This last week I’ve settled myself into my garden swingseat, making the most of these days where summer hands the baton over to autumn. Sometimes I take a book out there, or a screen to watch something not too taxing. But always some chocolate, too.
A bar that I’ve developed a deep, deep love for has been Heist’s 59% Milk with Peruvian cocoa, £6.95/80g (it’s worth every penny). I first mentioned this exact bar nearly two years ago when Tom, a reader, wrote in to tell me about the make. I liked it then, but cocoa beans change, palettes change and it’s been a standout bar for me this year. The pieces are letterbox-shaped, thick and about 15g each; enough to feel indulgent, but not so much they send you into a post-prandial coma. I treasure this moment of eating a piece, just for me, like something out of a 1970s ad when women were only allowed to stop vacuuming if it was for a flakey chocolate bar and a traipse through a cornfield.
Something a bit more high-street is Co-op’s Single Origin (coincidentally also from Peru) 31% cocoa Gianduja Chocolate Bar, £2.25/100g. This has a good dollop (20%) of hazelnut paste, which gives you that famous gianduja taste. It tastes very much like those famous Caffarel Gianduia (sic) 1865 pyramids in gold paper seen in many an Italian’s sweetie dish – the sort kept on the ‘for best’ dining room table in shuttered darkness for guests.
It’s sweet – too sweet for me, but my palette now regards anything below 50% cocoa as sweet – but very good and I can’t help thinking would also be rather fine chopped up into cookies.
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