Sunday, July 10, 2011

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?

6 comments:

  1. I have not had chocolate with rose before...but I'm intrigued!

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  2. I haven't had any chocolate with rose before... but I think if I have the choice I always try something else, I'm not a big fan of rose flavour.

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  3. Ooh, vanilla, coffee, smoke are some of my favourite flavours for dark chocolate! I'm sad this wasn't available when I was in England last year, even if the rose isn't as strong as it could be.

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  4. Wow crystalized rose petals sounds so beautiful!

    I never knew chocolate could get so artistic...it's great to get to know chocolate on such an extensive level!

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  5. I LOVE the chocolate and rose combination. Pairing rose with dark chocolate isn't easy because the chocolate can easily overwhelm the rose flavor.

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  6. I really like Thornton's rose bar. I like the crunchiness of the rose petals and they add just enough of a unique flavour to make it interesting. A very fine bar for the price!

    Doreen Pendgracs
    http://diversionswithdoreen.wordpress.com/

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