July 30th: Kshocolat 72% Dark Chocolate

Kcal 508 Fat 38.7g Fat(sats) 24.2g Carb 31.6g

Kshocolate are a relatively new company to the chocolate market having launched in only 2003. Despite their relative infancy their products are avalible in retail stores across the UK, US, Asia, Australasia and throughout Europe - the chocolate itself is actually produced in Glasgow, Scotland. Up until last week I must admit to being rather oblivious to their existance...that was until Kshocolat sent me five bars from their range for me to sample! Today I tried their 72% Dark chocolate bar.

The bar came in a 80g serving which I easily consumed over two sittings. I must admit it wasn't the richest of bars and the 40g servings were not the usual intense fufilling dark chocolate experiences that some other bars have provided. The outer packaging wasn't the most striking - if anything I thought the choice of colours was rather dull...they just didnt really articulate that this was a 'premiuim' bar of chocolate. The dullness of the outer packaging was all but blown away by the beauty of the bar itself. As you will see by the product shot above the bar had superbly engraved cocoa pod pictures carved into the surface...it looked an very impressive bar of chocolate. The bar also had a very appealing smell...it was wrapped tightly in silver foil which made for a very fresh smelling alluring cocoa to exude when unwrapped.

As you can probably guess by the fat content, this bar was crammed full of cocoa butter...37% of the totoal bar to be exact. It made for a wonderfully smooth taste and a chocolate that melted ever so effortlessly on the tongue....this was not a chocolate that required to be chewed - it just simply liquified into a silky smooth pleasant texture.

With this silky smooth texture came a suprisingly soft tasting chocolate. I was expecting an extremely rich cocoa flavour with the 72% solids level, but I found the taste rather reserved and its intensity was not quite the level I was expecting. The flavour of the bar was a pleasant cocoa one...not too bitter but at the same time not too sweet...just a very smooth long tasting cocoa flavour. Due to its slightly reserved nature the bar was not quite the rich dark experience of the Lindt Excellence 70% Dark or the Hotel Chocolat 85%, despite the flavour being a pleasant one I did find it slightly one dimensional...it didn't develop over the course of its time in my mouth and had no other elements to its taste. As I said though the cocoa flavour was pleasant enough and this was a good standard dark chocolate.

Overall this was a nice enough dark chocolate offering, though it didn't quite reach the levels of the finer dark chocolate equivalents from Lindt or Hotel Chocolat. It had a great smooth texture, with a real melt in the mouth luxurious nature to it, and the taste despite not being the most multifaceted was still on the whole enjoyable. This bar could simply just do with having another slight flavour lick to it...if only a very subtle note of vanilla or some sort of nut, it would just make the overall taste that little bit more interesting. If your after a non-offensive, subtle strengthed dark chocolate this would be a good bar for you to check out. If your more looking for a full on dark chocolate with a seriously rich intensive flavour though its probably best you overlook this bar and go for either of the suggested Lindt or Hotel Chocolat alternatives.

7.9 out of 10