Around The World in Chocolate Bars – Liquorice & Hemp or Curry Chocolate anyone?

I spotted these in the chocolate room at Liberty. Are they not the most delightfully packaged chocolate bars? I love the vintage postcard design and theme of this limited edition collection from chocolatiers Cocomaya. The set of ‘Around the world’ chocolate bars have flavours inspired by various cities to let your tastebuds travel via the medium of chocolate.

Cocomaya around the world chocolate - Paris, Toronto, New York, Kingston. — Paris tarte tatin bar, Toronto cranberry & blueberries bar, New York sea salt pretzel bar, Kingston banana & coconut bar

Cocomaya around the world chocolate bars - Mumbai, London, Amsterdam, Seville — Mumbai curry bar, London strawberries & cream bar, Amsterdam liquorice and hemp bar, Seville orange bar

So they look great, how do they taste? I decided to try the two most unusual flavours – Mumbai and Amsterdam.

Eau de curry powder assaulted my senses as soon as I began to unwrap the bar. Curry is mouthwatering, curry powder is not. To be honest I had to fight a reflex retch to put a small piece in my mouth – the garlic and onion are quite dominant with the chilli kicking in mid-bite. 70% of our perception of taste comes from our sense of smell so to me the chocolate just tasted tainted like when strawberries have been chopped on the same board as onions. I wonder if the curry flavour would have worked better in dark chocolate.

This tasted like dark chocolate with a very subtle liquorice coming through at the end of a mouthful. I’ve drunk hemp milk but the taste is fairly nondescript and I couldn’t pick up any particular sense of it in the chocolate. The flavours seem to meld more in the dark chocolate so this gets a thumbs up from me.

Anyway I love the overall concept though some flavours more successful than others.

Where to buy? The 70g bars are sold individually for £3.50 each in Liberty and Selfridges. Also available as part of various sets at Cocomaya