Darker than Black, Week 35: Raaka Virgin Chocolate Bourbon Coconut Crunch
Monday isn't the usual day, but I already skipped last week and I didn't want to skip another week.
Over the end of the year, we had a lot of candy and other desserts that wouldn't fit Darker than Black, so we stopped updating quite so much other than the marzipan, which only barely qualifies here. But now we've worked our way through everything except the giant bag of frozen Halloween candy that my parents gave me after they realized there was no way they could eat it, and due to the hiatus, we've built up our backlog again. Hopefully we can get through it before it goes rancid.
I picked this one out because I love coconut, I love crunchy, and I'm a pretty big fan of bourbon too. What could go wrong? Well, nothing, but...
Great tastes that do not taste together.
The best word for this is probably "muted."
Maybe two flavors and one texture was too much to pack into a single bar. It was crunchy, but not as crunchy as I liked and the crunch wasn't as sharp or satisfying. It had a coconut taste, but only a very minor one. It had a bourbon taste, but it was almost drowned out by the chocolate. It's not that it never came together, it's that there was almost no "it" to do so. It tasted mostly like a crunch bar with darker chocolate and without much crunch. I was really looking forward to coconut bourbon, too, and I didn't get any of it.
I think this could have used some toasted coconut on the back, like with Madécasse Toasted Coconut. That would have given it a strong flavor for the rest of the bar to rally around. As it was, it pretty much tasted like "chocolate," but because there were other flavors in there, it's not something where I can judge it based on the quality of the chocolate alone.
I like the bumpy texture.
softlykarou's OpinionI feel like it's hard to write about this bar because I had to remind myself several times what the actual flavor was. I loved the crunch, it was pleasant and not overly crunchy. It had a good bitterness to it which may be the bourbon. But neither the bourbon or the coconut stood out to me at all. It was basically a crunchy bar that I can get some bourbon in with the aftertaste. Not Raaka's most exciting bar or best executed, but still tasty!
I can admit that. It was still good! But it's not something I would ever buy if there were other options available.
Over the end of the year, we had a lot of candy and other desserts that wouldn't fit Darker than Black, so we stopped updating quite so much other than the marzipan, which only barely qualifies here. But now we've worked our way through everything except the giant bag of frozen Halloween candy that my parents gave me after they realized there was no way they could eat it, and due to the hiatus, we've built up our backlog again. Hopefully we can get through it before it goes rancid.
I picked this one out because I love coconut, I love crunchy, and I'm a pretty big fan of bourbon too. What could go wrong? Well, nothing, but...
Great tastes that do not taste together.
The best word for this is probably "muted."
Maybe two flavors and one texture was too much to pack into a single bar. It was crunchy, but not as crunchy as I liked and the crunch wasn't as sharp or satisfying. It had a coconut taste, but only a very minor one. It had a bourbon taste, but it was almost drowned out by the chocolate. It's not that it never came together, it's that there was almost no "it" to do so. It tasted mostly like a crunch bar with darker chocolate and without much crunch. I was really looking forward to coconut bourbon, too, and I didn't get any of it.
I think this could have used some toasted coconut on the back, like with Madécasse Toasted Coconut. That would have given it a strong flavor for the rest of the bar to rally around. As it was, it pretty much tasted like "chocolate," but because there were other flavors in there, it's not something where I can judge it based on the quality of the chocolate alone.
I like the bumpy texture.
softlykarou's OpinionI feel like it's hard to write about this bar because I had to remind myself several times what the actual flavor was. I loved the crunch, it was pleasant and not overly crunchy. It had a good bitterness to it which may be the bourbon. But neither the bourbon or the coconut stood out to me at all. It was basically a crunchy bar that I can get some bourbon in with the aftertaste. Not Raaka's most exciting bar or best executed, but still tasty!
I can admit that. It was still good! But it's not something I would ever buy if there were other options available.