Here we have a 40% cocoa solids, 75g bar from Valrhona again. Another award winning bar (the 2008 version of yesterday’s bar), this is again noted for its deep and distinct flavours which I shall describe below.

“The seduction of Valrhona’s Jivara lies in it’s pronounced cocoa notes, in perfect harmony with the vanilla, caramel and malt finish, with a long lasting distinctive flavour.”

Well, that sounds delicious to me, there’s no need for me to go on like I did yesterday, so let’s get to it. The bar looks identical to yesterday’s, only with the weird picture/flare thing a different colour. Other than that, nothing much to report. As for what Jivara is, I’m not sure. Google told me that there were Jivara tribesmen in Brazil, and there is also a robe called a jivara, but I doubt they would be related to this. Oh well.

So once again the box is carefully opened, the foil wrapped chocolate taken out, and the foil wrapper slit open. The bar looks identical to yesterday’s, what a surprise! And into my mouth goes a piece…

The chocolate definitely has a heavier taste to yesterday’s bar, that I could tell straight away. It may only have 7% more cocoa solids but it comes through. The chocolate itself starts off creamy, ordinary enough, it then begins to melt and more more cream comes through, then the chocolate comes into play and the two mix together. The piece is getting smaller and smaller in my mouth, still creamy chocolate, where’s the malt? It’s almost gone, still no malt, it’s gone completely now, no malt. I pop another piece in and chew it instantly, a waste of chocolate, I can barely taste anything there, I did it too quickly.

This bar is not for eating, it’s for savouring. When you pay £2.75 for a bar of chocolate, you do not chew it, you let it melt, you look for all those flavours. In this bar though, I struggled to find them, I don’t doubt that it has touches of malt, but it was a step too far for my taste buds, but let’s not get away from the fact that this is milk chocolate at its absolute finest. This is how award winning chocolate tastes, and it’s nothing short of fantastic. Excellently crafted, smooth, creamy and chocolatey, and something that I would love to taste again in a couple of years when I could note more about it.