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Taste. Better. Chocolate.
Discover the world of craft chocolates through my personal tasting reviews, learn about how chocolate is made, learn to mindfully taste chocolate and find out what's going on in the worldwide craft chocolate scene.

I'm Lilla, chocolatier and certified chocolate taster, chocolate educator and I eat chocolate Every. Single. Day.

I started this blog to share my passion for craft chocolates with others and to celebrate the amazing diversity of flavours and styles in chocolate making, the makers and of course the cacao farmers.

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Lilla - Chocolate Educator
🤔 I'm sure there was a moustache emoji somewher 🤔 I'm sure there was a moustache emoji somewhere for #tttt_emotions (referring to world emoji day), but now of course I can't find it... never mind, it's not stopping me from enjoying this fun vegan bar from @stachechocolate. It's called 'Good Morning Baltimore' and it is a vegan white chocolate with almond and oat powder, Peruvian coffee, fennel seeds and sea salt. Thanks @myic2016 for sending me this 😋 What an intriguing combination indeed! The colour is like a café latte, the smell is fragrant from the fennel and coffee. It's quite a thick bar, but it melts quickly on the tongue. The fennel and salt create a kind of salty liquorice flavour that goes surprisingly well with the roasted coffee and the creamy chocolate.  I sometimes find vegan white chocolate bars too buttery in the texture, but in this case I cannot complain, the texture is well balanced. The gentle coffee note lingers around for quite a while. I like chewing on the fennel seeds, too.  Do you like to use emojis? Comment below with the last 5 you have used. Mine are: 😊😍😅🍫😂
🌱 Alternative plant-based milks are getting mor 🌱 Alternative plant-based milks are getting more and more popular with chocolate makers who are responding to the growing demand for allergen-free chocolates made with fine cacao from bean-to-bar. 🍼 After coconut and soy, oats have been on the rise and I'm happy that I have already tried 3 or 4 different bars with oats. Technically, I wouldn't call them oat milk bars, as most of the time the oats are simply ground in with the chocolate, and the result is less 'milky', yet it has a unique creaminess and a lovely oaty flavour note that I enjoy a lot (can you tell, I have porridge for breakfast 365/365 of the time :D) This time, I have the chance to taste a bar made by Arcelia Gallardo @missionchocolate in Brazil. For me, she is a badass chocolate maker and I have to thank Jess @dessert.geek for sending me this bar, and as a surprise I am twinning Trish @myic2016 as she also features this very same bar for #tttt_mylk today.  🌹 I always find Mission wrappers so pretty. They are very simple, just a thin sleeve, but still so elegant and romantic. I had so much fun taking the photos, that I even created a short stop-motion as my first reels on this account.  The thin bar has a lovely warm dark brown colour and nice glossy surface. On the back of the bar you can see the brazil nut pieces poking through. Also, isn't this bar mould just perfect for portion-control (haha, do you think I control?! but I do love portioning). 😅 The chocolate is creamy, with a slight graininess and of course the added crunch from the nuts. The flavour profile is dominated by roasted nuts, salty spikes and a rich, slightly woody note in the base chocolate. The cacao percentage is not listed on the bar, but it's definitely more like a creamy dark chocolate rather than a milk chocolate. But I like that. The salty nuts are a great addition and really enhance the oaty flavour note.  Have you already tasted oat mylk chocolate bars? Do you like them? #tttt_chocolate #tttt_2021 #tttt_mylk #oatmilkchocolate #oatmilk #alternativemilk #plantbaseddairy #veganchocolate #dairyfreechocolate #chocswap #tastebetterchocolate #madeinbrazil #beantobarchocolate #craftchocolate #brazilnuts
