Review: Toblerone Milk (Kraft)

Christmas and New Year is a very busy season both professionally and at home. And while I eat a lot of chocolate I do not have much time on my hands for writing reviews and I expect this one to be the last this year. Next year will hopefully feature many more chocolate reviews.

This original or “plain” Toblerone Milk is described as “Swiss milk chocolate with honey and almond nougat (10%)”. Cocoa contents is given as min. 28% with 3% honey and 1, 8% almonds.

Aesthetically the triangular shaped box, with embossed letters, looks OK, though it is nothing spectacular. Also, the box appearance does not give a good idea of what kind of chocolate this is, but here Toblerone can probably rely on an established tradition which customers are easily able to identify. The chocolate itself looks OK and when one snaps of a triangular piece bits of almonds are visible. Appearance: 7 out of 10.

Snapping of a triangular piece one is met with a nice aroma of milk chocolate and nuts. Butter/dairy is, unfortunately, quite dominant leaving too little room for the chocolate to really shine. Aroma: 7 out of 10.

The chocolate has a texture which is somewhat in between: when breaking of a piece the snap is fair for a milk chocolate, but in the mouth the chocolate is neither hard (as a dark chocolate) nor as soft as a traditional milk chocolate. There is some crispness from almond pieces, which unfortunately are so finely ground that they do provide too little in terms of crunchy contrast. The visible almond bits and the crunch make me think that we are talking about “French nougat”, which is made with sugar, egg white and almonds which is hard and brittle and not the soft melting nougat made with hazelnuts. I think this should have been stated more clearly especially for the Danish market where nougat is usually thought to be of the later variety unless qualified. At any rate I think the nougat is too finely chopped to add substantial contrast. Also it is very sticky.

Texture: 6, 5 out of 10.

The flavour is of sweet dairy chocolate of mediocre quality and very buttery. One can taste the almonds, but there is too little contrast and complexity for this one to be too interesting. It may nevertheless hit the spot for those looking for a quick chocolate fix. Flavour: 6, 5 out of 10.

Average: 6, 75 out of 10.

Review: Organic Milk Chocolate (Irma)

This organic and Fairtrade certified milk chocolate bar is produced by Ludwig Weinrich, known for producing the VIVANI series. It has 38% minimum cocoa contents and which is in the high end for a milk chocolate, though by no means among the highest available. Here, however, it comes as an offering in Irma’s private label organic line.

Being male I’m not too fond of the pink notes on the wrapper, and also I’m not sure how this fulfils the wrapper’s function as a guide to what tyoe of chocolate you are getting with this offering. The chocolate itself looks, however looks gorgeous with a shiny light brown colour. Appearance: 8 out of 10.

There is a sweet scent of cocoa with notes of caramel, though I feel the aroma could be more powerful. Aroma: 7, 5 out of 10.

This bar has an excellent snap to it both when breaking and when biting into it, considering that this is a milk chocolate. The melt good too if a little slow on the slow side (maybe due to high cocoa contents?). Texture: 8 out of 10.

The flavour is not too sweet, which is good. One can easily taste that this is a high cocoa content bar Still there is very little very little in terms of complexity – it is not enough simply to have a high cocoa content. It is not that the chocolate is bad tasting or bland – it could simply need a little more character. So if you look for milk chocolate with a relatively high cocoa content and with it more “dark” qualities you will probably like this one. Flavour: 7, 5 out of 10.

Average 7, 75 out of 10

Marabou Premium 70% Cocoa

Producing a 70% bar of good quality is no easy task. Thus if a company is capable of producing a good dark chocolate with high cocoa content, it is usually a good indication that offerings with less cocoa, are also of a high standard. However, since high cocoa content offerings tend to have a less broad appeal, many consumers will judge a range from the lower cocoa content end. On the other hand the Premium range from Marabou seems to be produced with dark 70% chocolate as base and cornerstone. Therefore the 70% bar might be seen as a benchmark for the range’s overall quality.

