You are all very lovely.
You are all so very terrifically lovely.
Thank you from the bottom of my heart for your kindness and support following my blogiversary post. You are the bee’s knees.
I would like to show my thanks by sending you each a block of chocolate (or, if that’s not your style, a packet of vegan jerky/bowl of roasted chickpeas), but instead I offer you this review of two chocolates that are, like you, the bee’s knees.
Askinosie Dark Milk Chocolate + Black Licorice CollaBARation™ Bar
Once upon a time, I visited the Askinosie Chocolate Factory for a private tour and then blogged about several of Askinosie’s chocolates, ultimately promising to showcase my favourite bars in a later post.
This is part one of that “later post”.
Is pretty. Is so pretty. If Askinosie’s Dark Milk Chocolate + Black Licorice CollaBARation™ Bar was a teddy bear instead of a chocolate bar, I would cuddle it on the couch whenever I felt homesick.
However, it is a chocolate bar made with 62% Davao cocoa beans, goat’s milk powder, fleur de sel, anise seeds, and teeny tiny pieces of (gluten-free) black licorice made in Sweden by Lakritsfabriken*, and so I ate instead of cuddled it.
* This might be my new favourite word.
As a kid, I wouldn’t have gone near licorice-studded chocolate with a fifty foot pole. Thankfully, a certain cup of gelato in Florence changed my mind regarding All Things Licorice, and I now find the toffee-floral-herbal-anise-licorice-chocolate aroma of this Askinosie bar intoxicating.
The chocolate is dark and glossy on top, yet shimmers with anise seeds and tiny squares of lightly-salted licorice below. The anise seeds are crisp while the licorice has a softer chew, and both provide contrast against the firm-yet-silky melt of the goat’s milk dark chocolate.
The taste, you ask? Superb. This chocolate has all the flavours. Richly chocolate-y like the flowing molten centre of a chocolate fondant, not quite smoky but deeply herbal with a hint of something exotic like incense, ebbing caramel notes, a rich unctuousness like clotted cream, and always, always, the beautiful hum of anise and licorice.
Dear Askinosie: I would like this chocolate in my life forever.
Askinosie El Rústica Dark Chocolate + Crunchy Sugar Crystals and Vanilla Bean CollaBARation™ Bar
Askinosie’s El Rústica Dark Chocolate also uses Davao cocoa beans, but this time the goat’s milk powder is left out and the base is studded with crunchy sugar crystals and pieces of whole vanilla bean.
If you’ve ever held a plump vanilla bean in your hands and breathed in its heady perfume, then you might be able to imagine the gorgeousness of this 70% chocolate’s aroma.
Upon taking a bite of the chocolate, I found myself surprised and delighted by its crispy texture, which comes not only from the crunchy sugar crystals but Askinosie’s decision to forego conching the chocolate itself.
The bar is ever-so-ever-so-moreish, with the sugar crystals and vanilla creating layers of sweetness that are, in turn, balanced by the tangy and malty flavours of the 70% dark chocolate. The vanilla and sugar create a sense of lightness and fun, and I detected notes of crème brulee and toffee amidst the vanilla, vanilla, vanilla.
Of course, there’s only one more thing to say when it comes to vanilla:
Let’s kick it!
Ice, ice, baby,
Ice, ice, baby,
All right stop,
Collaborate and listen!
Yep. I’m done now.
I want BOTH right now. Amazing. I love licorice. And vanilla. As you would say – I love ALL the things.
Seriously, seriously good stuff right here. Worth loving.
Oh, that vanilla bar sounds heavenly. I can’t get on board with the licorice, but maybe that’s just because I’ve never been to Florence for gelato. Time to book a trip…
In other chocolate-related news, I made a flourless chocolate cake for a friend’s birthday this weekend, and the amount and variety of good eating chocolate from Patric and Tsar that went into it is, quite frankly, embarrassing. Because it was expired. Expired! How could this happen in my house?
Unfortunately, I know exactly how that could happen. My last two years of chocolate reviewing have been guided solely by eating whatever is about to expire next in my chocolate stash. ‘Course, now that I’m travelling, I don’t have that problem/luxury anymore, so I’m totally having the expected reaction of “OMG PATRIC AND TSAR EXPIRED HOW COULD YOU LEMME AT IT”.
If it makes you feel any better (I know it did me) the cake was scrumptious.
Anything you touch is duty-bound to be scrumptious.
oo la la! They’re all so exotic! Though, I’m not a fan of licorice! HAHA I remember my brother tricking me into eating them! It wasn’t pretty
That’s what happened to me with anchovies. Except it wasn’t my brother tricking me; I just thought it was a strip of bacon.
I missed the bloggasary (and can no longer spell or bother with autocorrect) do you no longer love me? *SNIFF*
Yep. Our friendship is over. I don’t even know what an angle babe is anymore.
