We’ve reviewed a few Côte d’Or chocolates in the past and we’ve liked them all, but this is a bit different. This small, 45g bar has the same format as many cheaper brands, and has the packaging to match – a cheap plastic-foil wrapper, rather than the more stylish outfit Côte d’Or usually wears.
As far as I can tell, Kraft don’t officially sell these in the UK, although I did find it in my local corner shop. I suspect the shopkeeper snuck a load into his bag in a Duty Free shop somewhere in Europe.
The bar is simple. Very simple. A thick “stick” of 35% milk chocolate with lots of whole hazelnuts in it. Now I’m not the biggest fan of hazelnut, and this bar just didn’t do anything for me.
The chocolate has a flat, dull look, rather than a nice chocolatey sheen, and the taste is fairly… well, ordinary. It’s quite creamy (a bit like Galaxy), but a little too sweet for my taste.
For what it is, this bar isn’t bad, but I can’t help wondering why Kraft have taken a wonderful, upmarket brand like Côte d’Or and turned it into something so dull and unappealing.
Kraft have other brands for mainstream chocolate and they’re pretty good, but the disappointment of seeing my beloved Côte d’Or elephant wrapped in cheap plastic with so little thought is a bit much for me.
For what it is (a cheapo chocolate and nut bar), it’s perfectly OK. But it shouldn’t be carrying the Côte d’Or logo, and I don’t think I’ll be buying this one again.
I seem to have reached the point where friends and colleagues have started to recommend chocolate to me.
Take this bar, for example. I have a friend who has been trying to follow a healthier diet, and so he’s been a frequent visitor to his local health food shop. A while ago he told me about this bar of chocolate he’d tried which used raw foods.
“You ought to try it.” says he.
“Fine,” I reply “get me one and I will.”
Well sure enough he came through last week (cheers Rob) and I received this in the post.
Now the first thing I noticed was that all the ingredients were listed as RAW. Cacao butter, cacao powder, agave nectar, wild carob, coconut butter, spices and Himalayan salt. Some interesting items in that list, particularly the carob which I have always associated with ‘pretend’ chocolate. The wrapper also told me that for nutritional analysis I ought to check out the website – www.consciouschocolate.co.uk – so that’s what I did.
The history of the company is pretty interesting – founded by a Yoga teaching raw food lover whose friends were bringing her delicacies back from all over the world, a desire to produce a healthy product, testing out new recipes on festival goers and so on. The packaging is recycled, naturally, and the site makes very interesting reading if you want to know more about the ingredients and their properties.
So what about the product?
Well, I was advised that the bars tend to melt rather quickly, so it was popped in the fridge for the afternoon prior to tasting. Once opened, I didn’t have to get too close to the bar to be able to smell it. This stuff advertises it’s presence! The bar is very dark, obviously handmade, and smells of rich, dark cocoa with a hint of sweetness. It lacks any of the shiny, glossy looks that one generally associates with high cocoa content chocolate, and I assume that this is because it hasn’t been heated during the manufacturing process. It’s almost matt black, and when broken it reveals a dark brown interior.
Once you pop a piece of this stuff in your mouth, you really get to find out just how different it is to ‘normal’ chocolate. It melts incredibly quickly, flooding your tongue with dark, subtle flavours of cocoa and cocoa butter, and with a surprising kick of salt following alongside to temper the sweetness. It’s very rich and smooth, with a slight grainy/fibrous texture on the tongue (presumably the carob).
I can safely say that this is quite unlike any other chocolate bar I have ever tasted, and the best news of all is that it is but one of ten bars that Emma the chocolatier has produced. Eating this stuff is unlike any chocolate experience I’ve had before, and I can only put this down to the unique ingredients and methods of production. The bars are made at quite low temperatures so as to preserve the essential qualities of the ingredients, and as they’re all handmade, you know you’re getting premium quality stuff here.
The bad news is that this stuff is possibly the most expensive bar I have ever eaten, and as you know, I’ve been through some posh chocolate in my time!
I’m looking forward to sampling more of Conscious Chocolate’s wares, so look out for more reviews very soon.
I’d like to finish with a small quote from CC’s website – something all chocoholics will take heart from.
“Conscious Chocolate is made from the best, most pure ingredients and acts as a superfood – feeding the body with essentials fats, vitamins and minerals. What joy: chocolate that is good for you, that can be eaten any time of the day – yes, even breakfast! – to help get through a heavy work or training schedule, or even just for fun, and keep you smiling throughout.”
Worth the price of admission alone!
In a recent newspaper article, The Sunday Telegraph credited Chocablog with helping to bring Cadbury Wispa back, but in actual fact we had nothing to do with it. We only mentioned Wispa after Cadbury had announced it was coming back.
But the news of Cadbury bringing back one Chocolate institution led to several comments about the disappearance of Cadbury Fuse. Now call me slow, but I hadn’t even realised it had gone until Chocablog readers mentioned it, and I have to say I’m shocked.
I loved the crispy, chewy fruitiness of Fuse and it was one of my favourite regular purchases. And now I want it back.
But this isn’t just about Fuse and Wispa – Cadbury have a bigger problem here, and that’s in inexorable rise of the Dairy Milk superbrand.
Now don’t get me wrong, I loved the Dairy Milk with Creme Egg bar – partly because a Creme Egg in a bar was such a ridiculously fun idea. But the Dairy Milk brand is killing off some of Britain’s best loved chocolate brands, not to mention stifling development of new ones. If it can’t be squeezed into a small square of Dairy Milk, it seems Cadbury just aren’t interested.
So if you want to help bring back Fuse and save some of our other favourite Cadbury brands, leave a comment here, join the Facebook group and, most importantly, let Cadbury know.
We want our chocolate back!
Autumn may be approaching fast, but here at Chocablog we’re holding on to summer as long as we can – and giving you the chance to do the same by winning a selection of Hotel Chocolat summer chocolates and Champagne for you and your loved one.
To win this fabulous prize (and you should know by now just how much we love Hotel Chocolat chocolate), all you need do is tell us why your loved one deserves to win.
Once you’ve come up with your answer in 100 words or less, pop over to the Hotel Chocolat web site to enter.
Please note that because the prize contains alcohol, this particular competition is only open to UK residents over 18. The competition closes on October 5th and we’ll announce the winner here (so now would be a good time to use those links on the right to subscribe!).
Oh and also note that you may see similar competitions on other web sites, but they’re all separate with a prize for each – there will definitely be a Chocablog winner!
Update: This competition is now closed.
