Flint Chocolate is a small chocolate making business based in Auckland, New Zealand.  Their chocolate bars are made in small batches and the cacao beans are  traditionally stone ground.  Their ingredients are organic and vegan.  They use coconut sugar as a sweetener.

The cacao beans are sourced from specialty cacao farms in the Dominican Republic, Peru and Haiti.

We tried the 60g bars of Wild Blueberry 65%  and Almond Butter 60%.

FLINT CHOCOLATE WILD BLUEBERRY 65%

INGREDIENTS
Organic Cacoa beans
Organic Coconut Sugar
Organic Blueberry Powder
Cocoa Butter
Organic wild blueberries
Dried blueberries with apple juice
Vanilla bean
​
The fragrance is earthy and almost coffeeish.  
The taste is dried fruits and treacle notes.  We did pick up some blueberry flavour.  There was a dried fruit sweetness to it.

FLINT CHOCOLATE ALMOND BUTTER 60%

INGREDIENTS
Organic Cacao beans
Organic Coconut Sugar
Organic Almonds
Cocoa Butter
Vanilla Bean
Marlborough Sea Salt

The fragrance is sweet milk with a  slight nuttiness.
The chocolate is smooth and melty.  It has a strong dark chocolate note.
The first taste is salty and tangy, then almond nut comes in as a background along with a good chocolate flavour hit.  The chocolate also has treacle and spent matches flavour notes. 
This was an interesting chocolate and our favourite.  We gave some to Big Bruce too, and he also liked it.

FINAL THOUGHTS
These bars were pleasant and a nice introduction to Flint Chocolate.  They taste healthy and refreshing.  We have our eye on the Olive oil bar next.

We had heard good things about Shirl + Moss, so we bought a bar to try.
Shirl + Moss is based in Wellington and are passionate about family, community and sustainable foods.  
To make their chocolate they hand sort, roast, crack, winnow and stone grind their cacao beans for up to 80 hours.  They then age their chocolate before tempering.

We chose the Fig & Nib 70% 80g bar.  This is a NZ Chocolate Award bronze winner.  The cacao beans are from Fazenda Camboa, Brazil.
It is 100% organic and vegan.
Fig pieces woven through dark chocolate, encrusted with crunchy roasted cacao nib.

It has a fruity fragrance.
You can taste the figs alongside the chocolate.   It has a nice crunch from the nibs and a chewiness from the figs.   The flavour notes you get from the fig/nib/chocolate combo are wood and earth as well as a slight citrus, orange flavour note.

Joni enjoyed this bar as she likes fruit inclusions and especially enjoyed the taste of fig and the texture in the chocolate.  Johanan is not really a fruit and chocolate fan, so he did not like it as much.
We are now keen to try the Shirl + Moss toasted milk 50%.

We do love the chocolate bars from the Wellington Chocolate Factory, so we were excited to try 3 new ones.
​

SCAPEGRACE GIN ESPRESSO MARTINI DARK CHOCOLATE 60%

Joni LOVED the Scapegrace Gin and Tonic bar, The Wellington Chocolate Factory produced, so we were very keen to try this one too.
The aroma is of a chocolate gin and tonic.
The taste is  orange peel, tonic water and gin flavours from the juniper berry.  There is also a mild coffee bean flavour.  We also shared this with family who found the coffee flavour more pronounced.
We liked this bar, but we preferred the original scapegrace gin and tonic chocolate bar.

THE ANZAC BAR  50%

ANZAC stands for Australia and New Zealand Army Corps.  The ANZAC biscuit is said  to have been sent to the soldiers because they kept well, having no eggs in the recipe.
This chocolate bar is made with The Wellington Chocolate Factory's coconut milk chocolate, (It is one of our favourite vegan milk chocolates), and also mixed in with ANZAC Biscuits.

The ANZAC biscuit flavours go really well with the coconut milk chocolate.  A nice chocolate hit of flavour along with the coconut and a sweet oaty crumble flavour of the ANZAC biscuit.  The texture is great too, with a silky smooth chocolate along with a chewy, slightly crunchy biscuit crumble.  
We liked this bar too.

MATARIKI KAWAKAWA DARK CHOCOLATE 65%

Matariki, is a new public holiday in New Zealand, marking the beginning of the Maori New Year.  More interesting information on this and the artwork, is inside the chocolate wrapper.
The Kawakawa is a small tree that grows leaves that contain myristicin, which has medicinal, antiseptic, pain numbing qualities.  The taste of the leaf is bitter, where the Maori name for the plant, is derived from.  Kawa = Bitter.

The chocolate bar uses cacao beans from the Domincan Republic, and is a 65% dark chocolate.
The bar has a peppery fragrance, alongside the chocolate.  The texture has a very slight grittiness to it.  The taste is a lovely dark chocolate which is slightly herby in flavour.  There are notes of mint, eucalyptus, and pepper.  It is a really nice mix with the dark chocolate.  We liked this one very much too.

