Marks and Spencer Milk Chocolate with Rose

Why is it so easy to find fair trade chocolates even in house brands in England? This bar is smooth (as expected from a milk chocolate) and pleasantly redolent of roses. Unusual and delightful.

Marks & Spencer Fairtrade Earl Grey

I was pleasantly surprised how easy it was to find fair trade and organic teas in London. This very pleasant purchase will be the source of many hot cups of tea consumed in front of the computer.

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.

3400 Phinney Bread & Chocolate Dark Chocolate

3400 Phinney Bread & Chocolate Dark Chocolate

I'm rapidly running out of chocolate and am down to my last bars. This is a recent acquisition from my January Seattle trip. With no time to head to a store with a wider 3400 Phinney selection, I picked up this 65% cacao chocolate bar. Supposed to contain french bread and butter, but I couldn't discern the bread but was surprised by the tiny sea salt crystals peppered throughout the bar. Distinctly salty, the chocolate itself is fairly bland. Love the funky and unusual wrappers.

Delhaize Dark Chocolate and Dark Chocolate with candied orange peel

Another two supermarket brand bars, but this time both are fair trade bars. The plain dark bar is a 74% cacao with Arriba beans from Ecuador. A little sugar, so not a bitter bar. Good fragrance and depth of flavour, but a hint of sourness. I don't remember the price but expect they were most likely ~1.50E each, so very inexpensive.

The second bar is full of tiny pieces of peel, making for a good orange flavour. Although candied, the pieces of peel are not sweet. I like this a lot better than some other overly sweet bars. As with many flavoured chocolate bars, the actual flavour of the chocolate itself is hard to discern. No sourness as above though. Also a 74% cacao bar made from Ecuadorean Arriba beans.

Both were way, way better than the equivalent Monoprix bars.

Delhaize Tarte Citron and Santander with Passionfruit

Delhaize Tarte Citron

Another supermarket bar made to resemble a branded counterpart, Lindt's Lemon Mousse bar in this case, this consists of sweet milk chocolate (30% cacao) enclosing a lemon filling (40%). The chunky pieces have a sweet milk chocolate fragrance with a strong lemon component. Tiny bicuit pieces in the filling add a surprising but pleasing crunch. According to the ingredients list there are meringue pieces but I haven't been able to taste them. I have not tasted Lindt's version, so can't compare them, but I really like this bar. While much sweeter than my general preference, the lemon and crunchy bits make this perfect for days when I want a change from dark chocolate. Did I mention that the glossy yellow and white packaging is also very elegant?

Santander with Passionfruit

A Colombian single-origin bar with 70% cacao and tiny crispy(!) passion fruits bits scattered throughout, this is a fairly creamy, smooth-textured bar. Slightly sweetened but not overly so. The chocolate itself has a good flavour, slightly fruity. Not acid, sour or bitter. Wrapped in thick gold foil and packaged in glossy black cardboard, this is certainly more attractive than Santander's plain single-origin bars. Definitely worth trying. I like the chocolate, but am not sure the passionfruit flavour is strong enough.

90% Plantations Arriba

This 90% Plantations Arriba bar was unfortunately damaged by the heat of summer and bloomed badly. My frugal self will not let me throw it out so I've been consuming it at work. It's hard to tell how the flavour and texture has changed, but this is still a relatively smooth bar, not noticeably sweet despite the presence of cane sugar. This is one of the higher percentage bars I've tasted but there is no trace of bitterness, compared to some others with lower cacao percentages. Unlike other bars its only ingredients are cacao and sugar, no vanillin or cacao butter. Also part of a program to identify and safeguard heirloom cocoa varieties and the Ecuadorian rain forest, this bar is perhaps a little too subtle for my tastes.

3400 Phinney Milk Chocolate with Chai

3400 Phinney Milk Chocolate with Chai

One of my Seattle purchases. Yes, I keep chocolate far too long! Around 35% cacao, this is a pleasant, not too sweet, bar with discernable but not overwhelming chai flavours. Not sure I could taste the black tea though. An organic and fair trade bar. Theo also roasts their own organic cocoa beans. I love the colourful packaging, which is such a contrast to the sober luxe designs of other premium chocolates, and look forward to trying their Coconut Curry bar.

Monoprix Ecorces d'Oranges + Fair Trade

More chocolate from the Monoprix Gourmet range. A mixed bag as was the last bar. Beautiful packaging but the base chocolate is not that good.

While the ecorces d'oranges bar, which is charmingly labelled "un petit air de fete" has a strong orange flavour and are generously filled with bits of slightly sweetened orange peel, the chocolate itself is a little chalky. Definitely another case where the chocolate is secondary to the filling. Cocoa content 70%.

The fair trade bar produced from cocoa beans harvested by small producers north of the Equator, hence the name, is 74% cocoa and frankly, not very good. With fairly faint flavour and aroma, it's not bitter and in fact is very slightly sweet with added cane sugar. There is a strange aftertaste which I find pretty unpleasant. This is going to have to become coating for strawberries I think as I can't eat it on its own.

Green and Black Maya Gold

Green and Black's Maya Gold

A 55% cacao bar from this well-known organic producer, this bar was produced in Italy. I've tried and liked their espresso bar, but wasn't too sure what the spices would be like in this bar. I was pleasantly surprised to find myself liking it very much. The warmth of the spices blends well with the orange. Note that the flavor of the spices is quite strong - according to the site the spices are nutmeg, cinnamon and vanilla. I am drinking a Twining's Lady Grey tea with the exact same spice profile, so if you want a double citrus and spice hit, have a cup of tea with some of this chocolate.