dark chocolate Archives - Page 3 of 4

November 28, 2008January 10, 2021 Michael

Duncans Original Ginger – An Unforgiving Assault of Ginger

Chocolate

Oh, the humanity.

First off, in the spirit of full disclosure I’m going to come right out and admit that ginger isn’t my favourite thing ever, even in savoury dishes. However, I have had the ginger/chocolate combination before, and I have liked it, so I’m not completely biased against anything with ginger. Ginger and chocolate is certainly a strange combination, however in the right proportions the ginger can give the chocolate an interesting and unique taste. In the wrong proportions… well, you have this bar.

Unwrapping the chocolate, I was hit with a rather overwhelming aroma. I don’t know how to describe the smell other than to say it is like ginger put under a magnifying glass. That seemed like a bad sign to me, but I had hoped that this would be one of those things that smells stronger than it tastes. Nope! If anything the smell was subtle, comparatively speaking.

Eating this is like a ginger assault on your tastebuds. It is like being punched in the face by ginger – not just any ginger; the Evander Holyfield of ginger. You may as well just buy a ginger root and take a bite, though I’m not sure even that would be as overwhelmingly gingery. As for the chocolate, it has an unappealingly grainy consistency, and has to be one of the least creamy chocolates I’ve ever had. It’s sweet, without much of a cocoa taste at all (though that may just be the super-strong ginger obliterating any other flavours in the bar).

I bought this at an import store for two or three bucks, and I’ve gotta say: I want my money back. This is literally the worst chocolate that I’ve ever eaten, and I say that as someone who has eaten a ridiculous amount of chocolate in his lifetime. I don’t think I can possibly overstate how gross this was. It actually nauseated me – I was only able to eat three pieces before my gag reflex started kicking in (actually that’s not true: I was on the verge of gagging right after the first mouthful. It was only after three pieces that I realized that life was too short to eat something so disgusting). It’s that bad.

Blech.

Manufactured by: Duncans of Scotland
Calories (58 g bar): Unknown, not that it matters – this is unfit for human consumption

November 27, 2008January 10, 2021 Michael

Dark Chocolate Moose Munch Chocolate Bar – So, So Good

Candy Bars

Moose Munch is definitely unique – popcorn isn’t generally an ingredient you’ll find in all that many candy bars (in fact, I don’t think I’ve ever had a candy bar with popcorn in it). But this bar certainly makes a persuasive argument for the inclusion of popcorn in chocolate.

The Dark Chocolate Moose Munch Chocolate Bar features a creamy, truffle-like centre with chunks of almonds, crunchy toffee and popcorn, all enrobed in dark chocolate. The centre alone – a smooth, richly intense dark chocolate fudge – is enough for me to give this bar a hearty recommendation. It’s really good. The crunchy bits elevate this from “delicious” to “why can’t I buy this in Canada??” (I purchased this bar at a Target in the States, and have lamentably never seen it anywhere in Canada).

The combination of Almonds and dark chocolate is an old standby, and works quite well here. The bits of crunchy toffee have a fairly distinct flavour and definitely add more than just crunchiness to the mix. As for the popcorn, it’s not present in every mouthful, but when it is there it gives this bar a nicely unique flavour. It all adds up to something that is surprisingly awesome. It’s probably a good thing that this isn’t readily available where I live – if it were, I’d be eating it all the time, and would inevitably wind up like the gluttony guy from Seven.

Manufactured by: Harry and David
Calories (56 g bar): 290

November 25, 2008January 10, 2021 Michael

Riesen – Ultra-Chewy Caramel

Candy Bars

As far as caramel goes, if Caramilk (or Caramello in the States) is the softest that you’ll find, Riesen is the chewiest. It really is about as chewy as caramel gets; biting into one of the dense pieces of caramel unprepared can easily result in some sore teeth.

Riesen consists of five individual pieces of “chocolate caramel,” each with a liberal coating of dark chocolate. The chocolate gives each piece an initial creaminess and flavour, though the caramel is so thick that the chocolate is gone long before you’re done chewing the caramel. As for the super-chewy, sticks-to-your-teeth caramel – it’s not very sweet at all, and has a really rich, almost molassesy flavour. It’s definitely pretty different from the typical caramel, and will give your mouth a workout – after eating only a couple of these, my jaw was already getting pretty sore.

The nice thing about Riesen is that it offers something a bit different from the usual candy bar; it’s subtly sweet (which is certainly not something you can say for almost any American candy bar) and for the frugally-minded, its chewiness ensures that it’ll last a lot longer than the norm.

Manufactured by: Storck
Calories (40.5 g package): 190

November 21, 2008January 10, 2021 Michael

Hebert’s Fully Loaded Rocky Road Milk Chocolate Bar – A Whole Bunch of Tasty Stuff

Chocolate

Looking at Hebert’s Fully Loaded Rocky Road Milk Chocolate Bar (that just rolls off your tongue, doesn’t it?), it becomes clear pretty quickly that they’re not kidding around with the whole “fully loaded” thing: the entire underside of the bar is completely covered with chunks of walnuts, dark chocolate and marshmallow pieces. My initial impression was that the bar may just be too overloaded, with my fear being that all that stuff would overwhelm the chocolate. Happily, I was wrong.

It probably helps that, despite the thick layer of chunks on the bottom of the bar, the actual bar itself is pure chocolate. The chocolate itself is very creamy, and has a smooth, milky flavour. The marshmallows (which seem to be infused with a dark chocolate flavour) add their own taste, as well as a mild chewiness. As for the nuts, they’re slightly crunchy but otherwise doesn’t bring much to the table.

This Fully Loaded bar is definitely better than I thought it would be. It’s not overly sweet, as you might imagine it would be, and the flavours all compliment each other fairly well.

Manufactured by: Hebert Confections
Calories (78 g bar): 400

November 19, 2008January 10, 2021 Michael

Chocolove: Cherries & Almonds in Dark Chocolate – Quality Chocolate and Crunchy Nuts

Chocolate

Though the name and packaging of this chocolate are seriously hokey (there is, as promised on the packaging, an actual love poem on the other side of the wrapper – in this case, Diaphenia by Henry Constable) it’s what’s inside the wrapper that counts.

A quick peek at the ingredients finds a refreshingly simple list: dark chocolate, dried cherries, and almonds. So the first question is: how’s the chocolate? It’s good; featuring a 55 percent cocoa content, it’s not the darkest chocolate ever, and is somewhat creamy and fairly sweet. The crushed almonds, which are plentiful, add a nice crunchiness to the bar. As for the cherries, they give the bar a chewiness which contrasts with the crunchiness of the nuts (it’s kind of similar to Cadbury’s Fruit and Nut, in that sense). However, they don’t add all that much flavour, save for a few mouthfuls where you get multiple cherries. Dried cherries have a pretty strong, sour flavour, so it’s probably for the best that there’s too few rather than too many.

My initial fear, when I first saw this bar, was that it was going to taste strongly of artificial cherry. Cherry seems to be one of those flavours that science just can’t get right, and so anything with fake cherry tends to have a vaguely medicinal taste. So I was glad to see that it was real cherries in here, even if they don’t add too much to the bar (taste-wise at least).

Reasonably high-quality chocolate, crunchy nuts… it’s kind of hard to go wrong with that.

Manufactured by: Chocolove
Calories (90 g bar): 480