The Chocolate Box: Milk

All countries like chocolate. And the good news is, I'm a junior in college and I have friends who are going to a lot of different countries. And I myself have been to a fair number of countries this year (although, granted, they've all been on the same continent.) But I certainly haven't been to Australia (or anywhere near it,) so it's fortunate that my friend Melissa has, and that she was nice enough to bring me back this bar from a store in Melbourne.

The Chocolate Box: Milk

Cocoa content: 34%

Notable ingredients: n/a

Origin: n/a

This bar was thicker than most of the milk chocolate I've had recently, notably those bars by Mitzi Blue (Zotter) and Valrhona a few weeks back. Sometimes, thick cut milk chocolate can get sort of overly chewy and muddy (think Hershey's) but this one from The Chocolate Box was nice all the way through. It wasn't delicate like the Valrhona bar, but it had a clean melt and a consistent, creamy texture. Also, it tasted somehow richer than a lot of American and European milk chocolate. I'm guessing this is because they use more vanilla extract and possibly more cocoa butter -- but this bar certainly avoided the sometimes salty effect that can be brought on by using too much cocoa butter.

I think, although this bar was delicious, I'm at a point in my chocolate-knowing career where I would rather eat a bar of milk chocolate that has mix-ins than a plain bar. It's not that the chocolate got boring; it's just that dark chocolate has so many elements of flavor and milk chocolate is simpler, and thus serves better as a canvas for other treats. There's so much to notice and enjoy in each square of a good bar of dark chocolate, which is why a high quality bar doesn't need anything to distract from the flavor.

Still, the pleasure was all mine. B+.