When I reviewed Seeds of Change’s Dark Chocolate Fig & Orange bar in January, I said to expect to see more from them on Chocablog – and here it is.
This time I’ve chosen a milk chocolate bar to review – one containing apricots and cashew nuts, both of which I’m quite partial to as snack foods. Of course, being Seeds of Change, this bar doesn’t contain just any old apricots. They use Malatya apricots from Turkey, selected for their succulence and sweetness. As for the cashews, well, they’re just cashews as far as I can tell. There’s no mention of an exclusive cashew farm in Kazakhstan or anything.
The chocolate is, of course, organic, and at 35% cocoa it has a lovely richness of flavour and a rather sweet taste. The cashews are crisp and very flavoursome, and the apricots are indeed sweet, soft and very tasty. It’s a very well thought out combination of flavours, and the end result is a dangerously moreish bar.
However…
A glance at the package tells you that this isn’t a bar to be monstered up. Far from it. It is almost 49% carbohydrate, of which 45% is sugar. Three squares contains 26% of the RDA of saturated fat – that’s more than the Tesco Espresso Bar, and I thought THAT was excessively fatty!
I can’t deny that this is a very tasty bar of chocolate, and the ethos behind Seeds of Change is unquestionably on the right track as regards corporate responsibility and ‘giving something back’, but the labelling of this chocolate bar made me realise that milk chocolate is more likely to be higher in saturates and sugar, and by a long margin.
I welcome responsible labelling of foods, and I hope that consumers are encouraged to read and understand food labelling so that informed choices can be made. I have no wish to discourage readers from trying out this bar, but I would certainly advise moderation. Three or four pieces a day of this bar is quite enough if you want to stay healthy, and as we know, a little of what you fancy does no harm.
The more health conscious among you will no doubt already be aware that a good quality chocolate contains a fair amount of antioxidants. Well this bar from Australia, via Cocoa Farm also contains something called Vinlife; natural antioxidants from Australian grapes which give the chocolate antioxidant levels equivalent to a glass of wine.
The Shiraz Bar is one of three available (the other two being a Merlot and a Pinot Noir) and is a blend of milk and dark chocolate with a cocoa content of 38%. The cocoa is actually grown on Australia’s first cocoa farm, so this is actually 100% Australian – a first as far as I know.
The chocolate itself is roughly the same colour as the box it comes in. It’s dark but not as dark as a higher cocoa content plain chocolate, and it softens on the palate like a milk chocolate. The whole bar is peppered with currants, and what they add to the taste is a series of fruity notes, beginning with an almost immediate cherry flavour. As the chocolate melts this softens off a little and you begin to get a slightly peppery taste. Chew the currants and the final element (a subtle currant flavour) is released. The currants cleanse the palate as you finish tasting, leaving your mouth feeling clean and definitely ready for another square.
I would imagine that the importation costs contribute to the high price of this bar. At almost £4.00 for 100g it’s definitely one of the more expensive items I’ve tried of late. Having said that, it’s definitely a good quality product and another one for those of you who like the unusual. Also a great pressie for anyone who loves their wine and chocolate (like me).
Lily O’Briens is an established brand from Ireland and have been creating fine quality chocolates for around 15 years. This rather attractive box caught my eye, and when I discovered that the contents were based on a number of classic desserts, I thought it would be fun to review it.
There are a total of sixteen chocolates in the box, four each of four ‘desserts’, and two of those we’ve come across before. Yes, this collection contains a Crème Brûlée and a Tiramisu, which immediately begs comparison with the mighty Lindt Petits Desserts range which is held in such high esteem here at Chocablog.
The Crème Brûlée comes in a white chocolate cup with a crunchy sugar topping which conceals a disc of more white chocolate, a creamy filling and a little blob of what seems to be caramel in the base. The white cream centre certainly bears the taste of a Crème Brûlée, but I found the use of a white chocolate made the whole thing very sweet, especially with the additional sugar topping. The centre may well be full of interesting flavours, but that amount of sweet white chocolate seems to overpower the overall flavours.
The Chocolate & Toffee Pudding comes in a milk chocolate cup, and contains a very pleasant tasting combination of flavours. The toffee filling is soft and not too rich and combines well with the chocolate. It’s a tried and trusted combination, done very well.
The Amaretti Torte has a mildly alcoholic flavour to it but is very similar to the Chocolate & Toffee pudding in its construction. A darker cup balances the flavour well, and at 55% the dark chocolate isn’t going to be too sharp a contrast with the sweetness of the range.
The Tiramisu comes in the same milk chocolate cup as the Chocolate & Toffee pudding, and was my favourite of the four. It’s a little on the sweet side but has a very pleasant authentic marsala flavour to the filling,
Overall, these chocs are the sort of thing I’d buy as a gift rather than for personal consumption. They’re very well presented and pay a fairly reasonable homage to the desserts they imitate. However, the Crème Brûlée and Tiramisu chocolates don’t come near to the Lindt versions we have reviewed in the past, but that would be a very big ask.
In general these tend to be quite sweet, and while the chocolate is of pretty high quality they’re not the sort of thing you’d buy for the cocoa content alone. They’d make a very pretty present for someone you love, and offer a nice twist on the theme of desserts.
It is said that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. It’s also true that there’s money to be made by nicking a good idea.
This Sainsbury’s ‘Taste the Difference’ slab is one of a number on offer, and as you can see, it bears a remarkable resemblance to Hotel Chocolat’s slabs.
Unfortunately, the resemblance is purely physical. Sainsbury’s appear to have used some fairly poor ingredients to make up this slab. The dark chocolate isn’t very tasty at all, the milk chocolate is overly sweet, and the mouth feel is cloying, sugary and a little unpleasant. It soon became apparent that it was indeed all too easy to ‘taste the difference’ and that the difference was obviously in the quality of the two types of chocolate used.
In the past I’ve been pleasantly surprised by ‘own brand’ bars of chocolate from the major supermarkets, and I have to admit to being a little surprised by how unremarkable this was. I always considered the ‘Taste The Difference’ range to be some sort of flagship brand for Sainsbury’s, but this certainly lets the side down. In future I think I’ll stick to their bars, and avoid anything else that looks as though it’s a copy of someone else’s idea.