P.S. Teehee, in truth I missed my own blogiversary last year! The mango cheesecakes I posted earlier this week? I made those last December for my second blogiversary, and then totally forgot and never wrote about it or them
Oh gosh, so pretty! And I love liquorice and chocolate but not chocolate coated liquorice – which makes the first block very intriguing indeed. I sense I’d like it a lot.
I’ve tried chocolate-coated licorice once and hated it, but it was nasty licorice and nasty compound chocolate. But, also, the sound of chocolate-covered gummy bears gives me the heebie-jeebies, so I think it’s simply not my bag, baby.
Mm, me too. I bought chocolate-coated aniseed rings for Mr B’s Christmas stocking yesterday (let’s hope he doesn’t follow me around the blogosphere…), safe in the knowledge that there would be no way I’d eat them myself before Christmas. Gummy bears would be even worse (but then I don’t much like them plain either!).
Bahahaha, somehow I doubt he’d be reading through the comments, even if he stumbled over here
Trolli sour gummy worms FTW!
I hated licorice, too, as a kid but now I love most things anise! It boggles my mind but I adore fennel.
This looks great.. I never would have thought to pair chocolate with fennel. 
Ah, see, clearly I was destined to eventually love licorice, because I adored fennel and anise seeds even as a kid.
Should I confess that I once knew the lyrics to every verse of Vanilla Ice. No. I better not.
I would like to try unconched chocolate though!
Oh, you definitely should! I wish I did. I’d kill at karaoke then.
I’ve been having a lot of unconched chocolate lately. It’s quite popular in North America. The Taza style is even grittier, which I don’t adore, but I liked Askinosie’s version.
the chocolate photos are amazing – it just looks so so so good – I am particularly taken with the licorice chunks – love me some bullets (the chocolate kind not the gun kind) so I am most pleased to see your review of this one even if I never get to eat it
Perhaps one day you and E (and Sylvia!) will squeeze in a trip to the US on your way to or from Scotland and Ireland, and then you can find some Askinosie for yourself
Ohhh licorice and chocolate
I know so many of my friends will scrunch up their nose but I love this mix~
Silly licorice-hating people!
It seems right that you’d like this chocolate, since it’s like the packaging is also reviewing the chocolate inside! I never ever liked liquorice but your description of particularly good examples of it is making me want to have a go at changing my stance on it.
Darling, if you were here, I’d find us some really good licorice and hold your hand as we took a bite together. x
Oh god the vanilla bean bar oh god. Beyond delicious.
Have you even OPENED the white ones yet?!
…well…..NO!
::turns and runs away quickly to avoid chastisement::
BABE.
Stop being crazy. Remember how we talked about this hoarding thing on, what, MY FIRST DAY?! Either eat it or send it to me.
YES. Yes I know we did. But Matt and I are leaving in like a week…I mean, I can’t eat it all before then…
That’s the difference between you and me. I can easily get through one bar a day
P.S. OMG ONE WEEK THRILLERING!
What a fabulous creation. I am not a huge licorice fan but eaten like this I am sure I would love it!
It’s really quite subtle, so as long as you don’t abhor licorice the way, say, I can’t stand orange and feel sick at the smell, then I think you’d at least be able to try this
Even the actual label screams ‘Hannah!’ to me. In a good way!
Even the actual label screams ‘Hannah!’ to me. In a good way!
Hah! Love it! I wish it would scream itself into an endless supply in my pocket, though.
Ha, I’m also not sure about licorice but I’d give the chocolate a go. And definitely will go for vanilla.
The vanilla is blissful. Whole pods!
Oooh… Chocolate with seeds! I’m always down for substituting anything that contains nuts with seeds. Actually, I could eat a whole bowl of seeds on their own. But, uh, depends on which kind, of course ;p
You’re up for substituting nuts with anise seeds? Hmm, I’m not sure that woudl always work, but go for it!
I’m glad you had a good anniversary! And I would just love this chocolate. I’ve always been a huge fan of licorice (dare I even say, ‘salt licorice’?) and I know it goes so well with chocolate. I’ll have to ask Santa for some of this for my stocking xx
I think that would be a very good idea. After all, salted licorice is from northern Scandinavian countries, right? Just like Santa!
You know how I like texture … it’s the sugar crystals one for me. (Though the other looks pretty good too).
I’d love to share this with you.
I agree with your mum, the sugar crystals sound stellar. Would you believe there’s only one chocolate bar in my house right now…… and it’s tiny?!? Ack.
Travelling has created similar situations for me. Going from 20+ chocolate bars at all times to 3-4 (or less) is a shock to the system, isn’t it? But you’ll be making your own soon!
oh! These blocks look to me to be the MOST delicious of ALL your chocolate tales. I want want want! This Askinosie chocolate looks to be too darn good. Gah!
Heidi xo
Askinosie doesn’t ship to australia. Boo.
Heidi can be shipped/flown to America and Canada, though. xo
I’m not a fan of licorice, but I looove that first chocolate bar! I can’t resist typography. Or food. Combined it’s even harder.