Friday 21 March 2014

Beech's New Chocolate Bar Range

Traditional British chocolate since 1920: Beech's; it's a recognisable brand amongst us Brits, often seeing their chocolate covered stem ginger and brazil nuts in shops especially around Christmas time. However, I do not recall having ever tried Beech's before... so, here I am; 6 of their newly launched chocolate bars sitting in front of me. Already admiring the colours and patterns of the cardboard sleeve packaging

Natural Ginger Dark Chocolate
A warm, assertive ginger aroma and taste. I was fond of this ginger and dark chocolate combination, but a spicier more potent ginger wouldn't have hurt

Lime & Chilli Dark Chocolate
A refreshing, zesty aroma. In the taste the lime was first noted then I started sensing that chilli... gradually building up (but remaining subtle), a nice buzzing on the tongue. Now, I haven't been a big fan of previous lime or chilli chocolate i've had in the past... but this really worked. Which surprised me as I was expecting to dislike this chocolate the most. The finish was of a diminishing lime yet the spicy sensation still present for a while

Milk chocolate
30% cocoa solids and 20% milk solids. A nice creamy aroma and taste. I found myself eating all of this chocolate bar very easily

Anglesey Sea Salt Milk Chocolate
Again, a creamy aroma and taste. The salt I only really noticed whilst chewing the chocolate, but when I did leave it to melt on my tongue I was left with little pieces of the salt which when bitten released sudden bursts of saltiness. I liked this one, and I found it sweeter than the plain milk chocolate bar

Dark Chocolate
A plausible 55% cocoa solids. It wasn't bitter but rather sweet instead, I think those who don't enjoy dark chocolate will quite like this one. I'm very critical of dark chocolate, only find myself enjoying it if it's complex and expressive, and this chocolate was boring for me. Like all the bars I've tried so far, there was that grainy texture (noticed especially during melt) 

White Chocolate
Sadly I couldn't really smell much but the texture was smooth and had a beautifully rich taste! The vanilla wasn't too subtle nor overpowering, so I ended up really enjoying this chocolate

Beech's is no bean-to-bar company, nor do they know the origin of their cocoa... (something I LOVE and respect about chocolate) but for £1.50 a bar... it's definitely worth it. Although I didn't enjoy the dark chocolate itself, I must credit the flavoured chocolate bars as they were well balanced in flavours; nothing was too overpowering nor underwhelming. I think that maybe the chocolate should be conched for a little longer to allow for a smoother texture; but apart from that; all was good. My personal favourites were the Sea Salt Milk Chocolate, Milk Chocolate and White Chocolate

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