Here’s something that I knew I had to review the moment it caught my eye. A milk chocolate alternative from Artisan du Chocolat that’s made with almond milk rather than dairy.
The lack of a decent dairy free milk chocolate option has long been a problem for many people. Sure, they can just have dark chocolate, but if you’re lactose intolerant – or just can’t eat dairy for some other reason – you’re a bit stuck for something sweet and creamy.
So for this review, I’m really looking at two different things; how good is it as a milk chocolate, and how good an alternative is is for people who can’t eat dairy at all.
This is a 45g bar that follows Artisan du Chocolat’s standard design. A thin, but full-sized looking bar, it’s nice looking, but it does feel a little light, being only half the weight of similarly sized chocolate bars.
When you open the pack, you’re greeted with a noticeably nutty aroma with a hint of creaminess. In fact, even though it’s a healthy 40% cocoa solids, the nuttiness comes through stronger than the chocolate. It’s unusual, but certainly not unpleasant.
The texture is quite soft, but break a piece off and it has a nice melt and an interesting flavour. It’s quite sweet and unexpectedly creamy for a dairy free chocolate, but that almond nuttiness is still very prominent. After getting used to the flavour, I quite enjoyed it, although it’s not something that would ever replace a quality milk chocolate for me.
After having eaten a few chunks, I handed the bar to my lactose intolerant friend. She has always had the problem of being a milk chocolate fan who can’t really eat milk chocolate. And while she can get away with small pieces, she tells me that even that makes her throat ticklish and uncomfortable.
And that was the biggest difference for her – she can eat this chocolate without any of the uncomfortable side effects of milk chocolate. But more than that, she particularly enjoyed the flavour. She’s uses almond milk every day, so it was a very familiar flavour her and one that she clearly enjoyed.
So there you have it. As a “milk chocolate”, it can just about hold its own. But for someone who can’t eat dairy but still wants something as creamy and sweet as milk chocolate, it’s a great alternative.
Here’s a little piece of Swiss confectionery that I picked up in Prague.
Now I wouldn’t normally buy Swiss confectionery, but there was something about this particular creation that caught my eye. Something in the name – Frey Chocobloc Orange – seemed…. familiar. I was drawn to it.
Now, as far as I can tell, Chocobloc is made by inserting two bars of Toblerone into Geneva’s Large Hadron Collider and firing them together at extremely high velocity.
Break a piece off, and you’ll find it’s quite Toblerone-like on the inside too. The thick milk chocolate is filled with thick pieces of almond honey nougat that taste almost exactly the same as their Toblerone counterparts.
In fact, the only real difference flavour-wise is the addition of orange flavouring to the milk chocolate.
And if you want to know what they tastes like, simply imagine a stray Terry’s Chocolate Orange had accidentally found itself in the Collider along with those two bars of Toblerone. It’s exactly the same kind of fake orange flavour – although looking at the ingredients, it is actually described as “orange juice powder”, so it may have seen a real orange at some point in its life.
As you might expect, it’s sweet, confectionery chocolate and not particularly great. At 34% cocoa solids, it’s still got about 50% more cocoa in it than the likes of Dairy Milk, but that’s not saying a lot really.
I did – eventually – consume the whole of this 100g bar, and as cheap confectionery goes, it does the job of fulfilling a sugar craving quite effectively. But it’s not something I’d buy again.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m just off to consult my lawyers about that name…
It might seem like we’re barely into the new year, but Easter is just around the corner, and that can only mean one thing… chocolate!
If there’s one chocolate company that’s always been a cut above the rest at Easter chocolate, it’s Hotel Chocolat. This year, they have a range of rather beautiful eggs in all shapes and sizes (some of which I’ll be reviewing separately), and this rather elegant chap.
His name is Danny.
He’s pitched as a city worker bunny who works hard and plays hard and has a bit of a thing for the movie Grease. Yes, Hotel Chocolat have created an entire back story for this little character.
It’s almost a shame to kill him. But needs must.
Danny is (was) a great looking rabbit. I love the simple clear plastic box that he’s packaged in. You get to see exactly what you’re buying, which is always a plus point when buying Easter chocolate.
The chocolate is better than your average Easter egg too. Sure it’s a simple 40% milk chocolate, but it’s chocolate and creamy and very pleasant. It’s not a fancy single origin chocolate and there are no exotic flavours, but Hotel Chocolat tell me that many consumers still find those things a bit confusing when it comes to seasonal products like this.
So there you have it. A simple but very well presented Easter bunny. At just £8, I think this is the perfect small Easter gift, and a thousand times better than your average Cadbury/Nestlé/Mars egg that’s packed with sugar and vegetable fats.
I’m told that I’m difficult to shop for, but there are some things that are a pretty safe bet. Like, for instance, some good chocolate. Especially when that chocolate comes from Toronto’s Soma Chocolatemaker. So when I got a what looked like an eight inch sausage from there for my birthday from a friend, I was intrigued.
I wasn’t quite sure what I was holding in my hands because I know that lots of people play around with chocolate and meat and so I assumed that that was what this was. After all, it is packaged to look just like a salami, right down to the string netting around it and the painting of a surprisingly happy pig on the label.
It turns out that the pig is happy because there’s nothing porcine in the salami – just chocolate and other sweet things. Those include candied orange peel, sun dried cherries, feuilletine pieces, coconut, almonds, hazelnuts, nibs and a healthy splash of rum, all of which go to create one of the best smelling things that has ever come out of the Soma kitchen.
The aroma is the absolute embodiment of the festive season – spices and fruit and booze and chocolate. I want to have one just to sniff whenever I feel sad because it makes me smile. Unwrapped, it still accurately mimics a salami with its light glazing, but cutting into it reveals something which looks a lot like a black pudding – kind of crumbly and speckled with lots of different bits and pieces scattered throughout the salami.
Surprisingly, it doesn’t taste nearly as boozy as it smells. The rum lurks in the background giving a touch of warmth that lingers, but it doesn’t dominate. Instead, it is the chocolate and spices that take the lead with hints of cinnamon and nutmeg. The texture is a little unusual because there is so much stuff in there although when it comes down to it, it is like a really big truffle with a bit of crunch and chewiness.
It is very rich though and it isn’t easy to eat much in one sitting for that reason but as a fun, unusual piece of social chocolate to share it is hard to think of anything better because this chocolate salami is a real delicious conversation starter. But since this is a seasonal item for Soma, you’ll have to wait until December to pick one up so be patient…
