60% Peruvian Dark Chocolate

Rubbish Picture of V!

It's Saturday, it's lashing down with rain, we're in Writtle, Essex, wellington boots are the order of the day and it is summer allegedly. So, we can only be in one place. Yes, that's right we're at the V-Festival. Well, to be exact several thousand other people are at the festival and I'm just an onlooker.  Jet setting artists fly into London's newest helipad, Hylands Park, while shuttle buses are running backwards and forwards from the centre of Chelmsford, but they're all empty, festival goers seem far happier taking their chances in the rain. Writtle looks like it is in a state of lock down with roads closed and security personnel eyeing you suspiciously. Festival goers are a hardy bunch with nothing more than a flimsy piece of plastic sheeting for protection and a couple of tins of beer. However, they continue to keep smiling, looking forward to the nights entertainment. A Domino's Pizza truck has just pulled up and the guy is asking, "who ordered 20,000 pizzas with garlic balls!" Fortunately, the rain has gone and the sun is shining, lets hope it stays that way. Enjoy! Let's talk chocolate....

Background: This bar of chocolate has been on my radar for a while and a recent trip into our local store was a good excuse to pick up a couple of bars. Original packaging makes this bar stand out. Marketing have shown some imagination at last! Not only is this bar a Fairtrade product but it also claims to be Carbon Neutral. Will this fact make it taste any better? Those clever people at Marks and Spencer have calculated the amount of CO2 emitted during the whole chocolate production process. As they know the quantities of CO2 released during production they can work out how many trees to plant. To find out more on the subject click here. They're working with 1,800 producers in the ACOPAGRO cooperative.

The Chocolate: It's good to be reviewing a plain bar of dark chocolate without any additional ingredients that might mask subtle chocolate flavours. This chocolate is described as full bodied with fruity red berry notes. Well, they're bang on the money! The aroma is a mix of heavenly dark chocolate with oodles of fruit. Having a 60% cocoa content means that it is not dry or bitter in anyway. The mouth feel is literally juicy and you just want to keep popping another square into your mouth. It's delicious and at £1.99 for a 100g bar it is good value for money and deserves a score of 8/10. Well done to Marks and Spencer.