Courageous Chocolate! (in time for Easter)

“Researchers have discovered that chocolate produces some of the same reactions in the brain as marijuana. The researchers also discovered other similarities between the two but can't remember what they are.”

Matt Lauer

Last week I was lucky enough to receive 3 bars of Seed and Bean chocolate in the post!  Oh happy days.

It was difficult not to scarf the whole lot down, especially the white choc – for some reasons milk and white chocolate seem to have a kind of quenching effect for me, like drinking something refreshing when thirstily I just want to keep going. 

These seed and bean chaps take their chocolate making very, very seriously so I treated it with the utmost respect and tried each of the chocolate thoughtfully and with respect. Here are my findings.

Extra Dark Chocolate ~ Chilli & Lime

The first thing I noticed was that lovely snap that really good dark chocky has when you break it. The hit of chilli is quite strong, which suits me just fine! The lime was less obvious but the overall effect delicious.

Rich Milk Chocolate ~ Cornish Sea Salt & Lime  

Well I’m bound to be a bit biased here as Cornwall is my home! Salty chocolate is a wonderful thing especially when you bite on a grain of salt as is the case here. I was a little dubious about the lime but it works so well I can't stop eating it!

Creamy White Chocolate ~ Lemon & Poppy Seed

The lemon flavour is a mild but perfect complement to the rich creaminess of the excellent white choc and the poppy seeds are very much in evidence. 

I was loathe to do anything with this yummy chocolate other than eat it but at the same time felt I should give it a thorough testing so decided to make some chocolate chip cooking and then eat them.  It’s a hard life being a food writer.  I used my very flexible cookie recipe – see here for details – and all three chocolate performed excellently.

I also think that the Chilli & Lime Chocolate is an ideal candidate for a chocolate quesadilla!

Seed & Bean Chocolate is rather special in more ways than just delicious.

Exciting:

Just look at that!  Here is a list of the flavours in case you can’t quite read them!

Cornish Sea Salt Extra Dark

Coconut & Raspberry Extra Dark

Pumpkin Seeds and Hemp Oil Extra Dark

Extra Dark

Lemon & Poppy Seeds Creamy White

Rich Milk

Tangerine Rich Milk

Lavender Extra Dark

Chilli & Lime Extra Dark

Mandarin & Ginger Extra Dark

Mint Extra Dark

Coffee Espresso Fine Dark

Lemon & Cardamom Fine Dark

Hazelnut & Almond Milk

Just Ginger Fine Dark

Sicilian Hazelnut Fine Dark

Cornish Sea Salt & Lime Rich Milk

Raspberry & Vanilla Creamy White

British:

This is as British as chocolate can be bearing in mind cocoa is grown in the tropics – it is all handmade in England.

Made with Care:

Seed and Bean do not mix their cocoa beans, giving a much richer, smoother taste and all their chocolate is made in small batches – in the aforementioned England!

100% Ethical and Organic:

All the ingredients are Fairtrade and Soil Association approved.  This means that cocoa farmers get a fair deal. Furthermore the wrappers are recyclable and, in some cases their packaging is even biodegradable – it’s made from Eucalyptus leaves!

Award Winning:

Seed and Bean have won 5 “Great Taste Awards” for people who are passionate about the quality of the food they produce.

Secret message on the back of the wrapper:

Seed and Bean chocolate comes in 32g mini bars, 85g bars and exciting looking hampers and is stocked in Wholefoods and Planet Organic as well as a range of farm shops and delis around the UK and Europe.  It is also available from: www.seedandbean.co.uk

Guess what!  I just had to try just a little of each chocolate whilst writing this just to double check – assiduous or what!