I don't think we could pick a favourite from the three.  We enjoyed them all equally for the chocolate and the different flavour experiences they gave us.  It was another enjoyable trio from The Wellington Chocolate Factory.

Foundry Chocolate is based in Mahurangi, New Zealand.  They have  been on our radar for awhile because they produce award winning single origin chocolate.  Since we started this chocolate tasting adventure, we have grown to appreciate the darker craft chocolate available, so the time felt right to try some of the Foundry Fine Craft Dark Bean to Bar, Chocolate.

We bought 2 x 70g bars and was gifted a little tasting square of another single origin.

FOUNDRY CHOCOLATE - Anamalai Estate India 70%
Ingredients:  Cacao beans and organic cane sugar

It has a fragrance of dark chocolate that is slightly fruity and a slight woodiness.
This chocolate has layers of flavours that appear, then disappear, and then reappear.
There are fruit notes of plum, and blackberry.  There is also some spicy, musky notes of cardamon, sandalwood and an earthiness.
This was a lovely bar.  We enjoyed the eating journey very much.

FOUNDRY CHOCOLATE - Soconusco Chiapas, Mexico 70%
Ingredients: Cacao Beans and Organic Cane Sugar

We like the description on the back; a chocolate bar that is simultaneously confident, mysterious and comforting.
It has an aroma of fruits and honey.
This bar tastes so fruity.   Rich in plummy, raisin notes that taste like they have been dipped in honey.  There is also a slight chilli, peppery spice note that has a little kick of heat and flavour in the aftertaste.  What a beautiful flavour note combo this bar is!
It is a Chocolate Gazette Rosette Winner for us.

This is the second Mexico single origin bar we have tasted and loved.  We are now wondering if Mexico has overtaken Peru as a favourite single origin source?...... Except.... that little tasting square, that we had to divide into 2.  That little teaser of a Ucayali River, Peru 70%.  The hint of florals, perfumed and sweet.......  We need a bigger bar of that before jumping to any rash conclusions.

Miann Chocolate Factory is based in Auckland in various shops as well as online.  They offer craft chocolate bars, drinking chocolate mixes as well as a range of sweet treats including celebration cakes, cookies and gelato.  They use sustainable and ethical cacao.
We bought some bars and one of their drinking chocolates.

ALMOND & FIJI RAKI RAKI 40% HOT CHOCOLATE MIX 200g

INGREDIENTS
Cacao Nibs, Cane Sugar, Almond, Milk Powder, Cocoa Butter, Coconut Sugar, Cocoa Powder, Salt

Lovely tasting.  A dark fruity cocoa flavour with a slight hint of coconut.   We enjoyed this hot chocolate mix and look forward to trying more of their mixes in the future.

OUR FREE GIFT - ALMOND PARCEL WITH DULCE CHOCOLATE
We mentioned these already in our exploration of chocolate almonds.  These are beautiful.  Caramelly and Buttery.
​

THE CHOCOLATE BARS 80G
​MIANN MILK 55% GUATEMALA, CAHABON MILK CHOCOLATE

The fragrance is dark chocolate.  There is  slow melt in the mouth.  It tastes earthy, and woody.  We like dark milks, and this was  pleasant.

MIANN VALENTINES BAR 60% DOMINICAN REPUBLIC ZORZAL ESTATE DARK CHOCOLATE WITH RASPEBERRY, NECTARINE AND MANDARIN

The gold paint on the chocolate looks very pretty.  The fragrance is very fruity.
You can taste the freeze dried raspberries foremost, with a hint of the other fruits.   There is also almonds in the bar, and these add a nice crunch texture.  The chocolate itself has an earthy chocolate background with some hay and malt notes.  The bar tasted like a summery walk in the woods.  We enjoyed this one.

MIANN ESPRESSO 70% DOMINICAN REPUBLIC, ZORZAL ESTATE AND COFFEE

This has a mild chocolate aroma, but it is a strong shot of chocolate flavour.  The coffee is there, but it is a much milder, background note.  The chocolate flavour notes are not quite bitter, more woodish, and a slight yeasty tang along with some fruitiness.
This chocolate combo was a little too strong for our tastes.

MIANN MEXICO 40% SOCUNUSCA, CHIAPAS MILK CHOCOLATE

The fragrance is raisins and dark chocolate.  The taste is a good chocolate hit of sweet dates and raisin and it also has a milkiness to it.  It reminded us of a fruity chocolate steam pudding with chocolate sauce and cream.  This was very nice and was our favourite.  It makes us really curious about Mexican single origin chocolate now.

FINAL THOUGHTS
The Mexico and Valentine bars were stand outs for us... oh and those yummy caramelly almonds... did we mention we liked those?

Raglan chocolate is this wonderful bean to bar, small chocolate business, that makes yummy bars with organic and fairly traded ingredients.
We have reviewed their Coco Loco and Coffee Chocolate in the smaller bar range.  We liked them, so this time we went for the bigger bars.

