We decided to start our new year of chocolate tasting trying out some international craft chocolate.  We bought this stash from The Chocolate Bar NZ.

We started with a remembered favourite brand Cuvee chocolate.
CUVEE CHOCOLATE YULETIDE

Cuvee Chocolate is made in Australia.
This is their christmas season bar.  It is 42% Milk Chocolate encasing a fruit mixture of wild cherry, candied orange, raisin and spiced brandy.  

We love the Cuvee packaging.  It is very deluxe looking. 
The aroma of the brandy is the first scent when you open the packaging.
The chocolate taste is first off the orange, then the cherry followed by a light hit of brandy.  The chocolate is there as a background flavour and it lingers on after eating.
This bar was pleasant.  Johanan is not so much of a fan of fruit and chocolate, and their could have been a bit of a stronger brandy taste for Joni.

Next we went to Suffolk England with,
PUMP ST CHOCOLATE CROISSANT BAR

This is a 62% Dark chocolate with beans from Ecuador, and croissant bits mixed through.
This had a sultana fragrance and reminded us of eating a chocolate sultana bread.  The croissant bits were crunchy and a nice texture.  There wasn't a strong chocolate taste, but it blended in nicely with the croissant.  We liked it.

We then took a trip to Austria with a chocolate bar made by Zotter.
ZOTTER LABOOKO NICARAGUA 50% MILK CHOCOLATE

The twin bar packaging was perfect for us.  We also love our dark milks.
The fragrance is like a hot cocoa drink and tasted like it too. This bar reminded us of hot chocolate with cocoa, cream and sugar with a raisin biscuit dunked in.  Really nice.  This was one of our favourites from this stash.

Back over to the United Kingdom, we next tried,
CHOCOLARDER KUAPA KOKOO ASOKWA, GHANA 65%

Another dark milk chocolate with a 65% cacao content.  We liked trying to pronounce the cacao beans origin, Kuapa Kokoo.
This was sweet, with notes of vanilla and wood, almost a sandalwood flavour note.  The chocolate flavours were quite mild which surprised us with the dark colouring of the chocolate.  The Chocolarder Frankincense and Myrhh is still our favourite from them.

Our next trip was to Iceland with chocolate maker OmNom and their Milk Cookies bar.

Our experience with cookies and cream chocolates, have been crushed up biscuits mixed in with the chocolate, so we laughed when we saw two whole cookies on top of the chocolate.
This was 42% milk chocolate with beans from Madagascar.  The cookies were spiced almond and oat.
It had a fragrance of cloves and bikkies.
The first taste is the spicey biscuits and then you can taste the milk chocolate after.  
This was yummy in flavour and texture.  This was another favourite.

Another trip to the United Kingdom with Firetree and their,
FIRETREE INNOVATIONS OAT MILK BAR

This has single origin beans from the Solomon Islands with a 55% content.
This has a nice yummy looking red brown colour.  You can taste the chocolate and the oat milk as well.  This is a firm, not  creamy chocolate.  It was a little too sweet for us, but we did like how you could taste both flavours.

Then we went to Vietnam with 
TBROS SOCOLA TRA SUA OLONG, OOLONG TEA MILK CHOCOLATE

This was a dark milk, 40%, with 6% Oolong tea.
You can smell the tea and chocolate when you open the wrapping.
The taste is a mild tea with a slight wood, fruitiness to it.  It is slightly gluggy, but smooth.  The chocolate is like a foundation flavour that is there to highlight the tea flavours.  It was a nicely blended flavour combination which we really enjoyed.  This was another favourite.

Our last stop was in Brooklyn, New York, with
RAAKA MAPLE AND NIBS 75%

The beans from this bar are from Semuliki Forest, Uganda and are unroasted.  The bar is sweetened with organic maple sugar.

