dark chocolate Archives - Page 2 of 4

September 30, 2020January 10, 2021 Michael

Ritter Sport Cacao Selection: 61% Cacao Dark Chocolate – Tasty Dark Chocolate

Chocolate

I’ve found Ritter Sport to be a bit hit or miss of late, but this one — part of their “Cacao Selection” line — contains a scant three ingredients, so I figured that would be pretty hard to mess up.

And yeah, it’s quite tasty. They did not mess it up.

The chocolate has a satisfying snap, a nice creamy melt, and a good amount of sweetness. The taste is a bit more muted than you might expect, however, with absolutely no bitterness and a surprisingly subtle flavour that takes a couple of squares to really appreciate. I enjoy the punchy flavour you get from more intense varieties of dark chocolate, so I missed that here, but it’s certainly tasty enough. It reminded me a lot of Lindt dark chocolate, so if you’ve ever had that, then you have a good idea of what to expect here.

Other than that… It’s good, I don’t know. It’s hard to review plain dark chocolate unless you’re one of those “notes of tobacco, dried figs, and cherries” guys (yes, those people exist for chocolate; they’re not just insufferable about wine), and I’m not one of those guys. So I’ll just say that this was good but not great and leave it at that.

Manufactured by: Alfred Ritter GmbH & Co. KG
Nutritional info (10 pieces, 40 grams): 240 calories, 18 grams of fat (1 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat), 0 mg cholesterol, 1 mg of sodium, 18 grams of carbohydrates, 2 gram of fibre, 15 grams of sugar, 2 grams of protein.
Ingredients: Cocoa mass, sugar, cocoa butter.

August 9, 2020January 10, 2021 Michael

Kit Kat Duos: Mint + Dark Chocolate – Minty and Tasty

Candy Bars

The wrapper of this American import puzzled me; it says Hershey, but isn’t Kit Kat a Nestle product? Well here’s something I just learned: due to a decades-old agreement between the two companies, Kit Kat is made by Hershey in the States, and by Nestle in the rest of the world.

I guess I’m going to have to buy a plain American Kit Kat and see how it stacks up with the Nestle version, but for now, there’s this.

There definitely seems to be a dip in quality compared to the recent Nestle Kit Kats I’ve been trying, but that might be more down to the flavour than anything else.

And it’s definitely not bad — it’s actually pretty good. But the mint flavour is intense. I like the mint/chocolate combo, so I enjoyed it, but if you don’t you might find it a bit toothpasty.

Other than that, the chocolate is slightly grainy, and the wafer seems to be a bit bland compared to the Nestle version (though that could be my imagination), but it’s generally tasty enough.

Manufactured by: Hershey
Nutritional info (1 package, 42 grams): 210 calories, 12 grams of fat (8 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat), 0 mg cholesterol, 25 mg sodium, 27 grams of carbohydrates, 19 grams of sugar, 1 gram of fibre, 2 grams of protein.
Ingredients: Sugar, vegetable oil (palm oil, shea oil, sunflower oil, palm kernel oil, and/or safflower oil), wheat flour, chocolate, skim milk, corn syrup solids, cocoa butter; lactose (milk), contains 2% or less of: cocoa processed with alkali, milk fat, lecithin (soy), oil of peppermint, PGPR, artificial color (yellow 5 lake, blue 1 lake), salt, yeast, vanillin, artificial flavor, baking soda.

July 26, 2020January 10, 2021 Michael

Cadbury Burnt Almond Dark – Decent Dark Chocolate with Crunchy Almonds

Chocolate

If you’re looking for a chocolate bar without too many frills, Burnt Almond is right up your alley. Featuring a scant seven ingredients (which is impressively low for a mass market product like this), it’s just dark chocolate and toasted almonds. Sometimes the simplest things are the best.

It’s quite tasty. Is the dark chocolate here going to blow anyone away? Not likely; it’s decent enough, but it lacks the complexity of better quality chocolates. Still, it gets the job done.

As you’d expect from a chocolate bar called “Burnt Almond,” the almonds are front and centre. The almond chunks are generous, and their very toasty flavour does a great job of balancing out the bar’s sweetness. They also add welcome pops of flavour that bring some interest to the somewhat one-note chocolate. And they’re nice and crunchy, which works quite well with the bar’s creaminess.

Manufactured by: Cadbury
Nutritional info (9 squares, 38 grams): 200 calories, 13 grams of fat (6 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat), 0 mg of cholesterol, 5 mg of sodium, 21 grams of carbohydrates, 2 gram of fibre, 18 grams of sugar, 3 grams of protein.
Ingredients: Dark chocolate (sugar, unsweetened chocolate, cocoa butter, milk ingredients, soy lecithin, natural flavour), almonds.

October 24, 2011January 10, 2021 Michael

Kit Kat Dark: 70% Cocoa – Dark and Delicious

Candy Bars

The media have done a pretty good job of convincing people that dark chocolate is good for them – when I bought this bar, the cashier examined it with interest and declared that she wished that she liked dark chocolate, because then she could eat as much as she wanted without feeling guilty. Well… not quite. There are certainly health benefits to eating dark chocolate, but that doesn’t exactly mean that you can eat all that you want without gaining weight. It’s still chocolate, after all.

My cashier would definitely be out of luck with this bar, as the dark chocolate here has a really strong flavour; much more so than your average mainstream dark chocolate bar. If you don’t like the dark stuff, I can pretty much guarantee that you’re not going to like this bar.

The chocolate has a nice snap (literally – you can hear a very pronounced snapping noise when you separate the segments) and seems to be of a reasonably high quality. It’s not the best quality chocolate ever, but for something in a Nestle candy bar, it’s better than you’d expect. Though it’s been a while since I’ve had the standard Kit Kat Dark, I’m fairly certain this has a more robust dark chocolately taste.

It’s quite good, actually, though the chocolate may be a tad too strong; it kind of overpowers the other flavours of the bar. You definitely get some flavour from the wafers, but it’s in the background. I like it, but then I’m a pretty big fan of dark chocolate (so this whole “dark chocolate is health food!” fad has been a big boon for me).

Manufactured by: Nestle
Calories (45 g bar): 250

December 19, 2008January 10, 2021 Michael

Cacao Reserve Premium Dark Chocolate Truffles – Not as Premium as You’d Like

Truffles

Hershey launched Cacao Reserve, its “upscale” line of chocolates, a couple of years ago (you know a chocolate maker is trying a bit too hard to seem fancy when they use the pretentious “cacao” rather than the more common “cocoa”). I guess it’s a been a success for them, because here we are two years later and the brand is still kicking around. That’s somewhat of a surprise to me, as nothing I’ve tried in the Cacao Reserve line has been particularly stellar.

These truffles are quite small – probably about half the size of an average truffle. They have a kind of uneven look, as if they’ve been made by hand, though it’s pretty obvious that they all come from a mold. As for the taste, they’re kind of odd – they have a 65 percent cocoa content (sorry… cacao content) and aren’t very sweet. However, they don’t really have the rich chocolately flavour that you might expect. To call them flavourless might be a bit harsh, but there’s no doubt that they are lacking in the taste department. The texture is also a bit off, as they have a strange, somewhat peanut buttery consistency that seems somewhat out of whack with how you’d expect a truffle to be.

They’re edible, certainly – I wouldn’t recoil in horror if you were to offer me another one, but overall I’d have to give these a marginal thumbs down.

Manufactured by: Hershey
Calories (8 truffles, 51 g): 260