Candy Review: Terra Nostra’s Pocket Chocolate Bars

Thursday, February 28, 2008 - by Sera

As a Candy Addict I have pretty strong cravings for sweets – specifically, chocolate. This can be seen as a good or bad thing depending on your point of view, or for me, depending on my mood. Some days I crave a lot of it, which can be bad, since my motto is “everything in moderation” and it makes me cranky when I want to eat more than I should. I’m sure you all understand the feeling, right?

This is why, yet again, the chocolates over at Terra Nostra have come to my rescue. Not only do they make ricemilk chocolate that makes my milk-free lifestyle a little easier, they’ve now got a new Pocket Bar line so I can feel like I’m eating more chocolate than I actually am. These new cute and wonderfully flavored Pocket Bars bars weigh in at 42 grams, which is nice since I can eat the whole thing without actually eating a more “normal” sized chocolate bar weighing in at 100g. The small size is also extremely portable which makes satisfying my chocolate cravings that much more convenient.

The flavors of Terra Nostra’s new bars are both classic and a little exotic, with a dark and milk variety filled with creamy caramel, a dark bar filled with pomegranate truffle, and finally a dark bar with Himalayan sea salt and goji berries.

Creamy Caramel Filling: Robust Dark 60% Cacao: The color of the bar is a good medium blue brown color. The smell is intensely chocolaty: notes of cocoa, coffee, cream and butter, part of which I expect to be coming from the caramel inside. Like a Caramello, with sections that are filled with the caramel. The caramel itself is a nice golden color with intensely creamy flavors of dairy and burnt sugar. The texture is soft and flowing, with enticing “threads” when the cavity is broken into. The sweetness of the caramel works beautifully with the dark chocolate, making this a sophisticated and very satisfying bar.

Satin Milk Chocolate: Creamy Caramel Filling: I was curious to see how this one tasted compared to its sister bar of dark chocolate, especially considering how well the bitter chocolate went with the sweetness of the caramel. This one smells much sweeter, as I expected, with strong dairy and burnt sugar aromas. The milk chocolate is lovely; it’s smooth and creamy and feels great in the mouth. The caramel is the same as the dark version, but surprisingly it stands out more against the milk chocolate. It’s as if the sweetness of of the caramel cancels out the milk chocolate. I still taste a tang in the finish from the dairy and the chocolate, though. This did give me a little throat burn from the sweetness, but that never bothers me, and I certainly don’t mind it here. This bar is just as good as the dark, but different. I think what your mood is would determine which one you’d prefer to eat.

Dark Chocolate 60% Pomegranate Truffle: Immediately this chocolate smells very rich with toasty, roasted notes. I also get a sour fruity smell from the pomegranate. The chocolate has a lovely sharp snap when bitten into, and it immediately releases the flavors of the chocolate and the truffle interior. The chocolate is wonderfully bittersweet, with good cocoa and coffee notes to it. The truffle center is smooth, so much so that I thought perhaps it was a flowing caramel at first. It’s so silky. The flavor is very true to a pomegranate; it’s fresh and fruity with an acute tartness that balances well with the chocolate.

Intense Dark with Goji Berries & Pink Himalayan Mineral Salt Chocolate Bar (73% Cacao): This bar smells very spicy, robust and roasted with a subtle and very pleasant chocolate aroma. This is my first time ever having goji berries, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. I did research them a little and they are known to be very chewy. This worried me a little since some chewy things (like gummi bears) are incredibly sticky and others (like dried fruits) are softer and don’t stick to your teeth. The goji berries in this bar thankfully belong to the latter group. I got some of the berries in the first bite and surprisingly found the texture very pleasant. Some are harder and chewier than others, but none of them bothered me, which says a lot since I tend to be a purist when it comes to chocolate.

I really like these Terra Nostra Pocket Chocolate bars. They taste great and the unique flavors make my “treat” feel a little more special and gourmet. Most important though, is the portion-friendly size that makes it easy to satisfy my cravings monster by eating a whole chocolate bar without going overboard. Knowing that I’ve found a coping mechanism makes my life that much easier. Now that’s a chocolate worth smiling about!

• Terra Nostra Website
• Alternate review at CandyBlog

goji, salt, caramel, milk, dark, organic, vegan, fair trade, Terra Nostra, chocolate