Review: Marabou Premium 70% Cocoa Mint

There are generally two types of mint or peppermint chocolates. Those filled with a mint cream and those in which the mint is an ingredient added to the chocolate itself. This offering from Marabou Premium is of the later type and is described as a “Full bodied dark chocolate with mint crisps” of which the mint crisps make up 8%.

Mint and chocolate may be a good match. However many a manufacturer exaggerates the mint and the bar ends up tasting too much of toothpaste. Unfortunately I have to conclude that this is also the case with this offering.

The box is OK looking and clearly signals that this is a dark chocolate with mint. What is less clear is that it is in fact mint crisps and that the bar contains a whole lot of foreign fats (vegetable fat) as well as dairy ingredients such as butter, butterfat, skim milk powder, sweetened condensed milk as well as whey powder. If these ingredients are in the chocolate it should, in my opinion, not be labelled “full bodied” dark chocolate. I have commented on this issue before. If these ingredients solely go into the making of the crisps this is perhaps defensible. If not – and I suspect not – as even their plain dark chocolate contains butter fat – I consider it somewhat misleading and at the very least does not give the proper idea of what this chocolate is all about. Another thing which is not clear is whether this bar contains actual mint. The declarations states only “aromas”. The chocolate itself appears nice and shiny. Judging appearance favourably I rate this 7, mainly as there are too many unclear factors. If in fact the chocolate itself does contain any dairy ingredients I would score it much lower as I would then consider it misleading. Appearance: 7 out of 10.

This bar has very strong minty aromas which overpowers its cocoa scent. Also, there is a hint of rubber. I consider the mint aroma way too strong and the hint of rubber unpleasant. Aroma: 6 out of 10.

The bar has a nice snap and good melt and this is clearly the best executed part of this offering. The only drawback is the mint crisps, which are too finely processed to provide and interesting contrast in form of crunch. Texture: 7 out of 10.

Initially the flavour is very buttery. The mint flavour starts of mildly enough but soon becomes tasting way too strong and instead of being gentle and complimenting the chocolate overpowers it. After two seconds it simply numbs your taste buds and makes your mouth full of mint. This suggests to me that aroma of flavour enhancers have been added. Also, the chocolate has a nasty bitter aftertaste. A nice thing, however, is that there is a slight taste of salt which, in my opinion, is nice in chocolate. Unfortunately this is nowhere near enough to make up for the drawbacks.
Flavour: 5 out of 10.

I am not sure who the target audience is for this offering, but I have a hard time imagining that this will become a regular item even with many a chocolate mint aficionado.

Average: 6, 25 out of 10