Black Thunder – 72% Cacao
These are dark. I mean, I’ve had Black Thunder that’s dark before, bitter even. But 72% is the highest, darkest percent I’ve seen them do, so I’m quite excited. As a dark chocolate lover myself, I will admit it’s not for everyone, and I could easily see them marketing this towards a more “mature” or “adult” audience, as when you get into the 70 range for chocolates, it starts to become more noticeably bitter, astringent and lacking in sweetness.
The flavour is pretty typical dark chocolate – it hits all the classic notes of semisweet bitterness, some slightly smoky and earthy notes and a rich cocoa flavour. It’s a relatively standard dark chocolate, and while it does have a higher concentration of that cocoa, it’s not near the more acrid, drying texture or flavour I was expecting. It really just feels like they have a higher cacao to sugar ratio.
The texture is slightly different from the regular Black Thunder in a curious way – normally the little dark chocolate cookie bits in the center add more flavour, but because the chocolate itself is so dark, it ends up becoming unnoticeable and flying under the radar. The chocolate itself is true to the 70 range of chocolate and it’s dark, has a nice smoky, rich cacao flavour.
Being a darker variety of chocolate, it does get into the range of being a bit astringent and leaving a chalky sensation in the mouth. It’s not dark enough to make it too noticeable, but I imagine if you had more than one bar of these in one sitting your mouth might feel it. The overall texture is the same as the other bars but due to the darker chocolate the outer layer isn’t as melty and has an ever so slightly brittle or hard quality to it.
Black Thunder has one of those formulas that just doesn’t really miss. It might be some weird combo of flavours, but the base concept is still a tough one to break, and a bit of extra cocoa is not going to do that. Thankfully it’s quite the opposite, and this bar still manages to deliver what we’ve come to know and love, while also making it feel more premium and fancy. A good variety and I hope they do more dark chocolate flavours in the future. It just seems like an easy win.