we try 4 Loving Earth Bars

We spotted Loving Earth in our exploration of vegan chocolate.   Loving Earth chocolate is plant based, organic and ethical.  Quoting their about page: "Loving Earth Chocolate uses Raw Cacao grown by the Ashaninka community of the Peruvian Amazon, the largest indigenous community in Peru. 
This is vital in their quest to build a sustainable life for themselves and sustainable use of the rainforest."

They are made in Australia.
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We originally bought 3 bars from an organic shop as part of a rather large vegan, organic chocolate haul, (we can't help ourselves. There was a whole array of chocolate  brands to try!)
The Loving Earth bars were:
Creamy Coconut Mylk Chocolate 
Dirty Rose
Nutty Mr Maple

They all have this distinctive texture.  Not unpleasant, but it is like a very firm butter or fat to bite into.  Not the usual chocolate texture we have  tried.  What is really interesting is that they use raw Cacao beans and Virgin Cacao butter to make their chocolate.  We had to look up what Virgin Cacao butter was, and it is, "Organic Virgin Cacao Butter made from fairly traded criollo cacao from Satipo in Peru. This cacao butter is made by pressing the Raw Cacao Nibs to preserve the full vitality of the raw cacao."

We had a bad experience with one, so another was added.... here's how it all went.

CREAMY COCONUT MYLK CHOCOLATE

47% Cacao 
23% Coconut
Sweetened with Coconut Nectar
80g bar for $10.99

This was had a very strong coconut taste, and we couldn't really taste the chocolate.  We are enjoying the coconut nectar as a sweetener in the bars we have tried with it so far.  We don't miss the refined cane sugar at all.  

​DIRTY ROSE
Rose oil and Cranberries in a mylk chocolate, sweetened with Coconut nectar.
Cacao 40%
also includes Raw Cashew, almond and hazelnut.
​$6.95 for a 45g bar.
This was our favorite.  It has the yummy dried cranberries that worked really well with the mild rose flavor.  There was a very mild chocolate taste towards the end.  The fragrance is really nice and it smells more chocolatey than it is.

NUTTY MR MAPLE
Here's where things went wrong.

$6.95 for a 45g bar
Salted Almonds and Maple Chunks in a dark Chocolate Truffle.
52% Cacao
The ingredients sound so yummy too.  Cacao, maple syrup, almonds, cashews, hazelnuts, pink lake salt, carob powder, coconut oil.

This was tasted 5 months before the best before date.  As soon as we opened the plastic inner wrap (compostable by the way), we knew the bar was a goner.  It smelled bad and it looked like there was the start of some bloom on the chocolate. We had a little nibble to confirm and  it tasted strongly rancid.   We threw it away.
Now we did have this stored along with the others for at least a month before  we tasted it.  So there was no guarantee that it wasn't us that had caused it, though the other chocolate was fine.  I did look on their website, and they do say this:

"As we use wholefood ingredients without adding preservatives and stabilisers, our chocolate can be heat sensitive. While our warehouse is temperature controlled,  once the products leave the warehouse, we can no longer control the temperature and handling in transit. We want you to have the best experiences of the chocolate, therefore we would advise not to purchase in warm and hot weather. Keep in mind that standard delivery is by road and your package could end up spending a weekend or a night in a depot. We urge you to consider this as we cannot take responsibility for spoiled items if you purchase in warm weather."

This did have to come from Australia, so somewhere along the way, this went bad.   To be honest, we did get a bit put off and didn't think we'd be buying the brand again as its not the cheapest chocolate just to throw away.
Today however, Joni was shopping and spotted Loving Earth at the supermarket for the first time,  and thought to give it another go.  The local Countdown didn't have Nutty Mr Maple, but it did have a salted caramel chocolate with cashew.  It was bought back home straight away and we tasted it straight away.

SALTED CARAMEL CHOCOLATE
with cashew, coconut and virgin cacao butter
$3.50 for a 30g bar
Heart shape is very cute.  This was definitely not as bad as the Nutty Mr Maple.  Best before date is almost a year away, but it still had an old nut, rancid taste, that had overtaken everything.
It is the middle of a hot summer.  We just don't think it is travelling well getting to New Zealand, especially  this time of year.
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