Tasting international craft chocolate

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