Well, I was too busy tasting chocolate yesterday, Well, I was too busy tasting chocolate yesterday, so here you go. Happy belated chocolate day 🎉 (it's everyday anyway 😅)🍫 My international bar for this week's #tttt_chocolate is a dark chocolate cuvée made by Jitka and Michal @herufekchocolate in the Czech Republic combining two different cacao beans that are famous on their own already: Tanzania from @kokoakamili and Peru Nacional (Marañon, Fortunato n°4), and I'm tasting it in Vienna, Austria. Tell me it's international enough! A limited edition bar with the classic 70% cocoa content. The thin bar looks great with the honeycomb structure and periodic table-like letters that read CH O C O L A T E. The chocolate has a gentle fruity aroma and it melts quite easily (mind you, as soon as I took it out of the wine cooler, it started to soften as it's nearly 30°C here (the A/C is just a decoration really, I don't feel that it makes the room any cooler...)). The creamy mouthfeel is pleasant with a rich chocolate base note and a lively acidity that opens up gradually. It is hard to pinpoint specific notes, but the overall profile is bright, with a vibrant fruitiness in the middle and a good balance of flavour in general.  I'm far from being an expert in blends, since most of the bars I taste are single origin or flavoured, but I guess that being in balance is a great sign. There's no harsh notes, no weird or unusual notes dominating the scene or contrasting each other. The aftertaste is pleasant and lingers for quite a while. What's your opinon on origin blends? Do you like them? Would you like to see more blends made by craft chocolate makers or do you prefer single origins? (Note for last photo: the bar suffered a bit of condensation damage in my cooler hence the brighter spot at the bottom, entirely my fault)
🏆Before I join in the new 26-week round of #ttt 🏆Before I join in the new 26-week round of #tttt_chocolate, I wanted to finish of the previous alphabet round with my top 3. So my 3x9 square design is complete. I had a lot of fun creating this puzzle template in Canva and even more fun tasting all these chocolates.  Three chocolates that really stood out to me were the following (in alphabetical order): D - dragées (I know, these aren't bars 😅) by @_chococard_ using caramelized @finca_la_rioja white cacao beans enrobed in a dark-milk chocolate made with beans from the Arhuacos in Colombia. H&V - @heindeverre bars, sorry it's impossible to just name one! They are all so complex and delicious.  O - old school by @somachocolatemaker was such a fun delight, I loved the cookie-like texture and the sweet deliciousness of Chuao cacao.  Can't wait to continue these discoveries each week following the weekly themes of #tttt_2021. This week is all about #tttt_international.  My post will be up tomorrow (now I have the excuse of #worldchocolateday).
⛵ Last Friday, #tttt_chocolate celebrated its 2 ⛵ Last Friday, #tttt_chocolate celebrated its 2 years anniversary. 🎉🎂 And this week, we arrived at the end of our second alphabet round. 🌎 The letter Z here today is all about being sustainable and environment-friendly. I am happy to show you a bar born from an adventurous project, sail-shipped cocoa from Belize on the Avontuur sailship @avontuur_offloading. I had the chance to get to know the Avontuur project two years ago at the @eurobeanfestival and it's truly fascinating to see something like this in the 21. century. Besides cocoa beans, Avontuur transports other valuable goods such as rum, coffee, salt, sugar, all by wind energy, zero emission. Very retro and environmentally friendly. ⛵ @herufekchocolate czech bean-to-bar maker is one of the few European brands proudly using these beans from Belize sourced by Maya Mountain Cacao (Zotter also has bars made with these).  After a bit of help from google translate, let's have a taste of this "Mission Zero 2019" Maya Mountain Belize 70% dark chocolate.  🍫 A thin bar that melts easily and has a nice, creamy mouthfeel. Rich chocolate with a balanced acidity, deep earthy notes. The initial sharpness develops into a lovely hazelnutty finish.  I often hear from zero wasters and eco-friendly people that they stopped drinking coffee or eating chocolate, because it comes from far away and has a huge CO2 footprint. Well, now, they have a great alternative as not only these chocolates have a much smaller negative impact on the environment than average bars (especially cheap mass-produced ones), but they are made with excellent cocoa beans that are ethically traded and they taste so much better too! A real win:win:win for us, the farmers and the planet! 👍 I hope to see more chocolates made with zero emission cocoa, have you had anything like this already? What do you think? #tttt_z #tttt_chocolate #tttt_2021
