Leonidas Dark 70% African Origin Cocoa

                                     

About: Leonidas is  a Belgian brand. ooooh! Belgian brand. If you think how many chocolates like to boast of their Belgian origins, you'd wonder why they have such a small font proclaiming "Fresh Belgian Chocolates" on their box.

Leonidas makes a bucket load of filled chocolates and about 6 different type of bars, with 70% cocoa at the high cocoa content side. The company was started in Brussels in 1913 by a Greek-American. They are, amazingly, one of the largest manufacturers of chocolate worldwide, according to wikipedia, though there's precious little to support that, and their distribution, though significant in Belgian retail, is nothing compared to powerhouses like Godiva and Lindt. Still, maybe Belgians eat a lot of the stuff. They emphasize the value of their chocolate, so .. who knows...

Flavor: The flavor comes on slowly, but then it keeps delivering and delivering, with a slow build up of earthy flavor, followed by a nice fruity envelope and a full coffee-date-ish after taste. If you're underwhelemed at first, you're satisfied after, for sure.

Texture: Ever so slightly brittle, but smooth and solid. 

My rating: Nice 7 for excellent flavor. Almost an 8, if the texture was a bit less brittle.

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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