Description
The Bonnat family have been making chocolate in Voiron, France for over 130 years. It was current head Stephane Bonnat’s parents, Raymond and Nicole Bonnat who pioneered Bonnat’s first single origin bars in the 1980’s. Stephane has continued his parent’s tradition and the company now works with 35 different plantations worldwide to produce their bars.
With a cocoa content of 65% this truly is a dark milk bar. The milk still gives the chocolate an extra sweetness as well as producing and overwhelmingly smooth and creamy mouth feel. The cacao for this dark milk chocolate bar is hand chosen in the east Javan city of Surabaya. The intemperate climate on this large Indonesian island means that, as with Papua chocolate, the beans are dried using large open fires. The result is a chocolate infused with a little hint of smoke. ‘Smokey’ is a flavour you might more likely associate with barbecues than chocolate, but we find the almost savoury notes blend perfectly into this rich and buttery dark milk chocolate.
A classic dark milk chocolate bar that is a must for those who like their chocolate smooth and creamy, but without too much added sugar. When we tasted this bar, we detected a slight smokiness throughout and some subtle hints of nuts at the finish. It is a remarkably mellow bar, with generous proportion of cocoa butter and milk giving this undeniably rich bar a wonderuflly creamy flavour. However, as this is a dark milk chocolate, this bar gets much of its sweetness from the natural sugars of the milk and the cocoa plant. In fact, when compared to mainstream milk chocolate, it actually contains relatively little added sugar.
Rhiann S. –
Love all Bonnat’s dark milk offerings, this one is great but not quite as good as Morenita for me.
Tzvi S. –
I found the standout feature of this chocolate to be the smokey flavor. Coupled with the smooth creaminess this a very enjoyable chocolate to let melt in your mouth. While milk chocolate aficionados won’t find it very sweet, those on the dark spectrum will appreciate the subtle sweetness in the background.
jane H. –
I ordered this again because I loved it so much last time. I need to hide it from myself.
jane H. –
This is my ideal dark milk…perfect creaminess, notes of burnt sugar, amazing mouthfeel, lingering cocoa tones, chunky bar. Compulsively delicious.
meghan m. –
The best of the dark milk trio. Creamy, good balance between sweet and bitter, distinctive smoky taste of Indonesia but not too much.
penny a. –
I live in France for half the year and discovered chocolate Bonnat while there. I was delighted to find it in the UK. I like milk chocolate, which I realise is deeply uncool. Bonnat milk, unlike most others, does not have sugar as the main ingredient, and cocoa content is over 60%. My lifetime quest is to find the best milk chocolate, and I thought I had it in Valrhona, but this is better. Paradise on the palate, no bitterness and none of the cloying sweetness of most milk chocolate.
Leonard V. –
There is no unpleasant bitterness or tannin notes despite its high cocoa content. Unlike commercial varieties, this bar is subtly sweet, letting the creaminess of the milk to truly shine through.
Note that this bar does actually contain cane sugar in the nutritional section of the package
Clive F. –
Really delicious dark milk chocolate, with a lovely smooth and creamy feel in the mouth. Not too dark, even though it’s 65% cocoa.