This is a bar was one of the one we bought from Baron Hasselhoff's when we attended the Wellington ChocStock Festival.

The Cheese Bar is 60% Vanuatu Origin Cacao milk chocolate.  It is blended with an award winning aged danbo cheese from Hohepa Cheese.  Here is a link to the cheese:  Hohepa Danbo Cheese

They say on the cheese website that Danbo is similar to Dutch Gouda.
When we sampled it at ChocStock, we could immediately taste the cheese as well as the chocolate.  We opened the chocolate bar after lunch with the Wellington Gazetters.  Because part of our lunch was a cheese, some of us found it nullified the taste of the cheese in the chocolate.  Peter tasted it as an aftertaste.  Johanan tasted it straight away, but the rest of us could only taste the cheese in the chocolate after we drank some water and cleansed our palates.

This is a clever blending of flavours.  The slightly yeasty, sour tang of cheese and chocolate flavours go so well together.  There is a sweetness that is just right, and even though it is a milk chocolate, the chocolate  comes through quite strong.  We really enjoyed this one.

Two more bars to try from Raglan Chocolate!

NIBLICIOUS
Packaging notes:
​Caramelised white chocolate with crunchy roasted cacao nibbly bits.

INGREDIENTS:
Organic Cocoa Butter 30%
Waikato organic Milk Powder 20%
Organic Raw Sugar 
Organic Solomon Islands Cacao Nibs 10%
90g bar
​
It is a gorgeous deep caramel colour.
​It tastes like golden syrup and russian fudge with raisins.  The chocolate is quite firm with a lovely crunch of nibs.  We enjoyed this one a lot.

SOLOMON ISLANDS 70%
Single Origin
Packaging notes: Light fruity notes, smoothing out the Darkness

INGREDIENTS:
Organic Solomon Islands Cacao Beans 70%
Organic Raw Sugar
90g bar

We could taste notes of black earthiness, and a slight smokey coffee.  It is a nice strong dark flavoured chocolate, without being bitter.  After the sweetness ride we have had from supermarket bought chocolate lately, we were almost craving something like this.  So good!

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.

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.

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.

The Anzac biscuit is generally made from rolled oats, flour, sugar, butter, golden syrup, baking soda, boiling water and sometimes coconut.  They can also be called soldiers biscuits as it is claimed soldiers were sent these in World War 1, because they lasted a long time.
Anzac stands for Australian and New Zealand  Army Corps.

We have eaten plenty of Anzac bikkies.  They are  especially good for dunking in hot drinks.  We were curious to try the Hogarth Anzac Biscuit Chocolate Bar.  Would it live up to our yummy bikkie expectations?

Hogarth Anzac Biscuit is a chocolate bar with Oat and Coconut in a dark milk chocolate, 53%.

The aroma is coconut and chocolate.
The taste is golden syrup, brown sugar, coconut, chocolate with hints of raisin. The chocolate part melts in the mouth.  It went very fast.  Very easy to eat, very yummy.  

Would we choose this over a real Anzac Biscuit that was homemade and still warm from the oven?  Yes.
​

Cadbury released a new limited edition this week.  A Boysenberry ripple inspired by the TipTop ice cream.  
It is a marbled dairy milk and white chocolate with a vanilla creme and boysenberry jelly filling.

This does have the flavour of boysenberry ripple vanilla ice cream.  It is sweeter than the ice cream version and you would have to really search for any chocolate flavour, but it does taste quite yummy.

We always look forward to trying some bars from Ocho.  Ocho is a Dunedin based chocolate making company, that use good quality beans and  have some interesting flavours.  This time we stuck to some more traditional flavours:
70% Cacao Solomons
Short Black
Salted Caramel

OCHO 70% CACAO SOLOMONS
Single Origin, Solomon Islands Cacao beans, dark chocolate.

The fragrance is slightly raisin and dark chocolate.
The taste is strong and tastes just like it smells.  It is fruity and tastes like a chocolate covered raisins with nice full flavours and a hint of berry.

OCHO SHORT BLACK 
Coffee, cacao nib, vanilla and 70% Papua New Guinea Cacao beans.

It has a strong aroma of dark chocolate.
The first tasting notes are plum, dark fruity chocolate with coffee.  There is a nice crunch with the cacao nibs and the later flavour notes that come through are woody and slightly floral.  This bar is nice with good strong flavours.

OCHO SALTED CARAMEL
49% Papua New Guinea cacao beans, vanilla, chunks of salted caramel.

The fragrance is chocolatey and slightly coconut.
It has a nice crunch with the caramel brittle.  There is also a nice sweetness from the brittle.  The flavours are a nice blend of mild salty, fruity and wood.  It makes a tasteful combo.

FINAL THOUGHTS
Another enjoyable bite into Ocho chocolate.

Jonie G's chocolate is sweetened with Allulose.  We have never heard of Allulose, so we were curious, and wanted to try this chocolate.

What is Allulose?  It is a type of sugar like fructose, that can only be found in a few foods like figs and raisins.  It is about 70% of the sweetness of sugar, but is only 1/10th the calories of sugar.  Medical studies are fairly new but they look promising as a healthier alternative to sugar.

Jonie G's at the time of this blog post, does not have a website up and running yet, but there are a few stores online that sell the chocolate.   To be honest, it caught our eye only because of the name similarities to our Chocolate Gazetter. 

