June 11th: Zotter Scotch Whisky

Kcal ??? Fat ??? Fat(sats) ??? Carbs ???

My tireless investigation of Zotter's Handscooped bars range continued today with me checking out their Scotch Whisky chocolate. You may recall that it was only few weeks ago that I reviewed Zotter's Muscat Wine with Grapes bar, and it managed to score pretty well on the ChocolateMission rating system (See HERE). As I stated in that last review, I am no big drinker but even I was curious to see what Zotter could do with a bar combining 'dark chocolate filled with whisky cream'. Looking at the ingredients list, the 6% whisky content came across as plentiful to me, so I was expecting it to really be brought to life in the filling.

Aligned with the rest of the Handscooped range this came in a 70.0g bar, and I shared it with my father who just to happens to enjoy the odd drop of fine whisky. In terms of the wrapper, the bar still looked like a premium proposition, but I don't think the artwork was the best looking I have ever seen. My main issue was that colours were all very similar, thus I wouldn't say the packaging stood out particularly strongly in any manner. When it came to the actual chocolate the usual lack of branding was again noteworthy, though the distinction between the outer layer of chocolate and smooth looking truffle filling did manage to ignite my excitement to a reasonable degree.

Taking in the smells on offer this was obviously going to be a very rich tasting chocolate as the cocoa scents emanated were very forthcoming. Biting into the chocolate the visual presentation of the chocolate was nicely indicative of the textures on offer, with the outer layer breaking with a nice crispness to reveal the softer truffle layer below. Just as promised from the aromas, the 70% chocolate was indeed very flavoursome and it straightaway brought strong unsweetened cocoa flavours to the party with it's smooth flowing taste. Having read about the plentiful contents of the scotch whisky in the ingredients, I was expecting the filling to bring a strong set of malty alcohol fueled flavours to the taste, and a pleasurable warming sensation to the mouth. As is often the case what I expected, and what was reality were two very different things. Whilst there was an undeniable alcohol element detectable it never came through with any great strength, and it more lingered in the background as an odd sweet, fruity tasting undercurrent. On the whole this added flavour dimension wasn't bad tasting, but it certainly wasn't what I expected, and thus it didn't particularly satisfy my expectations - neither my Father's.

Overall this Zotter Scotch Whisky bar was really saved by one thing, and that was the undeniable high quality Zotter dark chocolate. If this was a product just to be viewed in a light of being a dark chocolate bar, the scores would be a lot more favourable because the chocolate was both rich tasting and very flavoursome. Unfortunately though this came billed as a scotch whisky flavoured chocolate, and when looked upon in this regard it has to be said that it failed to deliver on what it promised. I'm no experienced whisky drinker, but even I could tell that the flavours on offer from the Whisky Cream centre were not what you would expect. One of the other glaring errors for me with this chocolate was that it was also lacked the warming heat feeling that you get from drinking whisky. It wasn't like I wanted a throat burning sensation, but I personally see it as a key part of the whisky experience and this was sadly lacking. Having tried so many really high quality Zotter products previously I would suggest you are best off looking at another one of their offerings. I can't imagine even the fondest of whisky drinkers would enjoy this all that much.

6.5 out of 10