I think the reason I bought this is because it says “New” on it. There I was thinking I didn’t get things for that reason, but I guess some investigation is always necessary.
On a side note, I hate the way this foil opens. Lindt does this, too. One side is folded, but the other three are sealed. So to open it, you have to tear it. Which can really bother someone who is sometimes prone to obsessive-compulsive disorder. It must keep the chocolate fresher until it gets to you, but then you can’t easily store the rest in the same wrapping. Though I probably shouldn’t be admitting that I need to store it at all.
I usually seem to end up with more dark Ghirardelli than milk, and I don’t think I’ve ever tried the Luxe Milk. It’s actually quite nice. It keeps up a rich chocolate taste while still maintaining the innocence of a simple milk chocolate. The crisped rice is quality, too. You can actually tell what it is, instead of just being something randomly crunchy. It also gets a grain or rice taste in amongst the chocolate.
So I really didn’t need to store it much, anyway. This is a quick one to go. “Chewing” chocolates are always gone before you realize it. I’m rather happy to find another one that I can count on.
Back in December 2007, Kath reviewed the Australian version of this bar, but I thought I’d give this a go, seeing as we often find big differences in UK and Australian versions of the same bar – particularly where Cadbury is concerned.
Of course, the packaging here is very different from Australian Old Jamaica, and we have the ‘Bournville’ brand stuck in there for good measure – which to be honest probably puts more people off than it attracts in this day and age.
The wrapper proudly claims this is “Raisins & rum flavoured dark chocolate”. But in actual fact, it contains no real rum, and it’s hardly dark chocolate. A quick look at the back of the pack reveals that it contains only 39% cocoa solids. It also contains 18% raisins and – oddly – milk fat.
The ‘treat-wise’ label also shows that total sugars in this bar are 14.7g per 25g of chocolate. Ouch.
So really, what we have here is “raisins with some dark-coloured milk chocolate, lots of sugar and some artificial flavour”.
Looks-wise, the bar scores well. It has a nice dark, reddish colour and a healthy sheen. It looks like it would snap quite cleanly if it weren’t for the preponderance of chewy raisins that stick every chunk to its neighbour.
The taste: Overwhelmingly sugar and rum.
It’s quite difficult to get a handle on the chocolate flavour because the sweet, fake alcohol overpowers it entirely. Given the flavour of plain Borunville chocolate, that’s not necessarily a bad thing, but I’m still at a bit of a loss as to how they manage to squeeze so much sugar and artificial rum into such a small space.
The really annoying thing about this bar though is that it’s just so moreish. Despite the fact that I really didn’t like it, I found myself breaking off chunks every couple of minutes without even realising.
Simply put, this is a snack bar rather than real chocolate. But for those sugar addicts with no concept of calories out there, it fulfills that role quite nicely.
One of the nicer things about being an unashamed chocoholic is that friends always know what presents to give you, and dear mates Jill and Kent decided to bring over a chocolate Buddha from Melbourne’s Theobroma Chocolate Lounge during their last visit.
For the purposes of retaining the friendship it will be automatically assumed that they don’t think that the Buddha’s physique resembles this particular Chocablogger’s; just that it looks interesting. And tasty.
Theobroma Chocolate Lounge uses Belgian chocolate but makes their shapes, hollow figures and filled chocolates in Melbourne. Their website announces that with their arrival ‘chocolate is no longer boring’. Hmmmm, I think that statement is a tad presumptuous. After all why do we have a blog with new reviews every day if the glorious brown foodstuff is boring?
To be fair to Theobroma, I’ve only been there once and enjoyed my gorgeous mug of hot chocolate and huge chunk of triple chocolate mousse cake but was too shy to whip out my camera and photograph it. They are apparently also well known for their chocolate and fruit fondue platters, marshmallow dipping sticks and waffles as well as doing a rather nice range of savoury foccaccias, pastas and of course their gourmet chocolates. I’ll investigate those another time; perhaps when choco-boredom sets in and needs to be eradicated.
