Sometimes I have something so…different, for lack of a better word, that I review it straight away rather than add it to the pile of reviews I have waiting to be put onto the website. This is one of these instances. I was sent this bar a few months ago as part of an American goodie box by my friend Sera from CandyAddict, and decided to save this one until finally I could wait no longer. This is the Barcelona bar from Vosges of America, and it’s like nothing I’ve had before.

The bar is 41% cocoa solids milk chocolate, with hickory smoked almonds and grey sea salt chucked into the mix as well. The bar is a blend of both dark and milk chocolate, meaning it already has a sweet and bitter combination going on, without the other complex flavours that are added to this bar. The bar comes in a pretty box, showing off the chocolate on the front of it, and on the back is an amazing guide of ‘How to enjoy an exotic candy bar’.

Yeah that’s right, these guys tell you how to eat their bar. There’s a lot there so I will summarise. There are 5 steps – See, Smell, Snap, Taste and Feel. You see the chocolate for what it is. You then take 3 breaths and rub the chocolate to release the aromas and inhale them. You then break the bar into 2 pieces, hear the crisp snap of a well-tempered chocolate bar (loudest with dark, softest with white due to cocoa solids). You then place a piece on your tongue and press it to the roof of your mouth and within 30 seconds should be able to feel the chocolate melting over it. The milk chocolate melts and the taste of sea salt and almonds begin to release themselves. The feel of the protein laden almonds, and the feel of the salt on your tongue then completes this bar. Phew…and that’s a summary!

Finally opening the box reveals a foil packet, different to the foil we use here in Britain. This instead is more akin to the Pocky packets, which has to be opened. It’s a huge pain in the arse because the bar fills the entire thing up, so it took me a good minute to rip the thing open, and I was then presented with the block of chocolate. It had 8 squares, each square picturing either a woman holding a bag with ‘Vosges’ written on, or just the word ‘Vosges’ etched into the chocolate. The almonds can be very plainly seen in the chocolate, and the chocolate itself is darker than milk chocolate, yet slightly lighter than dark, showing the mix of the two off extremely well.

The taste is pretty much how they described it. It starts off being both sweet and bitter in what is a slightly odd combination, the almonds then begin to come through with a slightly nutty flavour and their distinct texture, but surprisingly the main point is the sea salt. Boy does that come through, the salty hits are insane, I was never wincing at all, but it completely changes the feel and mood of the bar. It really livens it up and just changes it completely, from sweet to salty and back again in the space of mere seconds as the salt dissolves. It’s a very strange feeling and one that has to be experienced to truly be able to understand it.

It’s not unpleasant at all, just very different to anything I’m used to, I’ve had bars which have had salt in before but not to this extent, and I did quite like it. Overall the bar is quite excellent, the salt makes it extremely moreish but it can be a rich experience and I had to take the whole thing very slowly despite being incredibly hungry at the time. Vosges don’t ship internationally unless you phone them directly, but anyone in America with access to them and has an extra dollar to spend on good quality chocolate should look into them. These are the same guys who make chocolate with bacon in, so they (should) know how to make exotic candy bars. Personally that’s a step too far for me even as a reviewer, but as good quality chocolate manufacturers, I highly recommend them.

Per 3 squares, this bar has 170 calories (100 from fat), 2g Protein, 15g Carbohydrates (14g of which sugars) and 11g Fat (7g of which saturates).

P.S. A full guide on how to enjoy chocolate can be found here.