Camaya Milk Chocolate Slabs
After my recent review of the Camaya Dark Slab I had an email from Anita (Queen Camaya) offering me the chance to try a few more of her products. As I was sent a brace of milk chocolate slabs I thought I’d it best to review them as a pair.
Both slabs use the same blend of 33.5% Belgian chocolate with the ‘other ingredient’ sitting in the topside of the slab. The milk chocolate used is a good, rich, creamy blend with a well rounded flavour and a soft mouthfeel. It offers a very pleasing combination of sweetness, creamy milk flavours and quite deep cocoa notes.
The first slab I tried was this one.
It’s still somewhat unusual to come across coconut in chocolate (Bounty Bars excepted), and the ‘Coconut’ label was a little deceptive, for on the back of the bar one learns that this is in fact caramelized coconut, making it another first for me. Slivers of dark brown, glossy coconut sit atop the slab, waiting to add their flavours to the chocolate. There’s no hint of any coconut flavour in the chocolate, but as soon as your teeth find a shard, the combination of burnt sugars and coconut lifts the whole taste experience to a quite sublime level. I really liked the idea of caramelizing the coconut. It adds a surprising depth of flavour to the chocolate, lifting it far beyond ordinary and into the realm of rather special. There’s enough coconut sitting on the slab to ensure that every chunky mouthful delivers the intended flavour combination. A definite winner, and something I would buy for myself as a treat.
Slab number two is a Cherry & Kirsch offering, and unlike the previous slab this one definitely carries the flavours in the chocolate.
Camaya have used a Kirsch flavoured syrup and freeze dried cherries in this one, and there’s a delightful counterpoint between the slightly heavy sweetness of the chocolate and the sharp citrus tang of the cherries.
Whether or not you’d enjoy this slab very much hangs on how you feel about cherries. There’s no escaping the cherry/kirsch combination, as it’s part of the chocolate. Personally I found it a bit much after a couple of mouthfuls, whereas I could have cheerfully munched my way through the coconut slab (well, actually I more or less did just that – very hard to resist ‘just one more bit’)
If you’re after experiencing the subtle cocoa flavours of the Belgian chocolate, forget the Cherry & Kirsch slab. Go for the coconut bar and savour the opportunity to separate out the elements a little more. There’s more chocolate flavour in the coconut slab, but the cherry delivers bucketloads of fruitiness.
If, on the other hand you’re a fiend for cherries and chocolate and relish every fruity little nibble then by all means get your hands on the cherry slab.
I actually loved both, although my favourite Camaya choc is the dark one with freeze dried cherry – it’s absolutely lovely!
The cherry one looks lovely!