I have always been a lover of dark chocolate and really prefer the less sweet and more cocoa tasting chocolate. The problem, is finding really good quality and great tasting dark chocolate. Thus I thought I would review and provide a short write up on any dark chocolate I try out. Hopefully it can provide other dark chocolate lovers with a good description of the various brands and maybe even show you some great quality brands that you have never heard about, that you could end up trying and loving!
The second dark chocolate review is of the Chocolates by Tomes (CbT). After reviewing the Lindt 70% dark chocolate I didn’t think another brand would come quite close, but the CbT is just as good if not better than the Lindt chocolate in a few aspects. It’s balance of ‘darkness’ and sweetness is pretty darn amazing as is the texture of it. A plus is that is is also made right here in South Africa. CbT also lists the cocoa solids as 72%, which hopefully shows that it really contains that amount.
The review is quite basic and to the point, being based upon four aspects:
- The ingredients
- The taste
- The texture
- The sweetness
- Flavours
Ingredients:
Cocoa solids: 72%
The great thing about Chocolate by Tomes is that they also list the percentages. Some brands simply call it dark chocolate, and then on the ingredients list, list the cocoa solids percentage as somewhere between 30 and 50%. 30% is really low and doesn’t quite count as dark chocolate. Obviously the higher the percentage the darker it is.
What’s also great is that even on the non dark chocolates of CbT, they list the cocoa solids percentage. For example one of the white chocolate flavours is listed as 42%.
Texture:
Some dark chocolate is too soft and melts a bit too easily in your mouth and thus doesn’t really last. This usually happens when there is not enough cocoa solids and the chocolate may not have been tempered well. I like it when it lasts a bit and has a bit of thickness to it, allowing the intensity of the dark chocolate taste to really engulf your taste buds without leaving a lingering aftertaste. The CbT bars do this well.
Taste:
The chocolate is of a high quality and the taste is exquisite, definitely one of the best out there. It also has a great balance between sweetness and ‘darkness’ to make it not too sweet and not too bitter. If you have a slight inclination to dark chocolate but are still a bit hesitant because of the bitterness, it is definitely worth a try. I found though, that these chocolates are slightly more bitter (bitter meaning dark and not sweet) than the Lindt bar (which is 70%).
Dark chocolate sweetness rating: 1 -5
4 out of 5.
The higher the rating is, the less sweet and more dark chocolaty taste it has.
Flavours:
Chocolate by Tomes has a range of different flavours for their chocolates.
The flavours I tried were (in order of greatness):
- DOUBLE CHOCOLATE (also 72%)
- MINT in 72% dark chocolate
- ORANGE in 72% dark chocolate
They were all really great tasting and the flavours were nice and subtle which didn’t distract from the great dark chocolate taste. I have experienced other chocolates that add flavours, sometimes add too much and thus overpower the chocolate making it quite sweet and in turn eliminating the ‘dark’ taste.
