September 23rd: Thorntons Milk Chocolate Venezuela 38%

Kcal 573 Fat 38.4g Fat(sats) 23.3g Carbs 48.6g (per 100.0g)

Following on from my review of the exquisite Thorntons Milk Chocolate with Tonka Bean bar a few weeks ago, Kate from Thorntons kindly sent me some more of their winning bars from the 2009 Academy of Chocolate Awards. Today I got to try the Thorntons Milk Chocolate Venezuela 38% which according to the on pack blurb is 'made from the finest Criollo cocoa beans' ooooh how terribly fancy eh!? Gently mock I will but in actual fact 'less than 5% of the world's chocolate is made from these prestigious beans'. I think I will be judge as to whether they are 'prestigious' Mr Thorntons :D

One thing that hasn't gone unnoticed by myself across Thorntons' award winning range is that they have been rather cheeky and only given us 70.0g of chocolate compared to the usual 90.0g as with the rest of the square bars range. This annoyance aside I was again like the presentation and thought the cool blue suited the milk chocolate flavour well. The foil packet inside was aligned with the colour of the award won at the AoCA and was a brightly coloured bronze. The chocolate held inside was decorated with the standard patterned look and was nicely split into well sized chunks. Whilst looking impressive the chocolate radiated a particularly pleasant and fresh smelling dairy cocoa smell that unsurprisingly was highly reminiscent of the Tonka Bean bar.

I ate the 70.0g over the course of two sittings, though I think I could of easily have noshed the whole lot in one. Placing the first piece in my mouth I was instantly happy at the cool, icy milk based flavours that immediately became detectable. The taste was resoundingly smooth with a lovely flowing milky taste that also had a nice intensity of cocoa present throughout. Its only natural that I compare this bar to the Tonka Bean bar which I must say was just ever so slightly superior. The Tonka Bean bar had cinnamon notes and hints of caramel and honey which just altogether made it the minimally more interesting out of the two. This Venezuelan still had the buttery, vanilla aftertaste but didn't quite stretch the taste in as many directions as the Tonka. I hope this doesn't sound like a huge criticism because what this bar did - it did extremely well and left with the impression that this was an extremely nice tasting milk chocolate offering.

Overall I wish milk chocolate was always as good as the last two Thorntons bars I have reviewed - the Tonka Bean was slightly superior but this one was almost just as good and well received. This milk chocolate was smooth in both taste and texture and left a sweet chocolaty taste in my mouth that I simply couldn't get enough of. As I said if I hadn't specifically wanted to eat this bar in two sittings I would have happily of just had the whole lot in one ... it is not often I say that now! Once again Thorntons hit another peak in their rather turbulent time on ChocolateMission. If you seriously like your milk chocolate I would really suggest you try one of Thorntons' offerings that I have outlined in this review.

8.7 out of 10