J.D. Gross Premium Cocoa Dark Chocolate

Whilst driving past Lidl the other day I thought I’d pop in and see what chocolate delights they had. And boy was I surprised. Not only did they have the usual fair such as Kinder Surprises and the like, but they also had dark chocolate bars for 99p. I instantly thought that it was impossible to have great dark chocolate that cost less than a Pound – it just wasn’t possible.

Now the thing is that this J.D. Gross Premium Cocoa Dark Chocolate From Ecuador is very close to great. The aroma is distinctly dark, although I couldn’t place it as from Ecuador. The guidance on the back says that the cocoa bean is of the Arriba variety and was grown in the Los Rios province of Ecuador.

I liked the unusual packaging where the chocolate is in a pouch made of the cardboard and makes it easy to put the chocolate back in again (theoretically). I did find that the foil was very loosely wrapped around the chocolate which meant that it could be open to the air.

The flavour, I hate to admit is very good. It’s not as smooth or as deep a flavour as the Amedei Chuao 70% but when you consider that that bar costs £5.95 and this one from Lidl cost just 99p then there’s a balance to be made. Is the Amedei Chauo 25 (price and weight taken into account) times as good? Well I probably wouldn’t say that it isn’t – especially if you’re going to mix it with copious amounds of alcohol or have consume it as a secondary event whilst watching a film. But if you’re going to relax in the bath and really enjoy each mouthful then I’d certainly go for the Amedei Chauo 70%.

Another thing I liked was the intricate embossing of the J.D. Gross logo on each square of chocolate. This was a very nice touch!

If you’re passing a Lidl then just pop in and hand over a Pound coin for one of these bars. You won’t regret it.

Rating:
Taste: 75% – very nice, but could have had a deeper flavour range
Texture: 75% – again, very nice, but was just missing a touch of smoothness
Appearance: 85% – the packaging showed that it was luxury chocolate and was very enticing.
Nutritional Information: 70% – good, could have been better, but more information than most.
Overall Rating: 76.25%