💛 Last week's post ties in nicely with this wee 💛 Last week's post ties in nicely with this weeks chosen theme, as the easiest Y - word for me was definitely Yellow. Luckily I found another great bar to showcase for this occasion. I had a huge facepalm moment on Q week when I realized that I had bought this @mayerschokoladen Quince bar for Q week, but then I got a Qantu bar and forgot about this one. Now is the time (and it's still within it's best before date! huh!) to taste this kind of autumnal flavoured filled chocolate bar.  I love quinces, it's one of my absolute favourites, and maybe also because its season is so short and precious.  I struggled taking the photo as it is extremely hot around here so I had to be quick because the bar started to melt as soon as I took it out of my wine cooler. (Yes, I have a wine cooler. And yes, I don't have any wine in it, but it's full of chocolate bars. Don't be surprised!) The bar is made out of a 65% dark chocolate and it is filled with a thin aromatic layer of quince ganache. Fragrant and slightly spicy with a hint of brandy thanks to the 'Edelbrand' liqueur that gives some strength to the filling and longer shelf-life of course. Intense fruitiness, nice contrast with the outer shell, vibrant and recognizable quince flavour. Only a few months left until quince season, can't wait! Do you like ganache-filled chocolate bars? 🎉 Also, did you know? TTTT turns 2 on 25 June so this week we celebrate! 🎉 Thanks Trish @myic2016 for starting this fun challenge that grew into a whole community movement 💛 #tttt_y #tttt_2021 #tttt_chocolate #quince #ganache #filledchocolatebar #austriamchocolate #craftchocolate #beantobarchocolate #fruitfilling #darkchocolate #madeinaustria #martinmayerschokoladen #vienna #chocolateeducator #tastebetterchocolate #tangentialtastingtwintuesday #happyanniversary #tttt_birthday
🌽 Instead of struggling to find a suitable bar 🌽 Instead of struggling to find a suitable bar for this weeks #tangentialtastingtwintuesday I should've just check out my friend @myic2016 Trish's post. She always takes an extra effort to find background information, etymology to back up her theme and I love that I can learn new things each time I see her posts.  So today, I accidentally posted about the same bar on my Hungarian account (@kakaonagykovet). It turns out that it can actually fit within this week's theme. What a relief! Now I can take this opportunity to twin Trish and myself as well with this sunny-coloured sweetcorn (xob, xoa' or xuba' in Indigenous Mexican languages) white chocolate bar from @harrerchocolat.  Just looking at it makes me smile. It has a gently sweet aroma, velvety creaminess. The sweetness is well balanced, instead of vanilla, we have a hint of salt and pepper to accentuate the buttery notes and the sweetcorn flavour.  I'm happy that I could share this bar with you Trish and thanks for all the fun and interesting knowledge bites you give us every time. 🌽 How do you like your corn on the cob? #tttt_x #tttt_chocolate #tttt_2021 #tastebetterchocolate #craftchocolate #whitechocolate #sweetcorn #Mexico #etymology #tastingtwin #chocolatefriends #chocswap #Hungary #Hungarianchocolate #chocolatemaker #beantobarchocolate #veggiesinchocolate
🤗 Counting myself very lucky to be able to feat 🤗 Counting myself very lucky to be able to feature a precious WKND chocolate bar for yet another W-week in #tangentialtastingtwintuesday (I could say I purposefully post this on Wednesday for a double score, but that would be a partial lie :D) Anyhow. This lovely white chocolate bar studded with pistachios and crunchy wafer was gifted to me by @laurenonthewknd from @wkndchocolate located in sunny Barcelona. Now, I don't think I have to introduce you to Lauren, she is one of the most active motors of this craft chocolate community. The bar came alongside the second edition of the @chocolatenotebook co-created with @chocolatedriven and @canadianchocoholic a perfect journal for chocolate enthusiasts like myself.  'Jardin de Pistacho' has an intense aroma of sweet cream, roasted nuts and freshly baked sponge cake. It is also very creamy, I assume it has a high cocoa butter content (Lauren might be able to add some extra infos if she remembers), but also crunchy thanks to the generously added inclusions. I love how the whole pistachios poke through here and there with their vibrant green colour. The crunchy wafer adds a fun texture and also a layer of sweet biscuit flavour note. It's like a complete dessert in bar form. Like a pistachio tart or a turrón.  Posting this now brings me back all the memories from our trip to Barcelona almost exactly 2 years ago. Thank you Lauren, and I hope our paths will cross again very soon. ❤️ What are your plans for the WKND? (I'll finally get my 2nd vaccine yaay!) #tttt_2021 #tttt_chocolate #tttt_w #chocolatefriends #womeninchocolate #craftchocolate #whitechocolate #fairlytraded #cocoabutter #pistachios #inclusionbar #deliciouschocolate #finechocolate #beantobarchocolate #chocolateeducator #tastebetterchocolate
