Tag Archives: raw chocolate

Raw Halo raw chocolate bars – a review

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I’ve been dying to tell you all about these delicious raw chocolate bars from Raw Halo. I was lucky enough to be sent three beautifully presented little bars: Pure Dark, Mylk + Crispies and Dark + Sour Cherry and Almond.

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First off they are so wonderfully packaged – they look beautiful and like a real luxury treat – which  I love! The design is so lovely – modern, classy and yet still indulgent. They are hand wrapped and feel that way – I feel a little like Charlie unwrapping his Wonka bar and finding a golden ticket when I open them!

I tried the Pure Dark first – this was silky smooth and lovely and thin. It had a really intense flavour. It’s nutty and slightly fruity and just a little bit bitter. A really lovely texture too – melts in the mouth, just like you want chocolate to.

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The Mylk + crispies bar was next. It has half the amount of sugar compared to other raw chocolate bars which is great! And is sweetened with coconut sugar and lucuma. This one is totally dairy free yet still so creamy. The cripsies are buckwheat and add a really lovely crunch to the bar. Again this is really smooth and thin and melts in your mouth. Super yummy! Even better if dunked in a cup of tea (very quickly!!).

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Last but by no means least the classic combination of Cherry and Almond – this is definitely my favourite flavour. The sourness of the cherries is just right – not too sour but a lovely sweet hit and deliciously chewy. This is balanced with the nuttiness of the almond extract and the intensity of the dark chocolate. I didn’t want this bar to end! So many flavours in such a small bar – but they work perfectly! Again this is especially good with a cup of tea  🙂

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I really enjoyed all of these bars and can’t wait to try the rest of their range – which sound amazing (see them all here). I love that they are raw and vegan (apart from their Mylk + Salted Caramel flavour), they’re gluten-free, GM free and lactose free. They feel like such a treat and would make a perfect gift for someone. It’s so hard to find raw chocolates presented in such a beautiful way and with christmas on the horizon I’ll certainly be ordering some of these as gifts for friends and family.

 

 

 

 

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Chia Threesome! Chocolate, Vanilla Caramel Cinnamon and Berry Pud

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I thought I would have a little fun with some chia puds yesterday and what better, given it’s nearly Valentine’s day, than a decadent looking and tasting, yet totally healthy threesome pud!

I can almost feel the love! 😉

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This is super easy to make. Of course you don’t have to make three flavours – you can make two, or one! whatever you like! If you don’t have lacuma you can leave this out of the chocolate pud, and for the caramel one you can use maca instead (though go easy and keep tasting to get the taste you want, or use vanilla instead).

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For the Chocolate chia pud you will need:

5 tbsp Chia seeds

1 1/2 cups of Almond or coconut milk (or soya milk if you prefer)

1 tsp liquid sweetener (to taste) – you can use coconut syrup, maple syrup, agave, rice malt syrup – your choice

1 tbsp Raw cacao powder

1 heaped tsp Lacuma

 

For the Vanilla caramel cinnamon pud you will need:

5 tbsp Chia seeds

1 1/2 cups Coconut or almond milk (or soya milk if you prefer)

1 heaped tsp Lacuma

1 tbsp Mequite powder

1 tsp Cinnamon (to taste)

2 tsp liquid sweetener (to taste)

 

For the Berry chia pud you will need:

4 tbsp Chia seeds

1 1/2 cups of berries – I used blackberries, blueberries and strawberries

1 cup Almond or Coconut milk (or soya)

1 heaped tsp of Vanilla powder (if you don’t have this then use 1/2 tsp vanilla extract)

Liquid sweetener – to taste (I didn’t bother using any as I like my berries tart 🙂 )

For each of the puds pop the chia seeds into a bowl (one bowl for each flavour), mix the dry ingredients in and then add the milk and liquid sweetener and mix really well with a fork. For the berry pud I pureed the fruits in a blender – blitzing them for a few seconds, then poured that straight over the seeds.

Make sure you mix really well and then cover and leave in the fridge to set for a few hours (at least). Check after an hour and give another stir. If you prefer a thicker texture add a little more chia at this point. If you want it a bit more liquid add a little milk.

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Once set remove from the fridge and layer in to your bowl or jar. Sprinkle some desiccated coconut on top and a couple of berries to decorate and enjoy!

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Concious Chocolate – chocolate that’s easy on the conscience! :)

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Well I’ve been lucky enough to be sent some of Conscious’ fab raw chocolate products to review.

Conscious is a small UK company that makes handmade raw chocolate. They’re all organic, handmade and free from gluten, soya, dairy and refined sugars. They also happen to be delicious!

