Whole Foods Brand Chocolate Bars Review

Well, it was only a matter of time before it occurred. After months of sampling some outrageously good chocolate, I was bound to happen upon a dud at some point. My luck just ran out.

Before I get into the actual review, let me begin by saying that I understand that there are two types of chocolate bars on the market today, artisan chocolate bars and mass-produced chocolate bars. Both have their place, and let me add that there are some pretty outstanding mass-produced bars out there. Once you start sampling minimally-processed, high-quality artisan chocolate, though, it's hard to go back. Still, I won't say that I skip the mass-produced bars, because there are some that are consistently good and aim to take what smaller companies are doing in terms of ethics and originality and produce quality chocolate bars on a larger scale.

Dark chocolate pear and almond bar.

This bar is hard to take. There are so many things wrong with it; I hardly know where to start. About the only good thing going for this one is the packaging, which is nice. It's nothing extraordinary, but it's an eye-catching cardboard box that looks somewhat commercial but still has a free-spirit semblance. Upon opening the container, I expected to be blasted with a strong chocolate aroma, but instead the smell was very mild.

The bar is thin, so I was expecting the almonds to be peaking out through surface somewhere, but the chocolate maker somehow managed to squeeze those suckers in there without them showing. The result is they are so thinly sliced that a nice nutty crunch and flavor are both lacking.

What I wish were lacking but isn't is the pear flavor, which is overpowering. It jumps out at you like a were-clown in a haunted house. Though the label claims natural flavorings, the pear tastes like anything but. It reminds me of some unpalatable candy I had as a kid once...or maybe it was cough syrup, I'm not sure. I just know that the flavor makes me cringe. If you close your eyes and try really hard, you can sort of imagine pears, but the initial impact in the mouth is far too sweet and there's a terrible bitter, pungent aftertaste. Instead of being tangy, the pear comes off more as sour, like yogurt that has gone bad. In a word: Ick.

The worst thing about the bar is that you can't taste the chocolate. Sometimes with strange flavors added, the quality of the chocolate can save the entire bar. Not so here. The pear flavor is in your face from start to finish, pushing the chocolate off center stage and onto the floor of the orchestra pit for good. I found there to be an abnormal dry finish that lingers in the mouth, too. Give me a smooth chocolate that coats the palate over this any day.

Milk chocolate toffee and sea salt bar.

Compared to the pear bar, pretty much anything would be impressive. The reality is that this bar is good, not great. The biggest problem is, like with the other bar, the chocolate just doesn't shine through. I happen to like toffee, so this one isn't as offensive as the pear bar. Still, it needs more of a chocolate accent added to it. Overall, it's too sweet. It can be difficult to balance the sweetness of toffee with milk chocolate, but it's not an impossible task. Unfortunately, Whole Foods missed the mark with this one. I almost want to dip the entire thing in dark chocolate to fix the problems of both the excessive sweetness and the lack of a good chocolate taste.

That said, the toffee is very nice. It's crunchy and sticks to your teeth when you chew it. The flavor is buttery with strong notes of caramel and toasted nuts. I didn't detect an overabundance of salt, but what was added did add a nice saline touch. The milk chocolate has a nice texture; it's smooth and creamy. I just wish the cocoa flavor were stronger. I would also prefer a thicker bar, as it feels really good to sink your teeth into chocolate with toffee in it.

Next time I try a Whole Foods brand chocolate bar, I will go for this one:

Dark Chocolate Bar - Tanzania Schoolhouse Project

Enjoy our Whole Trade Guarantee dark chocolate bar any time of day. A portion of the proceeds go to help fund the education of children in Tanzania.

Chocolove

Chocolove 

Most chocoholics have a go-to or staple chocolate bar, one they fall back on time and time again. Chocolove's Cherries & Almonds in Dark Chocolate is the on for me. It's the bar I buy when I can't make up my mind about what kind of chocolate I want. I crave this one after I've been inordinately adventurous, sampling more exotic flavors, and want some familiar comfort. The packaging is nice. It's eye-catching and simple. Some might say it's cutesy with the XOXOX symbol on each of the different colors of outer wrappers. I can't say that the packaging is all that fancy. In fact, it's a little bit understated, but the added love poem on the inside of each wrapper is a nice, classy touch.

I find it strange that this bar has become my go-to chocolate, because when I first tried Chocolove, I felt that all the flavors were too sweet. Then again, I sampled the Toffee in Milk Chocolate bar and a few others that are more naturally on the sweet side than any of the darker chocolates, but even the dark chocolates are on the verge of being too sweet. That's not necessarily a bad thing. It's the type of chocolate that appeals to the mainstream, but I'm sensitive to chocolate that's overly sugary. Fortunately, I gave the line of chocolates another try and discovered this highly addictive bar with its dark, chewy dried cherries and crunchy roasted almonds nestled in chocolate that's dark but not excessively so. Because it's only 55 percent cocoa, there's a good chance that both milk and dark chocolate lovers will appreciate this creation.  

It's always a pleasant surprise to discover a chocolate bar that isn't excessively thin. I like chocolate I can sink my teeth into, especially when there are added ingredients such as nuts, fruit or pretzel pieces. It's not so much that Chocolove chocolate is extraordinary; it's that the chocolate is consistently good. Anyone can tell that it's a very high quality chocolate, even though there's nothing overly intriguing about it, mostly because the flavors are straightforward, not complex. This isn't anything to complain about, really. It's great to have a confection that screams true, traditional chocolate when you taste it, and these bars are made with very good Belgian chocolate using classic European techniques.

Of the various bars I have tried, the flavors were all nicely balanced, but there was nothing unique about the combinations. It's hard to go wrong with traditional ingredients. As far as my preference, I keep coming back to the Cherries & Almonds in Dark Chocolate. On very rare occasions, I have ended up with one that contained rather rancid almonds, but I attribute this to improper storage on the part of the store where I purchased the bar, not to the company. I have had too many bars with fresh almonds to make me think it's a problem with the way the bars are made. It's more likely that the bars sit on the store shelves too long or are not rotated properly. The cherries are tart but not sour, so they don't detract from the pure cocoa taste of the chocolate. I'm the type who loves to explore different flavors and textures in my chocolates, so including both fruit and nuts is the perfect combination for me. 

The milk chocolate pretzel bar was a little bit on the sweet side to my taste. The Man thought it was good. He agreed that it was sweet, but he didn't think it was overly so. The pretzel pieces were quite long and made the bar difficult to score evenly. It's not a big problem, but it looked clumsy. I did like the crunch and the saltiness of the pretzels. The texture of the chocolate, while not chalky, wasn't entirely smooth. Overall, it was good but not outstanding. After sampling some excellent Valrhona milk chocolate, it's easy to be critical of other milk chocolates, but I appreciate a very smooth milk chocolate that's not extremely sweet. 


Some of the best things about Chocolove are the high standards of the company and the founder's dedication to social responsibility.

What is your go-to chocolate?

Timothy Moley, the founder of Chocolove