RAGLAN MILK CHOCOLATE 54%

INGREDIENTS
Organic Solomon Islands Cacao Beans
Organic Raw Sugar
Waikato Organic Milk Powder
​Cocoa Butter
​

It has this fruity, dark chocolate aroma.  The taste of the chocolate grows and fades.  There are notes of prunes and a cocoa earthiness.  It tastes more like a dark than a milk, which is not a bad thing. We like our Dark Milk Chocolates.   It is not as sweet as the usual milk chocolates we have tried, but it doesn't need to be.  This is a pleasant bar, and Johanan's favourite Raglan Chocolate Bar to date.

RAGLAN GINGERNUTTY
Caramilised Milk chocolate with Gingernut Cookies.

INGREDIENTS
Gingernut Cookies
Cocoa Butter
Dominian Cacao Beans 34%
Raw Sugar
Waikato Milk Powder

The ginger aroma hits you when you open up the packet.  It does take us on a mind trip to the kitchen and baking day.  The ginger is nice and spicy, sweet, but it does not overpower the chocolate taste.  Very cleverly balanced.  We really like the texture of the crunchy cookies in there too.
A yum bar.  This is Joni's favourite Raglan Chocolate Bar to date.  It was also included in our recorded tasting with the family.  (You can listen to that on our podcast for May 2022). Natasha picked this as one of her favourites from the 13 bars we tried.

FINAL THOUGHTS
We love the artwork and photography used on their big and small bars.  We are enjoying all of the Raglan bars we have tasted to date.  We are keen to try more.

Cadbury layers turned up in our local store this week.  At first glance they look like a snack sized bar, but they are the same price as their older siblings.  How do they compare to the originals?
All priced at $1
Moro Gold Bar original is 60g
Moro Gold Layers is 32g
Picnic Bar original is 46g
Picnic Layers is 34g

MORO GOLD COMPARISON

The rice crispies and the caramel are located in different parts of the bars, but apart from that you get the same flavours in both. There didn't seem much difference at all, so you may as well buy the bigger bar, the original.

PICNIC COMPARISON

In the original Picnic bar, there is wafer, whereas there is a ganache type filling in the Picnic Layers.  This would be a preference thing.  We preferred the ganache over the wafer, and there was more caramel flavour in the Picnic Layers.  It is a smaller than the original though, by about a quarter of a bar.

From a buyers perspective, you did feel like you were just paying the same price for a smaller bar.  Put those Picnic Layers in a snack size multi pack, and we would possibly be more interested.

Two newbies that have come to our attention at the local shop.  Mars Raspberry Smash, and M&M's Brownie.  We gave them a go.

Mars Raspberry Squash bar is very sweet.  There is a definite raspberry taste with slight caramel.  Raspberry is a little fake in flavour, but it is ok.  We prefer the original Mars Bar over this one.

M&M Brownie's are round with a kind of chewy cocoa centre.  The flavour isn't really any different from the original, it seems just a different texture.  We preferred the original over these as well.

We bought this cool looking box of chocolates from Mighty Ape in one of their sales for $34.  The cardboard box has a top tray and a draw, and is filled with 720g of chocolates.

The bottom tray was filled with Gianduja filled milk chocolate, and the top tray had more gianduja varieties as well as some others.

GIANDUJA FILLED MILK CHOCOLATES

Sweet and smooth.  Not very much hazelnut flavour or chocolate flavour.

GIANDUJA FILLED WHITE CHOCOLATE

Sweet and quite flavourless.

​CINNAMON GANACHE MILK CHOCOLATE

Quite a strong cinnamon taste, in fact you can't really taste anything else but cinnamon and sugar.

​MOCCA GANACHE FILLED MILK CHOCOLATE

Johanan says it tastes like playdough.  Very mild coffee, more sweet than anything else.  They are a bit floury tasting.

NOUGAT FLAVOURED GANACHE FILLED MILK CHOCOLATE

Sweetness and a very mild caramel flavour.

ORANGE FLAVOURED GANACHE FILLED MILK CHOCOLATE

Flavour is very faint.

GIANDUJA FILLED MILK CHOCOLATE - ANOTHER VERSION

Mild flavours again, slightly cinnamony.

CARAMEL FILLING DARK CHOCOLATE

This is the best one.  You can taste some chocolate and some caramel.

DARK GANACHE FILLED DARK CHOCOLATE

This was odd tasting.  No chocolate flavour with an odd vegetable taste.

​HAZELNUT GANACHE FILLED DARK CHOCOLATE

Fake Hazelnut flavour and mild chocolate.

LEMON GANACHE FILLED MILK CHOCOLATE

Sweet.  Chocolate flavour is there.  Mild lemon flavour that is a bit fake in taste.

FINAL THOUGHTS
We really liked the presentation of this chocolate box.  
There are lots of hazelnut ganache type flavours but they aren't that nice.  The flavours are quite fake when you do taste them.
We wouldn't buy them again, but we kept the box.