CHOCRI CHOCOLATE

In late November of 2009, I found a post which spoke about free chocolate bars! NEVER one to pass up on free quality chocolate, I searched it out. It's for a company called Chocri out of Germany; they were promoting the launch of their US newsletter slated for January 2010. Here's a little background info on Chocri.

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"Chocri is a German startup, founded in September 2008, but launched in the US in January 2010. What we do is we allow you to customize your own chocolate bar here on our website. You get to choose a base chocolate white, dark or milk chocolate), and then your favorites out of more than 90 toppings. Those can be nuts and dried fruit, but they can also be real gold flakes, roasted almonds, pretzel, chive rolls, jalapenos... you name it! We hand-make the bars in Germany, and ship them to you.

We want you to eat chocolate and fully enjoy the good feeling it creates, hence we use only the best ingredients, such as

organic, fair trade chocolate from Belgium. We also donate a percentage of our revenues to DIV Kinder, an organization that supports children at the Ivory Coast, and you are free to add your own donation at checkout"

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The 3 free "design it yourself" chocolate bars were only part of their promotion. I encountered a few problems (because I'm from Canada and not the US --- Can you scream discrimination!!). But the Chocri people were very lovely and very helpful; and I finally managed to get online and design my custom chocolate. And you also get to name what you design.
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Joy of joys! My chocolate arrived last Friday!

At first, I was all in a dither!! because it being post-Christmas, I was trying to keep away from sweeties (see 8 lb of chocolate at Xmas reference in a previous blog!!). But part of my "PLEASE give me free chocolate!" speech to Chocri when I was having my online problems was that I would blog about it ........................ and who wants to blog about 3 month old chocolate! That's just not fair to my public!!

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So, in the interest of science, I opened up those 3 little puppies and did a taste test.

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"Hmmmm! Interesting flavors!"

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This required a further taste test.
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"Hmmmm! Subtle use of dark and light notes!"

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So, I did one further taste test. And here are my results.

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Chocolate Bar #1 - Spicy Orange Almond Delight

This one was my favorite of the three, but only because I'm a huge fan of chocolate and orange together. The quality of the dark chocolate was top notch; it's got great rich flavor without any bitterness and it's smooth and creamy in texture. The orange chocolate drops are a great size and give you a good jolt of intense orange flavor. The roasted almonds are a little dry and crumbly, but not overly so; and they have a nice flavor and add a good crunch. The orange pepper is very subtle -- you hardly know it's there: as a matter of fact, I would have liked perhaps another sprinkle! But this one was a sure winner with me -- I'd order it again.

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Chocolate Bar # 2 - Hot Cashew 'n' Raisin

This was my next favorite. I'm also a big fan of nuts and raisins in a bar, and this one didn't let me down. Ditto on the quality, taste and feel of the dark chocolate. It really is divine! The cashews, especially the volcano cashews, were very nice -- that slightly meaty texture with just enough hot to heat up your tongue a little. And when you married that with the sweetness and chewy texture of the raisins, it was quite lovely.

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Chocolate Bar #3 - Fruity Coffee Milk Chocolate

Just because I choose this chocolate bar as my 3rd favorite does not in any way mean that it wasn't good. It is very, very good. But it's 3rd because I ALWAYS choose dark chocolate over milk chocolate. (I'm only thinking of my health here, people! The sacrifices I make!!!)
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The quality of the milk chocolate is once again top notch. Chocri make a wonderfully smooth and rich chocolate. The dried strawberries, blueberries and cherries are very nice, especially the strawberries. When your mouth encounters one of those, it's so big and chewy that it requires a little work; but then your taste buds are met with the loveliless taste of strawberry. Yummy! (And I believe that this extra work is burning off excess calories meaning you could eat more of this bar than perhaps the others which are hidden in your sock drawer!)

The little red bits are, of course, the cranberries. They're ok, and I appreciate that they're cut up tiny because cranberries can be pretty overpowering. But this is my 2nd bar lately with dried cranberries; and I have to say, I'm just not a fan of cranberries in a chocolate bar. And then there's the coffee flakes. While I love coffee and chocolate flavors, in my humble opinion, these flakes could have been ground a little finer and sprinkled on. I found their bitterness didn't mingle well with the softer more delicate flavor of the milk chocolate. (Although I'd try them again in a dark chocolate bar.)

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So, there you have it -- my review of my own personal designer bars.
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Please check out Chocri. There are lots of other options -- many other interesting toppings and fillings. And they do white chocolate (--- which is an oxymoron as far as I'm concerned! There's no such thing as "white" chocolate! But some of you out there probably disagree with me.)

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Now I'm hoping they'll venture north into Canada!

(And hire me as their official taste tester and spokesperson!! Most truly a job I could "grow" with!!)