Chocolate and Love - Crushed Diamonds

Now that summer has almost completely lost its shine, thank goodness chocolate is once again back on the menu!  A visit to the Speciality Food Show at Olympia at the beginning of this week was well worth a visit.  It was great to see all the hundreds of small entrepreneurs eagerly promoting their wares.  Chocolate, of course, was a great attraction and a chance to see what was coming onto the market.  Unfortunately, I just missed Paul Young talking about his latest creations but a chance to chat with Richard from Chocolate and Love, the guys and girls at Zotter and Amelia from Amelia Rope to name just three made up for this.  Not enough time and too many stalls meant I couldn't get to each and every one.  I did however manage to grab a few business cards from companies I'd never heard of before.  So, be warned, I will be in touch!

Chocolate and Love: Of course I had heard of this company before having visited their stall at Chocolate Week a year or so ago but for some reason I didn't know much about them.  The business was created by Richard O'Connor and Birgitte Hovmand in early 2010.  Having travelled half the globe searching for chocolate the company literally popped onto the chocolate scene.  Buying a shop wasn't an option for these two.  So, using vacant shops to provide 'Pop Up' chocolate emporiums was a quirky and Wonkaesque way to raise their profile and a novel way to attract punters to their online business.  As more and more well known names disappear from the high street perhaps pop-up style shops are the future?  It certainly sounds more exciting than what we have now. 


Pop Up to Online means their ever growing range of products are available to everybody who owns a piece of IT gadge. Their website is a mix of online shopping, tasting advice, chocolate clubs and of course tastings which seem to be big business. At just under a £1,000 that's some serious tasting but I imagine its well worth it and everybody comes out feeling gooood! 

Crushed Diamonds: What a great name and if you become a fan of Chocolate and Love you will enjoy the names they've come up with as much as their chocolate.  "Filthy Rich", sounds good!
To quote, "Dark chocolate with cacao nibs using 100% organic and fairly traded ingredients. Top quality organic cocoa from small Fairtrade cooperatives in Peru and Dominican Republic. Premium quality cacao beans are roasted and broken into small cacao nibs, giving the bar a sensational crunchy texture".  This bar has a cocoa content of 55% which is light for a dark bar.  Nothing elaborate about the mould used just plain and simple. The bar has a lovely rich cocoa aroma as you inhale deeply.  Always smell the chocolate before you taste this accentuates the overall taste.  The slightly lower cocoa content provides it with some milk chocolate like qualities.  The smooth and slightly sweet chocolate melts quickly in the mouth to reveal the diamonds - aka cocoa nibs. I'm not usually a fan of cocoa nibs but these are just the right size and add texture.  This is a delicious bar of chocolate and I'm going to lock it away before I devour it in one sitting!


In terms of score this bar receives 9/10 not only for its great taste but because it is organic and uses fairly traded ingredients.  Not only that , Chocolate and Love has committed to supporting reforestation in Ethiopia in conjunction with WeForest.  Every time you buy a bar - we plant a tree! 
To buy this bar click here £3.20 for a 100g bar.

Psst have you heard about
this chocolate?

Posted by Richard.