Rococo Chocolate

Rococo is a British chocolate maker that I discovered of course at my local chocolate shop.  I was drawn in by their heavy and interesting use of spicing.  They use all sorts of flowers (rose, geranium, violet, jasmine), fruits (persian lime, orange, raspberry, cherry), spices (cardamon, cinnamon), and herbs (basil, mint), to create pretty powerful bars.

They have grown a lot over the years, and now even own a cocoa farm in Granada, which they use to source the cocoa for all of their organic bars (and use some of the beans for the house blends too).

The chocolates I tried were all fine, but tended to sound more interesting than they tasted.

Chilli Pepper Organic Dark Chocolate.

65% dark chocolate from Grenada with Ugandan Birds Eye Chillis.  Tasting notes: Very nice, smooth dark chocolate, but there wasn’t much chili flavor.  Some bites had it on the finish, but not much at all.

Arabic Spices Organic Dark Chocolate Artisan Bar.

Dark chocolate from Grenada, with cardamom, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves.  Tasting notes: Very fudgy, slightly strange mouth feel.  I felt like I was licking a wreath.  Emil says, “It takes like eating Christmas!”  It was intriguing, but these spices were just a bit too much.

Sea Salt Organic Milk Chocolate Artisan Bar.

37% milk chocolate with sea salt.  Tasting notes: This was an incredibly smooth, creamy milk chocolate.  Some caramel undertones, and nice salt level.  I would prefer a dark chocolate, but for a creamy milk, it was quite nice.

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• Christmas Pudding: 65% dark chocolate with "christmas spices", plus raisins and Armagnac.  Tasting notes: Very strong clove flavor.  Chocolate not very smooth.
• Rose Otto: “Rose scented organic milk chocolate with 37% cocoa solids. A luxury chocolate recipe which is intense, balanced, and long-lasting, with strong floral notes”.  Tasting notes: Fairly creamy milk chocolate, very rose flavored.
• Plus Noir Que Noir 100%: “Dark chocolate bar with 100% cocoa solids.”  Tasting notes: obviously very dark, very bitter, smooth, fudgy.  Not my thing, but pretty nice for a 100%.