The very nice people at Divine Chocolate sent me their new 85% Dark Chocolate Bar to sample the other day. As I sat down at the table with a cup of tea and the newbie, I reflected on how much my relationship with chocolate had changed over the years.
Not so long ago, a bar of chocolate suddenly landing on my doormat would have caused much initial excitement, followed immediately by a sense of doom, followed shortly by despair and self disgust. I would have been eaten the bar all in one go, probably standing at my front door while I shuffled through the rest of the post. The incriminating wrapper would have been hastily shoved to the bottom of a bin bag waiting to go out for collection and I wouldn't have told my partner about how brilliant it is to get sent chocolate to taste as part of my job because I wouldn't have been able to explain why there was none left.
How times have changed! I sat there for a while blowing on my tea to cool it down and took a good look at the packaging. Divine have gone elegant and refined with a black and gold wrapper which befits a seriously cocoa loaded bar. At 85%, this bar has 'serious' written all over it.
I pulled the outer paper and foil apart and let the heady aroma of cocoa hit my nostrils. Warm and rich, it smells good!
Then I broke off a square, popped it in my mouth and let it sit there for a moment. Nothing happened. So I bit into it and sucked at the pieces a little. My mouth was filled with pleasant notes of red fruit and a deep chocolaty base. I took a sip of tea and popped another piece in my mouth to give my taste buds a chance at a second opinion. Not bad, not bad at all. The texture and 'mouthfeel' aren't quite up there with my favourite Valrhona bar but the flavour is pretty good, especially considering that the Divine costs nearly three times less!
I used the rest of the bar to make some of Jamie Oliver's Bloomin Brillianrt Brownies which I chose because the recipe includes sour cherries and I thought the Divine chocolate would work well with them. It did and I was very pleased with the results.
If you are wondering what it would be like to have a 'take it or leave' attitude to chocolate, you'll be happy to know that our summer sale is still on so you can start Beyond Chocolate today and save 30%. Check it out.
If you are wondering what it would be like to have a 'take it or leave' attitude to chocolate, you'll be happy to know that our summer sale is still on so you can start Beyond Chocolate today and save 30%. Check it out.
lol!
ReplyDeleteIf it were a chocolate bar with less than 70% cocoa, I could also scoff it down in minutes.
I find that the higher the percentage of cocoa, the less I can have of it, plus, 70%-85% cocoa usually tastes better than milk chocolate, and is a lot more satisfying.
I also find that the higher the chocolate content, the less I physically can eat. Dairy Milk is probably the one that goes the fastest and has quite a lot cocoa content.
ReplyDeleteI don't actually like the taste of dark chocolate much, but have a belief (left over from somewhere!) that's it's 'good for me' in small doses....