About: This was an expensive bar at $15. It's also an unusual bar, made with olive oil. It is the "product of years of friendship, research and collaboration between the celebrated chef Thomas Keller and renowned olive oil producer Armando Manni." They make 3 different bars of 75% sourced chocolate beans, and they target chocolate lovers - there's not milk chocolate malfeasance here. They claim one is "velvety," another "satiny," and the third is "silky." Really? Ok..
The chocolate is made in Napa, California, and it's definitely interesting and different. Revolutionary? I'm more skeptical.
Flavor: The olive oil flavor definitely comes through, and it's perhaps a matter of taste to decide whether this is a good thing or not. Olive oil can have a slight bite - a light bitterness and peppery spiciness that comes through in the chocolate. For me, the first tasting evokes a bit of a wrinkled brow that resolves with the second bite into a "hmm, interesting" nod, finally followed by a "not at all bad" half-smile. But it stops there and never gets to the wide-eyed "I need as much of this as I can get."
Texture: The olive oil makes this a very smooth and pleasantly fatty bar. The chocolate melts and coats the tongue with flavor and creamy goodness. Definitely a strong point.
My rating: 7 for good flavor and texture.
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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