November 22nd: Green & Black's Cherry

Kcal 477 Fat 28.2g Carbs 48.0g (per 100.0g)

Over the last week or so I have been sampling a few more variants from the Green & Black's range - some of which have been great, others of which have been not so great. For this very reason I have to admit that Green & Black's isn't one of my favourite brands as it often doesn't live up to it's premium proposition. The G&B price isn't what I would call expensive but at the same time it is more expensive than brands like Dairy Milk or Galaxy who just so happen to be a lot more consistent. Today the bar at hand was this 'Cherry' variant, which came described as 'organic dark chocolate with whole cherries'.

This G&B bar came in the normal 100.0g format that was separated into the tiny sized blocks that I have ranted about way too many times before to go into detail again. The outer wrapper was predominantly coloured with the horrible looking G&B brown colour - one can only hope they will be flipping the placement of the primary and secondary colours soon like they have done on a few other variants from their range. More positively the chocolate itself was covered in a great looking layer of gold G&B branded foil and exhibited a fair amount of chocolaty, fruity smells when broken into. As you can see in the picture above the cherry pieces were generously dispersed throughout the chocolate with most blocks gracing at least one cherry piece.

I can't honestly think of another range where the quality of chocolate swings from one extreme to another quite like G&B's dark chocolate does. Their 70% dark chocolate is absolutely fantastic with its rich, non-bitter cocoa taste that has notes of coffee and red wine. Their 60% dark chocolate (the stuff used here unfortunately!) just so happens to be the polar opposite. The chocolate was just like I had experienced before in that it was fair paced and smooth in melt but utterly lifeless and limp in terms of flavour impact. Where the chocolate was just unexciting the cherry pieces were completely repulsive and the polar opposite of what I was hoping for. The cherries were tart, sour and bitter and frankly tasted like fruit that had past its best before date. Just to cap off a really bad showing for the cherries here they also felt horrible in the mouth and had waxy thick skins that just didn't blend with the melting chocolate in any manner. You can probably guess already that this wasn't a chocolate I consumed in any great quantity. I never like to admit this but over half of it ended up in the bin.

Overall this chocolate has really put me off trying another Green & Black's bar for a long time. It was simply dismal in nearly every which way - from the boring looking packaging (which I have rated way too highly), the bland tasting chocolate and the awful tasting cherries there was no real redeeming feature of this chocolate that I really care to mention. G&B have never managed to blow my socks off with any of their chocolates but there is a certain level of quality that you come to expect when you pay over a certain price point for a chocolate. Unfortunately it is just an all too common experience for me that G&B don't reach the levels that they should be and this bar failed miserably to get anywhere near tolerable standards. I normally try ending my reviews with at least something positive to say about the chocolate bar at hand but I am really struggling with this one. It would be interesting to hear from others who have also tried this Cherry variant as I am wondering if it just wasn't to my own taste or if it really is awful.

4.6 out of 10