21 December 2010

Seeds of Change: Dark Chocolate Orange & Fig (Sainsbury’s)


Finally I have found a new Christmassy sounding chocolate bar. It doesn’t seem like something that should be hard to find, but finding a ‘new’ flavour on the shelves hasn’t been as easy as you might expect. There have been a lot of products that are same as last year, and quite a few items that are the same as normal, but in seasonal packaging, but here we have a ‘proper’ winter edition chocolate bar.
This rich dark chocolate is flavoured with both orange and fig, and smells wonderfully aromatic and citrusy when opened. The chocolate has a good flavour, the cocoa is dark and strong, and the after tones of the sweet orange balance the tatse nicely. The chocolate melts thickly in the mouth, but the smoothness is disturbed by the pieces of fig. The fig bits are sticky, chewy have an uneven texture and don’t add much in the way of flavour. Either this bar needs some kind of fig concentrate adding to the mix to enhance the flavour and commit to the fig idea, or it just needs to have the smooth chocolate and natural orange taste left on their own. There is a fair bit of potential in this bar, the base chocolate is good, and I love the organic concept, it just needs a bit of a retune with the flavours as the fig is a bit lost, except in texture.

2 comments:

Anne said...

It sounds interesting but maybe trying to pair the delicate flavour of dried figs with something as strong as orange isn't the best combinantion. Maybe just fig alone could work? But even then, I can imagine the intense flavours of a dark chocolate being too strong for the figs to really come through.

cinabar said...

Actually yes fig and white chocolate would be good, the lighter flavour would leave room for the milder fig taste.