Ubuntu Orange Spice

The geeks in the audience may find the idea of ‘Ubuntu Chocolate’ mildly amusing, because “Ubuntu” is best known as the most popular flavour of the Linux operating system. The word is Zulu in origin and roughly translated means ‘togetherness’ and the concept of being connected to others. So it fits quite well with the concepts of free, open source software and as it turns out, ethically produced chocolate.

I bought this bar and a ginger bar (review coming shortly) at the Ubuntu stand at the Taste of Christmas show the other week. It’s a 60% dark chocolate with orange essence, cloves and nutmeg. As far as I can tell, the beans come from Ubuntu’s own cocoa farm in Sri Lanka, although that’s not made entirely clear on the packaging or their web site.

At 60%, the cocoa content isn’t that high and it’s fairly sweet, but the overwhelming flavour is that of the cloves, and I think that’s what will put many people off this particular bar. As Simon discovered in his review of Cukrček’s Clove & Rosemary bar, clove is very much a love it or hate it flavour.

Personally, it’s just a little too strong for my liking. The orange and nutmeg flavours are still there, and initially the chocolate has a pleasant taste not unlike a nice mulled wine, but as the clove flavour builds, it just becomes too strong – and then it hangs around long after the other flavours are gone.

I’m looking forward to tasting the ginger bar because that’s one flavour I just can’t overdose on, but this one was just a little too… clovey… for me.

Posted by Dom on 29 Dec 2009 at 10:12 AM | 3 Comments
Filed in Reviews under clove, nutmeg, orange, ubuntu