Wild Gorse Flower by Chocolarder

If you are a visitor to Southwold, Suffolk, especially during the magical month of May, you will be familiar with a striking and prickly yellow shrub that is known as Gorse which bursts like a ray of sunshine from the scrub. 

A bright colour is not its only attractive quality but it also has a heady, thick coconut scent that envelops everything within a few metres. 

Certainly not something I would consider combining with chocolate, but the guys at Chocolarder have been working their magic to produce an aptly named Wild Gorse Flower bar of chocolate. According to the words on the packaging, "Gorse flowers are handpicked from around Cornwall's coast and steeped in cocoa butter for several weeks to impart their heady scent. Added to 40% milk Javan milk chocolate".

Chocolarder is an artisan bean to bar chocolate maker based in Cornwall and I've taken a paragraph directly from their website, "The Chocolarder is one of the only small batch bean-to-bar chocolate makers in the country. We produce fine quality, stone ground chocolate using organic beans imported from single estate, family run plantations in Venezuela, Java, Madagascar, Peru and the Dominican Republic. The select beans used at The Chocolarder are roasted, winnowed and ground over 4 days before being left to mature for 30 days. The chocolate is then hand tempered and made into bars. This obsessive attention to detail yields some of the finest chocolate in production today".

Chocolarder packaging is all recyclable

The chocolate is a single origin milk chocolate made from Trinitario beans from Java with a 40% cocoa content, infused with Wild Gorse flowers. The beans themselves have been through a grind length of 68 hrs. 

As I said on my previous tasting, their packaging is very good and also completely recyclable or sourced from recycled materials. On opening the greaseproof outer there is a very, very strong aroma of coconut, which brings back memories of sunbathing using coconut oil and gently frying in the Mediterranean sun. The coconut flavour is so strong that I almost expected there to be a white centre not unlike a Bounty. The 40% milk chocolate is lost in the strong coconutty flavour but melts easily with a fudge like texture. To be honest the chocolate does not come through until long afterwards.

Ingredients:

Cocoa Beans
Raw Sugar Cane
Whole Milk Powder
Cocoa Butter
Gorse Flowers

My only question is why did you have to use such a good quality chocolate that ends up being masked by such a strong flavour. Don't get me wrong I enjoyed it and so did everybody else who was lucky enough to try a piece.

Reasonably priced at £3.95 per 70g. To buy click here. 

Chocolarder - Cornish Honeycomb

Handmade in Cornwall

Chocolarder, new kid on the block when it comes to bean-to-bar UK chocolate makers. One of a handful of chocolate specialists including the likes of Duffy of Red Star Chocolate Ltd, based in Lincolnshire and Pump Street Bakery based in picturesque Orford, Suffolk.

Chocolarder is an artisan bean-to-bar chocolate maker based in Penryn, Cornwall. One of Cornwall's most ancient towns and an important harbour in years gone by. Now the centre of artisan chocolate production on the Lizard Peninsula. 

Michael Longman, a former pastry chef, started Chocolarder in 2012 after deciding he'd had enough of mass produced chocolate. A small chocolate bar maker with a strong sense of social responsibility demonstrated by sourcing only organic and sustainably grown cocoa beans from family run plantations. 

The packaging is very functional with a wallet like feel which allows you to keep your chocolate treasure in safekeeping for later nibbling.

Single Origin Milk Chocolate with Honeycomb....this 70g bar of milk chocolate, 40% cocoa solids, is made using single origin chocolate, Trinitario beans from Java with honeycomb pieces. The label also tells us about 'grind length' a statement that could be misconstrued but, essentially this tells us this is a bar of quality chocolate. A longer conche effectively translates into a dream bar of the brown, sweat stuff.....well that's the theory. 

A beautiful shiny exterior glistening like polished mahogany even under these gloomy grey Essex skies. A good snap and a creamy smooth rich fudgy loveliness intermingled with honeycomb crunch. The accompanying tasting notes suggest strong earthy and floral tones from locally sourced honey which has been cold-pressed. Allegedly this process ensures all the good stuff including vitamins and nutrients remain intact and are not destroyed by heat.

I've diligently placed what's left of my chocolate bar back in the wallet to be enjoyed later. But, it keeps calling me back which means it will be devoured sooner rather than later. Good job I ordered two! So, just on this premise alone this is a good bar of chocolate and competes well with the likes of Duffy and Pump Street. Priced at £3.95 for 70g.  

Well done my lovelies!