I must confess that I was a little mystified by this bar. When I looked at the ingredients, I saw that this milk chocolate was 35% cocoa – top of the range stuff indeed. The problem is the extra ingredients. This bar has been sprinkled with an assortment of mallow pieces and pale looking mini cookies, and the overall impression is of something made by a small child.
That’s before we even get to the taste.
When I sniffed the slab, I was amazed at how sickly sweet it smelled. The mallow and biscuit combination had tainted the whole thing with a sugary, almost artificial aroma which almost entirely masked the underlying cocoa smell, and which I found deeply unpleasant.
Tasting was a little better, because I could chose an area where there were fewer ‘extra’ bits, and in fact the chocolate was rather good. It’s very smooth and creamy, and of course slightly sweet. So why go and cover it in a load of cheap, sugary tat? I can only assume that this is posh chocolate for kids, or chocolate for posh kids, because it’s far too sweet for an adult palate (although it might sell well in the USA on the evidence of our Hershey’s experiences). It’s also pretty unlikely that a child would even look twice at this product, as it would be nestled (no pun intended) among the rest of the Cocopia range. I suppose it might make a good gift for your little chocoholics, but to be honest I think they’d probably prefer a couple of larger bars of something more familiar for the same money.
I’m all for interesting tastes in chocolate. I enjoy sampling strange and unusual flavours, discovering new taste combinations and innovative recipes, but this bar just came across as something pretty good spoiled by unnecessary over-egging. Not a winner in my book.
This is the sister bar to the Raw Dark Chocolate I recently reviewed.
A comparison to Conscious Chocolate’s bars is not unfounded. In a similar vein, Pure Flavour have obviously found their ideal formula on which to base their range, and then added other ingredients to create a range of tastes and textures.
This particular bar is enhanced with the addition of Hazelnuts and raisins (obviously only enhanced if you like hazelnuts and raisins – it could be downright scary if you suffer with a nut allergy!) and Pure Flavour haven’t scrimped on the fruit and nut. Oh no – this little beauty is studded with crisp, fresh tasting roasted hazelnuts of the first order, and they sit alongside an equally generous portion of lovely plump, sweet raisins.
I liked this a lot. The high quality of the extra ingredients makes for a great combination with the raw chocolate, providing a great crunchy-chewy double whammy. Mr. Cadbury never made anything like this!
Obviously, raw chocolate producers like Pure Flavour aren’t going to be scrimping on the quality (or quantity) of their ingredients. All of their ingredients are top notch, healthy, full of flavour and obviously good for you. Of course this sort of thing doesn’t come cheap, but if you want to be able to eat chocolate in its natural form (and to know it’s doing you good as well!) then you should check out this (and the Conscious range as well). I’ve become very fond of the slightly unusual flavours of raw chocolate. More converts needed!
I was looking forward to trying this single estate, Equitrade chocolate bar. It’s made by a family on Madagascar from the three ‘classic’ varieties of bean – Criollo, Trinitario and Forastero – and is harvested, fermented and made into chocolate exclusively on the island of Madagascar. It’s sold as a ‘Grand Cru’ and each bar is made from beans harvested in one season only.
It’s not cheap at all, by the way. This stuff comes at a premium price and the company that distribute it also produce another bar, couverture chocolate for caterers, spices, teas and coffees, all of which are Madagascan in origin. The whole company ethos is based on equitable trade, and much of the profits from sales goes straight back to the producers, so when you’re eating this chocolate you can feel good about where your money’s going as well.
The chocolate itself is a dark, 75% cocoa blend with superb woody, citrus tastes and a wonderfully soft mouthfeel. As it melts away, the citrus notes are amplified, and the finish is a slightly spicy, almost coffee-like flavour with dark, strong cocoa undercurrents. In short, it tastes fab.
