Chocolate Review: Vera (dark chocolate and pistachio)

Penny gave me a huge pack of Montezumas’s chocolate for Christmas, with about a dozen different bars of Sussex-made organic, fair-trade chocolate.

So, I thought I’d eat around one per day for the next couple of weeks and offer a full and honest review here. I probably won’t enjoy it.

First up, Vera: made of dark chocolate and pistachio nuts.

It was quite a cold day, and chilly in the office, so that may have affected the texture. The chocolate smelt good, strong and rich. The block broke with a pleasing snap, but I had trouble trying to get it to melt in my mouth.

The flavour of the chocolate is dark but not too bitter, certainly possible to eat a full bar without it becoming overpowering and the quality of the cocoa shines through. I wouldn’t normally choose dark chocolate, but this was good. The mouth-feel wasn’t as velvety and smooth as I like, the chocolate formed separate granular clumps rather than a semi-liquid coating. But this would be expected as the bar was much less than room temperature.

The addition of pistachio nuts is interesting. They have a sharper and more subtle flavour than almonds or hazelnuts that wouldn’t have worked in sweet milk chocolate. Conversely, in stronger dark I felt they were more textural than anything – their delicate flavour being somewhat overwhelmed by the richness of the chocolate.

In all, Vera is an unusual bar that I felt was only partly successful. The temperature may have let it down, so I suppose I’ll have to have another bar to double-check.

Montezuma’s Vera