Description
You might not think of the seaside town of Cleethorpes in Lincolnshire as a centre of chocolate excellence, but that’s exactly where chocolate maker Duffy Sheardown produces his award winning range of bars.
Duffy sources the cocoa beans for his chocolate directly from cocoa farmers and farmer co-operatives, ensuring a higher price for the farmer and a better quality product.
This bar is made with a 43% Ecuadorian milk chocolate, flavoured with cocoa nibs and a touch of smoked sea salt. The nibs add a satisfying crunch to the chocolate, while the salt helps lift the flavour of this irresistible bar.
This bar achieved a Bronze at the Academy of Chocolate Award in 2011, 2013 and 2017.
Lynette A. –
Cacao nibs add a crunch and they always makes the bar enjoyable for me. The salt is a nice addition. This bar is very sweet. As in many craft chocolate bars, I taste the milk powder. A good bar for those new to craft chocolate or maybe children but too sweet for me and I try to avoid dairy anyway. Geez, I am embarrassed to be negative as growing and making chocolate is so hard and the world of craft chocolate in England is small but this brand doesn’t work
for me sadly. Actually gives me a headache.
Lynette A. –
Cacao nibs add a crunch and they always makes the bar enjoyable for me. The salt is a nice addition. This bar is very sweet. As in many craft chocolate bars, I taste the milk powder. A good bar for those new to craft chocolate or maybe children but too sweet for me and I try to avoid dairy anyway. Geez, I am embarrassed to be negative as growing and making chocolate is so hard and the world of craft chocolate in England is small but this brand doesn’t work
for me sadly. Actually gives me a headache.
Rob S. –
Possibly the best chocolate I’ve ever devoured. That said, being a sucker rather than a cruncher or nibbler, I knew how to enjoy it before I’d read the instructions on how to consume it to maximal satisfaction. Who knew that involved placing it dextrously on the roof of one’s mouth and tickling it could be the passport to such X-rated quasi-carnal delights!?
Nicole W. –
Too sweet for my liking, and could be smokier
sarah r. –
buttery and crunchy, yum
Matthew –
I do like the smoked sea salt. It is buttery and pleasant, though perhaps it overrides the flavour of the cacao too much.
Elin D. –
Too sickly for me and not enough of a cocoa flavour for my taste.
Angeline B. –
A creamy chocolate with bits of salt in. A strange concept to begin with, but quite moreish when you get used to it!
William T. –
This has turned up in my ‘your last box’ list, but I never received it. It sounds lovely though, so if you’re reading Cocoa Runner, please forward asap so I can update my rating!
Amanda K. –
We’ve been rating our bars on our regular deliveries for the past 6 months now. This bar scored a very strong 9 out of 10. The combination of nibs and the salt works especially well, even though it’s not what you might expect. An intriguing bar of chocolate and one I hope to go back to time and again.
Nick B. –
Weirdly yummy – the balance between contrasting tastes (sweet creamy choc & smokey salt) and textures (soft and crunchy) makes for an unusual but enjoyable experience
Melissa M. –
Very salty and buttery. Rich but I still ate it in one sitting.
Erdenechimeg M. –
Very creamy/buttery milk chocolate. Saltiness came through only rarely, and mostly when crunching the cocoa nibs; couldn’t tell that the salt was smoked (possibly because we couldn’t taste the salt much 😉 ) Not bad, but not enough ‘real’ chocolate flavour for our liking.
Lisa H. –
My box arrived not an hour ago and I’m rather ashamed to say I have finished the entire bar already! I had a taste and then couldn’t leave it alone. I loved the crunch and I loved the salty flavour combined with the sweetness. Reminded me a little of salted caramel. If you like that you’ll probably like this. Best Bar so far (which is high praise indeed for a die hard dark chocolate fan) and my partner agrees. Only downside is no nutritional info so will have to let the carb counting slide on this occasion. Worth it though!
Radomir K. –
Sofar we only had two boxes, yet this chocolate has been the “clear winner”. We love the sweet&salty taste as well as the crunchiness. Simply superb. We could get it anytime.
Lesley J. –
Very sad. It did all the right things without giving me any joy at all: creamy, that honey and butter salt/sweet mixture, crunchiness of nuts…. But oh. The let down. It has virtually NO cacao pungency on the back of the palate, which I am afraid I need. I give the rest of this bar to a man.
Natasha H. –
Can’t quite understand anyone saying they can’t pick up a smokey taste in this chocolate as it’s there in spades, but pleasingly balanced by the salt and the sweet milkiness of the chocolate. Not totally convinced about the cocoa nibs, as they have a kind of vegetal note, but overall pretty impressed…
Susanne P. –
Didn’t like the salty taste!
Gilli K. –
very creamy and love the crunch from the nibs and like the salty bit of it too – more than i thought i would. The other half isnt so keen on it. Could probably do with slightly less of the creaminess. The smokiness also is a bit much with the creaminess of the bar which is probably what he doesnt like about it. I think its very nice – would definitely buy a bar of this for me LOL
Dina A. –
Very creamy and light, love the crunch from the nibs which help make the bar more chocolatey. I think I’d prefer it without the salt but it is still an enjoyable bar. The texture also let’s it down a little, I prefer very smooth milk chocolate and this bar is a little coarse.
Laura C. –
This was the worse bar in the February box. In theory smoked salt, cocoa nibs and milk chocolate would work well together. The trouble with this bar is that the base milk chocolate is sickly sweet and has none of the strong chocolaty notes you might assume a 42% milk chocolate bar would have instead it was far more sickly and have a overpowering sweetness which did not work with the smokey salt notes and bitter cocoa nibs
Lee D. –
3rd time writing this review because the website loses it if I try and use the arrow keys to edit it…
I really couldn’t say there was any detectable smoke flavour here. And the Salt was almost entirely lost with against the bitterness from the cocoa nibs.
However this is one of the nicest milk chocolates I’ve come across. Goregous creamyness, great chocolate flavour. I live the texture from the cocoa nibs. And got one or
2 bursts of salt when I bit a particularly big crystal. But as I mentioned it was otherwose lost.
I suspect both the smokey quality and the salt characteristic would be better if they were added to the surface rather than mixed in with the cocoa nibs.
Either way I would still give this a 4/5 stars It’s just that good.
Chantal D. –
I was really not expecting this kind of flavor, it is quite amaizng. Very creamy and when it melts in your mouth you can taste every single particle. The salt gives it an extra kick. to be enjoyed in small portions at the time to better emjoy the taste and… make it last longer 🙂
Irene C. –
I adore sweet creamy chocolate and this was really enjoyable. A little heavy on the sweet to balance out the bursts of bitter with the nibs and the oak smoked salt. Didn’t really pick up a smoke taste in there if I’m honest but i did really enjoy this bar. The texture isnt too smooth and that works really well with the disruptive additions. Looking forward to trying more from duffy’s. Their packaging isn’t nearly as beautiful as some other companies have made an effort on but hey it’s what inside that counts.