This one is all about the cocoa and demands your full attention
Last week I promised the 70% and above club something and here it is. This is for the real purists among you. If you’re the sort of person who likes your chocolate with just cocoa and some sugar, then Darkroom is for you, two ingredient dark chocolate and sod you if you’re going to get anything else.
Without anything to hide behind – no inclusions, no cocoa butter for a more friendly mouth feel – this is really all about the cocoa and the process. Darkroom’s wrappers are on the dark Hitchcock-ian side and use a limited colour palette: men peering down wells; a lone girl on the cusp of descending a set of cellar stairs; a broken window… cute these ain’t. But the descriptions are jolly – funny little stories in their own rights. The 80% Uganda is heralded thus: ‘Feels like a creamy orange liqueur with a cookie chaser. We taste orange zest, pineapple and biscuit.’ Personally, I didn’t taste that, but one of the things I love about chocolate is what it says to different people. All the bars – there are about 10 in the range, between 70% and 80% (50g, £4) – are uncompromising. The 70% Sierra Leone ‘feels deep, cosy, toasty. We taste malt, muscovado, and a whiff of whisky’ was the creamiest, but even then I use the term loosely. This is a chocolate that demands you melt it on the tongue and, like a strict governess, that you pay attention. There are no teddies here.