[gifted] It's V-week in #tangentialtastingtwintues [gifted] It's V-week in #tangentialtastingtwintuesday (I know, today's Wednesday, but you know how I roll :D) so I brought along a pair of bars from @heindeverre. Verre means far in Dutch. Aren't we all longing to go somewhere far away after all this 😷 is over? Let's explore Brazil from a bit closer through the eyes and chocolate maker hands of Ewald and Jan-Willem.  What's interesting is that I tasted these bars last year (you can scroll down to check them out) but these bars are from a different harvest and different batch so they have a slightly different flavour profile. 🍒 Bold Brazil 71%: the cocoa beans come from a single cooperative in the Pará region of Brazil but in this bar we can taste a blend of several different roasting profiles of the same beans. Very intense fruity and acidic aroma. Starts with an interesting roasted and woody note, that opens up to a vibrant fruitiness of ripe sour cherries. There's also a gentle spiciness in the background and the long finish brings out some light coffee notes. An eye-opener bar for sure.  🍯 Balmy Brazil 62%: same cocoa, same roast blend, but an extra creaminess and another interesting layer of flavour thanks to Dutch buttermilk. Slightly savoury and sour aroma. The creamy melt kicks off with a splash of fruit juice but quickly mellows to more of a dairy-based note. In the end, it turns into a salted caramel note which is truly phenomenal.  Keep an eye out for H&V bars if you haven't tried yet, because whatever the harvest year, these guys will create amazing bars from their beans.  Are you team BOLD or BALMY? #tttt_v #tttt_chocolate #tttt_2021 #chocolatetasting #comparativetasting #heindeverre #dutchchocolate #tastebetterchocolate #chocolateeducator #chocolateaddict #darkchocolate #milkchocolate #darkmilkchocolate #Brazil #buttermilk #saltedcaramel #beantobarchocolate #roastingprofile #chocolateblend #specialitychocolate #finechocolate #craftchocolate
I remember so clearly when I first came across Uca I remember so clearly when I first came across Ucayali River Cacao through LetterPress Chocolate, and I was so lucky that Trish @myic2016 sent me a bar not long after its release. Do you remember the buzz around this new origin? I'm actually quite happy to see that it is still going strong. Now, I am tasting a 60% dark milk bar made by @monsoonchocolate in the USA. Thanks to Jess @dessert.geek for sending me this bar in our #chocswap.  I like how the packaging depicts the Ucayali river, the inside of the wrapper shows a mountain range under the sun made out of various craft papers. The glossy chocolate bar has a warm dark brown hue and a sweet earthy aroma. Lovely creaminess with notes of dairy, caramel, a slight earthiness in the background. A very accessible bar, I really believe that dark-milk chocolates are one of the potential chocolate types that can open up the craft chocolate scene for a wider audience. It is also important to note how important role this origin has in fighting against narco-trafficking and violence by supporting local farmers with premiums for wet cacao as an alternative.  Have you already tried bars made with Ucayali River Cacao? #tttt_u #tttt_2021 #tttt_chocolate #chocolatefriends #uniquechocolate #cacao #craftchocolate #chocolatemaker #ucayalirivercacao #peruviancacao #darkmilkchocolate #beantobarchocolate #singleoriginchocolate #tastebetterchocolate
#tttt_t ☀️ I've given up on tasting seasonally #tttt_t ☀️ I've given up on tasting seasonally, there are no seasons anymore (or all of them within a couple of hours). Today, we mostly had dark clouds, strong wind and heavy showers, and sometimes, for about 10 minutes bright sky and lovely sunshine. Anyway, there's no way I would be able to wait until the end of the year and the holiday season to taste this Ginger Snap bar from Dick Taylor @dicktaylorchocolate, gifted to me by Trish @myic2016 in our latest chocswap. (double word-score, ha!) After the well-known struggle of breaking this perfect and beautifully intricate mould design, I was all-in. Enticing sweet-gingery aroma, creamy 55% Brazilian dark-milk chocolate (made with A2/A2 milk) generously studded with crispy, crunchy and spicy gingersnap cookie pieces. When we lived in the UK we always had some gingersnap cookies at home, I loved the crunchiness and the hot spicy ginger flavour of it. Now realized, it would have been great to dip it in hot chocolate. It works really well with the dark-milk chocolate's creaminess and deep, earthy-chocolatey flavour. The gentle heat and the rich chocolate flavour lingers around for surprisingly long.  😋 Lovely deliciousness! Do you like this kind of 'snacking' chocolate bars?
