Sunday, July 23, 2017

Interesting And Enjoyable, Green & Black's Pure Dark Chocolate Raspberry & Hazelnut Bars Intrigue!


The Good: Good flavor, Decent ingredients, Good corporate ethics
The Bad: Expensive, Could use a bit more raspberry
The Basics: Green & Black's Pure Dark Chocolate Raspberry & Hazelnut chocolate bars are a good rendition of dark chocolate, a fair incorporation of raspberries and an unimpressive use of hazelnuts in one very good and expensive candy bar.


When I try a new (to me) product or product line, one of the true testaments to its quality is how quickly I return to the brand to try and review more of their products. I recently experienced Green & Black's chocolates for the first time with their Pure Dark Chocolate Sea Salt chocolate bars (reviewed here!) and the experience was enough to encourage me to try more. Today, I'm reviewing the Green & Black's Pure Dark Chocolate Raspberry & Hazelnut candy bars and they are such a good use of the promised elements that I did not even mind the nuts in the chocolate bar (which, admittedly, are not something I usually seek).

Basics

Green & Black's Pure Dark Chocolate Raspberry & Hazelnut chocolate bars are one and three-eights inch by one and five-eighths inch rectangles of chocolate that are about three-sixteenths of an inch thick and connected side by side and in rows, to form a bar of ten segments. Each bar comes unified in a foil wrapper. The foil-wrapped chocolate bar is sealed in a cardboard package.

Each chocolate bar is sold in a way that it is easy to segment and control portions. In this form, the 3.17 oz. bar, the chocolate bar represents two and a half servings. Each bar appears solid (the Raspberry & Hazelnut flakes are embedded, as opposed to acting like a filling) and is stamped with the Green & Black's logo.

Ease Of Preparation

These are candy, so preparing them is as simple as opening the cardboard and then opening the foil wrapper from around the actual chocolate. There is no trick to eating Green & Black's Pure Dark Chocolate Raspberry & Hazelnut chocolate bars.

Taste

The Green & Black's Pure Dark Chocolate Raspberry & Hazelnut bars have a strong cocoa aroma. The dark chocolate scent is pleasant and inviting for anyone who loves dark chocolate. The aromatic nature of the dark chocolate is uncommon, but quite nice and it is supplemented by a very faint raspberry scent that is something akin to an afterscent at the back of the chocolate bar's bouquet.

In the mouth, the Pure Dark Chocolate Raspberry & Hazelnut bars are sweet and dry; the cocoa flavor is distinct and flavorful. The moment one bites into the Pure Dark Chocolate Raspberry & Hazelnut bar - one one lets the chocolate melt in one's mouth - the raspberries in the bars assert themselves with a sweet and sour flavor that is easily recognizable as raspberry. The hazelnuts add nothing distinct to the flavor, but they give each Pure Dark Chocolate Raspberry & Hazelnut bar a crunchy texture.

The Green & Black's Pure Dark Chocolate Raspberry & Hazelnut chocolate bar has a fairly mild chocolate aftertaste that does not endure long in the mouth after the last of the chocolate is consumed.

Nutrition

These are candy, so health aspects are seldom one's top concern. That said, the Green & Black's Pure Dark Chocolate Raspberry & Hazelnut chocolate bars are made of generally good ingredients, justifying their expense. The primary ingredients are bittersweet chocolate, roasted hazelnuts and sugar. There is nothing unpronounceable in these candies and they do include actual (freeze-dried) raspberries.

A serving from the Green & Black's Pure Dark Chocolate Raspberry & Hazelnut chocolate bars is considered four rectangles from the overall bar, which is a somewhat silly serving size for a bar that is segmented into ten pieces (as that means one whole bar is two and a half servings). From four squares, one takes in 210 calories, including 150 calories of fat. There is no sodium and 2 grams protein in each serving. There is a decent amount Iron (25% RDA) in each bar, but no significant quantities of any other major nutrients. The biggest nutritional detraction in the Green & Black's Pure Dark Chocolate Raspberry & Hazelnut are the 18 grams of fat per serving and the 50% RDA of saturated fat that comes from the 10 grams of saturated fat!

These are not Vegan-compliant, nor are they recommended for anyone with a nut allergy as the contain filberts. They are not specifically marked as kosher (I'm not sure why), but Green & Black's uses sustainable cocoa farming for their cocoa, which is nice!

Storage/Clean-up

The bars of these Green & Black's Pure Dark Chocolate Raspberry & Hazelnut chocolate bars remain fresh for quite some time. The bars we picked up two weeks ago had an expiration date of October 17, 2017, though they will certainly not last that long as I will have consumed mine well before then! One assumes that if they are kept in a cool, dry environment they will not melt or go bad. It is hard to imagine just what it would take for these to go bad outside melting and refreezing.

As for cleanup, just throw the packaging away when you're done! These chocolate bars are made such that there is no real cleanup needed, unless one is eating them in a hot environment. Under that circumstance, it is likely one would need to wash their hands, though these bars do not melt as easily as cheap or milk chocolates. When this chocolate melts into most fabrics, it will stain.

Overall

Green & Black's Pure Dark Chocolate Raspberry & Hazelnut chocolate bars are a good blend of fruit and chocolate and while the nuts make an interesting texture, their lack of addition to the flavor made it a pricey gimmick for an otherwise delightful candy bar.

For other chocolate reviews, please check out:
Chuao Chocolatier Maple Bacon Bar
Godiva Chocolate Lava Cake Dessert Truffles
Lindt Dark Pineapple chocolate bars

7/10

For other chocolate reviews, please visit my Chocolate Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2017 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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