Last time I wrote about chocolate I promised another article about Chuao Chocolatier, mostly because I had eaten up several of the products too quickly to properly review them. So I did another order, and made myself slow down in the interest of science. Happily, in the interim Chuao had introduced two new chocolate bars, unhappily, they introduced yet another (Coffee & Anise) a couple days after I made my order. Oh well, next time.

First up: Chuao’s new CoCo bar. I’m a huge fan of coconut in chocolate, in fact, I still love a Mounds bar every so often. But let’s face it: the dark stuff covering a Mound’s bar only vaguely qualifies as “chocolate” these days. Chuao’s version, with coconut, almond, cinnamon and coriander, might be a Mounds for grownups: it’s sweet but not deadly sweet (it’s a 60% cacao bar). There’s lots of coconut interspersed with small bits of toasted almond; the bar is more chewy than crunchy. The spices are mild — much milder than in the Chinita Nibs bar. I found the CoCo bar very enjoyable, and a far cry better than the Seeds of Change Playa del Coco. I would definitely buy it again, but there’s a lot of competition for the best bar over at Chuao, and as much as I like this one, it isn’t my absolute favorite…

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