Sometimes I just have to say “blah.†Unfortunately, in the case of the Limited Series Antilles bar, “blah†is the predominate word that came to mind when I tasted the chocolate. Scharffen Berger, the maker of the Antilles bar, says it features 75% cacao with notes of plum and citrus zest. I actually got bored while eating it, and am astonished at its suggested $6.50 retail price for 3 oz.
Since the upsurge in touting the health benefits of dark chocolate over the last couple of years has caused mass production of dark chocolate products from countless manufacturers, a dark chocolate bar has to really stand out for me to call it special. The only thing that truly stood out as different about the Antilles bar was the cool Scharffen Berger logo imprinted in the center of the bar. A friend who considers dark chocolate an essential part of her daily meals agreed with me, and was quite disappointed that I’d shared such a boring bar with her.
I’m not saying that the chocolate tasted bad – it just didn’t taste any different than other high-percentage cacao bars on the market, and the supposed notes of plum and citrus zest were undetectable. I’ll give Scharffen Berger props for having an interesting company story, but I’ll stick to less expensive dark chocolate bars if I get a craving for the healthier side of chocolate.
I prefer milk chocolate to dark chocolate, but because of that preference, I can be pretty picky about my milk chocolate. Despite my displeasure with the Antilles bar, I tried to keep an open mind when tasting the new Scharffen Berger Milk Almond bar, and I’m glad I did.
The company says their Milk Almond bars have “caramel notes of Scharffen Berger’s 41% cacao extra rich milk chocolate,” but I make a habit of tasting candy before reading about it, and I picked up a toffee-like flavor more than pure caramel. The 3 oz bar was plentifully stocked with almond bits, which added a nice crunch to the chocolate. Overall, the Milk Almond is a tasty candy bar, but like with the Antilles, I’m discouraged by the minimum suggested retail price – $3.49. I’d definitely consider giving the Milk Almond bar as a gift, since it tastes good and comes in a swanky wrapper, but the fancy packaging just doesn’t save the high-priced Antilles.
I haven’t tried the Antilles bar, so I was disappointed to hear it was so blah, but I really dig Scharffen Berger. Their Nibby bar is amazing, smooth chocolate with nutty cocoa nibs sprinkled through; it’s like an ultra-sophisticated Crunch bar. *drool* They specialize in dark chocolate, but their milk chocolate has so much intense cocoa taste, it’s one of my favorite chocolate treats. Yeah, so price-wise, it’s not really the kind of thing you want to be eating every day, but if you love really deep chocolate taste, it can be -such- a worthwhile occasional indulgence.
Oh, and here’s another tasty tidbit, if you’re in the San Francisco area, the factory gives free daily tours (with free chocolate!). No Oompa-Loompas, but still, going on a tour of a chocolate factory is pretty freakin’ awesome.
October 25th, 2007 at 11:26 pmHaven’t tried either of these specific bars, but I, truly humbly, consider myself to be a chocolate connoisseur and their pure milk chocolate is by far my favorite. I would urge folks who love great milk chocolate to try it. It has sublime milk caramel undertones, a delightful way to use the milk in milk chocolate. Among premium brands, their dark chocolates are middle of the road for me (still good and high quality but not stellar, like, say, Valrhona), but their milk chocolates are the supernovas!
January 17th, 2010 at 1:17 pm