Here we have another three Mood Foods OmBars, only this time they come with a little something extra, namely probiotic bacteria (the same stuff in those yoghurt drinks they sell in supermarkets and health food stores).
As you can see, one of the bars is just plain raw chocolate with a much higher cocoa content than the ‘normal’ 60% in an Ombar. With a fairly hefty 72% I was looking forward to seeing how much of a difference that extra cocoa was going to make, and I have to say it does add quite a lot to the taste. It’s obviously a much darker, more intense cocoa flavour, but it also retains the characteristics of the other raw chocolate bars. It’s quick to melt, has a great mouthfeel, and leaves the palate clean and invigorated. With that much more cocoa you’re getting a lot of the darker, slightly more bitter flavours. It’s not as sweet for obvious reasons but still maintains a good balance between bitter cocoa and soft, light coconut sugar. Thoroughly enjoyable.
The Strawberry bar was always going to be of special interest to me. Infused with freeze dried strawberry powder and definitely containing no artificial anything, I hoped this bar would deliver natural tasting strawberry flavours in harmony with the chocolate, and that’s just what it did. Subtle fruit flavours build in the mouth as the chocolate melts, giving a lovely overall flavour of summer fruit, dark cocoa and soft sugars. Once again, very enjoyable.
The final offering – the coconut bar – had my interest the moment I saw it. Blending a raw chocolate that uses coconut sugar with yet more coconut was always going to be interesting (by the way, the coconut sugar doesn’t really taste of coconut), but the moment my first taste started to melt, I found myself smiling. A lot. The coconut cream is an inspired choice both in terms of texture and flavour. Those who were lucky enough to be offered a taste agreed wholeheartedly. A definite winner.
So, overall I would have to say that Mood Foods have done a pretty fine job of rebranding and redesigning their chocolate bars, and to steal one of Dom’s favourite phrases, that Coconut Bar is definitely the most Nom of the Oms. If you’re a fan of the raw chocolate then look out for these in your health food emporia.
Ok, so we didn’t care for them much in our review, but after Nestlé sent us a box of 36 Milkybars, we had to find something to do with the other 35 – so we’re giving them away!
To enter our little giveaway, all you need to do is head on over to the Chocablog Facebook Page and click “Like” on any of our posts between now and Friday (20th August). We’ll pick a winner at random over the weekend.
UK readers only this time, I’m afraid. We can’t afford international postage and we have a feeling the Milkybars might get a bit melty if we had to send them somewhere warmer than England!
I was recently given a bag of Valrhona Guanaja 70% couverture ‘beans’. That’s beans as in roughly what they look like, not cacao beans from the tree. These are a couverture chocolate that you can buy at good food merchants as a bulk product and they will weigh out how much you want. Perfect! Being a professional product, this is the kind of thing that is commonly used by chocolatiers and pastry chefs – where they won’t tell you what the source product was. A shame – when the source is as good as this.
A check of the ‘Experts Section‘ of the Valrhona web site is most impressive; there are cooking trade brochures containing some exquisite photographs, and perhaps most interesting of all, the chocolate tasting wheels actually explain a little of the character of their range. The character of the products is shown, such as flavour intensity, fruitiness, acidity, bitterness, and so on. The brochures are excellent – drool-worthy in their own right and explaining more about chocolate character than any other manufacturer I have found.
Essentially, this is a high class cooking chocolate. Valrhona describe the Guanaja 70% as “a palette of bitterness”, which actually does not sound all that appealing.
As far as the look goes – well, I quite like the shape, actually. I also don’t mind that they get a bit knocked about and have a few white marks and dusty edges; this is normal for a couverture and to be expected for a product sold in 3 kg packs. The small size makes for extra surface area, which is better for releasing aroma and for melting quickly. The “beans” are small, perhaps only 5 or 10 grams each, which makes them the PERFECT size for melting but also for eating. And by the way, if anybody has one of those 3kg packs going spare, please feel free to send it to me.
I opened the pack and was hit by the intense rich, earthy aroma. I’ve pretty much never come across a chocolate that has smelled as good as this, so I knew I was in for something good. Get some of these. Pour about 10 onto a plate or the table, and pop one in the mouth. Bet you can’t stop at one. I can’t. I kept scooping out another 2 or 3, then perhaps a handful.
The flavour is slightly bitter, rich, earthy, almost mushroomy; with a curiously creamy mouth feel. “A palette of bitterness”? I don’t really think so – that description does not adequately cover what this chocolate is all about. Huge discipline and immense self control was barely able to stop me from scoffing down the whole 300 gram bag in a single sitting.
