Chocolate

Claudio Corallo

São Tomé and Principe

Chocolate Sablé 80% com açücar em cristal – raw, gritty, lightly crunchy but good flavor.  Thin bar readily melts in the mouth.

100% Puro Cacau massa de cacau – not enough flavor depth to make 100% palatable.

Snake & Butterfly

Campbell California producers of very nice bars with inclusions.

Cherry & Chili has a nice balance of tangy dried cherry and heat from the chipotle chilies.  This bar was my favorite fresh; the Ginger & Nib flavor aged the best.

Ginger & Nib has small enough bits of both ginger and nibs to allow for savoring but with a pleasant textural contrast.  Nice flavor combination.

Smoked Almond & Sea Salt is good but salt lovers would probably like this bar more than I did.

Benjamin’s 76% Blend is fine but nothing notable.

(Fig Caramel is very yummy: thick and gooey with a dark buttery flavor nicely balanced by the sweet tanginess of the fig.)

François Pralus

São Tomé & Principe Forastero 75% bar was nice (just an empty wrapper) – but not sufficiently memorable to trigger a taste or texture opinion.

Vosges

The Super Dark line combines ‘super foods’ with dark chocolate with varying results.  I found the Coconut Ash & Banana and the Pomegranate & Goji flavors to be unpalatable – the chocolate itself was fine but the additions resulted in muddy almost moldy flavors.  The Guajillo & Chipotle flavor was better; I finished the bar though there were other brands that I prefer.  The chilies were fairly mild.  The Matcha Green Tea and Reishi Mushroom & Walnut flavors were okay but a bit muddy.  The Acai & Golden Berries flavor was more interesting when fresh but lost its tartness over time.

Rausch

The Tembadoro 80% bar from this German company had a smooth though somewhat waxy texture and a good but not great fruity flavor.

The Tobago 75% bar was still a bit hard but had a much rounder flavor than the Tembadoro 80% bar.

Heilemann

Germany

85% Cacao Stick – Smooth, nice mouthfeel; good bitter chocolate flavor.

Pfefferminz Stick – Tasty.  Creamy filling.

4NoGuilt

Healthy Chocolate line includes six flavors of dark chocolate sweetened with xylitol, textured with sunflower lecithin, flavored with vanilla, and supplemented with an herbal blend.  Dark Plain Chocolate had a noticeably cool back note that was not complimentary to the chocolate.  The xylitol’s cooling went better with the flavor of the Dark Mint.  Dark Coconut Chocolate was in between with the cooling offset by a nice coconut front note.  The chocolate itself wasn’t very interesting in terms of taste or texture.

Xyla

Dark chocolate – texture good; reasonable chocolate flavor but a bit sweet and a noticeable cooling.

TCHO

99% – texture is a bit hard; flavor okay but a bit acrid

Pascha

70% dark, no sugar (xylitol? sweetened) – texture good; bland, too sweet chocolate flavor

Lindt

Austria

Mild 90% Cacao – Thin bar.  Smooth.  Shallow flavor but not very bitter.

ChocoPerfection

Sugar free, dark European chocolate sweetened with oligofructose and erythritol, was okay in taste and texture but not notable.  Probably because it’s only 60% and is based on cocoa solids – presumably in part to up the fiber content.  Also includes soy lecithin.