Berry Scrumptious Strawberry and Black Pepper with Dark Chocolate
I’m always dubious of chocolate makers that package their chocolate in loose, broken bits in a bag. I know that Rabot Estate do that with a number of their “bars” such as the Dash of Milk 50% and 65% Dark With Piedmont Hazelnuts so I should really give Berry Scrumptious the benefit of the doubt too.
I picked this bar up in on my recent week-long retreat to Scotland and found a small selection of other bars too in Pestle and Mortar on one of the days out. At first they reminded me very much of James Chocolate as they have a strong fruit line-up and also display their chocolate in cellophane, and the similarity continued as James also did a Strawberry and Black Pepper bar which was pretty good, although that bar was made with white chocolate.
After opening up the wrapping at brought it towards my nose it had a very earthy aroma – somewhat like the various raw chocolate bars that I’ve reviewed in the past. But it was the flavour that I really enjoyed. At first it seemed fairly mellow with a ginger characteristic, however, with each bite the sharpness of the pepper really started to build and gave that sort of burning chilli flavour at the back of the throat which I just love. But there was a great deal more to this bar of chocolate than just the spice, there was also a wonderful sweetness from the dried strawberries which would intimitently come into play. The texture of these pieces was like honeycomb and brought a wonderful juxtaposition to the delightful edge that the pepper offers. This bar of chocolate is really a ‘good cop, bad cop’ bar – thankfully in the right proportions.
To be honest I didn’t expect a great deal from the bar as I’m so used to being disappointed when buying chocolate from companies I’ve not heard of before. But I was really impressed with this one and it actually makes me wish I bought some of their other flavours to review. I could have tried Raspberry & Ginger, Glen Ample Raspberry & White chocolate and Strawberries & Cream chocolate.
