Today's selection is one I've explored before--odd or at least atypical flavors of chocolate bars. In fact, I've done this six previous times: August 20th and October 22nd of 2012; March 21st and September 20th in 2015; January 17, 2016; and April 27th in 2019. The three I tried recently were the hazelnut butter dark chocolate bar from Hu, the 100% cocoa concoction from Lindt & Sprungli, and the milk chocolate with corn flakes from Ritter Sport.
I've already reported on several products from Lindt & Sprungli, including quite a bit about the company's history in the April 27th, 2019 post. So I won't repeat myself here. However, the other two chocolatiers are new to me. Hu Products, LLC, which also goes by Hu Kitchen, is based out of Texas. It was founded by Jordan Brown, Jessica Karp, and Jason Karp. These folks liked chocolate, but were also super into eating healthy. Since they felt the chocolate on the market didn't measure up to their standards, they started making their own. Partly because Jason Karp had/has some sort of auto-immune disease. The trio were inspired by the teachings of dieticians Mark Hyman and Mark Sisson as well. (It should be said that many doctors and dieticians disagree strongly with Hyman and Sisson's theories. The two Marks push a diet which is related to the Paleo one, which I discussed in more detail in my post on December 13, 2015, and is rather controversial.) Anyway, after leasing a building in 2011 and developing their recipes, they opened a restaurant in Greenwich Village, NYC, in September of 2012. At some point they opened up a facility in Texas, although the chocolate I ate is listed as being made in Italy. Hu makes dark chocolate bars, milk chocolate bars, baking chocolate, and some snacks. Staying with their paleo and vegan diet philosophies Hu's products lack the following ingredients: cane sugar, refined sugar, sugar alcohols, erythritol, dairy, soy, lecithins, and emulsifiers. Although, surprisingly, on another part of my product label it says the product may contain almonds, cashews, pistachios, and dairy. (Which kind of negates the "vegan" designation, I think.) Also, their facilities process tree nuts, soy, dairy, and wheat. If you're curious about the name, "Hu" is short for "human."
Alfred Ritter GmbH & Co. KG is based out of Germany. Back in 1912 Alfred Eugen Ritter and Clara Ritter started the company in Stuttgart--Bad Cannstat. By 1930, the company expanded, and moved to the town of Waldenbuch. And then, the official company website history discusses Nazism, which seems a tad unusual for a candy seller. Specifically, by 1935 the impending war made certain ingredients like chocolate difficult to acquire, so Ritter switched to selling things like jelly-based confections. By 1940 production shut down entirely. Possibly because Alfred Ritter refused to join the Nazi party, or NSDAP. Because of this, after World War II was over, during the American occupation, Ritter was offered and allowed to become the mayor of Waldenbuch. Ritter started making chocolate again when supplies opened up in 1950. Ritter seems particularly focused on treating its employees and producers well, and trying to be as environmentally friendly as possible. In 1990 it supported sustainable chocolate farming in Nicaragua. In 2002 the factories started running on renewable energy sources. By 2020 the company itself was carbon neutral. By 2025 Ritter aims to have this happen with all its partners and supplier as well. The Ritter Sport brand name was suggested by Clara Ritter, since their differently shaped chocolate bars would fit into a sport jacket pocket without breaking. Currently the business manufactures about 40 different kinds of chocolate, some of which are vegan, and free of lactose and gluten.
Hu hazelnut butter dark chocolate bar, 70% cocoa: The exterior looks like a typical chocolate bar, being dark brown, but the interior is a lighter shade of brown. The taste was rather unpleasant, with the usual amount of bitterness from dark chocolate. (For those that don't recall, I don't like dark chocolate much in general--I prefer the milder, sweeter flavor of milk chocolate much more.) The hazelnut does cut the nasty dark chocolate taste a bit. I could finish it, so I guess that's faint praise? It grew on me a tiny bit, so maybe I would rank this as one of the better dark chocolate offerings, almost mediocre. But I still would never buy it again, and would only recommend it to folks that like dark chocolate.
Lindt & Sprungli 100% cocoa dark chocolate bar: First off, the percentage listing of 100% is a little misleading. I looked online, and some sites noted that "100%" cocoa chocolates sometimes had a tiny smidgen of cocoa butter. As long as it's not more than .25% the bar can still be listed as "100%," due to rounding, I suppose. Anyway, I took a look at the ingredients for this bar, and sure enough, "cocoa butter" is an ingredient. So, it's not "pure" cocoa. But, long story short, this tiny amount of non-cocoa didn't make an appreciable difference. This was utterly gross and revolting. Bitter as hell, and not in a good way at all. I figured I would hate this, due to my chocolate preferences, and I was right. I don't see how anyone can enjoy this--is it just a dare food, or to make yourself seem badass? And it's not for cooking, it's for eating as a chocolate bar! Oh, and it was very thin, and a dark brown color.
Ritter Sport milk chocolate bar with corn flakes: Yeah, so I covered myself a little, and was relieved to locate at least one milk chocolate bar with weird additives, in this case, corn flakes. It was a light brown hue with lumps visible on the bottom, evidently the corn flakes. As alluded to before, the shape of the bar was different, as it was more squarish than rectangular. The texture was regular chocolate with the crunch of the flakes. The taste was pretty good. Good milk chocolate, and the corn flakes added something, too. Nice flavor pairing. So at least one of my chocolates for this post was legitimately good! Not my favorite or anything, but more than solid. I recommend this, and will seek out other Ritter offerings to compare and contrast.
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