A chocolate has to punch very hard to make a mark, if that chocolate is tested after the excesses of Christmas. Firetree, the brand hitherto famous in this column for being ‘the only 100% worth eating if you absolutely must’, has just launched some milk versions. And once I thought about it, I wondered what took them so long.
I probably made the mistake of trying the 50% dark milk first. This is made from single-estate Mindanao Island cocoa from the Philippines, grown (like all Firetree’s) deep in volcanic soil. I don’t know who decided on this particular cocoa, but it was a genius move: it’s a star. Firetree does already use it for one of its 73% bars, (I haven’t tried that yet, a fault I must remedy).
The depth of joy this bar brought is hard to translate into words. I’m not overly a fan of using fancy words to describe food, rather like-for like-experiences, but this is like meeting someone you really admire and finding out they want to be friends with you. Don’t ask, it just is. It’s the strength and confidence of the cocoa that did it for me. If you like dark milks, even if you don’t, this may be your new favourite bar.
I felt slightly sorry for its milkier cousin, the 40% single estate from Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands. This is the perfect ‘gateway’ bar for those new to craft chocolate and needing the comforting nanny handhold of a more familiar milk. It’s still terrific, but once I’d tried the 50%, this pivoted on the too sweet for me. Thank goodness for secondary testers, they went for the 40% over the 50%. At £3.50 for a 70g bar, you may be able to try both.
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