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Chocolates from around the world (sort of)
I got myself a pack of Monbana (a French chocolate brand) dark chocolates from various different nations. Specifically Costa Rica, Ecuador, Ghana, Papua New Guinea, and Tanzania.
In a pack of eighteen, with five flavours, there are six from Ghana, so I am guessing this is the cheap rubbish one, right?
We'll start with that, then. The rest? Totally random order.
Ghana
With 70% cocoa, this is a somewhat bitter generic tasting black chocolate. Nothing much to say.
Papua New Guinea
This, also, offering 70% chocolate. And what a difference. It is still a sharp taste, but yet at the same time sweeter. More melty in the mouth, and the biggest difference is that compared to the Ghana chocolate, this has a sort of smoked fruit kind of taste. It's hard to describe, exactly. A rich smoked fruit taste, not like oranges, more like something along the lines of smoked cranberry.
Tanzania
The chocolate from Tanzania is the strongest, at 75% cocoa, yet for all of that it was - obviously - surprisingly rich but at the same time my mouth didn't curl up. It was a very smooth chocolate, but it's left a sort of greasy feeling in my mouth. The taste was not unlike a refined version of the Ghana chocolate.
Ecuador
Much weaker now, at 66% cocoa. Surprisingly this was more bitter, but not unpleasant. What come to mind when eating it was chocolate covered strawberries. This was quite pleasant.
Costa Rica
The final one, and the weakest of the lot at 64% cocoa. It wasn't bad, but less cocoa means more room for sugar and such so it kind of tasted like any dark chocolate that one might buy in a shop. There was no overriding taste sensation. It was just...sweeter than you might imagine dark chocolate to be. A bit like dark "chocolate" in England (and I put the word in quotes as most Europeans would likely tell you that the only thing worse than what passes for chocolate in England is....what passes for chocolate in America).
The no-bull epic chocolate hit
So, you have chocolate with 65% cocoa. You have chocolate with 70% cocoa. You might stretch to 75% or 78%.
Amateurs.
THIS is chocolate:
The texture is freaky. It's almost powdery in the mouth, and that's because it is basically grated cocoa bean with only enough added gunk (1%!) to allow it to be formed into an actual bar of anything. There's no sugar in it - what's the point? And coming from a quality brand, it's a good solid chocolate. Trust me, this is the closest you're going to get to pure chocolate without, literally, gnawing on a cocoa bean.
And it's brilliant. A fully rich taste that will blow your head off, pick up the head, and smack you with it. Twice.
This is absolutely a chocolate to enjoy in extreme moderation (your gut won't thank you if you don't), but once you've tried this you will probably rank all other dark chocolates as "that stuff they wrap around ice creams". This is it. This is chocolate nirvana.
Okay, okay, my preferred chocolate is still white chocolate, but that's probably more to do with the fact that it's something like 60% (or more!) sugar. Plus, lacking the cocoa solids, it's fairly safe to pig out on (so long as you're used to a sugar high) and won't keep you awake all night. It's a pleasing all-round combination of sweet and, uh, sweet. That's about it, really. It's this sweet sort-of white stuff. It's sweeeeet.
...the hell did I just read...?
If that's what's going through your mind, then I have only one thing to say to you:
Rick's b.log is like a box of chocolates,
you never know what you're gonna read.
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| Gavin Wraith, 18th February 2017, 10:59 |
Thanks for an interesting comparison. I love chocolate, but alas I have diabetes type 2, and most of what is on sale I am forbidden to eat. There are huge numbers of fellow sufferers who must represent a fair slice of the market. It puzzles me that supermarkets seem to ignore this sector. |
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