Dark and sophisticated (El Ray Chocolate)

Member Name: mumsymary

Product:	El Ray Chocolate
Date:	24/02/08 (169 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: tastes good

Disadvantages: Hard to get in UK

I love dark chocolate, comes from being given treats of my fathers Bourneville chocolate when I was a child I think.
El Rey chocolate is not one I have had frequently; I do not think it is easily available in England. I have however had this a few times I think when abroad in France or Spain. I can just remember how it tasted so let me tell you all I know about El Rey chocolate.
El Rey chocolate is made in Venezuela it is a family buisiness making choc since 1929. All the chocolate is made from local Venezuelan cocoa products

El Rey makes a variety of chocolate bars, milk white, nutty plain dark and baking chocolate. . I seem to remember having bought and used the cooking chocolate as well as the dark chocolate.
The chocolate comes in 80g/2.8oz bars. The bars are quite thin not a chunky chocolate bar. Each 80g bar is divided into 10 chunks easy to snap of individually.

I shall talk about the dark Gran Saman chocolate bar. The flavour of El Rey chocolate is distinctive as it is made with only Venezuelan cocoa.
The chocolate is a hard chocolate. the finish is not over smooth it has a rough texture it is not shiny, has a little chocolate dust on the surface it is a dry chocolate very hard. The colour is a dark red brown. When you sniff the bar the smell is intense very rich dark fruity earthy, woody obviously a dark flavour.

The chocolate bar Gran Saman has an intense flavour. If you are a lover of milk chocolate you may find the taste of this bar too much it is 70% Venezuelan cocoa it is very intense. The flavour lingers in my mouth for a long time .I find this is a good thing as it means I get that chocolate fix I need, but I do not want to eat a whole bar in one sitting. The flavour is very earthy you can taste the toasted cocoa beans and there is just that subtle spicy hint.
This chocolate takes a long time to melt in your mouth. It is a little gritty. The chocolate grates well and is good grated onto ice cream or other deserts.
If you want a dark sophisticated dark chocolate then this is the bar for you.
I am sure the other bars are equally as good.

If you wish to try a sample bar of each of the 6 varieties. Of El Rey's chocolate bars. Inclu Icoa, Caoba, Bucare, Mijao, Gran Saman and Apamate. Go to http://www.chocosphere.com/Html/Products/el-rey.ht ml where you can buy them on line for $18, 25 a single bar is $3.25. Also the El Rey web site http://sales.chocolateselrey.com/Categories.bok has this 6 bar pack for $24.95.
At
http://www.chocolategourmet.co.uk/Category.aspx?C ategoryId =ce99cced-6198-49e2-9c53-d1d389cae949 it costs £2.35 for a bar of this chocolate.

Summary: a Venezuelan chocolate