the blood (coumarin from what I read here: http://www.fda.gov/forconsumers/consumerupdates/ucm048613.htm )

    I wonder though if the guys at Thorntons know about this or they should put it in their label or something.

  5. Scarlett Smith

    Coumarin does NOT thin the blood. It is processed by a major US drug company into a drug with a similar sounding name which is a blood thinner, Coumarin itself does NOT. It is a toxic substance used in great quantities, just like many other comment household spices. But Coumarin as a blood thinner is a myth. Also see here for a better explanation:

    http://www.theatlantic.com/life/archive/2010/11/the-tonka-bean-an-ingredient-so-good-it-has-to-be-illegal/65616/

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