Guest Chocablogger Michael Edwards is back with another Canadian offering…
To be honest, I wasn’t even really expecting to find anything out of the ordinary in the chocolate aisle during a quick stop at the mall, but there just happened to be a few unfamiliar wrappers lurking among the usual suspects. And better still, it was on sale! Unexpected sale chocolate is the best. So I picked some up without paying too much attention because at $1.50 a bar, I felt obligated to introduce myself to Terra Nostra’s Intense Dark.
Terra Nostra is a company who take their chocolate seriously. The wrapper is impressively annotated with the kind of information that a company who takes their chocolate seriously would like to share. Everything from the countries of origin – in this case, Equador, Trinidad and Peru – through to some flavour notes to help out the novice. And just in case you might not be able to eat chocolate that hasn’t been conched for at least 20 hours, it even states that this particular brand has been given a thorough conching for 22 hours.
As the name implies, this has a nice high percentage – 73% Cacao and has a USDA Organic stamp right on the front. Despite that, the first aroma isn’t harsh at all, nor particularly special and doesn’t do much to hint at the intense flavour that comes with the first bite.
This is a rather lovely bar that doesn’t quite hit all the notes that the wrapper suggests (there’s plenty of currant but not too much leather…), but there’s a wonderfully rich, earthiness that sticks around for a long time afterwards. A very clean, deep chocolate.
The most impressive thing is just how smooth the whole experience is. 73% without much in the way of bitterness is quite a feat. Personally, I do kind of like the slight grittiness that comes with some organic chocolates (like in the very early days of Maya Gold. Such happy memories…) but this really has won me over. Apparently they add some extra cocoa butter to the chocolate for this precise reason and it really does work. Yum.
It turns out that Terra Nostra are a Canadian company based in Vancouver and their website lists some other possibly delicious bars such as Pomegranate Truffle, Goji Berry with Pink Himalayan Mineral Salt and Robust Dark Raisins & Pecans. In addition to their organic bars, they also offer some rice milk bars for the vegan chocoholics out there, but I think I’ll stick with the dark yummy stuff.
Faith in nature make natural beauty products of the sort you tend to see in health food stores. They have a whole range of products made with real organic chocolate and no artificial anything. I tried the soap, the shampoo and the conditioner.
The picture of the shampoo bottle on Faith In Nature’s website, shows the shampoo to be quite dark and chocolate-coloured. However, I received both the shampoo and the conditioner in trial sachets and so the colour of the shampoo seemed much lighter.
The scent is quite subtle, which I find is often the case with natural beauty products, as synthetic perfumes are often stronger-smelling. It smells sort of like a cross between what you would think of as “shampoo smell” and a posh chocolate smell, but both were not very strong coming out of the sachet. I think the effect could possibly be stronger in a bigger bottle where the concentration is higher.
The conditioner smelled much more like dark chocolate, although was pale and creamy in colour.
These products are apparently formulated especially for dark hair (like mine!) and are meant to give the hair extra shine. My hair certainly seemed to like the shampoo on first application and the scent, although not immediately noticeable, is certainly present in the undertones. I must say that if you’re hoping for the showering equivalent of bathing your hair in liquid chocolate, you’ll probably be disappointed by the subtlety of the scent. On the other hand, if you’re looking for good quality shampoo from a company that ticks all the natural, eco and ethical boxes, while enjoying the antioxidant benefits of chocolate, then this is a fine choice. The conditioner, too, while making the hair smell and feel nice, did not infuse it with a strong chocolate smell at all.
The soap, on the other hand, in spite of a moment of doubt I experienced when sniffing it up close, was far more chocolatey. All the Faith In Nature soaps are created for a particular purpose, which is stated on the label – cleansing, relaxing, etc.
The chocolate soap says “luxury” on it and you can certainly tell it’s luxurious just by touching it. It feels very rich and creamy. Again, it smells like a cross between soapy and chocolaty. Before I wet it, the smell was pretty faint, but once it hit the water, it was pretty impressive. It may not be as strong as Lush’s Sonic Death Monkey, but it does certainly smell like good quality chocolate and when you lather it up, it glides on the skin in a very creamy, lavish way. I can’t imagine it will last very long, as I can see myself not being able to resist using it far more than is actually necessary just so I can get another whiff of the smell.
The smell didn’t actually linger on my skin for very long but my skin does feel quite soft now, so I’m happy.
It’s been a while, but it’s time for another Chocophile – where we drag unsuspecting celebs from the street and ruthlessly give them lovely chocolates in an effort to get them to answer our questions.
This week, we’ve bagged all round funny bloke Adrian “Ade” Edmondson. (Quite literally – he’s now in a bag at the bottom of Simon’s garden. Sorry about that.)
Chocophile:
Adrian Edmondson
- Occupation:
- Renaissance Tw*t
- Web Site:
- www.thebadshepherds.com
Interrogation Begins:
- Milk, dark or white:
- All types – even Caramac
- Your guilty chocolate pleasure:
- Gü
- Favourite childhood chocolate:
- Milky Bar
- Average Chocolate Consumption:
- 3 bars a week
- Fruit or nut:
- No, no, no, no NO!!!!
- Crunchy or chewy:
- No, no, no – stop it!!!
- Give or receive:
- Receive
- Least favourite chocolate:
- Boxes of chocolates. It has to be pure.
A bit of a mixed bag, this one! The subject shows some promise and an open mind (even us hardcore chocolate interrogators have been known to indulge in the odd Caramac). We’re not so sure about his aversion to ‘boxes of chocolates’ though. Re-education by way of a 24-hour force-feeding Chococo Chocolates is underway.
Fans of Mr Edmondson can also see a more in-depth grilling by Robert Llewellyn on today’s episode of his Car Pool web show.
There seems to be a growing trend of darkness in the chocolate world, but darker isn’t always better. Put to the test this time is the dark version of a classic Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup. I didn’t realize how much I was looking forward to trying it until I stood in front of the shelves by the register and couldn’t find it. There was the milk chocolate one; the dark wasn’t right next to it as I’d expected. Turns out it was a few shelves higher. Random placement, maybe, but I’m guessing the classics are on the bottom where kids can reach them and the darks are trying to catch the eyes of adults.
We have that same crumbly filling of salty and sweet smell and flavor, wrapped up in an average dark chocolate instead of an average milk chocolate. The difference leans towards the subtle. There is something lost, though; there’s a little less of the sinfully enticing without the added greasiness of a milk chocolate versus a dark. Now the chocolate is just there. I don’t feel like it has as good of a relationship with the peanut butter. That is, they’re certainly not enemies, but they don’t come together with the same attitude. I’m used to Reese’s cups being a junk food indulgence, but the dark chocolate tries to bring it a step up without making a very big change. The result is, for the most part, an unnecessary extra product.
The change is still subtle because the peanut butter stays the main focus. The minor focus’s change doesn’t get so much notice. The Reese’s Dark is kind of interesting to try out, but I’ll be sticking to the original in the future.
