Askinosie White Chocolate and Pistachio

Posted by Edmund in Chocolate, Featured Articles, Gourmet Chocolate Bars, USA | 1 comment

Jan 20, 11

Composition: 34% Single Origin White Chocolate with Salted Pistachios.
Bean: Soconusco.
Country of Origin: Mexico.
Country of Production: USA.
Price: $10.50 for 3 oz./85 g.

I finally got the chance to try the world’s first and only white chocolate bar made with actual cocoa. Normally, white chocolate is made simply with cocoa butter, so that it’s technically not real chocolate at all. Askinosie tries to up the ante with a true chocolate experience.

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The chocolate impresses from the very start. Instead of the typical pearl white look, this bar comes in a darker tone—an off-white mixed with some brown. You can thus tell from the very start that this is a very different white chocolate experience. Moreover, the bar breaks apart easily and cleanly into tiny squares, each marked with a different letter, so that the bar reads “Askinosie Chocolate.” The packaging only adds the finishing touch, with its old-style, homey, paper-and-string feel. Unfortunately, the bar is incredibly fragile. When I opened mine, it was broken into three different pieces.

This is by far the most unique white chocolate I’ve ever tried. Normally, white chocolate tends to be light, smooth, creamy, and buttery. Here, it retains the creaminess, but without the lightness. Instead, you get a semi-gritty density, as though you’re sucking wet sand. It reminds me of eating a good mash of hardened honey, toffee, and crystallized brown sugar, but with an extra hit of very intense butter—similar to a slice of moist pound cake. Since the white chocolate comes from the bean itself, the flavor is noticeably stronger than what you’ll typically get in a white chocolate bar. That can, however, also be its biggest problem. By the end, it feels too buttery and far too sweet, especially because of the crystallized sugar texture. The butter lasts on the palate for a couple minutes at least, making this very long.

The pistachios are on the slightly salty side, providing a nice contrast to the sweetness of white chocolate, but they just can’t match up to the intensity of the chocolate. They come in small chunks jammed into the bottom of the bar, but not really integrated into the middle. In turn, not only do they feel a bit scarce, but they also fall off very easily, Eventually, the overly rich chocolate coats the mouth in a noticeable layer of butter and crispy, semi-hardened sugar, so that the chocolate never really achieves the balance you’d expect from a nutty bar.

The bar does melt nicely, though. While the nuts break up the melt on the bottom, the easy, smooth richness of the white chocolate itself is undeniable. Even better, though, is the texture of wet sand (such as you’d find in a praline, for example). That seems to be the main draw of the bar, distinguishing it from nearly every white chocolate on the market.

The final word: This is definitely the most unique white chocolate I’ve ever tried, but that doesn’t necessarily make it any better.

Scores

Presentation: 4.0/5.0
Taste: 2.8/5.0
Flavor: 1.8/5.0
Melt/Texture: 4.0/5.0
Length: 4.0/5.0
Value: 2.7/5.0
Verdict: 2.9/5.0.