Maya gold - a tasty chocolate bar that helps you do good deeds (Green & Blacks Maya Gold)

Member Name: beckyX

Product:	Green & Blacks Maya Gold
Date:	21/09/09 (49 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Tasty, fair trade, organic, less bitter than dark chocolate

Disadvantages: Texture, no longer as vegan friendly

Maya Gold is an organic Fair Trade chocolate bar made by Green and Blacks. It cost £1.65 for 100g, so whilst it isn't the cheapest chocolate bar out there, it is not an overpriced luxury either, and the taste and improved quality is well worth the extra expense.

The flavour is bitter-sweet, dark and spicy, with hints of orange. Although it is a dark chocolate, it is not excessively bitter. This is probably because according to the label, it contains 55% cocoa and 45% sugar. If, like me, you like chocolate but find 70%+ cocoa chocolate too harsh, give this one a go - I find that it's very easy to eat. Sadly, perhaps, too easy - 100g does not last more than two days when I'm around!

Texture-wise, the chocolate is a little brittle and the texture is less smooth than milk chocolate. It doesn't produce the same melt-in-the-mouth sensation as milk chocolate either, although it did manage to melt all over my car's passenger seat when I left it in the sun.

The packaging is very similar to other G&B products - a dark packaging with an orange stripe that is distinctive to this brand. The fair trade and organic logos are displayed prominently on the front, creating a feeling that you're positively doing a good deed by buying this tasty snack - a cunning marketing ploy!

I first encountered Maya Gold some ten years ago during a period of exam stress. It proved very helpful in that way that only extremely nice chocolate can be. For years, I would only encounter it in Oxfam or occasionally a health food store, so it was a pleasant surprise when it became available in everyday supermarkets.

Sadly, in 2008, the packaging indicated that it was no longer suitable for vegans, although according to their web page, this is because of low levels of milk contamination because the chocolate is produced on the same production line as milk chocolate - something that other manufacturers usually label as "contains traces" or "may contain traces".

In conclusion: if you like chocolate then give it a go because it's tasty. My pudding recipe tip: break it up with a rolling pin and sprinkle it on top of ice cream. Yum.

Summary: Yum. Nice dark chocolate that isn't too dark or bitter.