Power Rankings #2: chuao - dark

1. ***orange-a-go-go - "Candied orange harmonizes with the essence of bergamot orange in dark chocolate" - The first thing I notice is it smells of orange. There is a good texture with bits of candied orange. Nice balance of flavors. I’d pick this over a chocolate orange (which kind of says a lot).  
   
   
2. ***ohh ahh almond - "Crunchy whole almonds, kettle cooked in sugar & sea salt, delight in dark chocolate" - I am such a sucker for almonds and chocolate. Salted almond takes it a notch further. I really had to work hard to stop eating this bar and move on to another. 


3. ***salted chocolate crunch - "Crunchy, toasted breadcrumbs dusted with sea salt and swirled in dark chocolate" - I’m starting to really like this whole breadcrumbs-in-chocolate thing. Love the saltiness with the crunch of the bread in the chocolate. Yum Yum!


4. ***spicy maya - "Seductive cinnamon, pasilla chile and warming cayenne bedded in dark chocolate - This bar was surprisingly lovely. The first smell is of cinnamon and the chile and cayenne is fabulous. I’m not a huge fan of spicy spicy...so this is done quite well! It  warms to warm you right up and could really come in handy in the winter.


5. **pretzel toffee twirl - "crunchy mini pretzels and buttery toffee dance in dark chocolate" - This bar is reminicent of a gourmet Take Five, minus the carmel (which is fine by me!). I do wish there were more pretzels. I should have take a picture of how neatly the pretzels are aligned on the back of the bar. I love the way chuao does that with what they put in their bars. But, I am a big fan of getting all the flavors in every bite and that just wasn't possible with the small number of pretzels and how they were arranged. Also, I’m really starting to feel like toffee is overdone. 
    
6. **honeycomb -  "Lusious amber honey, caramelized into crisp bits and enrobed in dark chocolate" - The honey adds a nice sweetness to the dark chocolate. The caramelized bits add a nice crunch texture. This is a good bar. There are a lot of others I would pick before this one though.


7.  *triple nut tempation -  "A decadent array of whole roasted almonds, hazelnuts and pistachios nestled in dark chocolate" - This bar is not so much of a temptation for me. I think it’s the pistachios that throw me off here. Yup. I’m also not a huge fan of hazelnuts...which is crazy right (it’s true I think Nutella is meh...it’s good but I’m not crazy like the rest of the world and that’s because of the hazelnuts…)? I hope Jordan likes this one, cause I’m not going to finish it. Back to ooh ahh almond for me!


8. *firecracker -  "Sultry sea salt, smoky chipotle, and popping candy exploding in dark chocolate" - The exploding candy is awesome, again. But I’m glad they have it in the pop corn pop because the spice has more kick in this one...a little too much for my liking. But a very interesting bar. I would not buy it for ME but I would buy it for someone else who likes spice with a good kick. 
   
   Have you ever tried a Chuao bar? What do you think of my rankings? As luck would have it, the DAY after I finished eating the dark bars, they released two new flavors...

So...I may have to do a round 3 of Chuao tastings...which I'm certainly NOT complaining about! 

Cheers!