Raw chocolate has considerable health benefits as the cacao beans aren’t roasted so they retain more of the vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and theobromine which make chocolate “good” for you.  They only use agave syrup to sweeten them which is another bonus.

They have a range of different flavours but I was sent:

Plain
Pure – 65% cacao with vanilla
The nutty one – brazils, cashews, hazelnuts and walnuts
Chilli hot – cayenne pepper
Love Potion No. 9 – maca and essential oil of rose
Essential orange – essential oils of orange and tangerine
Wild at heart – maca, vanilla and wilde blue-green algae
Mint hint – essential oil of peppermint


The best thing about these bars is the texture – they’re so silky smooth and they just melt in the mouth. They’re more like a truffle in texture than a chocolate bar and they’re beautifully creamy and rich. They all taste amazing but my favourites were the essential orange and mint hint, closely followed by chilli hot. The pure and plain ones were very nice, and the nutty one had very generous chunks of nut in it which is always good. I’m not a huge fan of rose flavoured chocolate generally but this bar was actually ok. It wasn’t overly floral and the maca balanced out the flavour nicely. The wild at heart bar tasted very nice but I couldn’t really detect the blue-green algae (that may be a good thing!) so it’s presumably there as a health benefit that doesn’t impact on the flavour too much.

I gave my official taster, Colette some pieces for her and her hubby Rod to taste too and they were similarly impressed with it. I’ll let them tell you all what they thought of them themselves though 🙂

The really great thing about these bars is that they’re so rich you really don’t want to eat too much of them in one go. A few pieces after dinner is plenty. The fact that they’re free fom refined sugars as well is fab, so it means you can enjoy these treats even if you’re trying to control your sugar intake. They’re also suitable for diabetics which is handy.

You can get these from local health food shops of from Conscious direct. I highly recommend you treat yourself to a bar (or two!) 🙂

Rawr chocolate – simply divine!

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The lovely people over at Rawr sent me some of their delicious raw chocolate bars to review. I’ve had them a while but have been taking my time trying them as I really wanted to give them my full attention!

There are 6 flavours of bar, and they sent me 5 to taste (they also do a Heatwave chilli bar which sounds amazing!):

Rawr Purity – organic dark chocolate

Rawr 80% Intensity – organic intensely dark chocolate

Rawr Passion – organic chocolate with goji berries and vanilla

Rawr Zest – organic orange flavoured chocolate

Rawr After Dinner – organic mint flavoured chocolate

Right out the bag first impressions of these bars are fab. The packaging is really lovely, simple but beautiful. The bars are a really good size – a nice chunky slab of chocolate which is also a big plus! They are all raw, organic and use no refined sugars or fats so they’re as good a chocolate bar as you’re going to get! 🙂

The taste definitely lives up to the look. I can’t decide which my favourite is – it’s a toss up between the After Dinner mint one or the Zest orange one. I’m a massive fan of both mint and orange flavour chocolate so these were always likely to be my favourites. The mint one is really nice – the mint flavour isn’t overpowering but is enough to give you that lovely after dinner mint effect. Often I find mint flavoured raw products have that nasty fake mint flavour and I was worried that would be the case here but it’s not at all. It’s flavoured with organic mint oil and it’s very subtley done.

The zest bar is lovely and orangey, but again it’s not overpowering. You can still taste the flavour of the raw chocolate but you get a deliciously warming orange flavour coming through from the organic orange oil. This is perfect with a cup of tea in the afternoon and anyone out there who’s a fan of Terry’s chocolate oranges will love this – all the flavour without any of the nasty refined sugars and fake orange flavours! (and I’m saying that as a BIG terry’s chocolate orange fan so that says a lot!).

I was most intrigued by the Passion bar and a little unsure it would work. Goji berries are very much the super food of the moment and I guess I worried these were just thrown in there for effect, but to my surprise the flavours worked really well. The vanilla extract softens the taste and the tart chewiness of the goji berries is lovely. This is a much milder choc and would suit people who tend to prefer “milk” chocolate.

The two plain chocolates are both lovely. The Purity bar does what is says on the pack – a pure organic chocolate, rich, dark and delicious! The chocolate is lovely and creamy but still has that dark chocolate bite. The 80% Intensity bar is quite something! At first I wasn’t too sure about it but after a few bites I was hooked. It has cacao nibs in it which give it a lovely crunch and it is seriously intense! 🙂

So all in all these are delicious. You get a lot of choc for your buck and they are simply lovely. I’m looking forward to using them in some of my recipes soon 🙂  Do check them out – you can order online from their website: http://www.rawrchoc.com/