Over the past few months, I’ve accumulated some unusual chocolate gifts that I don’t usually encounter. The restricted movements due to the pandemic made me welcome any kind of new experience. If I can’t explore with my feet, eyes, and luggage, then let me explore with my taste buds. Unusual chocolates would be at the top of my things to receive and try.
I’m sharing my experiences with the 3 chocolates I’ve tried:
o Pump Street Chocolate 66% Sourdough and Sea Salt
o Cortez Premium Chocolates
o Theo & Philo Milk Chocolate Adobo
Pump Street Chocolate 66% Sourdough and Sea Salt
On the cover, they just put sourdough & sea salt. I honestly wasn’t too sure what they meant by that.
Did they add the sourdough batter to the chocolate mass?
Did they bake it?
I didn’t know what to expect when I opened and I was a little disappointed when I saw that it looked like a normal chocolate bar.
When I bit the chocolate, it was good dark chocolate and everything else is normal. It had some bits in it but I couldn’t imagine what they were up to until I read the back portion which showed that they added sourdough crumbs.
Aaaahhhh so they were breadcrumbs. I’ve eaten chocolates with rice crisps and I was trying to recall if it was similar. I bite into it again, and I can tell that the sourdough crumbs had a more solid feel. Aaaahhhh more like pretzels in chocolates. Salted pretzels to be exact.
It also wasn’t that sweet which is good for me. The Ecuadorian dark chocolate was definitely lovely with a smooth feel as it melts in my mouth. As it melts though, when I feel the crumb on my tongue, I can’t help but chew so I end up chewing the semi melted chocolate in my mouth.
Cortez Premium Chocolates
I looked at the packaging and all I could think about was how pretty it was. Now how am I going to eat it? This was given to me as a gift so I had no idea about the kind of chocolate it was. So I blindly eat it, without figuring out its main ingredients, yeah, it’s a bad idea if you have food allergies.
After the first bite, I realize that this is the first time I’ve tasted such a combination. So I go to Google translate to see what “Skladniki” or ingredients it has. So at first, I thought that the light specs were some kind of nuts. Of course after biting into it, I definitely didn’t find any nuts there. Typing wisnie liofilizowane and jabika liofilizowane, I now understand that they added freeze dried cherries and freeze dried apples into the czekolada mleczna or milk chocolate.
Now, I’m not a fan of milk chocolate because I find it sweet but in this case, the sweetness was balanced with the dried sour fruits. Yes, they weren’t sweetened preserves. It was my first time to taste a chocolate bar with sour fruits and I truly enjoyed the combination.
I’m now interested to get their other chocolates but I’m not sure if I can find those other flavors in my current location.
Theo & Philo Milk Chocolate Adobo
I was most excited to try this because I’ve tried different kinds of adobo from the Filipino cuisine. Pork adobo, chicken pork adobo, fish adobo, using soy sauce, fish sauce, adding turmeric, each region has its own take on adobo. I was really curious how the creators will execute adobo in their chocolate.
Since I’ve never tried any Theo & Philo chocolates before, I was really impressed at how pretty and precise the design was when I opened it. The geometric pattern didn’t deter me from eating this time. It actually helped me break off a not so small but not so big piece of chocolate. Yeah, I get a little annoyed when the chocolate is in big blocks because I end up eating that entire block anyway!
So I take my first bite and hmm…
I feel the pepper in my throat. I also smell it a little. There’s something sweet like caramel bits, and as I read the back of the packaging better, I find out that it’s soy sauce toffee. The Adobo dish has a sour, salty, peppery taste but I couldn’t find the sour that much. I checked the ingredients and I realized that it only has soy sauce and black pepper to make it “adobo” I guess. The sour taste of adobo mainly comes from vinegar but it looks like they relied on the soy sauce to get that little sour umami taste. I do taste the soy sauce a bit but the black pepper is a little too much for my taste.