Here’s further proof that chocolatey loveliness can be found in all kinds of strange locations. I was in my local Holland & Barrett (a health food store, for those of you outside the UK) buying vitamins and pistachio nuts when I saw these sitting on the shelf.
My first thoughts were that there was something very un-chocolatey about the pinky purple colour of the coating, but a quick read of the packet informed me that it was indeed chocolate, albeit ‘coloured’ (and therefore more than likely originally white). Still, the thought of dried cherries interacting with chocolate was enough to persuade me to shell out £3 or so for the bag.
Back home, it was time to crack open the bag and have a nibble. First flavour is of course the chocolate melting on the tongue. Definitely white chocolate made purple – soft, sweet, light tasting stuff (possibly a little too sweet for me). Of course, the dried cherries require a good chewing in order for them to release their tart, sharp flavour which makes a delicious counterpoint to the sweetness of the chocolate.
A word of warning about these little fellers – they are SERIOUSLY moreish. It doesn’t take too long before you look down and see that you’ve decimated the bag – especially if you’ve been foolish enough to offer them around. I’ve not come across dried, chocolate coated cherries before (no doubt another reflection of our conservative tastes in confectionery) and as someone who likes both cherries and chocolate it’s a fine discovery.
These would make a great snack food, addition to a picnic, party treat, or TV watching nibbles – maybe even a good way of sneaking some fruit into your kids’ diets.
Try them.
Having made the discovery that NewTree ‘Tranquility‘ is both healthy and child proof, I have been quite keen to sample other bars from their range. NewTree have decided to give their range of bars single word names, and so we have ‘Cocoon’, ‘Blush’ , ‘Rejoice’, ‘Forgiveness’ (among others) and this one – ‘Sexy’.
Pretentious names aside, I was quite taken with the quality of NewTree products and ‘Sexy’ looked like it might be the solution to my quest for a truly great Ginger and chocolate combo (see my Ginger Chocolate face off for more details), and with 73% cocoa it was certainly off to a good start. This bar also contains guarana, and NewTree claim that one bar contains as much caffeine as three cups of coffee, so I wasn’t inclined to eating more than a few squares at once.
The chocolate used in this bar is definitely of a very high quality, smooth, glossy and inclined to melt very quickly when held. It smells dark, bittersweet and with a hint of ginger. Once in the mouth, it becomes apparent that NewTree have used flakes of either unsweetened or very lightly sweetened ginger which sit in perfect balance with the richness of the chocolate. For me, this is the perfect ginger/chocolate combination, albeit a rather pricey one. The ginger flakes are just that – tiny little shavings which are released as the chocolate melt, adding their warmth to the taste but never detracting from the flavours of the rather lovely Belgian chocolate.
I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend this to anyone who, like me, has been looking for a great ginger chocolate. If you look back at the ginger chocolate face-off review I posted, you will see that what I had hoped to find was a bar with the dark chocolate of the Waitrose bar and the unsugared ginger of Green & Black’s. Well folks, here it is, spruced up with guarana, given a daft name (I mean, sexy chocolate?) and available in supermarkets rather than from an exclusive chocolatier or mail order. This is lovely stuff, just don’t overdo it if you’re caffeine sensitive!
Here in the UK, one of the weirder side effect of the expansion of the EU and the strong pound is that we get a lot of imported products in the shops – even when there are British-made versions available.
Case in point: This Bounty Bar, which I found in my local Post Office, appears to be Dutch. Or German. I’m not entirely sure, but it’s definitely not from these parts. As far as I can tell though, it’s exactly the same as it’s British counterpart, so that’s how I’m going to treat it.
We reviewed the original, milk chocolate Bounty, almost exactly a year ago, and the dark chocolate version is exactly the same format. Two small chocolate bars per packet, packed full of soft creamy coconut.
As Pewari pointed out in her milk chocolate Bounty review, the first thing you must do when you get home with your Bounty is to put it in the fridge! And then leave it for at least an hour. I know how difficult that can be, but trust me, it makes a huge difference.
When you bite into your properly chilled Bounty, the chocolate should break with a satisfying crack, and coconut will be deliciously cool and refreshing.
So. Pretty much the same as the milk chocolate version, right?
Well… yes and no…
The dark chocolate makes a really noticeable difference with this bar. The chocolate in the milk chocolate Bounty is slightly bland and a little sweet. With the dark version, although it may not be “proper” dark chocolate (the cocoa content isn’t listed), it’s just a little tastier and a little less sweet.
It’s a subtle difference, but enough to make it even more refreshing and satisfying on a warm day like today. Personally, I never buy a milk chocolate Bounty if the Dark version is there too.
Definitely recommended. Just make sure you chill it first!
If you ever made chocolate rice crispie cakes with your mum as a child, Toffee Crisp will be quite familiar. It’s amazing how just biting into a bar of chocolate can bring all sorts of happy memories flooding back
This bar is made with puffed rice (rice crispies!) in chocolate and a thin layer of toffee, all coated in milk chocolate. It’s simple, light (44 grams / 227 calories), and surprisingly tasty.
The rice is crispy, the toffee is chewy, and the chocolate is nice and thick. The whole thing has a very pleasant cocoa flavour.
And that’s pretty much all there is to Toffee Crisp. But I really quite enjoyed it, which I think just goes to show sometimes the simple ideas are the best.
It’s simple and satisfying, but not very big. This makes a nice mid-morning/afternoon snack, but it’s not going to fill you up (well, not unless you’re like me and eat five at once).
If you really can’t get enough Toffee Crisp, there’s apparently an ice cream version too – but I’ve yet to get my hands on that.
