As mentioned in my review of the coffee bar, Conscious Chocolate have produced three new bars especially for Christmas – Berry, Cherry and Merry Christmas.
Berry Christmas
As one might expect from the name, Berry Christmas comes loaded with three different types of berry, and being a Conscious bar one of those berries is a bit special. Sitting alongside ground blueberries and ground blackcurrants is a berry I had never heard of before – Inca Berry. Naturally, I had to do a quick bit of research on Inca Berries, and this is what I found.
” Incan or Goldenberries are also called cape gooseberry or agauaymanto berry. Locally called mullaca, uvilla, uchuva, the plant is an annual herb indigenous to many parts of the tropics, including the Amazon. It can be found on most continents in the tropics, including Africa, Asia, and the Americas.
The Golden Inca berry is high in phosphorus, pectin and vitamins A, C, B1, B2, B6 and B12, and for a fruit, they’re quite high in protein (16%). These vegan gems are also a good source of bioflavinoids (vitamin P) which contain anti-inflammatory, antioxidant and antiviral properties. ”
Hardly surprising to find that Emma has managed to incorporate another superfood into her range of chocolate bars, but how does it taste? As the raw chocolate melted away I began to taste a very citrussy mixture of flavours, with the blackcurrants making themselves known almost immeediately. Because raw chocolate melts so quickly it wasn’t long before all I had left in my mouth was the berry content, and chewing up the various berries produced a very pleasant combination of flavours. I’m not sure I could isolate the Inca Berries, but there were definitely tangy, naturally sweet and zesty notes. Overall, very tasty and quite unusual.
Cherry Christmas
A bar loaded with dried cherries – tart and chewy and bursting with flavour. A riot of bittersweet cherry wrapped in the classic Conscious chocolate ‘house blend’ to produce a superb tasting treat. Anyone with a taste for cherries should definitely have a look for this bar. It didn’t take too long tat all before I was crumpling up the wrapper (and popping it into the recycling, honest Emma).
Merry Christmas
This bar contained Pineapple and pine nuts – not flavours I’d normally associate with Christmas (see the recent Cocoa Bean Christmas Tree Chocolate review if you’re a traditionalist) but when I tasted it I was intrigued by the combination of flavours. The pineapple (which I had expected to dominate the whole experience) had been used very subtly, and in combination with the pine nuts gave a very soft, smooth taste. There were always notes of pineapple, and it certainly made it all the way to the finish, but it always sat extremely well with the lovely nutty flavour of the pine nuts. A very moreish blend of flavours, and again one I would heartily recommend.
So there you have it – a Conscious Christmas collection, and one that is well worth seeking out. They’re available at selected stores here in the UK or get in touch via Emma’s web site – www.consciouschocolate.co.uk – and treat your taste buds (and your metabloism) to some very interesting and extremely tasty raw chocolate.
We recently found Cocoa Farm by accident. They even seem to export to the UK, though the packaging is quite different. In Australia, it’s not that easy to find – some of the second line supermarkets stock the range, and strangely enough so do a great many bottle shops. In the UK, you’d call them an Off-License.
What makes this range unusual is that the cocoa comes from cacao grown in the far north of Australia – which I would have thought is not tropical enough – but you live and learn. And these guys have come from nowhere, and don’t advertise.
We’ve now tried the Mango, Lime and Chilli, and the plain Dark Chocolate. All are good. Damn good, in fact. So it was time to try one from the strange range: the Wine Chocolate is a blend of milk and dark chocolate, with raisins in that have been “plumped” with Australian Pinot Noir.
The ingredients list gives the game away: the chocolate is 38% cocoa solids, the first and most prevalent ingredient on the list is sugar. It also states that the product contains no more than 0.25% alcohol. Strange also, that the blurb says it contains raisins and the ingredients lists currants. Along with the wine comes grape skin and seed extract. No idea what that’s all about. Flavour?
