The Good: Good ingredients, Tastes good, Relatively inexpensive
The Bad: The lemon flavor is not very strong, The pepper is more a texture than a taste until the chocolate is gone
The Basics: Cachet Lemon & Black Pepper Dark Chocolate Bars a fine chocolate without the expense . . . or much of the promised flavor.
Two days ago, I hurt my back. When I went off to work last night, I had to take painkillers (which is pretty much unheard of for me!). When I returned home, I found my wife (who has been suffering from the flu) was bedridden from our dog. Myah wrenched my wife and hurt her back to the point that she could not comfortably walk or anything else. So, today, I went out to get her medicine and some Vitamin C. In addition to the Vitamin Chocolate I got for my wife, I picked myself up a Cachet Lemon & Black Pepper Dark Chocolate Bar to help my sore back.
What I learned – given that this was my first experience with Cachet chocolate – was that Cachet has at least one really good fine chocolate at a very reasonable price, even if it does not embody perfectly the flavors it promises to.
Basics
Cachet is an inexpensive but quality chocolatier that licenses its chocolates out to other companies, like Walgreens under the Good & Delish line. They import Belgian chocolates, but the dark bars I found today. The Lemon & Black Pepper Dark Chocolate Bars give an entire demographic that cannot afford fine chocolates a taste of the fine life!
The Lemon & Black Pepper Dark Chocolate Bars come in a 3.5 oz. chocolate bar that is foil-wrapped and inside a cardboard wrapper. Each bar represents a three servings and Cachet bars are segmented as squares that can be broken apart to make the proper servings. The whole bar is presented as a 3 3/8” wide by 7 1/4” long segmented chocolate bars. Each segment snaps apart from the bar and is smooth on the slightly-rounded top. This makes the Lemon & Black Pepper Dark Chocolate Bars very easy to portion out to have less than a full serving, which is nice for those who might be watching their waistline!
Ease Of Preparation
Eating Cachet Lemon & Black Pepper Dark Chocolate Bars is not a real challenge. After removing the cardboard and the foil wrapper, simply pull out the bar or break a segment off and stick it in your mouth. There is no particularly complicated equation to eating these chocolates. This is an entirely ready-to-eat food!
Taste
Unwrapping the dark chocolate bar, the smell of dark chocolate is powerful and potent. The Lemon & Black Pepper Dark Chocolate Bar smells more like roasted peanut and cocoa than it does anything remotely like lemon or pepper. The aroma is distinct and not at all fruity.
The Lemon & Black Pepper Dark Chocolate Bar is predictably solid dark chocolate. The chocolate is firm on the tongue, barely sweet and the initial dry flavor is only fruity after the initial bitterness dissipates. There is something very interesting about the flavor of the Cachet Lemon & Black Pepper Dark Chocolate Bars: if one lets them sit on the tongue, it tastes entirely like a much darker chocolate than it actually is (it tastes much like a 72% cacao dark chocolate, as opposed to the 57% that it actually is). If you chew the chocolate, the flavor of the lemon in the dark chocolate actually comes out. The fruit flavor only asserts itself when one chews the dark chocolate bar. If one lets the Lemon & Black Pepper Dark Chocolate linger on the tongue and melt away, the black pepper – which is only a crispy texture when one chews the chocolate bar – ends up on the tongue. Chewing the granules then, the black pepper is powerful and obvious. It is entirely familiar when the pepper is chewed after it is exposed.
There is a strong, bitter chocolate aftertaste to this chocolate bar and if one lets it dissolve on the tongue until the pepper it accessible, there is an obvious and familiar pepper aftertaste that lingers for quite a bit of time on the tongue.
Nutrition
Cachet chocolates are intended as a dessert product, so anyone attempting to live off them is proceeding under a ridiculous premise! These 3.5 oz. Dark Chocolate Bars represent a three servings and those looking for real nutrition will have to look elsewhere. Made primarily of cocoa liquor, sugar and lemon granules, there are no unpronounceable ingredients in this chocolate bar. They were produced on equipment that forces them to add a disclaimer about tree nuts, eggs, and wheat. Because they contain milk and soy, they are not at all vegan compliant and are not marked as gluten free.
Cachet's Lemon & Black Pepper Dark Chocolate Bars have 210 calories in a three square serving, 120 of which are from fat. A full serving represents 40% of one's RDA of saturated fat and 1% of the RDA of cholesterol. There is no sodium in these bars and there are 2 grams of protein. These are not a significant source of any vitamins or minerals, though they do have 4% of one’s daily calcium and 30% of the RDA of Iron.
Storage/Cleanup
As a chocolate, Cachet Lemon & Black Pepper Dark Chocolate Bars are fine as long as they are stored below 65 degrees Fahrenheit. The bar I picked up yesterday had an expiration date of January 23, 2015. Given that mine is gone already, I cannot comment on how well they endure as they come closer to the expiration date.
If, however, they melt, they will stain. Consult your fabric guide if they melt as dark chocolate can be a bear to clean up when melted into light fabrics. Otherwise, cleanup is simply throwing the foil wrapper away when you are done with the chocolate bar.
Overall
Cachet Lemon & Black Pepper Dark Chocolate Bars are very good, but not exceptional for the lemon or pepper flavors. The dark chocolate, however, is as good as one might hope for a fine chocolate and these bars are certainly affordable, making them worth trying if not stocking up on.
For other reviews of other chocolates, please check out:
Godiva White Chocolate Vanilla Bean bar
Wild Ophelia District 6 Transportation The Hunger Games: Catching Fire Crunchy Runner Peanuts In Peanut Butter And Milk Chocolate Bar
Trader Joe's Dark Chocolate With Almonds Chocolate Bars
6/10
For other food and drink reviews, please visit my Food And Drink Review Index Page for an organized listing!
© 2014 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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