Chocolatier: Compartes Chocolatier
Flavor: Pink Elephants
What I Paid: $9.95
I saw this chocolate bar from Los Angeles based chocolatier Compartes in a gift shop during my recent trip to Vegas, and it was so pretty that I decided to pick it up and try it! As you can see from the picture, I had to stuff this bar into my already over-filled suitcase, so it got mildly crushed during my flight back. T_T Oh well. At least it still looks pretty even when it is broken into pieces!
This is a 73% cocoa bar with frosted animal cookies and sprinkles. Right away, I have to say the marketing for this bar is a little misleading. The back of the box says "COOKIES IN EVERY BITE" which led me to believe that there would be bits of crushed frosted animal cookies mixed into the chocolate. That is not the case. Instead, this bar is more like a chocolate bark - it is a layer of chocolate that has had sprinkles and whole frosted animal cookies pressed into the top of it.
The chocolate in this bar is bitter with earthy notes of tobacco and just a touch of underlying sweetness. It has a smooth melt and a nice tannic finish. The sprinkles and animal cookies aren't anything special - they are the same as the ones you would find in a grocery store. Both of these elements are hyper sweet and have just a bit of that that chemically aftertaste that is simultaneously slightly gross and endearingly nostalgic. The bar is nicely balanced: The artificial sweetness of the sprinkles/cookies tames the bitterness of the chocolate, and the chocolate keeps the other elements from being cloying.
That being said - I honestly would not get this bar again. I think this bar specifically falls into the "more style than substance" category. What I mean by that is that you're paying more for the beautiful presentation of the chocolate than you are for the flavor of the chocolate. Don't get me wrong, the chocolate is here solidly good, but you can easily get a bar with equally good chocolate for $6. So really you are paying $4 for some sprinkles, three animal crackers, and very pretty packaging. That might be worth it to some people, but it definitely is not worth it to me.