Moser Roth Orange and Almond Dark Chocolate (ALDI)

Bless my Dad. I'm sure he's a secret ambassador for ALDI. He's been telling me for years about their fabulousness, long before the recession turned it into a rather more fashionable place to shop. He's been buying my (now-slightly-addicted) sister their Moser Roth chocolate for years, and I shamefully admitted to him recently that I'd never tried any of it.

Well, when it came to opening my Christmas Stocking, my Dad did good -he filled it with a good selection of ALDI's chocolate. Of course I've eaten most of it now, but I can highly recommend their winter truffle collection if they sell it again in 2016 -truly scrumptious.

In amongst my selection was this pack, which contained 5 mini 25g bars of the Moser Roth Orange and Almond Dark Chocolate. As far as I know it's not a seasonal product, so I thought I'd review it -just in case you too are an Aldi chocolate virgin.

I'll start out by admitting that I'll eat dark chocolate, but I am no means its biggest fan, much preferring the milky sweetness of milk and white chocolate (70% is my limit, although I am in awe of those who enjoy 85%+!). It was this disdain towards the dark-side that led me to neglect the bars at the back of my fridge until they called to me at the beginning of February  -the last of my Christmas hoard.

The bars were very slim, which resulted in an easily snappable chocolate. The chocolate was full-bodied, with a balanced intensity that prevented it from becoming too bitter. As you can see from the photo below, the almonds were flaked instead of chopped, and were in plentiful abundance, meaning that every nibble guaranteed nuttiness. The orange element came as a surprise -I imagined the flavour to be blended into the chocolate like a Terry's Chocolate Orange- but instead it came from little bits that were dotted throughout the bars. This method resulted in a far more subtle citrus flavour than I expected, but it did give the chocolate a more luxurious, artisanal quality.

Dark will never be my number one chocolate of choice, but I have to admit that I enjoyed these bars far more than I expected too. I'm hoping that this recent dalliance with ALDI's chocolate is a representation of the quality of their entire range -in any case I'm heading down to my local store in the not too distant future to find out.

8/10