NERO & BIANCO White Chocolate Bar

White chocolate, you either love it or hate it. As many of you will know white chocolate is made from cocoa butter rather than cocoa that you find in milk and dark varieties. Cocoa butter is the fatty part of chocolate, extracted from the cocoa bean, it melts quickly at body temperature. For this reason it is used in some medicines.

As with the dark and milk chocolate the packaging has remained relatively the same with the only one difference being the coloured band running around the top of the bar. Unfortunately, this bar didn't make it through the post and I had to take a picture of a 35g bar. The chocolate is made using a variety of organic and fairtrade products including, cane sugar, cocoa butter, milk powder, vanilla extract and ground vanilla. This little bar has a striking resemblance to the GO*DO bar I reviewed a few weeks ago but I suppose that is not unusual as it is made from a basic mould. One thing missing from the ingredient list is the cocoa butter content and I'd like know what this is. As a rule of thumb the higher the cocoa butter content the better the white chocolate.

The Chocolate: On opening the packaging the aroma is strong, sweet and milky with vanilla in the background. There are lots of black pieces running through the bar. This is nothing to worry about it's just the ground vanilla running through the bar. With 50% of this bar being made up of sugar it's not surprising that this is a sweet tasting piece of chocolate. The mouth feel is slightly grainy and there is a big fight going on between the milk powder, vanilla and sugar. This makes for a slightly astringent feeling at the back of the throat. 


Overall it is far too sweet for my tastes and therefore I can only give this bar 6/10 for flavour and 10/10 for ethical policy. Currently, the bar is available through fairtrade wholesalers, PEROS.

NERO & BIANCO 70%

I have to say that the milk chocolate bar from Nero and Bianco that I tried a couple of days was very good and it was demolished in record time! How will this dark chocolate shape up. Well Louise from Nero and Bianco assured me that all their bars were made using Trinitario cocoa beans. So hopefully this dark chocolate will follow in its milkier cousins footsteps.


Their cocoa beans are sourced from a variety of co-operatives and for this bar they have included Conacado Co-operative (Dominican Republic); Association de Productores Cacao Vrae (Peru) and Foraleza Del Valle (Ecuador). All have been certified Fairtrade.

The aroma from this bar is one of intense tobacco which is so intoxicating you just want to keep inhaling deeply. The chocolate is well tempered but unfortunately, it was roughed up in the post so it is not looking its best! The tobacco does come through in the taste but it is very subtle. The chocolate melts quickly on the tongue with a hint of bitterness. 

70%

This is a good bar of chocolate and the quality Trinitario beans shine through in every way. Happy to award this bar of chocolate 8/10 for flavour and full marks for ethical pedigree. 

If you're in the catering trade Peros are exclusive stockists of Nero and Bianco chocolate.

NERO & BIANCO

Sticky Toffee Pudding

Just returned from a lovely lunch at The Anchor in Hullbridge, Essex. Good food, friendly service and at reasonable prices. Battered Cod followed by Sticky Toffee Pudding which was delicious but my slimline figure is spreading somewhat. So I certainly should not be eating chocolate after all that but I promise it will be salad, salad and more salad from now on....maybe. 


I finally have my hands on three bars of chocolate from Nero & Bianco a relative unknown as far as I'm concerned. The chocolate is made in Italy but the company has a base in High Wycombe. Recently introduced by Peros a company I was highlighting a few days ago in a previous blog. 


The packaging is funky and has a 60's psychedelic feel about it. According to the information provided on the packaging this their cocoa is selected from a number of grower co-operatives from the Dominican Republic, Peru, Ecuador and sugar from Paraguay. Interestingly 67.67% of the ingredients used to make the chocolate are certified to International Fairtrade standards. This product is also organic including cocoa butter, milk powder and cane-sugar.

Funky Fairtrade and Organic!

Their website talks about where their cocoa is sourced from and mentions Criollos, Trinitario and Forastero in the same sentence which may lead you to think that these bars are made from all three. Can you be more specific please!


The Chocolate: A milk chocolate with a 39% cocoa content should have some character about it. The presentation is very good, it's bright, light and the chocolate has a good snap. However, the cocoa content although fairly high does not come through in the flavour. I was expecting something stronger and longer lasting. Instead you get this creamy, malty and caramel flavour coming through which is ok but not what I was expecting. It's very similar to Swiss chocolate in my opinion. There is a lot of sugar in this bar but it doesn't come through as being overly sweet.

I would describe this bar as being middle of the road in terms of flavour and it will suit the English palette. However, in terms of ethical credentials it ticks all the right boxes and I can understand why Peros have gone with this bar. I have no idea of the selling price for this bar as it will probably turn up in office restaurants around the country instead of in the supermarkets.


Nero&Bianco are running a Valentine's Competition at the moment, click here for more details.



Louise, from Nero&Bianco kindly contacted me to confirm that they use 100% Trinitario beans in their chocolate depending on the situation at harvest time.


Thanks for the quick response from Nero&Bianco!