It looks really yummy with dark shiny chocolate and crunchy nibs on the back.
It has a fragrance of a chocolate pudding with raisins.
The chocolate has flavour notes of slightly sour dried apricots, fermented plums and cream.  There is a nice amount of sweetness with a firm texture and a crunch from the nibs.
A really flavoursome chocolate that was a surprise for us with unroasted beans.  We really liked this one, another favourite from the selection.

FINAL THOUGHTS
A fun international tasting journey.
Our favourties from this selection were:
1st: Zotter Labooko Nicaragua 50% Milk Chocolate
2nd: TBros Oolong Tea 40% Milk Chocolate
3rd: OnNom Milk Cookies
4th: Raaka Maple and Nibs 75% Dark Chocolate

We can't help ourselves.  Popping into Capers Cafe in Rotorua, to buy a wedding present, their craft chocolate selection is always a distraction.  This time as a quick pick me up instead of buying coffee to go, we bought a cute little 20g chocolate espresso bar made by Bennetts of Mangawhai.

100% Colombian coffee beans from Rush Coffee with 55% Dark Chocolate.
This was yummy and a great size for a quick chocolate coffee fix.

A new limited edition Whittakers block hit the supermarket shelves this week.
Blondie and Biscuit.
24% Cocoa, Caramilised White Chocolate with Cocoa Biscuits.

The look is nice.  Good sized biscuit bits, nice texture.  The caramilised white chocolate is slighty smokey, sweet and quite milky in flavour.   We can't taste the chocolate biscuit.

We weren't huge fans of the original blondie, and I think we like this less.  It was very milky and bland overall, and the biscuit seems to a texture element, rather than a taste.  

We really love the chocolate from Lucid Chocolatier, so we are determined to try each type of bar he has made.  The two we bought this time are  2 fruit bars, Mulberry Lait and Yuzu Noir.

MULBERRY LAIT
54% Milk Chocolate from the Piura White bean of Peru.   Mulberry looks like a long boysenberry or blackberry as a fruit.

This has strong chocolate flavours for a milk chocolate.   It goes with a sweetness and tanginess you get from  the berries. I nice blend where you get a good hit of everything  with a hint of cream.

YUZU NOIR 70% Dark with Yuzu Confit.  Piura White cacao bean from Peru.
Yuzu is a citrus fruit that looks like a lemon coloured tangerine.

This was a pleasant surprise for us.  We are not overly keen on citrus and chocolate, but if we hadn't read the ingredients, I'm not sure we would have picked up citrus notes.  We got flavour notes of dried figs, earth and coffee.  This chocolate was strong and dark in flavour that lingered in the aftertaste.  We liked it.

FINAL THOUGHTS
Even though these were chocolate bars with fruit inclusions, the chocolate was still the strong prominent flavour of these bars which we liked.  The Mulberry bar, even though it was a milk chocolate was like eating a good dark chocolate with a hint of cream.  We are still enjoying Lucid Chocolatier chocolate very much.

Solomon Gold is based in Mt Maunganuit , New Zealand and produce chocolate bars from single origin cacao beans from the Solomon Islands.  Their bars are ethical, vegan and organic.  We love Dark Milk chocolate, so when we saw they had vegan versions, we had to try.  The milk ingredient in these bars is organic coconut milk powder.

DARK MYLK 45%

The chocolate is lovely and smooth.  It is tangy and coconut is the prominent flavour, followed by the chocolate.  This is more on the dark side than milky.  It is a pleasant bar.

DARK MYLK ORANGE 45%

This chocolate is flavoured with orange oil.  It is smooth also and quite sweet.  The orange is the prominent flavour and even covers the coconut milk flavour.  Mild chocolate flavours come through, but it mostly orange.  We are not a huge fan of citrus oil flavoured chocolate, so this was our least favourite.

DARK MYLK BERRY 45%

This chocolate is flavoured with natural raspberry.  This is smooth as well.  You can taste the raspberry, which really enhances the fruitiness flavour notes of the chocolate.  Alongside the coconut milk, the raspberry made this bar taste like a raspberry lamington.  This was nice. 