As previously stated, the fact that this chocolate is made on the basis of equitable trade means that the people who made this get a fair chunk of the proceeds and as we are becoming more aware, cheap food comes at a price – usually to the producer. I have no objections to paying higher prices for top quality products, provided my money is going to the right people – i.e. the farmers and workers who produced the stuff in the first place.
This bar (and it’s sister, the Mora Mora bar) are readily available in Sainsbury’s here in the UK. If you’re looking for a treat for a special treat and want to be part of the whole fairtrade revolution, then I recommend this on both fronts.
If you’re a regular Chocablog reader, you’ll know that I’ve never given Thorntons products rave reviews. With the recent influx of high end chocolatiers and the popularity of proper chocolate, Thorntons often seem to be left behind, stuck in the mid ’70s.
So when I picked this box off the shelf of the Brent Cross branch of Thorntons yesterday, I didn’t really think twice about it. I just picked the box that stood out the most. The yellow one.
As it turned out, this was one of my better chocolate purchases…
This box cost £6 and contains 16 summer themed chocolates. They are:
Peach Melba
Milk chocolate with a double cream mousse filling, flavoured with raspberries and peach schnapps.
It’s difficult to taste the peach in this as the raspberry flavour all but overwhelms it, but then peach isn’t a particularly intense flavour anyway. The raspberries are possibly a little too instense for the creamy milk chocolate and there’s a slight clash of flavours here. Not my favourite of the bunch, but still pretty good.
Chocolate Mousse
Light chocolate mousse with crème de cacao, covered with milk chocolate.
Probably the plainest of the bunch, but deliciously chocolatey and light with a very slight hint of alcohol. A simple idea, perfectly executed.
Orange Pressé
Orange and double cream mousse in milk chocolate.
Another light mousse filling, this time with a subtle orange flavour. I’m not a major fan of orange and chocolate, partly because it’s a flavour combination that’s been done so often. But the taste is spot on here. It’s subtle enough to work with the cream mousse and milk chocolate, but strong enough to know it’s made with real oranges.
Blackcurrant Miroir
Crème fraîche and blackcurrants with blackcurrant flavoured jelly in a square dark chocolate cup.
The most unusual of the chocolates in this collection. The blackcurrant jelly is very strongly flavoured, as is the dark chocolate. The two go together quite well, but don’t work that well with the crème fraîche. A delicious chocolate, but it’s noticeably richer than anything else in the box, and I’m not convinced it fits in that well.
Vanilla Mousse
Vanilla flavoured cream mousse in white chocolate, decorated with dark chocolate loops.
A wonderfully light, creamy vanilla flavour which perfectly complements the white chocolate. This one’s particularly sweet and the dark chocolate isn’t particularly noticeable, but that’s just the way it should be. Intentionally sweet, but light enough not to be sickly.
Strawberry Crush
White chocolate with a strawberry flavoured double cream mousse decorated with freeze-dried strawberry pieces.
I love freeze dried strawberries anyway, so this was always going to be a winner. The filling is soft and light, the white chocolate is smooth and creamy, and the dried strawberry has an intense flavour that gets fruitier as it melts in your mouth. Divine.
Lemon Meringue
White chocolate with cream and lemon layers, topped with meringue pieces.
This is very obviously made with real lemons and has a really zesty hit when you first bite into it. The lemon is almost liquid, so that flavour hits you first. There isn’t much meringue and the white chocolate is very thick and a little too sweet for my tastes, but that’s a minor complaint. Another fruity winner.
Overall, these are some of the nicest chocolates I’ve tasted this year, and probably the nicest Thorntons chocolates I’ve ever tasted. If I had to fault them at all, it would be because of the packaging. It’s adequate, but quite plain and doesn’t shout quality like the chocolates inside do.
But if you can get past that (which I’m sure you can), these make the perfect gift for someone who likes lighter, fruitier chocolates. From the moment you open the box, you’re hit by a wave of fruitiness and a quick glance at the list of ingredients confirms every one of these chocs is made with “real” ingredients.
I still have my doubts about the Thorntons brand, but these are highly recommended.
