As I perused the candy aisle, as I am want to do from time to time, torturing myself with the cant haves in life, I stumbled upon the new-ish dark chocolate section. As some of you may have noticed, some time in the mid to late 2000's Dark Chocolate was the thing. Cadbury, Russell Stover, Godiva, and my personal favorite, Hershey's (haters be damned) all came out with new lines of 50%, 60%, 70%, etc. dark chocolate bars.
Now, I am not a fan of dark chocolate, as bitter is really the only taste I dont really care for. I much prefer the silky, creamy, smooth, unctuous mouth feel of a milk chocolate. However, the Hershey line of bars have peaked my interest for some time, and I decided to give in. I chose the "Pure Dark Chocolate with Pomegranate flavored pieces" variety. Now the term "pieces" had me puzzled, but we will get back to that.
First thing I noticed about the bar occurred an hour or so after bringing it home. I set it on the table, went to work on some things on my laptop (and yes, Spore = Work), and after about an hour a faint pleasantly fruity aroma filled my dining room. I assume the warmer room temperature of my home caused oils in the chocolate bar to release into the air. I had been saving the bar for later, but the smells was intoxicating and I quickly unwrapped it.
Taking my first bite, I was hit with that familiar enemy, bitterness, but after chewing, I hit these little pellets of pomegranate flavor. The pellets, or "pomegranate flavored pieces", are something resembling a mix between the little rice bits in a Crunch bar and tapioca balls. I thought that maybe they were dried pomegranate arils, so i simply took a small corner of a square and sucked on it, what I found was surprising.
Nestled within bar were aril shaped chewy things. Now in the ingredients, the bar does list pectin as an ingredient, and pectin, as a gelling agent, certainly could explain these odd "flavor pieces". Now the thing I find humorous in this is that the pieces are shaped like they should be dried arils. Even tho these are nestled within the bar and will most likely never be seen, they bothered to shaped them like pomegranate. Interesting choice Hershey's.
Now I guess here is where Id rate the bar. As Ive only had the pomegranate, and as Im biased against dark chocolate already, my rating is going to be based on how well I feel the pomegranate flavor was incorporated and helped tone down the bitterness of the dark chocolate. So now that we got that down, heres my rating:
3/5, or, a C, maybe a C+.
The pomegranate flavor was good, and was distinctly pomegranate, however, for a bar marketed as higher end, discovering that they replace the pomegranate with cranberry, apple, pineapple, and elderberry juices is a bit of a let down. I understand companies mix juices to keep costs down on the pricier flavors, but I think the clientele who these bars are marketed to would pay the extra few cents or a buck to buy it if they liked it. Im also a bit disappointed on how they incorporated the flavor. I wish they could have just flavored the chocolate itself or actually had real pomegranate in it, rather than the "flavored pieces". The result was a random mismatch of chocolate to pom ratio. Sometimes youd hit a real bitter spot, others youd have an overwhelming flavor of pom.
In the end, if you like dark chocolate, if you like pomegranate, I say give it a try at least. I may not buy this bar again, but I dont think it will turn me away from maybe trying the other flavors they have going on. Who knows, maybe I can find my miracle bar that switches me to the dark side.
(Unrelated note, the Cookie-a-Day project is on hiatus due to life, my camera, and other things. I have my reviews for the cookies I did manage to make in the works, but the ones later on in the list might have to wait a bit to even be made. Sorry, Im working on it, so just sit tight :])
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