Zotter Date Shiitake bar

When I saw this outrageous combination of ingredients I knew I had to try it. On closer inspection it also includes almonds, hazelnuts, apple brandy, butter, rice flour, coffee, cumin, chili, orange oil and rosemary oil! The 70% cacao almost seems like an afterthought! On first taste the date texture and flavour dominates, with chili coming through. A slight earthiness of fragrance and flavour is the only hint of mushrooms. I guess my palate is too dull to taste all these. Like all the Zotter bars, the colourful glossy wrapper encloses a satiny gold wrapper. Very classy.

Zotter Paradise Apple and Olive Chocolate

Zotter has the most exotic and unusual chocolate bars I've ever seen. It was so hard to restrict myself to 2-3 bars in KaDaWe! (2.95E for 70g)) I selected this bar mainly because of the olive oil. I'm not sure what paradise apples taste like but the praline-like filling is slightly sour (good), very rich and smooth. Good contrast to the dark chocolate (70% cacao). Sweet, but not oppressively so. Interestingly the ingredients also list raisins, tomato powder (4.85%), almonds, lemon juice, hazelnuts, grappa, salt, chilli and full cream milk powder. Definitely not the purist bar. Also organic and fair trade. Love the colorful, yet classy packaging.