I have two really nice bars for you this week. One is Selfridges Panettone Bar, £4.99/70g. I haven’t been a fan of Selfridge’s own-brand chocolate in the past – it was too sweet and wishy washy in the cocoa department to impress me. But this is fabulous. It’s single origin (the Dominican Republic) and a dark milk with an impressive backbone of 50% cocoa. Those things in themselves, while telling you it’s a chocolate that’s been given thought, don’t make for a great bar. Then you find out it’s made by Chocolarder in Cornwall and, well… you know you’re on to something.
Many chocolate-makers now mix in baked goods, not always successfully. The spices can overpower the cocoa. Just as one too-chatty, limelight-hogging guest can ruin a dinner party, so the addition of gingerbread or hot cross buns or mince pie can mar chocolate. Here, crumbs of lightly toasted panettone have been mixed with creamy chocolate – and it’s total success.
Another rip roaring success is Chococo’s Heavenly Honeycombe bar, £4/75g. I’ve searched pretty much all my life for something that will give me that childhood Crunchie joy (Crunchies were my favourite newsagent treat, Flakes a close second. In later years, the sophisticated Ripple took over and, as an adult, Marathon bars featured) without the sugar-jang contemporary Crunchies provide. And here it is! It’s not honeycomb covered in chocolate but rather a pleasingly chunky bar of 47% Colombian milk chocolate with bits of excellent honeycomb. Not all honeycomb is excellent. If you like honeycomb and a good milk chocolate, I can almost guarantee you’ll love this.
Follow Annalisa on Twitter @AnnalisaB
