Mitzi Blue by Zotter: Thank You

I may have waxed nostalgic about Zotter, the German chocolate manufacturer, on this blog before. They used to sell their beautiful hand-scooped bars at the Food Emporium chocolate shop I go to on upper 3rd Avenue, but no longer (the salesperson couldn't tell me why.) But, when I returned to the store the other day, I was happy to see that they do still sell some Zotter products. This is a bar from the Mitzi Blue line, named after a sky blue vintage car custom designed for Mitzi Koch.

Mitzi Blue by Zotter: Thank You

Cocoa content: 36%

Notable ingredients: cashews

Origin: n/a

The "Thank You" bar is so named because it was created by Zotter as a sort of material expression of thanks: "only for very special people and for things that cannot be taken for granted," says the box. Why cashews? None of the other Mitzi Blue flavors are named after the sentiments they are meant to express -- there's almond/cherry, strawberry/cocoa, and even spicy sheep milk (!) -- but cashews are singled-out as the flavor of gratefulness.

The chocolate is a dark but milky brown, thin, shaped in a round approximately the size of a big coaster, and divided into segments in a shattered-glass pattern. The texture is intensely chewy and thick, an indication of quality milk chocolate. But Zotter advises not to chew, despite the temptation: "Let the chocolate melt on your tongue for a while, then press it gently to your palate and stroke it lightly with your tongue, so that it melts slowly," instructs the packaging, suggestively. I did, and let's just say it was the right way to go. The flavor and sweetness was so rich and expansive that I couldn't believe I'd only eaten such a tiny piece.

Back to the question -- why cashews? In amounts this small, I feel that cashews are basically indistinguishable from peanuts. The salt is, as we've seen, a great companion for chocolate, and the pieces were of a small enough size such that they provided a pleasant, but not overwhelming crunch to the texture of the bar. So, in sum -- I don't know how well this bar says thank you, but it was definitely delicious, and aesthetically pleasing as well.

This bar gets an A-. Thank you, Zotter.