This limited edition Raspberry flavor is going to be available for Easter this year. Looks like it’ll only be released in these 42-piece bags of Minis. Half of the spring-style wrappers are silver, with the other half a solid pink.
It’s dark chocolate again for the pink raspberry nougat. Also the same wonderful, addictively soft chew. Plus, coin-sized things like this always seem more tempting. “Oh, they’re so small that I’ll just have another one. Or two. Or three.”
I’m not sure how much I like the raspberry taste, though. It tasted pretty fake to me, so I decided to get some second opinions. Taster one: “I like this one, but I don’t think I usually like 3 Musketeers. Or was that you?” No, wasn’t me. I like the stuff. Taster two: “It’s too moist and sweet.” Okay. . . so much for second opinions. I’ll just have to disagree with that part: the texture and sweetness are on the same level as the regular version.
I guess with filling Easter Eggs, you can need just about as much candy as for Halloween, so these small, individual wrappers fit in with that idea. I still prefer the regular 3 Musketeers, but there isn’t enough actual difference that you should shy away from buying these if you’re after some candies in “Easter” packaging.
This bar was approached with a fair amount of trepidation after the severe disappointment of Dagoba’s 68% cocoa-content dark chocolate with hemp seeds. Was this one destined to go the same way? After all, it was starting a few steps behind being a mere milk chocolate with less than half the cocoa content of the seeds bar.
Then again, who doesn’t love chai tea? It’s hard not to giggle at their philosophy typed on the back: Chocolate is sacred. There is an art to the alchemy of chocolate, an art we explore with mystery and integrity.
In keeping with their philosophy of mystery, Dagoba are not revealing exactly what spices they’ve used in their list of ingredients. Apart from their organic milk chocolate, organic cane juice, organic cocoa butter etc, they’ve only mentioned crytallized ginger and ‘essential oils’. However, the smells drifting up from the bar when the gold foil was opened suggested cinnamon, cardamom, ginger and cloves.
As you can see, there’s a bit of white ‘bloom’ on the chocolate due to it having melted on the way home, being re-set in the fridge and then getting soft again whilst photographing this. Blame the hottest Aussie summer we’ve had in at least twenty years. If the flavour survives this weather, it’ll survive anything.
Anxiously, I snapped off a piece and let it dissolve in my mouth. It tasted very sweet, slightly creamy and had a really distinct Chai tea flavour. There were strong top notes (yep, that’s Simon’s influence at work there) of cinnamon and cardamon before fading back and revealing the secondary layer of mild ginger with tiny little gritty bits at the end. The chocolate itself is vaguely reminiscent of a Cadbury Dairy Milk – albeit it with their self-proclaimed ‘alchemy, mystery and integrity’ which in fact complements the Chai spices perfectly.
This bar disappeared in no time at all and paired up extremely well with a hot cup of black tea. This is a hundred times better in flavour, complexity and taste than Dagoba’s ‘Seeds’ dark chocolate bar, so I’m now keen again to venture out and discover more of their other varieties.
The sister bar to the orange and thyme bar I reviewed last year, this 30% cocoa milk chocolate bar packs a huge punch of rosemary flavour as soon as it starts to melt. The herb flavour dominates for the majority of the time, with the citrus tang of the berries (and a good amount of their seeds) finish off with a good mouth-cleansing tartness. It is a curious mix of flavours, but as I for one adore the taste of rosemary I was very happy to have found this.
The cocoa flavours are there as well – very soft, creamy milk chocolate with a little extra sweetness from the berries. When I tasted this I had a couple of squares, and the sweet richness of the chocolate meant I wouldn’t have wanted to eat much more in one sitting.
This is one of the most enduring Chocablog requests – why don’t Lindt sell this stuff in the UK? Granted, this bar is a little left of centre, but I for one have tried so many Lindt bars that could only be bought in Europe. It’s a shame not to have so much choice. There again, you’d have to open a dedicated Lindt store (in itself, not a bad idea).
I found these brightly coloured little chocolates in Thorntons’ little Brent Cross shop. My friend was looking for a birthday present and I…. well, I was attracted by the brightly coloured box.
Yes, I know that’s bad.
Handily, Thorntons do these ‘Eden’ soft centre chocolates in three different sizes, so I went for the smallest (79g) box which contains 7 chocolates – 4 dark, 2 milk and one white.
They are:
Passion
A rich dark chocolate with (obviously) passion fruit & guava. The light cream and dark chocolate go together well, but the passion fruit just didn’t quite work with the creaminess for me.
Seduction
A white chocolate with strawberries, cream and (apparently) Louis Dornier champagne. The champagne is virtually undetectable, but the strawberries and cream taste light, refreshing and summery.
Desire
Dark chocolate with orange and double cream filling. Deliciously fruity with the flavour of real oranges and plenty of thick chocolate.
Lust
Dark chocolate with raspberry and mascarpone filling. Just as fruity as ‘Desire’ but I couldn’t I didn’t really pick up on the mascarpone. I’m sure there was a reason for using it rather than the cream the rest of the box uses, but I’m not sure what it is.
‘Original Sin’
The only non-fruity chocolate here – a dark chocolate with a creme de cacao and double cream filling. It’s deliciously chocolatey and creamy with only a mildly alcoholic flavour, but in the context of the rest of the box, it’s lack of fruit – and handy colour-coded stripe – did seem a little out of place.
Temptation
Supposedly apple & fig with single cream, but I couldn’t taste much in the way of fruit flavour at all – just a milk chocolate with a sweet, creamy filling.
Obsession
A milk chocolate with mango cream. I think I would have preferred to see this with a dark chocolate (in fact, I think all the milk/white chocolates here would have benefited from dark chocolate), but the mango is wonderfully exotic and fruity and made this one of my favourites.
Overall, a really nice collection for those that like their chocolates soft and fruity. Given the names and presentation (Lust, Desire, Passion, etc.) it’s probably not the most appropriate Mothers Day present, but as a gift for the wife / secret mistress / both, I’m sure it would be greatly appreciated.
