J. Cocoa 40% Caramelised Milk Chocolate Nicalizo

This chocolate won Bronze at the Academy of Chocolate 2018. During the tasting sessions, this milk chocolate was a real standout bar for me: firstly the unique method of delivering milk in chocolate (i.e. caramelised) and secondly the intense cocoa flavours (despite being 40%). Both the milk and cocoa yielded big flavours, but the chocolate maker orchestrated them divinely.

An aroma of fresh italian pizza dough, herby, whole milk, caramel. It has a soft bite. The flavour is very caramelised milk, it's a very rich whole milk taste. Huge hit of wholemeal toast. Overall impression is it's a chocolate with an impactful, deep flavour, with slightly nutty notes, nice acidity and a cooling bitterness. 

Chocolat Madagascar 50% Milk Chocolate

Woa,    I'm pretty sure this is my first post on Chocolat Madagascar

This is a 50% milk chocolate, so essentially a 'dark milk' chocolate. It won a Bronze award at the 2015 Academy of Chocolate

It has a pretty low added sugar content at around 25% (ignoring the natural sugars in the milk), which is less than your 70% dark chocolate. The ingredients puts cocoa butter first, followed by whole milk powder, cane sugar and then cocoa beans (plus sunflower lecithin)

The aroma is rich, wheat, metallic, malt vinegar. It's slow to melt, but once it gets going it's pretty consistent. The taste starts with barnyard, wheat, malt, then simple 'cocoa' flavour comes in. It has Demerara sugar and toffee flavours dispersed within a balanced acidity

The finish is very fresh and clean, which is helped by there being a lot of cocoa butter. There is actually a lot of cocoa butter here, making chewing it feel too fatty, but it makes the chocolate melt very smoothly. This chocolate seems super French, no political correctness 

The finish is somewhat tannic or raw wholemeal bread dough. An enjoyable milk chocolate, easy to eat... 

Ombar dark, mylk, and centres

Ombar, what is its purpose? You would think that Ombar is selling itself on being raw, "RAW CACAO" being defiantly stated. Sure, people must buy Ombar for its raw-ness. But its differentiation is its live cultures. I mean, there are a few "raw" chocolate makers out there, using low GI sugars too, but none that enrich their chocolate with live cultures

I like live cultures

The chocolate is made with unroasted Ecuadorian cacao, cocoa butter, coconut sugar and Lactobacillus acidophilus. The occasional bar has vanilla, creamed coconut, and also the eponymous additions. Ingredients are organic, obviously; it would be super weird if this wasn't stocked in Planet Organic

The Chocolate Alchemist

The Chocolate Alchemist is a NOOOOTORIOUS chocolate maker in Philadelphia. The magic behind the chocolate is that they utilise cacao, and by doing so it becomes a "vehicle for true flavour, nutrition and energy"

The packaging, when in hand, is distinct. It is made from lokta paper (i.e. tree-free). The ingredients are all organic, and clean. Looking online there is great emphasis on paying fair prices for The Chocolate Alchemist's raw materials. Through and through this chocolate screams quality.

The 80% Philly Blend, a 5 different region blend, had an aroma of dill, coconut cream, vanilla, Muscovado, and a taste herbaceous, coconut, Muscovado, cream. The melt was a little sandy. The sugar was coconut sugar

The 75% Cultivagro was a single origin from Ecuador, sweetened with coconut sugar. I had the notes: smoky, lapsang souchong tea, leather, butterscotch, some peaty whisky; the mouthfeel had thoughts of astringency and tannins

80% Philly blend

The 90% Zarumilla, made from Tumbes Peruvian cacao, was super lime juice, pancakes, brown sugar, grassy bamboo, acidic juiciness, flowers. This one was sweetened by Colombian panela sugar

Clasico 60% was a dark milk chocolate, with a blend of 5 different cacao and sweetened by brown sugar. This was an inclusion bar with roasted hazelnuts, coconut, vanilla and salt. I felt this really could have been harmonious and toasty, it was instead quite raw in flavour 

Goat Maple 65% dark goat milk chocolate, with a blend of Dominican Republic and Peruvian cacao, sweetened with local maple sugar! It was like a creamy creamy creamy chocolate pudding, made with goats cheese obviously. The maple sugar here was a nice touch

Out of the collection, I was very much for the dark chocolates; particularly the Cultivagro and Zarumilla - these two being very nuanced 

Mast Brown Sugar

60% cacao, brown sugar, cacao butter, buttermilk. The cacao beans are from Tanzania, but this detail was found on the Mast website not packaging, most likely for the minimal aesthetic, but cleverly allows for cacao deviation

This particular 28g bar was Brooklyn-made, bought in Shoreditch. It had a gummy melt, obvious not much cocoa butter added, although suffice to create a milk chocolate (that would be 35% cocoa butter minimum). It was very sweet, especially so in the finish. The flavour was distinctly Mast Brothers'

Overall, I like Mast Brothers' flavoured chocolate a lot, this one wasn't a standout bar, but it was nice enough. I like the colours on the packaging, and the texture of that too. The chocolate having brown sugar and buttermilk feels American, I like that too

Willie's Cacao Milk of the Stars Indonesian 54%

After searching high and low for the NEW Willie's Cacao milk chocolate, yep - I finally found it. Prior to finding it, that same day, I picked up Beavertown's new smoked porter. And what a pairing ...

