I mentioned Luisa’s Whole Hazelnut in 75% cocoa chocolate last month. But if you like nutty ‘milk’ chocolate, but are vegan, I may just have found you the best such bar there is: Luisa’s Hazelnut Crunch (£4.50/25g) contains hazelnuts (both ground to give that creamy ‘milk’ texture, and roasted whole, for crunch), cocoa and sugar. It is really good and not even (relatively) that high in sugar. The 25g is perfect, you can eat the whole bar knowing it’s not a doorstep size.
Sur Chocolates, famous for their alfajores, have launched some new products, which I shall be covering in the weeks to come. First: their Passionate Pecans (£6.50/100g) are caramelised pecans in dulce de leche chocolate dusted in passion fruit powder. They are lovely! They have this sour tang which gives way to sweet crunchiness and they look like little pebbles. They may be my sneak-in bag for my next cinema trip.
A super-tasty and very unusual bar I tried this week is by Bristol-based Radek. Its stone ground (but v smooth) Cocoa IPA Malted Barley (£5/72g) is like no other chocolate I’ve ever tasted. It’s weirdly savoury. They say if you like beer, you’ll like this, thanks to the malted barley and hops, but I loved this and I can’t stand beer. It may not be to everyone’s taste.
Chocolatier and pastry chef Janice Wong has partnered with the National Gallery to create some really unusual flavours, the Smoked Dark 70% with chocolate from Thailand (£7/40g) was absolutely not my thing, because I’m not keen on smoked things, but if you do, then you are in for a treat.
Follow Annalisa on Twitter @AnnalisaB
