LA Burdick Dark with Almonds

Posted by Edmund in Chocolate, Featured Articles, Gourmet Chocolate Bars, USA | 0 comments

Feb 11, 11

Composition: 69-72% Dark Chocolate, Almonds
Region of Production: USA.
Price: 100g for about $7.

I have lots of problems with this bar. While I normally love Burdick’s presentation, here my bar came broken. Burdick’s uses very sturdy packaging, so if the bar broke, I’m guessing there was something wrong with the the bar, which packs in so many almonds that it potentially counteracts the integrity of the bar. Moreover, while each of the 32 mini-rectangles on the bar breaks apart easily, the almonds in this one tend to jut out.

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The bar thankfully tastes better than it looks, but even so I noticed a few fundamental flaws. The almonds taste great, as they come in thin whole chunks, so that almost every bite gives you a huge crunch. They take up so much space, though, that some bites have almost no chocolate. Even when you do get chocolate, though, that chocolate isn’t the greatest. It’s Burdick’s base dark chocolate, which I thought was actually pretty good when I reviewed it, but it’s not terribly interesting. It comes with a few earthier tones, especially ground coffee dust mixed with some light fruit, so I’d expect it to mesh well with the almonds. In practice, though, the chocolate doesn’t really complement the almonds so well, especially because the almonds tend to overshadow the chocolate. That also means that, even though this is a dark chocolate, it’s very short, leaving little trace on the palate.

As for texture, I actually enjoyed the bar’s crunch, but it’s very hard to enjoy this bar’s melt. The almonds, coming in such large chunks, break the melt and encourage you to munch the bar down. With dark chocolate, though, it would be nice to be able to savor the chocolate.

This, then, is a chocolate that has some fundamental problems, both in concept and execution. The quality of the chocolate and the nuts is great, but the large almonds can both add to and detract from the experience, overshadowing the rather simple chocolate.

Scores

Presentation: 2.0/5.0
Taste: 3.0/5.0
Flavor: 2.5/5.0
Melt/Texture: 4.0/5.0
Length:  2.2+/5.0
Value: 2.8/5.0
Verdict: 2.8/5.0