Inside we get plastic/foil bag, all printed with cacao pods, or leaves, or something. Looks good, and has the practical benefit that it’s tough – so it doesn’t tear and spill bits everywhere.
Opening the pack reveals a block, with the logo and name featuring prominently. The aroma is rich with a complex flavour – there is clearly more here than just chocolate. At around A$6 for a 100 gram block, you’d hope this should be something pretty special. First appearances are promising.
Shortly before opening the pack, we’d rushed off to the cherry tree in the garden and made our first ever decent harvest. What better combination – chocolate and cherries picked off the tree 10 minutes before! No, that red colour is not something from the Demon Factory Of Fake Food, that’s what they really look like! But enough – taste testing time.
This is a nice, rich, medium body chocolate, not as dark as Darth Vader might prefer (he’s on the dark side – geddit?). But the grapes and wine add a depth and richness that makes you come back for more, and more, and more. I don’t think you can really tell that this has a Pinot Noir in it. But it sure knocks the pants off a plain fruit-and-nut. And it goes pretty well with a fruit salad and dollop of ice cream, too!
Way back in the mists of time (well, March 2007) I reviewed the caramel version of this bar and it turned out to be one of my all time favourites, largely due to the deliciously tasty caramel filling.
Unfortunatley, the Goplana bars disappeared from my local shop, so I never got a chance to try this coffee version of the bar. Thankfully, Chocablog reader Malgorzata Sychta sent me one in the same package as the Wedel bar.
The chocolate here is the same as the caramel bar – a 60% dark chocolate looks very glossy and tempting. It’s tasty, but quite sweet. Serious dark chocolate purists probably aren’t going to think much of it. I however, am rarely serious, and like it a lot.
The filling, however, isn’t quite as nice. Rather than tasting of real coffee, it tastes more like a cheap coffee essence. It’s by no means offensive, but it is very, very ordinary. And after having enjoyed the caramel bar so much, I was a little disappointed by that.
I can’t complain too much, though. This isn’t an expensive chocolate, and I still found myself demolishing the whole bar without thinking about it. But given the choice of this bar or its sibling, I’d go for the caramel version every time.
Almost disheartened by the chill November winds, it was with great enthusiasm that I found a box of chocolate waiting for me at the post office, compliments of Alan McClure of Patric Chocolate. The company is fairly new, having just formed in January of 2007. These two bars are the only ones on their current product line.
The enclosed chocolate-tasting guide recommends the stronger chocolate first, so I began with the 70% before the 67%, even though I normally go the opposite way. Both 50 gram packages have the same design of bold purple and gold contrasting against more rustic colors. I love that effect. The chocolabe bars, which somehow remind me of bills of money, have a reddish tint, with the 70% being ever so slightly darker.
The 70% begins with a taste like spices, then softens into a deep berry taste that has a very red feeling before gaining more of a chocolate taste, which is accompanied by just a touch of bitter. It becomes rather sweet, but a natural, not sugar sweetness. It feels much like a fragment of silk in your mouth as it ends in a deep and soft sensation. Its warmth almost reminded me of hot chocolate. Very perfect for a cloudy day.
Before I went on, I had to look back on something. E. Guittard’s Ambanja Bittersweet. There was an undeniable connection. Sure enough, that was a Madagascar bar like these, though of a less deep variety. The 67% has a clearer or lighter taste than the 70%. The berry flavor comes back in with a sweetness like a strawberry. It’s a very comfortable chocolate, with any bitterness translating to the delightful warmth. Both of them leave your mouth with a sort of moistness not completely unlike after eating a soft piece of caramel.
After having just these two pieces, I’m very satisfied. This is one of those chocolates that takes you so far, you don’t even feel like eating more. It stays working in your mind long after it melts away. Not surprising when these go for $5.75 each. I’m glad to find another bean to bar U.S. company willing to take the time and care necessary for fine chocolate.
I look forward to whatever they come up with next.
