It’s easy to overlook chocolate you think you know. I’d had a bar of Willie’s Cacao Ginger Lime dark chocolate, £2.49/50g, in my stash for a while, but I realised I’d never properly tried it. And it’s sublime! What a perky little bar for summer, 70% cocoa with delicious little nibbles of crystallised ginger and lime. Slightly mad to think of chocolate as refreshing, but this is.
French Broad’s 45% cacao Malted Milk, £8.95/60g, is the sort of comforting bar you’d eat coming in from a swim. I have no idea why this is what came into my head (forget tasting notes, I make taste-occasions). The malt taste comes later, c/o barley flour, but what comes first is sweet, not tooth-jangly, and also nostalgic. The packaging is gorgeous.
Lumi (first written about here in April) has become one of my favourite brands of the year. I’ve gone back to do repeat orders for friends (all become addicted), but they’ve just launched a new flavour, in fact several, which I shall report on in due course, but for now: the Crunchy Orange with 41% cocoa (£6.75), orange oil and crunchy wafer. A wonderful partnership and very popular with testers. Imagine a highly superior Orange Club.
If you fancy something dark, different and kinda palate-cleansing, then try Akesson’s dark with either black or pink pepper, £6.45/60g. Both at 75% cocoa. I found the black pepper one more warming, long on the tongue, the pink cheekier, fresher, livelier, a bit more ‘poppy’. It’s a good pairing if you like to spice up your dark chocolate offerings, but absolutely not one for everyone.
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