Rhubarb Milk Chocolate (Choc Affair)

My father has been on the snack hunt again...

"I've found you some rhubarb chocolate, pickle. It's the peculiar kind of thing I thought you might like" he excitedly told me. I felt my stomach turn, remembering the sickeningly sweet bar from ALDI last summer "Oh, dad, please tell me it's not made by Moser Roth?" I groaned. "No no", he assured me, "it's made by a posh chocolate company called Choc Affair".

Somewhere in the back of my mind I recalled hearing good things about Choc Affair, but I spend so much time looking for and eating chocolate that I could easily be mistaken. Choc Affair, for those of you who who don't know, is a family run business from York whose tag line is "changing lives through chocolate". Their products are all handmade, palm oil free, and made using natural ingredients.

Rhubarb is an unusual pairing for chocolate, and I always assumed that given the natural tartness of the vegetable that white chocolate would be the obvious choice. It seems that Choc Affair don't always opt for the classic combinations though, and I was keen to discover whether their milk chocolate was any good and whether it would work with the rhubarb.

"Rhubarb chocolate, you say!  Well this rhubarb is a light and subtle flavour which will leave you with a feeling of serenity and a sweet surprise."

Can we please take a moment to admire the beautiful packaging too? It was a work of art, and almost too good to open.

I was somewhat surprised when I unwrapped the gold foil covered bar to discover a glossy but smooth block. I thought I'd spot strands of rhubarb, or perhaps some pink hues, but instead the chocolate simply looked like good quality milk chocolate. Just for info, the Rhubarb Chocolate contains a very respectable 33.6% minimum of cocoa solids and 20.8% minimum of milk solids.

Nibbling the edge of my first chunk revealed just how well Choc Affair have done with this bar. The milk chocolate is rich and silken, so smooth that it melts in the mouth without the slightest wax or chalkiness to it. I'd even go as far as suggesting it's one of the best quality milk chocolate bars I've had in many years.

As for the rhubarb flavour, it's bold but balanced, offering a genuine fruitiness that cuts through the sweetness. There's no hiding from its presence either, for it makes itself known in every last morsel. Despite my earlier reservations about whether a white chocolate would work better, the flavours fuse in perfect harmony and I'm glad that Choc Affair have opted for the more unusual choice here.

Choc Affair's range includes a whole host of innovative chocolate bars in milk, white and dark varieties which are reasonably priced between £1.25 (45g unflavoured chocolate bars) and £2.75 (100g flavoured bars) all available from their website. They also produce chocolate lollies, letters, numbers, hampers, and drinking chocolate as well as seasonal editions. I'm especially eyeing up their mango and peach & raspberry white chocolate bars!

10/10

Thanks for the find Daddio!