Jonie G's Milk Chocolate

Ingredients:
37% cocoa solids
NZ full cream milk
Non - GMO Allulose
Sunflower lecithin
Vanilla 
Salt
Allulose 42g per 100g - Net carbs is 0.9g

The fragrance is a bit icecreamy, a little bit stinky actually.
The texture is smooth and it is slightly minty in taste.  The chocolate flavour is very mild.
​

Jonie G's Guilt Free Sweet Dark 55% Limited Edition

Ingredients:
55% cocoa solids
Non -GMO Allulose
Vanilla
Salt
Natural flavour
Sunflower Lecithin
Allulose is 45.2g per 100g - Net carbs is 0.7g

The aroma is dark chocolate.  The taste of chocolate is there, not strong.  What is you first take notice of is the fat type texture and then you  notice of the flavours.
​

Final thoughts:
We thought there was a difference in the flavour of the sweetness with the Allulose compared to sugar.  It did provide enough sweetness however.  We weren't such a fan of the chocolate.  It was very mild in flavour and had quite a fatty texture.
We are wondering if Jonie G's is actually still running.  The bars we got were made about a year ago and the website is available.  The instagram account is private, so we are not sure.  Maybe it is on a hiatus while Covid is still a concern.  At any rate an interesting first delve in Allulose.

Hogarth Chocolate Makers are located in Nelson, New Zealand.  They are bean to bar, small batch chocolate makers that use organic and fairtrade cacao beans.
An info sheet came with their chocolate describing how they make their chocolate.  They hand sort their beans, roast, winnow, grind and after grinding and conching, they pour their chocolate into blocks, wrapped and store it for at least a month before tempering and molding.  All their chocolate is hand wrapped and the artwork on the packaging is a depiction of Karl’s journey  from sailor to chocolate maker, and the voyage the cacao takes to reach New Zealand.

We wanted to try Hogarth's Chocolate because of their original flavours and because we had been hearing good things about their chocolate.  We wanted to try it all!

​As well as the bars, we bought their Milk Chocolate Hazelnut Log.

100g
Ingredients: Ingredients: Cacao, roasted Nelson hazelnuts, organic sugar, milk powder, organic cocoa butter, non-GMO sunflower lecithin & organic vanilla bean paste.

This is so smooth and melt in the mouth. It is quite a soft texture.  It is very sweet and the flavors of hazelnut and chocolate are definitely there.  If you like Nutella you would LOVE this spread on your toast!  We sliced it up to try and eat it bit by bit.... but it was gone within the day.

Hogarth Chocolate Bars

BUTTERED TOAST AND SEA SALT

Gold Winner of the NZ Chocolate Awards and the Supreme winner in 2018.
Ingredients: Cocoa solids 48%, organic sugar, Vogels bread 12% (water, wheat flour, mixed grains 24%, milk solids 13%, pink Himalayan salt, non gmo sunflower lecithin. 
70g bar
28.8g sugar per 100g

There is a soft snap.  The aroma really is of chocolate, bread and butter.
The first taste is rye, and it is toasted!  That is very clever.  
The texture is smooth and there is a slight glugginess, from the bread we are guessing.
It is sweet and slightly salty, slightly buttery in taste.  It is a bit like eating  a chocolate Weetbix in flavour.  A prominent rye flavour on a chocolate foundation.
This is a very nice bar.

ESPRESSO
Italian Roast
Smooth dark Chocolate with real coffee

Silver Winner in the NZ Chocolate Awards 2020
Ingredients: 68% Organic Trinitario Cocoa Beans from Oko Caribe, Dominican Republic, Organic Sugar, Organic Cocoa Butter, Pomeroy's Italian Styled Blend Coffee Beans.
70g

This has a good snap and a fruity dark aroma with faint coffee.
This tastes prominently of a fruity and earthy dark chocolate.  A slight coffee  flavor comes early and then blends into the chocolate.  We think the earthiness in the chocolate might come from the coffee beans.

Ingredients: 45% Cacao, New Zealand Hazelnuts (30%), Sugar, Organic Cocoa Butter.
70g
Sugar 26.4g per 100g
The aroma is sweet and fruity with faint hazelnut.
There is a soft snap and in the mouth it is smooth and creamy.
There is a fruity dark chocolate taste with a hazelnut flavour that is fresh and nice.  There is also some honey notes to the chocolate.
This bar is beautiful.  It received a Chocolate Gazette Rosette from us.

Awards:
Gold NZ Chocolate Awards 2020
Category Winner NZ Chocolate Awards 2020

Ingredients: Organic & Fairtrade Sugar, Organic & Fairtrade Cocoa Butter, Milk Solids, Walnut Pieces, Maple Oil, Organic Vanilla Bean Paste.
Cacao 34%
Sugars 46.1g per 100g
70g

This smells amazing.  Fragrance of walnut and slight maple and white chocolate.  Texture is smooth and creamy with a melting white chocolate and a soft crunch from the walnut bits.  The taste is a mixture of walnut and white chocolate that has an undertone of maple.  This takes Joni straight back to her Nanas, her cookie tins full of home baked slices and biscuits.  It reminds us of eating a pecan pie.

This is a delightful bar.

Awards:
Silver Academy of Chocolate 2017
Gold International Chocolate Awards 2017
Gold NZ Chocolate Awards 2017

Ingredients: 
66% Criollo cacao from the Norandino Cooperative of Piura, Peru, Organic Sugar, Organic Cacao Butter.
Sugars34g per 100g
70g

The aroma is slightly floral chocolate
The first notes you get from tasting the chocolate is raisin and then honey.  The honey notes are so prominent, it had us checking the ingredients again to see if there was honey in there.  This bar is amazing for its flavor.  This is Joni's favourite single origin so far.

FINAL THOUGHTS
We enjoyed this exploration into Hogarth chocolate very much.  We enjoyed the original flavours, and we definitely got some memorable chocolate that has become new favourites.

Here is our individual rankings:
​Joni's Choice from left to right, top to bottom

Johanans rankings left to right, top to bottom