Back to Buddha. Apart from being made of Belgian chocolate, there were no ingredients or cocoa content on his little plastic container, so it was entirely up to looks and taste. I tentatively gave his belly a little rub before wondering where the most appropriate place was to bite into first, especially being such a revered spiritual leader and all.
I decided on his belly. CRACK! He exploded open in anger or glee, I’m not sure which, and I had little shards of chocolate under my eyes, melting instantly.
After a big laugh and a small tidy up, it was time to taste a few chunks of our Belgian Buddha Boy.
To be honest, everything that is advertised as gourmet or hand made here in Australia is invariably touted as using ‘the finest Belgian chocolate’ but no information is given specifically on who made it, what’s in it, why it’s so fabulous etcetera. I’m no mathematician, but the law of averages does suggest that even Belgium is likely to have some chocolate manufacturers that aren’t particularly good.
In this case though, I can climb off my high horse because the Buddha was delicious. He didn’t hold any surprising new flavour notes though, just the expected good quality, sweet and silky flavour that you’d expect from Belgian milk chocolate.
Occasionally we get sent non-edible chocolate based products to review, so when we received this soap and lip balm from Jennifer Ferris at Farmstead Organics in Michigan, I thought I’d get a female perspective and enlisted my good friend Claire Bradford.
Here’s her review.
My experience of covering my body in chocolate themed products has always been one of a let down. Chocolate is for the taste buds right? Would you really want to walk around smelling like a Cadbury Dairy Milk Bar, pushing your trolley round your local supermarket only to turn and find a bunch of choco lovers chasing your waft of chocolate scented pheromones? So when Chocablog challenged me to a review of some new chocolate themed body products from Farmstead Organics, I jumped at the chance.
Into my hands plopped the Pure Organic Chocolate Soap, Pure Organic Chocolate Lip Butter and Pure Organic Chocolate Lip Balm. Immediately on the way home in the car I ruffled around with one hand in the bag on my seat and pulled out the lip balm. Brown and stick shaped it hadn’t held up too well with some minimal heat in my car and had gone slightly gooey, however application on my lips sent me back to Age 11 when I was round grannies house whipping up a bowl of chocolate flavoured Angel Delight. A delightful smell of whipped desert filled my nostrils and it even had a slight choccy taste to it, this quickly turned to a not so delightful taste of lip balm but the texture was smooth and pleasant. Upon arriving at the local supermarket I met my partner who promptly got a kiss, and yes I tasted of chocolate. I used the balm for three days and took it on a trip to London where it faired badly with the heat of my pocket, going slightly gooey and messy. But overall it’s a pretty good lip balm, it did the job, smelt delightful and kept my lips nice and shiny for a good few hours.
While regularly using the lip balm I wound in a few evenings with the lip butter. The butter comes in a small round tin and has a much harder texture than the balm. It’s identical in colour and smell and acted more like a moisturiser which temporarily relieved my lips of dryness but was not as long lasting as the balm. I didn’t get the same chocolaty delight from the butter as I did the balm, and it did leave a slightly unpleasant aftertaste in my mouth immediately after applying. However, I found myself reaching for the tin just for a sniff to return myself to the Angel Delight pleasures of the 80’s.
Last up was the soap. Carefully packaged in green material wrap with a string bow and printed ingredients paper, this was the most delightful to look with its careful attention to detail. The soap excited me the most because it actually looked like a bar of chocolate. I used the soap to wash my hands for a couple of days and while smelling chocolaty in the water it did not leave much of a smell on my hands. I also took it in for a shower experience and while it got me squeaky clean it certainly did not leave me feeling wrapped in chocolate. The other big drawback of the soap is that it leaks brown water so my shower and sink were treated to brown stains from the drip of the soap, while not a problem to clean up it certainly looked rather dodgy in my bathroom and I got told off several times for leaving the bar lying around out of a dish.
I’m not 100% sure of the purpose of the chocolate range, I get the impression from the website that its more to do with personal indulgence rather than proof that you can use organic chocolate in personal products. I’m still not convinced by chocolate themed body indulgence and I will continue my hunt for something that perhaps has some chocolaty longevity to it…