💎 Razzle Dazzle 💎 Because who said we can't 💎 Razzle Dazzle 💎 Because who said we can't have a bit of sparkle on an average Tuesday evening? Ok, well, Tuesdays aren't average anymore if you participate in the weekly #tttt_chocolate posts. It's a celebration! I love to be part of this community. 🤗❤️ Thanks Trish @myic2016 for sending me this fab inclusion bar by @foxglovechocolate. Sparkle Bar is a vegan white chocolate made with almonds and oats, jam-packed with crunchy vegan honeycomb candy and topped with sour-chewy redcurrant fruit leather that truly sparkles! What a loaded bar indeed! Love this generosity with the inclusions 😊  The texture is remarkable, buttery-creamy, crunchy and chewy at the same time. The flavour is buttery (maybe a bit too much for me though 🙈), sweet and tart, nutty and oaty. There are so many layers of texture and flavour that it's almost hard to notice everything. I love how the redcurrant leather sticks to my teeth and it makes the lingering flavour be this sweet and tart juicy fruitiness. I hope you have a super sparkling Tuesday ❤️
😋 Rocking great packaging design, mould design, 😋 Rocking great packaging design, mould design, amazing cacao varieties and funky flavour combinations, also famous for making chocolate with unroasted cacao beans. @raakachocolate has been one of my favourite US-based makers. I’m lucky to have my dear friend Trish @myic2016 who saves me bits of her monthly subscription bars (very limited releases) so that I can also get a glimpse into these innovative combinations. I couldn’t just choose one bar for today, so I’m showcasing all the pieces I received from Trish in our last #chocswap. 🍫Palo Santo - a rich blend of Ugandan and DR beans meets the perfumy, spicy notes of Palo Santo wood used for specific rituals. 🍫Smudged Sage - Zorzal cacao (DR) infused with roasted white sage is slightly smokey, earthy with a hint of herbal note. 🍫Strawberry&Basil – enticing strawberry aroma, juicy sweet fresh strawberries, unbelievably real taste, it’s not like freeze-dried strawberries, more like a fresh smoothie. 🍫Citrus Earl Grey - intensely floral with a light citrus note and rich dark chocolate made with Ugandan beans. 🍫Mojito – my favourite cocktail in chocolate form! I love mint and lime, such a refreshing combo (I don't even care about the alcohol). 🍫Mango&Mint - a tropical twist on the previous with juicy ripe mangoes and oranges added to cooling mint, feeling like on a sandy beach somewhere nice and warm.  🍫Waffle Cone – When I was serving ice cream in the chocolate shop I used to work at, I’d always snack on the broken chocolate dipped waffle cones. This bar brought back some fun memories of those times. Amazing crunch and visually also really cool bar. 🍫Pumpkin Granola Butter Swirl - Intensely creamy and soft, enticing spicy aroma and a warming flavour profile. Loving the swirl pattern in the middle. Yum! I know, some of these must be quite old, but I don’t even care 😀 they all still tasted great.  Have you tried any of these? Or do you have a favourite Raaka bar?
🏠 Knock-knock, who’s there? #tttt_q A very m 🏠 Knock-knock, who’s there? #tttt_q A very much coveted maker for me as it is not at all easy to get your hands on a @qantu_chocolat bar in Europe so huge thanks to @choccoffeewine Shay for sending me this beautiful Peru Piura (good bridging bar after #tttt_p week). I was thrilled to see that it arrived in such a good shape, no heat damage, not broken. Such a beauty of a bar! I totally fell for this house design, wouldn’t you love to live in a chocolate house? I would! 😍 You can imagine how hard it was for me to break into this lovely house. Which door or window should I smash first? (Swipe to see!) The bar gives off a faint fruity acidic aroma that prospects some vibrant fruitiness. Let’s see. Piura Gran Blanco is a popular variety and I’ve had tasted some truly exceptional interpretations so I was looking forward to tasting this Canadian version. On a closer look, it has a medium-brown hue with a slight reddish tone on the breaking line. The thin piece I finally broke off melts with ease and it is very creamy. Intense fruity acidity with a touch of sweetness and a slight floral note in the background. Quite a complex flavour profile that dances around in the mouth and has a long, refreshing finish, leaving a clean palate. I had high expectations of this brand and I’m happy to report that they were met. Lovely bar. 😋 Now I can peacefully taste my way through the doors, windows and attic of this Qantu house.  Have you tasted any of Qantu's chocolate bars? I've seen quite a few among the #tttt_q posts, so make sure you check those out too for inspiration.
