After watching Ann Reardon's video about how big companies ruined chocolate, I decided I'd try out some of the fancier single-origin chocolates. I started with the Sainsbury's and Asda ones. I did start taking notes for these ones, but then they all just started to taste like much of a muchness. I do not have a fancy palate. I also find it interesting that she labels Lindt as a bad-tasting brand, as it seems to be on the higher end of the mainstream brands!
I forgot to buy a Lindt to compare them to. Usually, I just buy the 33p cheapo plain chocolate from Lidl, Sainsbury's and I think Morrison's (Tesco and Aldi for sure still use dairy in their budget plain chocolates)? And I've never had an issue with these ones. They're 55% cocoa solids and they taste like chocolate. I saw some of the Tony's Chocolonely brand, which I want to support for their ethics, but all their chocolate contains dairy, which is not eco-friendly anyway, I am also mildly allergic to it and I don't need to increase my cancer risk even further, thank you.
Sadly, I didn't find out until later that Rainforest Alliance certification isn't really worth the paper it's written on. Strangely enough, it's the budget supermarkets, Lidl and Aldi, that have Fairtrade certified cocoa on their own brand higher-end chocolates. But then, it seems Fairtrade has its own issues, so who even knows anymore? Not me, that's for sure. We could stop buying chocolate completely, but then that's people's livelihoods gone. I think I'll just buy the Fairtrade ones for now.
Anyway, as to my notes.
- Asda Uganda 85% — smoky, woody, bitter
- Sainsbury's Dominican Republic 72% — sweeter, hint of orange
- Sainsbury's Madagascar 80% — hints of lemon
It seems that's all I wrote. The Moser Roth ones (Aldi) were kinda meh. The orange one would have been okay, but I really disliked the almonds in it. The Asda mint one was my favourite. The mint was nice and fresh, and the cocoa nibs added a nice crunchy texture. The Moser Roth mint was meh. Hardly any mint flavour and the chocolate wasn't much to write home about. The Sainsbury's ones were both nice, but one had NO certification whatsoever, which I didn't notice until I got home. The Lidl Peruvian one (J.D. Gross, weird name choice for a food) I remember as being very nice. I'm tempted to try the Montezuma 100% cocoa one. I suppose I can always melt it down with mylk into bubbly chocolate if it's terrible. I also wanna try out Hotel Chocolat one day. I rememeber Booja Booja's hazelnut (?) chocolate being sooooo good, and I don't even like nutty chocolate. My friend bought me a pack once and I was like: you've converted me! I love nut chocolate now! It was really nice!
Anyway, I'm going to declare J.D. Gross as actually not gross at all, and the winner of this non-existent contest, both for flavour and being Fairtrade.