The Good: Tastes good, Decent quality, Does not melt easily, Good corporate ethics
The Bad: Comparatively expensive, The almonds do not actually manifest in the flavor
The Basics: The Wild Ophelia Almond Sea Salt Chocolate Bars are flavorful, but those looking for a good nut/chocolate balance are likely to be disappointed.
The last month, I have been pretty thrilled to try all sorts of Wild Ophelia chocolates. Wild Ophelia is a pretty amazing company, doing good things with its corporate profits, making chocolates with impressive and high-quality ingredients, and creative flavor combinations. Wild Ophelia is a cool company and they have a ton of great products. Today, I sat down to enjoy Wild Ophelia Almond Sea Salt Chocolate Bars and the chocolate and even the sea salt in them maintains the high standards I've come to expect from Wild Ophelia. But, for an almond-enhanced chocolate bar, I found the Wild Ophelia Almond Sea Salt Chocolate Bars a bit underwhelming on the nut front. The balance between the chocolate and the nuts is not all that good in the Almond Sea Salt bars; the almonds make less of an impression in the bars than the sea salt. I might not be much of a fan of nuts in chocolate, but the Wild Ophelia Almond Sea Salt Chocolate Bars underwhelmed even me.
Basics
The Wild Ophelia Almond Sea Salt Chocolate Bar is a solid dark chocolate bar from Wild Ophelia. Each 2 oz. chocolate bar is wrapped in a cardboard wrapper. Inside the cardboard case is a thick metallic plastic wrapper (with a seam resembling a Pop Tart more than a chocolate bar). The actual chocolate bar is 4 1/2” long by 2 13/16” wide by 1/4” thick. The Bar has no identifying marks or logos on it, but it is segmented to make three 1 1/2” wide by 2 13/16” long bars. The top features ribbing that give the bar a very Art Deco look that is distinctive.
The chocolate is firm, dark and not at all waxy; it’s a quality chocolate bar. Individually, the bars are found in the $5.99 range. Given the quality of these bars, it is tough to call them too expensive, especially with premium potato chips in them.
Ease Of Preparation
Wild Ophelia Almond Sea Salt Chocolate bars are chocolate; preparing them is as easy as unwrapping the candy bar. Because the chocolate is a premium chocolate product, I recommend eating this a little at a time, not just biting right into the bar.
Taste
The Almond Sea Salt Chocolate bar smells strongly of chocolate. The chocolate scent is potent and there is a hint of bitterness in the aroma that implies the dark nature of the chocolate in the Wild Ophelia Almond Sea Salt Chocolate Bar.
On the tongue, the Almond Sea Salt Chocolate bar explodes with surprisingly sweet chocolate flavor. The dark chocolate is not nearly as bitter as one might expect or in comparison to many of the other Wild Ophelia bars. The chocolate flavor is enjoyable and sweet without tasting generic, buttery or waxy. The almonds in the Wild Ophelia Almond Sea Salt Chocolate Bars manifest as a texture - a bit of crispiness in the solid chocolate bar - as opposed to a flavor. In fact, in the bar of Almond Sea Salt, there were more bites that had sea salt flavoring than almond flavoring, given that there were some that were flavored with the salt and none that tasted like almonds.
The Almond Sea Salt Chocolate bar have a slightly sweet aftertaste that does not endure very long in the mouth after the last of the bar is consumed.
Nutrition
Wild Ophelia makes their fine chocolates with quality ingredients, which is arguably why the range in price in the real world and online is a bit more than other chocolate bars! With the primary ingredients being bittersweet chocolate, roasted almonds and butterfat, the Wild Ophelia Almond Sea Salt Chocolate bars are a candy bar, not a legitimate source of nutrition needed to survive. That said, Wild Ophelia uses natural ingredients and organic ingredients where possible; none of the ingredients are unpronounceable. In a full 56 gram serving (2 ounce), there are 310 calories, 220 of which are from fat. This represents 39% of one's RDA of fat (72% of the RDA of saturated fat). Each bar has 70 mg of Sodium (which is low considering there is actual sea salt in these candy bars) and 4 grams of protein. There is a smattering of Calcium (6% RDA) and a decent amount of Iron (35% RDA), but no other vitamins and minerals. In other words, this is not a snack to try to survive on.
While the bars are all natural with no artificial ingredients and have no preservatives, they do contain soy. As well, there is an allergy warning for milk, tree nuts and peanuts, which makes them unacceptable to those who observe a Vegan diet.
Storage/Clean-Up
Because the chocolate is generally hard, as a dark chocolate, the Wild Ophelia Almond Sea Salt Chocolate bars are comparatively hard to melt. Despite that, these should be kept cool in order to not melt, but I have not had any problems with mine. As long as they are kept cool and dry, these bars will last at least six months (the ones my wife gave me last month would have lasted until October 5, 2018, had I not eaten it up first).
Clean-up is easy, so long as the chocolate does not melt. The Wild Ophelia Almond Sea Salt Chocolate bars have wrappers that ought to be properly disposed of, but otherwise, the chocolate washes off skin and non-porous surfaces. It the chocolate melts onto fabric, consult a fabric guide.
Overall
Wild Ophelia Almond Sea Salt Chocolate Bars are fine for what they are, but unimpressive for what they are supposed to be. The expectation one has when getting a chocolate bar with nuts is that the consumer might actually taste the nuts and that the nuts would add something substantive to the bar. That does not happen with the Wild Ophelia Almond Sea Salt Chocolate Bars. That makes the Wild Ophelia Almond Sea Salt Chocolate Bars one of the few comparative failures from the venerable chocolate maker.
For other Wild Ophelia candy reviews, please check out my reviews of:
Maine Sea Salt Peanut Butter Cups
Cold Brew Jet Black Chocolate Coffee Bites
The Hunger Games: Catching Fire Crispy Crunchy Caramel Corn And Dark Chocolate Bar
4/10
For more food reviews, please check out my Food Review Index Page!
© 2017 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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