Today you may have seen quite a few variations of @harrerchocolat's veggie bar collection as I sent some bars to Trish @myic2016 and she posted about two of them today, check out her posts and stories to see which veggies she got. 🎃 I decided to showcase my favourite from the veggie bar set, this white chocolate flavoured with pumpkin and spices (nutmeg, cinnamon, ginger).  The vibrant colour looks amazing, and it has such an intense spicy and sweet aroma! Through the creamy melt, the cooling sensation caused by the cocoa butter melting on your tongue is contrasted by the aromatic heat of the pumpkin spices surrounded by the sweet, yet also slightly savoury taste of roasted pumpkin.  I do love pumpkin in all forms, so I expected this bar to be lovely, but in the end, I like it more than I expected. Really hard to resist breaking off another piece, I just love how the sweet spiciness lingers around in my mouth.  If pumpkin spice latte is a thing, well, pumpkin spice white chocolate is definitely a thing too!  Would you give this a try? What do you think about vegetable-flavoured chocolate bars? #tttt_p #tttt_2021 #tttt_chocolate #pumpkin #pumpkinspice #veggiesinchocolateform #whitechocolate #inclusionbar #flavouredchocolate #beantobarchocolate #craftchocolate #Hungary #harrerchocolat #madeinhungary #tastebetterchocolate #chocolateeducator #tangentialtastingtwintuesday #chocolateaddict #chocolatefriends #chocswap
Do you know the feeling when you finally cross off Do you know the feeling when you finally cross off an item from your chocolate bucket list? Oh, yes, I do have a chocolate bucket list! All those bars, bonbons and other goodies that I want to try.  This @somachocolatemaker Old School Milk was on this list almost since the beginning. I owe a massive thanks to Trish @myic2016 for sending me one of these in our last chocswap. 🤗 I can tell you, I wanted to taste it as soon as possible, so there's none left now as I am writing this up. After it's been opened, photographed, and tasted... it just melted away in a heartbeat.  Love the rustic look (old school!), the minimalistic packaging that lets the bar shine through. No surprises here about the texture, it's expected to be chunky, grainy, well..., textured. But unlike some of the other crudo-style bars I've had so far, the sugar crystals here are not so detached, the whole thing seems more homogenous. Really pleasant nutty, sweet and chocolatey aroma. No snap, of course. It brittles, crumbles as soon as you try to break it. And then through the chuncy, rich, chocolate cookie texture, fantastic flavours emerge. It's sweet, nutty, comforting. The precious Chuao beans from Venezuela and the molasses-like note of the cane sugar, the creaminess of the milk powder (only these 3 ingredients!) create a true moment of tasting joy.  It's hard to write anything else. I thoroughly enjoyed this bar and so grateful that I had the chance to finally taste it! Was/is this bar on your chocolate bucket list?
I have been longing to taste some @chocolatasm cr I have been longing to taste some @chocolatasm creation for such a long time, I can't tell you how lucky I feel that Trish @myic2016 sent me this Sexy Nutmeg bar made by Paul John Kearins. #chocswap 🐙 Isn't this huge octopus on the packaging (and the bar!) just mesmerizing? Almost felt sorry for breaking this bar. Almost. But the enticing orange aroma was too hard to resist. The 40% caramelized milk chocolate is enriched with orange oil and nutmeg, a winter-y flavour combo that I could have all year long (who cares about seasons anyway, when today, here in Vienna at one moment we had a huge snowstorm and the next second it was all gone, the Sun was shining on an empty bright blue sky, then half an hour later, sunshine and snowing at the same time...) 🌬️❄️☀️🌦️ 🍊 Now realizing that this bar is actually a double word score as orange in Hungarian is 'narancs' so even more perfect for this week's #tttt_n.  An indulgent bar to say the least. Creamy milk chocolate, sweet orange with a hint of spice, the nutmeg isn't actually that strong for me, but I can definitely taste some spiciness in the background. The sweet orange flavour lingers around for quite a long time which is really nice. This could make a very nice hot chocolate, if I still had some... 😅 oops! Also, I was really inspired by the quote on the back of the bar: "No food, when eaten, should bring with it one single ounce of regret" I totally agree! Almost every day I come across posts related to chocolate talking about guilty pleasure or the opposite, guilt-free. Why are we attaching the feeling of guilt to any food? I tend to say, it's the guilt that makes you put on weight, not the chocolate. And I also ask: 'Does it make you put on less weight if you feel guilty about it?' So why bother? Enjoy, savour the moment and the food, and then move on. Curious what you think about this guilt-culture related to chocolate. 🤔 Have you tasted Chocolatasm bars, bonbons or other delights? I'm dreaming about the marzipan bar topped with pistachios and the chocolate dipped stroopwaffel.