​DARK MYLK CARAMEL 45%

This is flavoured with natural caramel flavour.  The coconut milk alongside the caramel flavour makes a slightly smokey butterscotch flavour which is very nice.  This was our favourite of the Dark Mylks.

​SMOOTH DARK 70%

As well as their Dark Mylks, we also bought their Smooth Dark 70% which is also vegan and organic.
It is also cane sugar free and uses coconut sap sugar instead.
The chocolate is smooth yet snappy.  There is flavour notes of sweet mollasses and a smokiness and tanginess.  It is a nice flavour note combo, with none overpowering the other. 

FINAL THOUGHTS
Solomon Gold chocolate is so smooth!  We really liked the texture of all the chocolate.  The Dark Mylks are nice, being on the darker side in flavour.  The Smooth Dark 70% is our new single origin favourite from the Solomon Islands.

.Inspired by Tip Top Boysenberry icecream, Cadbury Boysenbery Ripple is a combo of their Dairy Milk chocolate, Dream White chocolate, with a filling of boysenberry jelly and vanilla flavoured creme.

You do get the reminiscent flavours of boysenberry and vanilla icecream. The filling is quite nice.  The chocolate flavours are a very faint background flavour note. 

This block is a similar  take on the Whittakers Jelly Tip block, also inspired by a Tip Tip chocolate coated icecream on a stick.  Whittakers have  their milk chocolate on the bottom and their white chocolate on top with a raspberry jelly filling.  You do get more chocolate flavours with the Whittakers version, so we would pick that over this one. There is more vanilla flavours in the Cadbury if you prefer that.

Another box of choccies that arrived into the supermarket during the holiday season.  Dark Chocolate shells with a whole cherry and cherry liqueur. 

When you bite into it, there is this burst of strong alcoholic cherry liqueur flavour.  There is also the nice cherry bits.  The chocolate is more of a sweetner rather than a taste, the prominent flavour was definitly the Cherry liqueur. 

We have only had a Toblerone once before when someone gifted us one.  We like the nougat bits.  This caramel chocolate edition came out over the holiday season, so we bought one to try.

The triangles were smaller than the last time we tried them.  They use a caramel powder in their white chocolate to get the caramel chocolate flavour.  It does taste nice.  It is very sweet and reminds us of russian fudge. in flavour.  We still like the nougat bits.

Raglan Chocolate brought out a new single origin chocolate bar with beans from Malekula Island, Vanuatu.  The cacao trees are grown organically by the Atchin and Larevat Communities on the island.  All the information about the cacao beans are inside the wrapper.

This is a 70% bar with a lovely dark colour.
It is creamy and sweet.  It had flavours of a molten chocolate pudding with vanilla and dried figs.  We really liked this bar.  It is our new favourite single origin from Vanuatu.

With the holiday season, alcohol flavoured chocolate make brief visits into our supermarkets.  This year we tasted 2 bars from an Irish company, Lir Chocolates.  Their bars are made with chocolate from the UK and Belgium.

BAILEYS ORIGINAL MILK CHOCOLATE BAR

This was quite sweet.  The milk chocolate was quite snappy.  You could taste more sweetness than chocolate taste, but we did like the Baileys filling.  The milk chocolate and Baileys flavour combo is nice.

GUINNESS TRUFFLE CHOCOLATE

This bar has a ganache that is flavoured with Guinness beer and is encased in a dark chocolate shell.  You can taste the chocolate in this one, but OH MY beer and dark chocolate is an awesome flavour combo.  The chocolate is this bar is very average, but we LOVED the beer flavour with it.  We immediately started talking about some craft dark chocolate single origins we think it would pair well with, like ashiness of the Foundry Chocolate Papua New Guinea, Kulkul Karkar island single origin.  Experiments are going to happen!