A friend of mine recently asked why I didn’t review any “normal” chocolate. Normal being chocolate, presumably, being chocolate that most people have access to.
Since not everybody works a mile from Biagio. Shame that it is.
I suppose the answer is that you don’t need me to tell you that a plain Hershey’s Bar kind of sucks. But this friend did have a point – most people have a hard time getting their hands on Hotel Chocolat, myself included. But rather than raid the display at the end of the checkout counter at a drugstore, I decided to check out the Trader Joe’s 72% cocoa dark chocolate bar, which is imported from Belgium.
The bar doesn’t have a great melt, and left a bit of a dry feeling in my mouth, though the chocolate itself didn’t seem especially dry.
The taste features strong coffee notes and a bit of a vanilla undertone. While it is not sweet, it does have just enough sugar to make it palatable to somebody who likes milk chocolate a bit more than dark. There’s nothing fancy here, and I wouldn’t make a special trip to pick up these bars, but I go to Trader Joe’s to feed my peanut flour and microwaveable salmon patty habits on a fairly regular basis, so these might find their way into my shopping cart as well.
Have you tried any chocolate from Trader Joe’s? What did you think?
That looks good. I've never even been to Trader Joe's, but as I'm the only one in the family who loves dark chocolate, I'd have to buy this and eat it all by myself. Which isn't such a bad thing, now that I think about it! =P
ReplyDeleteI've got the TJ's dark chocolate lovers 85% from Switzerland in my bag for my 10:00 chocolate craving. I'll let you know how it is :)
ReplyDeleteI like this "chocolate-for-regular-people" segment...I vote for more of these!
ReplyDeleteI'm a big fan of Trader Joe's, but have not yet bought any of their chocolate. Last time I was there I was sorely tempted by their nonpareils, but talked myself down. Perhaps I will try some of this, since you deem it not sucky.
Easy for people in America to access, maybe... :( Though to be fair, I never bothered buying Trader Joe's chocolate when I was in America, so I can't really complain! Trader Joe's had so many other delights that I was happy to stick with my fancy chocolate from elsewhere ;)
ReplyDeleteHmm.. I wish TJ is closer to my house.. I guess I have to wait until March when I visit my parents.
ReplyDelete@Gen And these come in packs of 3. Think of the possibilities.
ReplyDelete@BethAnd how was it? Though I'm tempted to just try some of it for myself...
ReplyDelete@Mary at n00bcakes Well, in my ideal world, everybody works walking distance from a shop like Biagio, so all chocolate is for regular people. But I'll try to get some more "normal" chocolate showing up here.
ReplyDelete@Hannah Y'all have plenty of great chocolate in Australia. I forget - can you get Lindt there?
ReplyDelete@Bea @ Beaglebea Aw man, sorry to hear that it's a hike. But chocolate stores well!
ReplyDeleteI love dark chocolate, it's my favorite! But I only go up to 70%, which is perfect for me. I like milk chocolate as well. I actually don't usually like white chocolate though. Did you know white chocolate isn't actually chocolate? It's made from other things.
ReplyDelete@beautyrun That's actually not true of real white chocolate, which contains cocoa butter but not powder or liquor. Callebaut's white chocolate, for example, is 26% cocoa solids, while Valrhona's is a whopping 37%. That's a higher % of cocoa solids than a lot of milk chocolates. Verdict: white chocolate is chocolate.
ReplyDeleteIf you by the junk at the supermarket, that's white bark made out of vegetable oil. That's not chocolate, or white chocolate really.
youre a total snob. thesee things are only 1.90 for 3 of these bars. the reasont they sell them like a drug deal is because people actually need them for medicinal purposes or abuse them for a high. and 72 percent is pretty high up there. how can you complain?
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