Hachez Chocolate

Most people have a love/hate relationship with chocolate. It’s delicious, it’s addicting, and many people eat far too much of it. Myself included.

When I had the opportunity to review two different chocolate lines, Santander and Hachez, I jumped at the chance.  It was all for you, dear readers.  This just goes to show I’m willing to take one for the team. Yep, it’s a tough gig.

In all seriousness, these two chocolate lines were amazing. The parent company, Niche Import Co., sent me a generous box of both lines. This amounted to roughly 17 bars of chocolate.

Which bars were my favorites?

Well, I have to give a hats off to the Hachez Wild Cocoa De Amazonas. Not only was this bar a wonderful bitter chocolate, it’s also grown wild and responsibly in the Amazon Rainforest.  It was very balanced and smooth, and made a wonderful snack after eating.

I also become obsessed with the Hachez Cocoa D’Arriba Mango-Chili Dark Chocolate. Yep, you read that right. Mango-Chili chocolate.

This bar was divine in every sense of the word. At first bite all you taste is mango and chocolate. And then, the chili pepper kicks in.  It’s a completely unique experience. These two opposite flavors perfectly compliment each other.

If you have a chocolate aficionado in your life, the Hachez Mango-Chili bar would make a wonderful gift. It’s definitely a combination they probably haven’t tried before.

Another favorite? The Hachez Cocoa De Maracaibo Milk Chocolate with Espresso. This bar had a perfect balance between the chocolate and espresso. If you love coffee, you’ll love this one. This bar was gone the first day.

If you’d like to find out what it’s like to eat a chocolate milkshake in candy form, then pick up the Hachez Cocoa De Maracaibo 55.5% Cacao. This bar truly tasted like chocolate milkshake. It was incredibly milky and creamy, and I had a hard time keeping my hands off of this one.

The entire line of Hachez chocolates are Fair Trade, so you can rest easy purchasing these bars.

When it came to the Santander line of chocolates, my favorite had to be the Tropical Fruit Bits: Pineapple. This got a “Big Time YUM” vote from me. The cocoa was extremely smooth, and the tiny fruit bits definitely added to the texture.

And don’t worry if you don’t like pineapple; this bar didn’t have a distinct “pineapple” flavor, even though that’s what it was flavored with. It just had sweet, chewy undertone that was really enjoyable.

Another favorite? The Santander  Dark Chocolate Vintage 2008. I don’t know what it was about this year that produced such great cacao beans, but this bar was a fantastic, slightly bitter dark chocolate.

Santander Chocolates are also dedicated to Fair Trade and social responsibility. These cocoa beans are grown in Colombia, and the company truly cares that their workers are happy, and paid fair prices in cash.

All in all, both of these chocolate lines were incredible. The range of flavors was really amazing, and I was impressed that both companies took such efforts to be Fair Trade.

You can find both of these lines at specialty retailers like Whole Foods and Cost Plus World Market.