Theo Coconut Curry Milk 45% cacao

This blog is dedicated to reviews of dark chocolate, and only dark chocolate. I have made an exception a couple of times, reviewing Recchiuti's Dark Milk and Scharffen Berger's Dark Milk, as well as a dark chocolate bar with "adulterations," in that case cranberries (The Chocolate Tree: Cranberry 55% cacao). Today's exception, though, illustrates why I focus on pure dark chocolate.

During my trip to Seattle where I purchased the two Theo bars just reviewed, I was gifted a third bar.  This bar is milk chocolate and is also made with the addition of coconut and curry. I cannot evaluate the chocolate, as it is overwhelmed by the curry spice. I often talk about "aftertaste" when reviewing other bars. This bar's aftertaste is a burning sensation that persists long after the last swallow.  I think I may need to drink a glass of milk to neutralize it. The coconut is less disruptive, but adds very little to the bar. I do not detect coconut flavor, so I assume it has been added to give the bar texture. That it does, but this is not beneficial in my judgment.

My overall experience with this bar confirms my focus on pure dark chocolate. That is not to say that chocolate mixed with other ingredients cannot provide a pleasant experience. I tasted a dark chocolate bar with orange flavor from Teuscher this weekend and enjoyed it quite a lot. However by focusing on the chocolate alone I can rate the quality of the base ingredient that is then used in those bars. I rated the pure dark bars from Teuscher pretty highly when I tried them earlier, so I felt confident that the orange bar that I purchased would have a good start from that. (It has been a few years since I've tried the Teuscher line, so maybe it is time for another review of full retinue.)

Now where is that glass of milk...