Then came a revelation, quite by accident I’d just made a big industrial size mug of real coffee, and was eating these and sipping (black) coffee. WOW! What a combination. I know it’s the cliché match-made-in-heaven yada yada, and sometimes it is, sometimes it isn’t. Not all coffee goes with all chocolate. But my nice fresh Chagga Peaberry works with this. Really works. I was, and still am, stunned at how well they go together.
This is my new Gold Standard for a 70% dark chocolate. Sorry Mr Lindt, you have been displaced. Now, if you’ll excuse me, its time to scarf down the last few of the beans that are left, along with a nice big black coffee. Bliss!
Sometimes, the stars just shine down on you and smile. How else could you explain a chain of events that ends up with me getting a chocolate massage at a posh Amsterdam hotel at extremely short notice and only hours before my flight home?
It all started when I was bored on my flight over and ended up scanning the inflight magazine out of sheer desperation. Inside, I found a review of a chocolate massage experience at the Grand Hotel Amrath. When, an hour later, I passed by the same hotel on the way to my destination, I decided fate had indeed spoken. Two and a half days later, tired and sporting somewhat of a respectable hangover, I stepped through the doors of the very same hotel to receive the very same massage experience.
The Amrath is a 5 star hotel overlooking a canal not far from the Amsterdam central station. The building is beautiful on the outside, though I must say on the inside it didn’t look like any 5 star hotel I’d seen before. It was a bit drab, with traditional style wood panelled walls, dark carpets and stone floors. Apparently, the building used to be the head office of a shipping company, which would explain the decor choices. The staff were all very sweet and friendly, though, and directed me down a very Dutch narrow spiral staircase to the Wellness spa, where I was to have my massage.
Here, again, the view was not spectacular, reminding me more of the sort of functional spa / gym areas you find in business hotels. The treatment itself area was small but impeccably clean and the place was all but empty, it being Monday morning.
I was greeted by the friendly Claudia from Revive, the company that provides the spa services for the hotel. After changing into my robe and slippers, I was left in the care of my masseur, the very tall and lovely Ian (originally from England but now local). Having not come to Amsterdam expecting to be reviewing a massage, I didn’t have my proper camera with me, but I managed to snap a darkish picture of Ian and the massage table. It was a very cheery sight after a long weekend, that’s for sure!
But what about the treatment?
The massage oil did not look very chocolatey at all, but Ian explained that it does indeed contain cocoa, albeit refined. There was certainly no mistaking the smell of it, which was incredibly strong, rich and chocolatey, but more like rich hot chocolate or milk chocolate rather than dark chocolate mousse. I resisted to urge to drink it down, because I was assured the massage experience would be worth it.
It was warm and felt really lovely on the skin – rich, but not too heavy. Once warmed up even more by skin contact the effect was even stronger than before. At some point during the treatment I must have gotten used to the smell, as I thought it had disappeared never to return. It actually did return later on and stayed on my skin all day. I could definitely smell it quite strongly, so I’m sure my fellow passengers on my flight home could smell it too. I hope they like chocolate.
The massage itself was seriously good. Powerful but gentle at the same time. This seemed to be the main focus of the treatment, rather than an excuse for being covered in chocolate. Ian the masseur certainly knows his stuff and talked me through the benefits of massage in general and massage using chocolate in particular. The official line is that apart from the oil itself being good for the skin (my skin was noticeably soft for days) chocolate has such fond associations for most of us that it’s hard not to be relaxed when smelling like you’re covered in it. I’m sure that’s something we can all agree on.
I felt extremely relaxed and blissed out after my massage and the effect on my muscles was quite pronounced even after I lugged my bag on a cramped plane back to London. I got the impression that rather than be a purely indulgent treatment, this was essentially a “serious” treatment – an effective massage with the added twist of being chocolate scented, to add another element to the whole effect.
At the end of the treatment, I was offered chocolate tea, rather than a hot chocolate. This, like the massage itself was healthier than the usual hot chocolate you might get but it was light, delicately spicy and refreshing. Considering the massage ended up being quite a detox for me, I felt this was quite appropriate in this case.
The Verdict
If you are hoping to simply get dipped in chocolate above all else and see the rest of the stuff as secondary, this treatmen is probably not the one for you. You can get ones that do actually involve being covered in actual chocolate sauce (see my review of the Karin Herzog facial treatment, for example). On the other hand, if you want an extremely effective massage treatment that also has you smelling like chocolate both during and after the event then this is definitely it.
