Sugar Savvy

It looks like Hershey’s is making the big push into the premium chocolate market with its recent acquisitions of Dagoba and Scharffen Berger, and now with their new line of Cacao Reserve chocolates.

This weekend was the first time I’d noticed this product line at Wegman’s, and then I saw it again at CVS later the same day.  With offerings like milk chocolate, milk chocolate with hazelnuts, extra dark, and extra dark with cacao nibs.  Taking a look at their web site, I noticed that they also offer two types of cocoa - classic mayan and mildly spiced aztec.

I decided to choose extra dark with cacao nibs for my taste test.  Each little square is molded with an image of a cacao bean on it.  The chocolate is chock full of berry fruitiness with the nuttiness of the cacao nibs.  The nibs tasted like they were roasted a bit darker than others I’ve tried.  It was a bit sweeter and smoother than I expected, but that was logical given the slightly lower cacao content and what I imagine is an attempt at appealing more to the mass market.  The chocolate is also very melty or it’s just very warm in my apartment.

This is a great bar that’s easy to pick up at the drugstore to fill those basic chocolate cravings.  I hope they will look to expand this line and get more creative.