Opulent Organic Oriental Oblivion. (Green & Black's Organic Chocolate Collection)

Member Name: QueenElf

Product:	Green & Black's Organic Chocolate Collection
Date:	30/12/05 (216 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Fair Trade, 100% pure. Tastes wonderful.

Disadvantages: Price only, but it's worth it.

I got some chocolate for Xmas. “Well, so what?” I hear you saying. If you’ve read some of my reviews before now then you know I have a severe milk allergy and the choice of chocolate is very limited. This year I was in for a surprise, not only my daughter but my sister as well happened to buy me the same product. I was in seventh heaven as I licked the remaining bits of chocolate from my fingers tonight. But I’m not just here to tell you about my latest milk-free goodies, this is one special chocolate that everyone should get a taste of because it’s simply luxurious.
I’m talking about Green & Blacks dark chocolate, a veritable feast from the ordinary dark chocolate that I’m accustomed to. Before I go into raptures here is a brief summary of this special delight.
Back in 1991 a man called Craig Sams with his wife Jo were holidaying in Belize when they discovered a local drink made from pure cocoa beans. They saw the potential straight away and so they founded Green & Blacks. Green because local farmers, without any additives made the product, black because this was essentially a dark chocolate. This was to become the first true organic product, with small farmers from Belize, the Dominican Republic and Madagascar forming the Fair Trade venture. The company itself has grown from strength to strength but it’s still a small company specialising in quality organic products. If you’d like to know more then look up their site www.greenandblacks.com. It’s full of information on the products and forthcoming special events.

My own choccie delights were one bar of rich dark chocolate from my daughter, followed up a few day’s later by the cherry and ginger varieties from my sister. I have to say that each was an experience I could never have dreamt of, but I’m going to concentrate on one flavour alone. (The others were delicious but this one stood out as a something to appeal to any chocoholic.)
The wrapper alone said “good taste” in more ways than one. This is the ginger flavour with a rich and opulent look consisting of mainly a dark orange background with the word “ginger” in plain gold at the top. The words “Green & Blacks “ are picked out in gold lettering on the orange background with the weight of the product at 150g. Turning over you get the usual product description along with the ingredients and nutritional information. Although it didn’t state it was dairy-free it did say suitable for Vegetarians and Vegans and that was good enough for me. Unfortunately it isn’t suitable for people with nut allergies, although I would think it might be suitable for those with a very mild allergy, but better safe than sorry.

I don’t normally place any value on packaging but this looks expensive enough to impress the discerning connoisseur and would make a good gift for those that appreciate the finer things in life. (It impressed me and I’m no snob.) I run my fingers across the bar picking up the raised lettering against the background before I ventured into the taste test, it appealed to my sense of touch and colour (I’m a frustrated artist). Truly this looked and felt good.

I peeled back the packaging discovering another layer of gold foil inside. (By now I was wondering if I could salvage the wrapping for an art project). The wonderful smell of rich dark chocolate filled my nostrils with delight, I was looking forward to this. Even the squares of chocolate were small, about five to one small strip, further reinforcing that this was a product to savour rather than to gorge on. I broke off a small portion and was delighted to see some crystallised ginger peeking out from the chocolate. It did say a lot about this on this wrapper but I’m naturally sceptical of such claims.
I’m ashamed to say that the first bites went down without any thought about research (I’m only human after all!). To be honest I was on second strip before I even thought about reviewing it, I felt decidedly adverse to stop my eating pleasure to savour a mouthful. Eventually I’d eaten three quarters of the bar and all I could say at that point was YUM!

Like a good little girl I put the rest away for another day, it’s so tempting to eat chocolate in one go for me but there was a film on the TV I wanted to watch the next night and what better way to indulge than with chocolate and some wine?
This time I really did think about the combination of flavours, I’m not a great lover of sickly sweet flavours but I don’t like the bitter taste of rich dark chocolate either. The ginger really complimented the dark chocolate leaving the warmth of the taste in my mouth for ages after. I’d sampled the cherry flavour (I still have a bit left) and the plain dark chocolate, which I’d eaten on the long journey back from visiting my daughter at Xmas. (Great for beating nicotine withdrawal symptoms). The ginger is the perfect foil to set off the dark chocolate and this time I really allowed myself to savour the taste. I sucked and chewed rolling the ginger pieces around in my mouth as it tickled and teased my taste buds. I’m not talking about “ginger” flavour either; there were real pieces of ginger in the bar. I ate it with a nice sharp Chardonnay, which cleansed the palette and allowed me to enjoy it even more.

This is one treat that I’ll enjoy on special occasions, I can’t see me buying this for ordinary day-to-day consumption. It was an Xmas present but I’ve looked at the prices and they vary a great deal with Tesco coming out the cheapest at around just under £2 per 150g bar. You know you are getting your money’s worth with 80% organic dark chocolate, the remainder is made up of crystallised ginger raw cane sugar and a touch of vanilla, no preservatives, no artificial flavourings, just a 100% pure product. So many chocolate products are diluted with milk, this makes it cheaper to produce as pure cocoa solids cost much more, but in the long run it’s worth it to sample something definitely out of the ordinary. If the ginger doesn’t appeal to you then there are many other flavours to choose from, just explore the site.



Obviously it was bought for me with my milk allergy in mind but I can see this becoming a present for that certain special person. It looks good, it tastes sublime and it’s helping farmers in third-world countries. If you haven’t tried dark chocolate because you are not sure it will appeal to you then I recommend trying the ginger flavour first, it wakes up a jaded palette and really does make you feel like a gourmet. If you want to impress at a dinner party or as a gift for someone that has everything then you won’t go wrong with this. It’s classy, shrieks “I’ve spent a lot of time and money on choosing this” and if you decide to indulge yourself I guarantee you will never turn your nose up at dark chocolate again.

Indulge your senses in opulent organic oriental oblivion and wake up your taste buds to a new delight.
Enjoy,
Lisa.

Summary: A treat for the senses.