Novi NERO 70% Cacao Arancia e Mandorle (Orange and Almonds)

About: Novi is an Italian chocolate that has a wide range of products but takes pride in their dark chocolates. They have chocolate lines from different sources, and their use of real orange peel (as opposed to flavoring) suggests a dedication to authentic ingredients. They have a heritage that stretches back more than a century to their founding in 1903, though this is now a part of a larger confection conglomerate, Elha Dufour Novi. Overall, the bar is not expensive, and it's a bargain for the value.

Elah Dufour Novi

Flavor:  Quite nice. I would say the chocolate isn't amazing - just solid with nothing wrong. The orange flavor comes through nicely. It's a good bar. The orange overwhelms any subtle notes in the chocolate itself, but what's there is good.

Texture:Texture is creamy, though the orange rind in the chocolate ends up like a small, tasteless wad of cellulose in your mouth.  Overall, though, the creamy chocolate wins the day, and I rather enjoyed it.

My rating: For a solidly good texture and a solidly good flavor with the extra pleasant orange flavor, a good 6 on the scale below.

Rating Value	Meaning
1	Really bad chocolate. There's something just really really wrong here in almost every imaginable respect.
2	A bar with this rating has at least two drawbacks.
3	A bar where something is starting to get seriously wrong.... for example, really weak flavor with an otherwise acceptable texture.
4	This bar is below average, but just slightly. Mostly it's not worth eating again. Something isn't quite up to par, for example a poor texture but fine flavor.
5	This is an average good bar that's worth eating. There's nothing really wrong with it, but also nothing particularly spectacular. Or, perhaps it has a good characteristic that's evenly counter-weighted by something weak.
6	A solidly good bar with one characteristic that's above par, for example a great texture.
7	An solidly good chocolate that has two above par characteristics, but nothing mind-blowing. Good, above average flavor, but nothing to die for.
8	An excellent bar with no weaknesses and at least one characteristic that's super.
9	An awesome bar to die for with amazing texture and flavor.
10	You have been touched by God.

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Carrefour BIO 70% Cacao Extra Fine Chocolate - Cioccolato extra fondente

About: Carrefour is an international French supermarket chain, and this chocolate is their brand chocolate in Italy. It's very inexpensive, and it reminded me in flavor, texture, and marketing of the Albert Hijn chocolate with a very similar name.

It wouldn't be a surprise if they are made by the same manufacturer (though they have slightly different forms), but who that is remains a mystery. ooooh!

Flavor:  Flavor is solidly fine. You will not be bowled over by fruity notes and earthy tones or 72 virgins, but you won't be furrowing your brow about sour notes or over roasted burnt tones ruining your experience. It's a solid chocolate flavor that comes on quickly and lasts a short time before leaving.

Texture: Like the Albert Hijn version, this chocolate is very creamy. If I were a suspicious man, I'd say it was unaccountably creamy. What's the secret? I used to think it was extra cocoa butter, but maybe that would make it more brittle? Perhaps it is some sort of cheap tempering process, because after all the bar is not expensive, that magically results in a very creamy texture.

My rating: Well.. this was a toughy. It's probably a high 5 or low 6, but overall I guess a 6 on the scale below, for the texture. The strange thing about this bar was that even though the flavor is good and the texture is great, I didn't find myself just wolfing it down. There was something undefinable that was amiss, which is why the 6 is grudging. Perhaps some future, more refined, version my myself will understand what wasn't exactly right.  

Rating Value	Meaning
1	Really bad chocolate. There's something just really really wrong here in almost every imaginable respect.
2	A bar with this rating has at least two drawbacks.
3	A bar where something is starting to get seriously wrong.... for example, really weak flavor with an otherwise acceptable texture.
4	This bar is below average, but just slightly. Mostly it's not worth eating again. Something isn't quite up to par, for example a poor texture but fine flavor.
5	This is an average good bar that's worth eating. There's nothing really wrong with it, but also nothing particularly spectacular. Or, perhaps it has a good characteristic that's evenly counter-weighted by something weak.
6	A solidly good bar with one characteristic that's above par, for example a great texture.
7	An solidly good chocolate that has two above par characteristics, but nothing mind-blowing. Good, above average flavor, but nothing to die for.
8	An excellent bar with no weaknesses and at least one characteristic that's super.
9	An awesome bar to die for with amazing texture and flavor.
10	You have been touched by God.

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