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I first stumbled across the Cachet brand at the Speciality & Fine Food Fair (SFFF) back in 2019. Cachet is a Belgian brand that sits under the Kim's Chocolates umbrella, a company that produces its own brand bars as well as white-label bars. The company also moulds bars for Tony's Chocolonely according to the Dutch brand's BeanTracker page.
When I spoke with a Kim's Chocolates representative at the Fair, he told me that I'd mainly find Cachet in garden centres, delicatessens, and gift shops around the country. Despite looking high an low, I couldn't find any of the 100g or 180g chocolate bars, until I found this particular bar at Treat Me Good. The packaging together with the flavour combination sold this one to me.
Packaging
Truth be told, it was the gorgeous packaging and interesting flavour combinations that drew me to the Kim's Chocolates stand at SFFF.
I'm especially fond of the wildlife-themed bar packaging. Be it giraffes, elephants or flamingos, the bars in the range combine eye-catching photography with a sleek matt black design. A touch of gold-foiled print adds a little extra charm to the box.
Besides the giraffe photograph, there's a graphic of hazelnuts and a fresh apricot, together with text in orange and gold-coloured print. There's quite a wealth of information on the box, including that this 57% dark chocolate bar is made with Rainforest Alliance-certified and organic African cocoa beans. it also carries a 'unique Belgian chocolate' crest too. This bar is price marked at £4.
The reverse of the box is awash with text in a dizzying range of languages. Besides English, there's French, Dutch, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Danish, Swedish, Finnish and Polish translations of the ingredients and nutritional information.
Cachet Organic Apricot and Hazelnut Dark Chocolate ingredients:
Cocoa mass, cane sugar, cocoa butter, hazelnuts (6%), dried apricot pieces (0.5%), natural flavouring, emulsifier (soya lecithin). Cocoa solids: 57% minimum.
With the exception of the natural flavouring, all ingredients are organic. This bar contains around 38% sugars. The bar may contain traces of other nuts, gluten, milk and eggs.
While the box carries a Rainforest Alliance certification badge on the front, text on the rear explains that Kim's Chocolates NV purchase a volume of cocoa from Rainforest Alliance certified farmers equivalent to the volume used in these bars.
Cachet Organic Apricot and Hazelnut Dark Chocolate Review
The bar is heat-sealed inside a piece of silver foil, making it near impossible to neatly open it and reseal the remainder for later on.
As soon as you break through the foil, a deliciously fragrant bouquet of tropical fruits hits you. Apricot is in the lead, but I think it's complimented by notes of pineapple, passion fruit and other tropical fruits. There aren't any discernible aromas from the chocolate itself, such is the power of the flavouring.
The mould used creates eight slightly-domed squares of chocolate, with each one representing a good portion size. There's a slight bloom on the face of one segment, but the finish is otherwise flawless. A crisp and clean snap broadly follows the divisions moulded into the bar, revealing plentiful flecks of hazelnut within the chocolate.
As soon as the chocolate touches you tongue, the tropical flavours reveal themselves. While skewed towards apricot, other fruits, including pineapple and passion fruit, dance away too. This flavour dominates the flavour from start to finish. The hazelnut flecks add crunch, but fail to add much in the way of flavour, aside from a very mild earthiness. The dried apricot pieces are so small that they're barely detectable either.
The aftertaste has depth and richness from the chocolate, with a fruity component from the flavouring. It's long-lasting, and reminds you to take another piece. An another.
In the main, the characteristics of the cocoa are masked by the vibrant apricot flavouring, making it more of a vehicle for delivery. But I think I'm okay with that. The tropical flavours are really enjoyable, and the cocoa is rich, adding depth to the overall picture. It's difficult to see the benefit of including hazelnut pieces in there as I feel crunch distracts from the overall proposition. I'd be happier with more dried apricot pieces and perhaps more chewiness rather than crunchiness.
Overall, this is a delicious bar if you're a fan of tropical flavours. While I'd like to see more chewiness and less crunch, I'm very fond of this bar and would happily pick up more bars from the Cachet range to try as and when I spot them in the wild.
Cachet Organic Apricot and Hazelnut Dark Chocolate Review
RRP: £3.95 | Cachet | Shop now
I enjoyed the apricot flavour of this bar that borders on tropical fruit. I craved chewiness rather than the crunchiness the hazelnut flecks deliver. The cocoa is rich but its nuances are easily dwarfed by the apricot flavouring. This bar is terrifically easy to eat without realising and the bar disappears very quickly as a consequence.
Where to Buy Online
The other bars in this Tanzania Organic 100g range includes flavours such as:
- Dark chocolate pineapple and coconut
- Dark chocolate cherries and almonds
- Dark chocolate apricot and hazelnuts
- Milk chocolate caramel and sea salt
- Dark chocolate forest fruits
There's a sister range of chunkier Safari 180g bars and you can expect flavours such as:
- Milk chocolate brownie and pretzel
- Milk chocolate caramel and sea salt
- Dark chocolate almonds and sea salt
According to Kim's Chocolates, you can find bars in garden centres, delicatessens, and gift shops, Cachet chocolate can also be found on Amazon here°, at Buy Flowers Direct here, at Sweet Moments here, and at Treat Me Good here.
Have you spotted Cachet chocolate bars in the wild? Let me know where in a comment below.