Aroma is clotted cream, light caramel. On taste it's creamy, and now smokey, in flows chocolate sauce, and finishes with hay. Second go at it, it was Bonnat's Surbaya ... just much, much, much better. It coats the mouth with beautiful smoked cocoa toffee. Each subsequent taste I enjoyed.

A little more Indonesian cacao would have made this chocolate greater; I love the Indonesian 69% dark chocolate of Willie's, so go figure! 

Marou Ben Tre Coconut 58%

A bar I heard great things about, like really great things about; who knew a week later I'd get to try it. It's the first milk chocolate from Marou. Marou being tree-to-bar chocolate made by two French chaps with Vietnamese cacao in Vietnam, the rest is just noise (named provinces in Vietnam)

Ingredients: Ben Tre province cacao, coconut milk, cane sugar, cocoa butter

Coffee at Prufrock, Marou's very special coconut bar lands on the table. Ah!

The aroma was fresh creamed coconut, exotic holidays. The taste always had the coconut, but amongst it was a journey of raspberry jam to cocoa, brightness to comfort

It tasted just like a hybrid of Snowball cakes and jam teacakes (milk chocolate coated) - British biscuit culture galore

The melt was thicker and not as smooth in texture compared to Marou's dark chocolates. It still finishes cleanly, and there was no bitterness at all

It's not quite "only available at Maison Marou" like the packaging states, as this was bought in Bangkok, but it is a rarity. Three extra thoughts: it pairs beautifully with a dark beer, I love the more rustic packaging, it's just really well crafted chocolate with quality ingredients 

Forever Cacao Coconut Milk 55%

Pablo Picasso, Rothkos, Rilkes. The man behind Forever Cacao, Pablo.

Forever Cacao work with Ecotribal to protect the strains of heirloom Ashaninka cacao. The Ashaninka are indigenous people living in the Peruvian rainforests, and Ecotribal is an organisation that work alongside indigenous communities to promote sustainable livelihoods and rainforest conservation

The Ashaninka cacao, grown by the Ashaninka, is organic Peruvian Criollo beans that Forever Cacao solely uses, along with organic coconut sugar and organic cacao butter

Here is a coconut milk bar

An aroma coconut. Great snap. The chocolate melts so cooly. Taste of dark, rich butterscotch, coconut flakes, subtle notes of coffee and blackcurrants. It's not too sweet, and with a good cocoa hit. I love it

Congratulations to Forever Cacao for winning Silver in the International Chocolate Awards 2016! 

Malmö Kaffekross

Malmö are Swedish chocolate makers, and I don't think I recognised them. I discovered this chocolate at the Chocolate Show, after tasting it from the International Chocolate Awards

The packaging is all in Swedish. The chocolate is made from cocoa beans, cane sugar, milk powder, cocoa butter, coffee and vanilla. I think the sugar is unrefined 

The aroma was a milky coffee. The taste was a chocolate coffee (mocha). My first go at this bar I could taste the cocoa butter (with it also being dominant in the texture), this wasn't good. However, every day afterwards it tasted so good. Chocolate, rich, coffee, grass-fed butter, slowly transitions to the taste of ... Double Decker!!!! 

I appreciate the thiness of the bar. The texture was bitty, with crunches of the sugar throughout; this style surprised me

Overall, I loved the richness

Cócó 45% milk & 70% Dark with salt

Cócó are Canadian craft chocolate makers, making their chocolate in very small batches in Kingston, Ontario. Kingston is known as a university city; it's pretty hip, particularly when it comes to its eateries and general vibe (there are a lot of young people)

The 45% milk chocolate was sweet, with coconut, cinnamon, chai and creaminess. It wasn't a smooth melt, with it clogging in the mouth, but overall it felt warming. The ingredients were organic cane sugar, whole milk, organic cocoa butter, organic cocoa mass

It's labelled as a "dark milk", although it is not so dark. Cocoa mass is last on the ingredients list

The 70% dark chocolate had an aroma of coconut and chai, similar notes found in the milk, it was a rich dark chocolate aroma, with little vanilla tones. I would believe this to be the Oko Caribe cacao too, then. Oko Caribe is Dominican Republic cacao

The flavour was coconut, cocoa, floral, very well balanced. It had a simple chocolate flavour. Very rounded. There were nutty and subtle malt notes. It had a slow melt, with the award-winning Achill Island sea salt sparking whenever crunched. The salt was pretty intense. It was nice. It worked best when catching the salt nearing the finish of each bite. Overall, an enjoyable chocolate!

