Notes on chocolate: wintery flavours of pine and mint
Becky, a local friend, recently texted me in great excitement. She had been given (or may have stolen, I didn’t ask too many questions) from overseas family members, a bar of chocolate with Trump’s photo on it. I left it on the coffee (it will also tolerate cups of tea) table for visitors to ask about.
Few did. I looked at the ingredients and there was no cocoa content percentage listed, just ‘cocoa liquor’. The chocolate, made in the US, is subject to FDA rules, which means that milk chocolate must contain at least 10% cocoa liquor and cocoa liquor can contain cocoa beans and cocoa butter. I didn’t bite down on the Trump bar. If this piques your interest on how to read a chocolate bar, Cocoa Runners has done a good rundown on it, which is on its website.
Moving on, Chocolarder’s 70% Spruce Shoots bar, £6.65/70g, with Indonesian cocoa, is made with pine needles gathered around Chocolarder’s base and freeze-dried before being added to the cocoa butter. This reminded me of when I went to the Arctic Circle on a survival course and we made pine needle tea. This is a lovely, lively little bar. It’s described as wintery, but actually it had a spark about it that felt quite spring-like, but perhaps when you get into seasonal tasting notes you need to have a word with yourself.
Unmistakably Christmassy (sssh), despite the name, are Summerdown’s mint chocolates. We love the Dominoes, £8.50/200g, 55% dark chocolate with gorgeous molten mint, but this year I also tried and liked the Velvety Chocolate Truffles, £9.50/100g.
Follow Annalisa on X @AnnalisaB
