Case in point? Your favourite childhood chocolate. The gourmet in you might have moved on, but sometimes your inner child’s cravings get too much to bear. And when they do? What a disappointment. What should seem akin to manna from heaven tastes too sweet; too sickly; too simple.
But there is a happy medium – and you’ll find it in this guide to grown-up equivalents of your former favourite treats.
The childhood favourite: Milky Bar
Back then, you’d have happily bankrupted The Milky Bar Kid for the bars he gave away.
The grown-up treat: Original Beans Edelweiss
When undeodorised cocoa butter is used, its natural flavour can shine through – negating the need for the vanilla that’s the typical taste most associate with white chocolate. Here, Trinitario cacao butter from the Dominican Republic yields a bar that’s a tiny bit bananas and absolutely delicious.
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The childhood favourite: Caramac
It looked like white chocolate with a tan, and tasted like caramel. How could you lose?
The grown-up treat: Valrhona Dulcey
Widely regarded as the dulce du leche of the chocolate world, Dulcey is actually the result of a happy accident whereby a chocolatier left white chocolate in a bain marie and it caramelised. With 32% cocoa solids, expect creamy, biscuity notes and, of course, an abundance of caramel.
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The childhood favourite: Cadbury Dairy Milk
Whether you were a fruit and nut case or preferred it plain, CDM is a classic.
The grown-up treat: Willie’s Cacao Milk of the Stars
Coming in at 54%, this ‘dark milk’ is still reassuringly creamy, yet allows you to taste the single-estate cocoa that makes up that percentage. In this bar it comes from Surabaya in Java, Indonesia; yielding a caramelly, comforting chocolate that’s like a hug for the tastebuds.
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The childhood favourite: Bounty
This ‘taste of paradise’ left coconut in your teeth like a beach trip left sand in your sandals.
The grown-up treat: Chocolarder Wild Gorse Flower Milk Chocolate
If your paradise was lost, it’s highly likely you’ll find it again with this treat. Made from bean right through to bar in Cornwall, it’s infused with locally-picked wild gorse flowers, whose presence lends an intriguing floral, honeyed coconut note to the already-sumptuous 50% milk chocolate.
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The childhood favourite: Freddo
At just 10p a pop, those tiny caramel-filled frogs were the
perfect tuck-shop treat.
The grown-up treat: Nom Nom ‘Love’
Caramel is always better taken with a pinch of salt. The gooey filling in Nom Nom’s ‘super-salted’ 44% milk chocolate includes ingredients from fellow Welsh producers: oak-smoked Halen Mon salt and Calon Wen organic butter. If you’ve gone over to the dark side, try the 72% ‘Lust’ counterpart.
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The childhood favourite: Chocolate spread on toast
Probably sliced white bread; probably far too much topping.
The grown-up treat: Pump Street Bakery Honduras Bread & Butter 58%
This bean-to-bar Suffolk maker ingeniously integrates goodies from the eponymous bakery into its creations. In this case, that’s a 58% milk chocolate bar which, thanks to the inclusion of sourdough breadcrumbs and sea salt, really does taste like toast slathered with salted butter. Extraordinary.
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The childhood favourite: Chocolate pudding
Intense, rich and gooey, this was the legit version of eating raw cake batter.
The grown-up treat: Blanxart 72% Dominican Republic
With chocolate in possession of over 400 flavour compounds, it seems fairly feeble to say that this Spanish maker’s Dominican Republic bar tastes ‘chocolate-y’. But it’s the truth – this is creamy, cocoa-y, and altogether like plunging a spoon into the liquid heart of of a warm chocolate fondant.
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The childhood favourite: Bournville
Even then, you prided yourself on your precocious palate and chic sense of taste.
The grown-up treat: Chocolat Madagascar Organic 70%
This chocolate goes from tree to pack on Madagascar. Swathed in the wrapper equivalent of a little black dress, it’s every bit as elegant in the eating. It’s beautifully balanced – whilst it never overwhelms the senses, its rich, dried fruit character ensures it’s by no means underwhelming.
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The childhood favourite: Brownies
Made from mix, bought from a bakery, or hand-hewn from scratch, you’d eat all and any.
The grown-up treat: B Is For Brownie Bean-to-Brownies
These are not just any brownies – these are brownies made with chocolate that company founder Lou Cox has hand-made from Grenadan beans. Baked to order in 500g batches, they’re truffle-like, super-dense, and you can taste the chocolate’s earthy character. A tiny slice will suffice.
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The childhood favourite: Cocoa powder
You were the child who dipped their finger in the tub and snuck sips of espresso.
The grown-up treat: Fruition 100%
Untamed by milk or sugar, 100% chocolate can be overly-acidic with a chalky bite. Not so where this New York maker’s stuff is concerned. A blend of Peruvian and Dominican Republic cocoas, it’s undeniably intense, but not unbearably so; a boldly-flavoured bar with a cocoa-berry character.
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Relished this? Check out my craft chocolate blog Culinary
Adventures of The Cocoa Nut
Amuse Bouche 