Mexico&Mezcal for #tttt_m week! Gifted to me by @ Mexico&Mezcal for #tttt_m week! Gifted to me by @choccoffeewine in our #chocswap, this is the second time for me to taste a @cunadepiedra_ bar. My first one was their 85% Soconusco, and this time I have a pretty special infused bar. 75% dark from Comalcalco, Tabasco with Mezcal Reposado from Santiago Matatlán, Oaxaca. I wasn't too familiar with this agave-based Mexican drink, but thankfully the packaging provides some info as well and it seems like quite a complicated process. The minimalist packaging is eye-catching, the inner black foil is elegant and the embossed letters of the mould become visible before even opening up the bar. Apart from the slight shipping damage, the bar looks good. The aroma is slightly smokey. The bar gives a sharp snap and the chocolate melts fairly easily with a powdery mouthfeel (like icing sugar melting on your tongue). Only ingredients are: cacao and cane sugar, and the alcohol-removed Mezcal Reposado. Complex floral, smokey and woody notes swirl around as the chocolate melts and warms up in the mouth. A delicate warmth is brought along by the oak barell aged distillate. As a complete alcohol novice, especially regarding spirits, I wouldn't be able to guess what the base is, it vaguely reminds me of rum&raisin but I know this might sound blasphemous (I need to read Shay's posts more attentively!). A very enjoyable bar altogether, something you would keep for special occasions, for a moment of calm and to share it with someone special in the evening (maybe with a drink, if you do). Have you tried any Cuna de Piedra bars? Do you like alcohol infused chocolate bars?
Actually posting within the right week #tttt_l, le Actually posting within the right week #tttt_l, let's call that an improvement, shall we? Today I brought you the cutest cocoa pod hugging bear ever. 🐻 He's the lazy bear taking a nap on a cocoa pod. And this is a bean-to-bēar chocolate made by my friends @_chococard_ in Hungary. This particular bar was their first bean-to-bar chocolate as they slowly switched from couverture to making their own chocolate. The beans are from Cacao Bisiesto in the Matagalpa region, La Dalia, Nicaragua (fyi French Broad Chocolate and Cru Chocolate are also using these beans). Deep dark brown colour and savoury aroma, a slow creamy melt releasing earthy notes of tobacco, mushroom, toasted sunflower seeds. An almost savoury, umami flavour profile that I really enjoy. I truly wish you get to taste ChocoCard's bars as they are made with so much care and intention. No lecithin, no vanilla, direct trade, extremely friendly and funny couple behind the brand ❤️ Have you tasted bean-to-bēar? I know some of you will soon 😉
Playing catch up on #tttt_2021, so just the usual Playing catch up on #tttt_2021, so just the usual stuff here. But, this bar is quite special, so keep reading. K is for Kampot pepper. It's fascinating how many different peppercorn varieties are out there really. I was obviously really curious to try this bar from @herufekchocolate. They did a complete rebrand and their new packaging just looks fantastic! The only issue being that the whole thing is in Czech so I don't understand much without my friend, Google translate. But the cute illustrations help to get a grasp of what is explained on the inside of the packaging.  I could also gather that this chocolate is made with cocoa beans from Uganda, Semuliki Forest (Bundibugyo) sourced through Latitude Trade Cacao. And the 70% dark chocolate is very generously topped with crushed kampot pepper. This new custom mould looks so cool, isn't it? Reminds me of a chemistry lab, and also honeycomb structure as well.  The chocolate has an intense citrusy-peppery aroma. It is quite thin and melts quickly, it's creamy but there's some heat and crunch because of the pepper. At first, I was afraid because some of the pepper pieces seemed to big, but it's actually quite a mellow pepper, so it only gets too spicy if you really crunch it up with your teeth on its own. It gives the chocolate a slight heat kick and a citrusy spiciness that works well with the creamy, rich dark chocolate.  Have you tried kampot pepper before?
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