Description: Premium quality cocoa from Fairtrade cooperatives in the Dominican Republic and Peru combined with cane sugar, milk and crushed cacao nibs (the inside of the cacao bean). It is a very smooth chocolate bar and the crushed nibs give the bar a sensational crunchy texture.
Ingredients: Cocoa mass, raw cane sugar, cocoa butter, whole cane sugar, milk fat, roasted cacao nibs (6%) and ground vanilla. 55 % cocoa in the chocolate. Gluten free. GMO free. No preservatives, colouring agents or emulsifiers such as lecithin.
Organic and fair trade: All ingredients are organic certified. Fairly traded ingredients.
Cacao: From Fairtrade cooperatives in Peru and The Dominican Republic. Cane sugar: From Fairtrade cooperatives in Paraguay. Vanilla: From Fairtrade cooperatives in Madagascar "Mananara".
Allergen information: Contains milk product. May contain traces of hazelnuts, almonds and peanuts.
Other information: Chocolate and Love supports reforestation and was among the 10 largest donors to Weforest.org in 2010.
REVIEWS
20 October 2011
www.lot-o-choc.blogspot.com
When I went down to the Speciality Food Fair in September I got the pleasure of meeting with Richard O' Connor, one of the founders of the chocolate company Chocolate & Love and come back with this delicious looking Crushed Diamonds bar, consisting of a dark milk 55% chocolate with cocoa nibs.
For those of you that don't know Chocolate & Love is a chocolate company that believes in offering a standard of chocolate that is far superior to that of the commercial ranges, and not only produces its own range of bars, such as Crushed Diamonds, but also sells a range of International finer chocolates such as Amano, Amedei etc.
As stated above the Crushed Diamonds bar is somewhere in between a light dark chocolate/dark milk chocolate and is made using the finest beans from the Dominican Republic and Peru, so is perfect for people who are slowly trying to ween themselves off the more sugary commercial stuff a little step at a time but don't want something too dark and bitter.
Firstly, I have to comment that I love how the bar itself was packaged, although the actual plastic wrapping of the bar is nothing amazing the lovely inner detail on the inside of the paper is excellent with really good information about the countries where the cacao was sourced from and how Chocolate & Love are giving back! I love it when a chocolate company puts a little special touch like this on their bars, it just makes them feel so much more personalised towards the customer.
I have to say that this is one of the creamiest, smoothest bars of chocolate that I have had in a long time, it was absolutely divine with an almost truffle like texture that melted thickly and sumptuously on the tongue before giving way to the nice crunch added by the cocoa nibs. It's not often that I like nibs etc in a bar as smooth as this as I feel that it imposes on the texture, but in this bar it just seems to work perfectly.
The cocoa nibs also brought a nice different background flavour to the bar; offering a burnt fruity flavour that was almost popcornesque to the light refreshing red fruit tastes that were emerging from the chocolate itself.
I think to be honest this bar would suit anyone, I love dark chocolate but I didn't find this too sweet, my family love the commercial sweet stuff and they still loved this bar, I think its the perfect stepping stone into the world of finer chocolate; not only is it delicious but the texture has to be one of the best I've had in a long time making you just want to keep going back for more and more.
Taste - 8.4/10 - Not too sweet nor too bitter, a nice middle in between flavour to suit the masses with light red fruit notes.
Texture - 9/10 - So amazingly creamy, almost truffle like that just melts so thickly, coating your whole mouth in its delicious flavour.
Appearance - 8.6/10 - The chocolate has a good smooth shine and the inner packaging offers something a little different.
Price - 8.7/10 - This bar is only priced at £3.20, which to be honest I think is a complete bargain, I've paid a lot more for bars that haven't been anywhere near as good as this!
Overall - 8.7/10 - Definitely a bar to keep going back to!
14 September 2010
www.therecipeblog.co.uk/reviews/review-chocolate-and-love
I had the chance to sample Crushed Diamonds (Organic Dark Truffle Chocolate with Cocoa Nibs) and The Coffee Affair (organic dark chocolate with coffee). It was like a chocolate fiesta on the taste buds. Neither of these chocolate are for children or the faint hearted – each inducing a hit of chocolate so intense and sexy it is almost overwhelming. Who needs men when you can buy chocolate which does a far better job!