Omnom – Black N Burnt Barley, White 40%

About the bar

Is this the world’s first “Black Chocolate Bar” made with white chocolate?  We think it might be so!  And as Kjartan, Omnom Co-Founder notes this bar is one of those fortunate accidents.

Omnom has never been afraid to work with bold flavours, provided that they’re true to the brand.  They also make a white chocolate bar that’s flavoured with liquorice which is super popular across Scandinavia.  In this bar, Omnom’s choice of inclusions reflect their pride in their Icelandic heritage, and their love of a good beer.

“We had a white chocolate with the inclusion of malt and crunchy cocoa nibs. The recipe was ready, the packaging was ready. We were all set of launching it and then something happened. Something unexpected. It was one of those moments that you dream of. A new ingredient was introduced and the whole project was scrapped. We had some friends from the local breweries visiting and they left us some of their ingredient: a toasted barley, almost burnt.

“We added to our then malted white recipe and something magical happened. Within minutes of tasting, we knew we had stumbled on something new. It was wonderfully toasty, grainy, almost coffee-like, burned toast-like. In the kitchen you really strive for one of those Eureka moments and we just had ours. We set to experiment more and weeks became months. Before we knew it, a whole year had past and our bar had gone from being white to black. Several layers of ingredients had been introduced before finally finding our unique flavour. We went from a simple idea of a white chocolate to having the Omnom black chocolate bar.”

The bar contains three critical, and unique, ingredients that are combined with fine white chocolate to create a bar with a crunchy texture and intriguing malty and charcoal like taste.

1. 1. Burnt Barley: A well-roasted malted barley from Germany, usually used in brewing Porter and Stout beers, with a strong flavour of coffee, toast and bitter cocoa.
   2. Lava Salt: The Lava Salt is from Saltverk, Icelandic seasalt company, and gives the chocolate the right balance against the sweetness.  This lava salt has been processed using activated charcoal, and it is this ingredient that gives the bar its dramatic appearance.
   3. Popped Barley: The popped organic Icelandic barley is from Móðir Jörd, popped and covered in chocolate, sprinkled on top of the bar.

When you unwrap this bar, the first thing that strikes you is the colour – it is jet black.  As you break off a piece, you notice that its studded with an inclusion.  As the bar melts, there is a clear malted note, and a subtle saltiness that is a pleasing contrast to the sweetness of the white chocolate.  The pieces of popped barley that are sprinkled across the surface give a slightly chewy crunch to this bar.   It’s fair to say that, to date, we haven’t tasted anything quite like this.  With our first piece, we were being tempted to try something unusual, but it was the delicious, well balanced flavours of the bar – and its pleasing texture – that had us reaching for another piece soon afterward.

About the maker

Formed from a true passion for flavour, Icelandic Producers Omnom are one of Iceland’s first small batch, craft chocolate producers. Omnom’s focus upon both simplicity and experimentation is unique. Whilst renowned for their unusual flavour pairings, Omnom’s emphasis on bringing forward the natural flavours of high quality cocoa beans remains succinct throughout their bars.

Allergens*

Cereals containing gluten, milk

Ingredients

Cocoa butter, organic cane sugar, icelandic milk powder, roasted barley malt, organic icelandic barley, barley malt extract, activated charcoal, sea salt, sunflower lecithin (e322), polishing agent (glucose syrup; e414; palm fat), sealing agent (ethyl alcohol, e904, coconut oil)

*Allergen advice: We directly import, and purchase, all products from independent makers and have these shipped by our partner warehouse (which is not certified allergen-free), and so we cannot guarantee that any product will be allergen-free. Even where an allergen is not listed, products may have been produced, shipped, or stored in facilities which handle allergens.

If you would like further information about a specific product, please contact us on [email protected] or contact the maker directly.