‘You must try this,’ a reader wrote, referring to Zotter’s Butter Caramel. I had already seen it as it’s one of the first/only filled bars Cocoa Runners stocks (along with my special Careless collection!) and to be frank I’d tried to ignore it because it sounded so far up my street as to have moved in with me. I ordered it then waited, with a keen-ness only this side of decent.
What I can tell you is this: it’s one giant slab (always dangerous), it’s organic. It’s 50% cocoa stuffed with a butter caramel cream that is the absolute perfect chew consistency, and then in it are these lethal caramel crisps and almond praline, which takes the whole thing up up up. It’s nostalgic, sweet and really dangerous at £3.95 (70g).
Quite some time after this I wanted some 70% and I went for NearyNógs Mexico 70% Soconusco (£5.95/40g). NearyNógs is fast becoming one of my favourite brands for high-cocoa content chocolate and it’s often hard to know what to choose: everything has such wonderful flavour and it’s all stone ground, which gives it a satisfying mouthfeel. (The vegan sea salt chocolate caramel cups that I featured a while ago have gone into legend and frequently sell out.)
What I love about high-cocoa chocolate is that it’s really about the bean rather than the sugar (ahem) and it’s so complex in taste it seems more like going on a journey that ends up somewhere very happy.
cocoarunners.com; nearynogs.com
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