OrganicBunny.com Eating

Sweet on Chocolate!

Valentine’s Day may be over, but our craving for sweet treats will never end! To our delight, we discovered that there are a ton of chocolate varieties out there just waiting to be tried. And try them we did. Everyone was surprised by what we discovered. Some varieties sent us to the moon, while others made even the most chocoholic of us spit them right out!!

Most Healthy: OK, so rating the "healthiness" of chocolate is a bit tongue in cheek here - nobody reaches for a chocolate bar thinking it’s healthier than, say, a health food bar. But looking at the ingredients doesn’t hurt. When we did, we were pleasantly surprised by both the "good" and the "bad." One of our favorite bars for taste was ALSO the best bar for healthiness! (As if we needed another excuse to run out and buy a bunch of Cadburys!) Ghiradelli and New Tree also ranked well in the "Healthiness" category, but were voted far less tasty. So what about the most UN healthy of the bunch? Newman’s Own Organic variety tied with good old-fashioned Hershey’s for being "bad" for you. A shock to those of us who equate "organic" with "healthy," huh?

Most Healthy: Cadbury Dairy Milk Most Tasty: Lindt Swiss Classic Lowest Price: Hershey's Milk Chocolate

Most Tasty: According to our tasters, if you’ve ever bitten into a Lindt Swiss Classic milk chocolate bar, you’ve come darn close to experiencing heaven. And if you’ve bitten into a Cadbury Dairy Milk chocolate bar, well, you’re basically right outside the pearly gates. These two ultra-smooth varieties ranked head and shoulders above the others, with Ghirardelli coming in a distant third.

Sorry, guys, the organic varieties in this taste test just didn’t cut it - all of them ranked lower than the mainstream varieties. Of the organic & natural types, Dagoba ranked highest, but it was far behind our favorites. Newman’s Own got an overall thumbs down (one taster commented that the aftertaste was "like old coffee grounds"). And the NewTree variety was voted downright disgusting (who thought up putting lavender flavor into a chocolate?? As one tester said, "YUK - leave the lavender in the bath!!").

Lowest Price: Most people probably don’t mind paying a little bit more for a really good bar of chocolate, but if you’re looking for cheap, reach for the Hershey’s, where you’ll get the most chocolate bang for your buck. Tasters commented that Hershey’s was chalky and grainy compared to other varieties, though. So, if you want a good price and really awesome taste, go for the Lindt bar. It’s surprisingly inexpensive, especially for the high quality taste. On the other hand, definitely skip the Green & Black’s and the NewTree if price is a concern.

Methodology: While there are SO many varieties of chocolate out there (milk, dark, white, organic, flavored, with nuts or caramel or fruit or crunchy bits in), we made ourselves stick to plain old milk chocolate for this taste test. The only variety that had anything added was the NewTree, which you can’t get in just plain milk chocolate, so this kind had added lavender (which we all agreed was an unfortunate addition because it ruined the overall taste & aroma).

After dinner, (we promise, mom!) 9 of us sat down to sample 8 different chocolate bars, rating each on appearance, aroma, texture, melt, packaging, and overall taste. Answers shown on the report are an average of all tasters' scores. The highest possible score would be a 50 (perfect 10 in all 5 taste categories). Lindt came in highest with a total of 36.3.

"Bunny Bonus!"

Want to impress your sweetie? Give him or her a chocogram using one of the varieties mentioned here, instead of the predictable Hershey’s Kisses or Russell Stover. When choosing which type of chocolate bar to buy, don’t forget to take note of the packaging. Cadbury’s royal-looking purple wrapper ranked high with our testers, and the bar inside ranked high in taste. Use a ribbon to tie the chocolate bar to a special card and deliver it any day "just because." You can’t go wrong!