Chocolat Bonnat Surabaya 65% milk

This French-made 65% Indonesian milk chocolate is the third bar I've had of Bonnat's. The first two were not good experiences: the Madagascar 75% then the Haiti 75%. As this milk chocolate had such a high cocoa percentage it sounded very interesting

The aroma was milky, full on creamy. The taste was Dutch-processed cocoa mixed with milk - here you taste the absence of sugar, or I should say "of so much sugar". It tasted of horse's barn, with a mild chocolate backdrop. Melting slowly, with an almost greasy texture but foremost a buttery melt, there came smokiness in taste. A smokiness, although very subtle, that reminds one that this is Indonesian chocolate!

It takes time, but this chocolate becomes pleasing. It has too much cocoa butter in for me. A 65% milk chocolate sounds like a dark milk chocolate, it just wasn't 'dark' enough. The fat content is almost 50%, so having too much begins to feel uncomfortable

This bar is the best Bonnat I've had ... 

Original Beans Esmeraldas Milk 42%

Arriba cocoa beans from the Esmeraldas rainforests in Ecuador, more specifically the Pacific Cloudforest

The flavour was cocoa rich, milky, fudge, delicious. It had a berry brightness to it, and later online I read "red summer fruit", so that was real

The ingredients are good, and always good with Original Beans: direct-trade cacao beans*, cacao butter*, raw cane sugar*, milk*, fleur de sel - *organic

This 42% milk chocolate is a really good, a really, really, really good milk chocolate. I have had 2 bars of it in a week

Mast Brothers Coffee

60% cacao, cane sugar, cocoa butter, buttermilk, coffee beans. The Mast Brothers' website tells me the cacao origin - Tanzania - when the packaging fails to. There is no mention of the coffee, in terms of what coffee it is. Although I don't think it would be Stumptown's coffee, because that would surely get a mention

I picked up this small 28g bar at Mast Brothers in Shoreditch, London. It had actually been made in the Mast Brooklyn factory, "surprise!" What would the locavores do?

The standard 70g Coffee bar would have been made in London, but not the 28g miniatures; the same applies to all within the Mast range

Really great chocolate. Fine flavour cacao with coffee will always get me. The texture was really smooth, the flavour was open, deep. Just really sound chocolate

I would love to do a side by side comparison of this coffee chocolate. Few pieces Shoreditch-made, few Brooklyn-made and LA too

Dormouse 60% Brasil with Smoked Sea Salt Milk Chocolate

"60% Brazilian milk chocolate with smoked sea salt" said the Dormouse girls. 

I was elated. 

The dark-milk chocolate was crafted from Brazilian cocoa beans from Fazenda Sempre Firme, muscovado sugar, whole milk, and cocoa butter. Muscovado sugar is a Dormouse trait, as well as their distinctive bar moulds! The cacao is from Akesson's plantation in Brazil

The packaging, from presentation to unwrapping it, gave a feel of artisan and craftsman. It was nice, and felt very close to home

The aroma was pickled and herby (notes of dill), with luscious cream, toffee, dark caramel and cherry

The taste was the salt, creaminess, cocoa, muscovado caramel, wheat, cherry. It was so smooth in texture, with a nicely paced melt. The near finish was tannins of black tea leaves, and black tea itself. The salt was just brilliant 

The Dormouse girls demonstrate the excellence of women in chocolate. This 60% dark milk was very emotive, and I was in awe. It made me look through poetry, writings, pieces of music, just to find something fitting. I like when chocolate does that

Love Cocoa

Love Cocoa was the brainchild of the great-great-great grandson of Cadbury, otherwise known as James Cadbury. The idea behind Love Cocoa is being a letterbox-friendly, next-day-delivery, ideal gift to give. The bar packagings are pretty, with the prints designed to match the flavour. It has a Mast Brothers-esq feel to it, which seems very popular lately

The chocolate is made from couverture, so, as Love Cocoa is not bean-to-bar, I could tell the chocolate was more about the added flavours. The couverture is sourced from a family run business who work closely with cocoa farmers, so let's just say Love Cocoa are not using the chocolate most chocolatiers are using 

Zotter Labooko Bouquet of Flowers

Unfortunately, none of these pictures are mine, all are taken from Zotter's website! The chocolate melted when in my pocket, and it was late, so I thought best not to take pictures...

