Part Two - Rausch Chocolate

You can find part one of my Rausch Chocolates review here, where I reviewed the Costa Rican and Venezuelan bars.  

All four of the bars included contain only four ingredients; cane sugar, cocoa butter, whole milk powder and cocoa mass. Each is also made with single origin cocoa from various areas. 

The third bar I tried was the Madagascan. 

Rausch say about this bar "Light coloured, creamy and aromatic chocolate with a delicate vanilla flavour made from the best SAMBIRANO no.1 fine flavour cocoa in the Ambanja region" and "Fruity, tart and slightly tangy giving this aromatic, lightly coloured chocolate a hint of vanilla". 

Well as stated, twice, it was certainly lighter than the previous two bars. It smelt a lot sweeter and creamier than the Costa Rican and Venezualan too and despite my skepticism did have a slight vanilla like scent to it too. 

Getting down to buisness, it tasted absoloutly delicious. It contains a minimum of 39% cocoa solids so there's still a good, rich, proper chocolate flavour and 22% milk solids which give a sweeter, milkier taste than the two before. It has a beautifully creamy flavour and is extremely moreish. I didn't notice any tartness but there were the hints of vanilla as promised every now and then, nothing too strong and not as vanilla-y as it smelt, but enough to taste. 

Strangely, I noticed with this bar where I didn't really before, that it had a very slow melt - it melted on my tounge eventually but most mouthfuls I ended up chewing. It did take away a little of my enjoyment of the bar (and Mr.1T actually commented the same) but the flavour was nice enough that I didn't mind too much. 

This was a wonderfully thick, creamy chocolate that managed to be milky and flavourful while still tasting like actual chocolate should. 

8/10 

Last and by no means least was Papua New Guinea. Rausch say about this bar "Balanced light coloured fine milk chocolate with a harmonious, creamy, caramelly flavour made from the best KUL KUL fine flavour cocoa in the Madang province." 

This bar smelt a little richer and less sweet than the Madagascan despite having less cocoa solids at 35% and more milk solids at 26%. 

It did however, taste milkier initially and once again I was surprised to find it did have a caramel aftertaste. I think what is confusing me with these final two bars, are that the have that familiar (albeit a lot better quality) milk chocolate taste but don't have the almost immediate melt you find with everyday chocolate bars. The Papua New Guinea bar did melt slightly faster and had a thicker, better mouthfeel than the Madagascan though. Again the chocolate itself was delicious - thick, creamy and rich.

I decided to see if the power of persuasion was at play with this chocolate and asked Mr.1T to try the same bar at the same time as me. I asked him what he thought and he said there was an aftertaste that was on the tip of his tongue but he was struggling to name it. As soon as I mentioned caramel he (literally) shouted "That's it!! It tastes like a much nicer Galaxy caramel!"  I had to listen for a good twenty minutes about how it's a thicker, nicer, better quality Galaxy, how he makes the best chocolate choices and we need to find somewhere that sells these bars. Make of that what you will but it reminded me why I usually review alone! 

Anyway I can see his point, I wouldn't go as far as an actual Galaxy Caramel but it does have the caramel flavours and is very similar to the smooth, silky, milky (though not as milky as Dairy Milk) Galaxy. Which could explain why I couldn't pinpoint why this wasn't my immediate favourite considering there's something I don't find quite right with Galaxy too. This was outright Mr.1Ts favourite though, I'm torn between all four! If you're a fan of Galaxy chocolate you will love the Papua New Guinea bar. 

Rating 8/10 

Part one - Rausch Chocolate

I've come to the conclusion that, health aside, it's probably for the best I need to put weight on right now as I've clearly married a feeder. 

Another day, another knock on the door from a delivery man with a box full of 12 full sized chocolate bars from the German company Rausch. 

The box was beautifully presented, I felt bad ripping the label to open it and inside the chocolates were wrapped in paper with a little seal. There are three of each of the four varietys all with cocoa sourced from a different place. 

The bars all look the same, long and thin with six snappable squares and they weigh in at 40g each. 

Each chocolate contains only four ingredients; cane sugar, cocoa butter, whole milk powder and cocoa mass. 

I kicked things off with the bar with highest Cocoa solids, Costa Rican.

Costa Rican has a minimum 47% cocoa solids and a minimum of 18% milk solids. You can go onto the Rausch website and it gives a little detail about each bar. The Costa Rican says 'Especially rich, light coloured chocolate with a fruity flavour made from the best TRINITARIO TSURU fine flavour cocoa in the Turrialba region'. Now I don't fancy myself as a chocolate connoisseur, I love all chocolate, cheap expensive, white, milk, dark - I'm not a snob and I wasn't going to start waving it under my nose like I was tasting a fine wine, I wouldn't know how to to be honest! So I stuck with what I know and I just ate it. Like a Cadbury bar. 

The first thing I noticed was it smelt like actual cocoa and not sugar. To taste was along the same lines, it didn't taste dark as such but the flavour was all chocolate, the cocoa does give way to a milkiness though that was definitely absent at the start of each mouthful. The chocolate was sweet but not sugary sweet like in everyday chocolate at all and despite what Rausch say I didn't detect any fruity notes - I'd be interested to see if someone who knows what they're talking about does. 

Very nice bar and I really enjoyed it. 

7/10 

Next I tried Venezuela - 43% cocoa solids minimum, 19% milk solids minimum and 'Punchy, slightly nutty fine milk chocolate with hints of almond and caramel made from the best Ocumare fine flavour cocoa in the Aragua region'. 

Again it had a wonderfully rich, deep cocoa smell and surprisingly I could actually taste what they were talking about with the hints of caramel. Don't get me wrong it wasn't like eating a caramel bar or anything like that but there was definitely something reminiscent of caramel I could taste, I missed any almond notes though. It was slightly sweeter than the Costa Rican bar and milkier all round rather than just at the end of each bite but the overall flavour was definitely more of a cocoa chocolate than any milky sweetness though. Everyone says have a couple of squares of a dark chocolate to satisfy your sweet tooth but that doesn't work for me, I'll sit and eat 100g bars of 80% and still want more but I can honestly say this is the first bar that properly hit the spot, it was rich and luxurious tasting and my chocolate craving was satisfied in one smallish hit. 

Delicious. 

8/10