The Marabou Premium range appears to be branded as a more elegant alternative to other bars carrying the Marabou label. This offering has a minimum 70% cocoa content, but, “unfortunately” also butterfat, according to the declaration. As I have stated previously I consider it misleading to label it a “full bodied dark chocolate”, as this offering does, when it contains a dairy product. Also, the declaration states that fat reduced cocoa is used and I hope that one of my readers can help me figure out why a chocolate bar needs to have fat reduced cocoa in it. If you are in the know – or would like to venture a guess - please leave a comment.

Box looks nice and is in keeping with the boxes in this range. The chocolate itself has a nice dark brown colour, though it appears to me it should be shinier. I also think that the box does not accurately convey that this is not a dark chocolate, per se, since it contains butter fat. With this in mind I have to score it low. Appearance: 5 out of 10.

The aroma is one dimensional, “dry” and smells of tobacco which is not very pleasant. Aroma: 7 out of 10.

The chocolate has a nice snap and good melt which is not to dry. The only drawback is that it breaks down a little too fragmentary. Texture: 7, 5 out of 10.

The flavour itself is rather bland and with no complexity, nuances or fruit. It is not too sweet and has a little bitter tobacco finish. Taste 6, 5 out of 10.

Average: 6, 5 out of 10.

Mythic wild chocolate

I apologize. I do not have a review for you today. I hope to make it up to you, though. The article below has got to be one of the best reads on the topic of wild chocolate. It is very informative, superbly written and gives a most fascinating inside view of the world of wild chocolates. You will not be disappointed!

Story of mythic wild chocolate

Review: Ritter Sport Dark with Whole Hazelnuts

According to Ritter Sport, over at Jim’s Chocolate Mission, this offering is the runner up on the worldwide best selling Ritter list. As I have reviewed both number one and three on that list, I thought it only fair to review this one as well. To be up front I am a little surprised that this one was able to conquer second place as I found it somewhat disappointing. While I did not think the world of either the white and milk varieties, at least I can understand why they have such a broad appeal.

Ritter Sport dark Whole Hazelnuts has a whopping 23% of whole roasted hazelnuts and a minimum of 50% cocoa solids. The declaraton to this bar reveals that it contains butter fat and shellac. In my book, as I have stated before, I think it a misnomer to label a chocolate “dark” if it has any dairy product in it (even if this is allowed by EU and/or national regulations), though perhaps I should be more lenient with this one since it is a “filled” chocolate (the Ritter hallmark). In addition this bar is glazed with shellac, a substance from insects, presumably to give the bar extra shine. I will leave it to you to judge whether this is acceptable or not, but to me dark chocolate should only have five basic ingredients plus those for the filling. I am not sure why shellac is necessary here - and I invite anyone to leave a comment on this subject.

As with the wrapper of the other two of the top three, I am not to fond of the “Photo” wrapper, though I consider this one, with its dark colour, the most elegant of the three wrappers. The chocolate has a nice dark brown colour and a nice shine. Also, the bar looks nice in cross section with whole nuts protruding. Still, I think the wrapper is a bit misleading, in that it is not dark chocolate and hence fails to accurately convey what this bar is about. For this reason I will have to assign it a low score presentation wise. Appearance: 6 out of 10.

That this is in fact less than a full bodied dark chocolate is also confirmed by the aroma of the bar which is sweet smelling of dairy chocolate. There are good aromas of roasted hazelnuts that might be more pronounced though. Overall I think the aroma is so dairy that it detracts from the aroma profile of a dark chocolate. Aroma: 7 out of 10.

The hazelnuts bring a good crunch to the bar, but ut us for some reason that the nuts and chocolate, in terms of mout feek, do not play well together, being to “fragmented” in the mouth. The chocolate has a slow melt which lasts until the hazelnuts are munched. It sticks a little to the mouth. Texture: 7 out of 10.

The hazelnuts do provide a nice taste but I think they could and should have more flavour and character than they have here. Instead, the chocolate steals the show and unfortunately I did not find the chocolate to be of a very good quality, making the nuts unable to put up a fight. It has a rather strange taste, as if it is not “real” chocolate and a bitter and unpleasant aftertaste with no fruit or complexity at all. There are slight hints of vanilla. On the positive side the bar is not too sweet, probably due to the generous amount of hazelnuts. Flavour: 6 out of 10.

Average score: 6, 5 out of 10.