Today's bar up for review is a dark chocolate number from Montezuma's that blends citrus and floral flavours.
I haven't seen much in the way of geranium chocolate - although I'm a fan of other floral applications including rose and lavender - so this one leapt off the shelf.
Packaging
The bar of chocolate is packaged in a sleek black cardboard box. The front simply features a logo and the product name along with decorative glossy artwork. By contrast, the reverse of the box glows in a vivid orange. There's a quote from Montezuma's co-founder Helen Pattinson along with a brief history of the company. The ingredients list and nutritional information occupy the remainder of the space.
Montezuma's Organic Dark Chocolate Orange and Geranium Ingredients:
Organic Dark Chocolate (99%) (Organic cocoa solids, Organic Sugar, Organic Vanilla), Orange Oil, Geranium Oil. Minimum 73% cocoa solids.
The ingredients list is as simple as it gets, which means both the chocolate and the oils should be very distinctive.
This bar is vegan friendly, and contains no gluten, soya, colourings, or artificial preservatives. It also happens to be certified as organic.
Inside, a metallised plastic wrapper is machine-sealed around the chocolate to keep the flavour locked in. Personally, given the price point, I would have rather a piece of aluminium foil wrapped around the bar, which could be easily recycled.
The plastic wrapper also means you can't reseal this bar, so you'll need to decant it into a separate container if you wish to consume it over four 25g sittings as is recommended by Montezuma's.
Taste test
The bar takes its shape from a bespoke mould for Montezuma's, with portioned segments running up half the bar, before a great big 'M' logo dominates the upper section. There's no mistaking this is a Montezuma's bar of chocolate, but it also makes neatly segmenting the bar far more difficult.
The bar is liberally decorated with scuffs and air bubbles from the manufacturing process, but it does offer up a crisp and clean snap. The initial fragrance is wonderfully floral, with the sweet aroma of geranium dominating here, closely followed by a rich chocolatey flavour.
Tasting the chocolate is a different story. Both the flavours of orange and geranium are so delicate in nature that I struggle to detect either, other than in fleeting glances as I eat the chocolate.
Instead, the duo blend together to produce a flavour that is uncannily similar to that of Turkish Delight, albeit with a slight acidity. Thankfully, rose is one of my favourite botanicals, but if you are not a fan of a rose flavour, there's a chance you might not like this particular bar. Besides, the flavour on test here is orange and geranium, so it's disappointing to find a flavour profile that more closely resembles rose than orange and geranium.
I wouldn't describe the flavour of the oils as strong, but they do overpower the dark chocolate. I can pick up a richness and slight bitterness to the smooth dark chocolate, but its flavour is masked by the oils. I get a slight dryness at the back of my throat too.
The Turkish Delight flavour lingers long into the aftertaste, and there's a slight bitterness from the chocolate.
Overall, I think I would have liked a better balance between chocolate and oils, and within that, a better balance between the oils themselves. I detected slightly more geranium than orange, and would have liked to see the orange come through more.
If you fancy giving this chocolate bar a go yourself, you can buy it directly from Montezuma's. A four-pack is also available on Amazon here°.
Do you like botanicals in your chocolate, or do you avidly avoid bars that contain them? Let me know in the comments below.
Disclosure: I purchased this 100g bar of Montezuma's Organic Dark Chocolate Orange and Geranium from Sainsbury's at £2.50. I was not asked for a review. My opinions are my own.
