Thornton's Dark Chocolate with Rose: Floral Chocolate

In assembling that beautiful package of British chocolate, Natalie kindly sent along multiple pieces of chocolate from each chocolatier represented. The nice thing about this is that I can evaluated different products by each chocolatier and not draw snap judgments – good or bad - based on one piece. To compliment my sampling of the Thornton’s dark chocolate with blueberries and raspberries, she also sent along their limited-edition bar of dark chocolate with crystallized rose petals.

The 64% cocoa bar has an aroma of red fruit, with a hint of smokiness as well.

The chocolate itself has a slow, buttery melt, and is complimented by the rose crystals, which are substantial enough to be apparent but small enough to integrate nicely into the chocolate.

However, there is little rose flavor in the chocolate, and while the crystals aren’t distracting, they seem to add little to the chocolate. The strong chocolate flavors are vanilla, coffee, and smoke; a hint of lavender emerges along with some generic floral taste, but rose doesn’t specifically come forward. It’s a nice bar, but I would like to see the rose more apparent.

Have you had chocolate with rose before?