Yahoo News 'I am a chocolate orange convert after trying this heavenly chocolate bar from a County Durham chocolate factory'
I'll admit, orange-flavoured chocolate was never my go to choice for chocolate. In fact I despised it. Whenever I would be given orange-flavoured chocolate I would palm it off to someone else, repulsed by the thought of eating it.
Because whose idea was it to combine chocolate and orange? In my opinion, the combination should never work, and for me it hadn't. Until I tried La Chocolatrice's new limited edition Top Secret Orange Crisp chocolate. I consider myself converted.
La Chocolatrice is a chocolate shop and factory based in Coxhoe, County Durham which also offers chocolate-making workshops. Founded by Zoë Rutter in 2019, La Chocolatrice is the only hand-made chocolate business in the Durham area, making everything from chocolate bars to advent calendar chocolates and chocolate bonbons.
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I visited the store on Friday and was able to pick up a bar of their new creation, which Zoë admitted is her new favourite already. The bar is released today (Sunday), and I was fortunate enough to try it.
I was extremely apprehensive about trying the chocolate, given my aversion to orange-flavoured chocolate. I was honestly made up when Terry's released a milk chocolate orange, but I digress. My first bite of the chocolate bar forever changed my opinion on orange-flavoured chocolate. I imagined this is what the children in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory felt like when they bit into a bar of Wonka's Chocolate.
It was like eating a chocolate sandwich. The chocolate in the middle of the bar is so moist and flavoursome, I could have eaten the whole bar there and then. In the chocolate in the middle of the bar, there is also a nice, surprising crunch which elevated the chocolate bar even more. It melted in my mouth and left me wanting more and more.
The orange flavour is also not too overbearing and not too powerful, with the balance of the ingredients perfect. The silkiness of the chocolate paired with the tanginess of the orange was delightful, and I remembered I had promised to share it out with friends, something I wish I had not agreed to before trying.
After nearly 24 years on this planet of hating the idea of eating orange-flavoured chocolate, avoiding it like the plague on dessert menus and palming it off to friends and family, I now consider myself converted, and am already planning my next trip to the La Chocolatrice to pick up another one (or five) bars of it. I just hope that there will still be some left whenever that is.