Firstly is the "Cashew Nougat with Meadow Flowers" bar. It was a cashew nougat blended with milk chocolate. There were marigolds, daisies, cornflowers, with a touch of lemon and cinnamon. Then the "Almond Roses" bar, which was an almond nougat made with caramelised Spanish almonds and blended with white chocolate, covered in rose petals, enhanced with a little rose oil, ginger and cinnamon!

I will just note that Zotter says the Almond Roses bar is a white chocolate, but cocoa mass IS on the ingredients list (cocoa mass is not in white chocolate, only cocoa butter). The ingredients of these bars are also a little different to what it says online. Zotter has occasionally confused me with their ingredients list

To be honest, I did not have high expectations of the chocolate. I took a bite of the roses bar, and oh! my! god! Then I went to the cashew flowers bar, and wow! I was trying to figure out WHICH I preferred, oscillating from each. I just couldn't, both were incredible 

Georgia Ramon milk chocolate Kaffee & Kakao Nibs 55%

A high cocoa milk chocolate with Ethiopian coffee (roasted by Caffé a Casa in Vienna) and cocoa nibs

The back packaging, of all Georgia Ramon bars, gives the grind and conch time in hours. This coffee milk chocolate had been grinding for 24 hours and conched for 4. The all organic ingredients were: cocoa butter, cocoa liquor, whole milk, raw cane sugar, "Bench Maji" coffee beans. The cacao origin was the Dominican Republic

It was beautiful. A rich chocolate coffee. I almost want to say 'mocha', but I feel that down plays it. I absolutely loved it. Maybe my favourite pairing, coffee and chocolate that is

The nibs added crunch to the smooth chocolate. The snap was crisp and clean, the finish was clean. The bar mould of Georgia Ramon chocolate is excellent; sometimes I have big pieces, sometimes small - very fun. Overall, just a really impressive chocolate. More please ... 

Zotter Labooko Nicaragua 60% milk

So, Zotter's 50% Nicarguan milk chocolate is supposedly the best milk chocolate out there, according to Georg Bernadini. The 50% is something I do not have, but here is the 60% Nicarguan milk chocolate instead! A little richer in cocoa ...

The cacao within is from Don Francisco in Nicargua, there was whole milk, cocoa butter, raw cane sugar, vanilla and salt 

An aroma quite creamy, with cocoa butter, vanilla, white chocolate

The taste was creamy, with bitterness (or more a lack of sweetness), prettiness, Belgian truffles/pralines, chocolate sauce, ice cream, chocolate pudding, vanilla

The finish was bitter, hay, barn and cocoa 

The chocolate had a smooth back, nice sheen, a smooth, buttery melt. It tasted like a blend of milk and dark chocolate. It wasn't wow, but it was not bad

Cacaosuyo Piura Milk

Cacaosuyo's Piura Select 70% is my all time favourite chocolate. And here is the Piura Milk, it was the overall winning milk chocolate of 2015 in the International Chocolate Awards

The aroma was instantly butter. This surprised me, I was expecting a darker flavour profile. The taste was metallic, then very banana, coconut sugar, molasses, banoffee, lime zest. The flavour and the flavour development was better when the chocolate was chewed

When I first tried this chocolate, an opera was playing in the background. Baring in mind I do not enjoy opera, it really disrupted my experience. No way could this do such a well-respected chocolate any justice, I thought. And so, with some trial and error, I was then searching for pieces of classical music that I could pair with the chocolate, and to essentially augment my experience too

Listening, tasting, pause ... repeat

Bartók's An Evening in the Village from his Hungarian Pictures (click here to listen) had satisfied me. The piece of music was very relaxed, it walked me through a Peruvian village. The melody was smooth, soft and at times playful, which reflected the chocolate itself, whilst also allowing the chocolate to sing its own notes

Blanxart Milk Chocolate with Caramelised Seeds

Blanxart, the Barcelona chocolate maker, is no stranger to me. This packaging, however, is. The plastic wrapping allows the display of the chocolate, which is very pretty, although it does prove to be difficult to 'use' (to open and to get the chocolate out). High aesthetic value, low ergonomic value ... something like that

The chocolate felt almost greasy to touch. The mouth texture was gummy. The aniseed and sesame were excellent flavours when they would sing through, they were very distinct and concentrated 

I feel this chocolate should take on Hotel Chocolat's mantra of "more cocoa, less sugar". There should have been more of a chocolate flavour, it lacked cocoa notes and was just so sweet. A richer chocolate (i.e more cocoa mass) would have really complemented the caramelised seeds

The caramelised seeds were excellent, the chocolate itself unfortunately let them down. Like a pizza that has bomb toppings, but an abominable base ... something like that