Brookside Dark Chocolate – Merlot Grape & Blackcurrant
Brookside is the brand I credit with making chocolate covered fruit jellies popular and vogue. They weren’t the first to do it, but they put the snack and themselves on the map, and today’s creative flavour is an example of why they’re still the top player thus far.
As part of their vineyard collection, Brookside takes wine flavours and combines them with other fruits for some premium styled candies. In terms of actual pricing, these ones are a bit more expensive, mostly because the price per weight is higher than the more standard flavours like blueberry acai they are most likely famous for. While I do love that flavour, and I’m not big on wine flavours, this one caught my eye on name alone. Even with the vineyard marketing, they had me at grape and blackcurrant. I’ve long complained to anyone who was listening, that blackcurrant is a very overlooked flavour in the west and deserves more attention over on this side of the pond. I stand by that wholeheartedly, so it’s somewhat heartening to see it being used here. While I’m fairly certain it will be treated as the afterthought, I think any awareness for blackcurrant as a flavour is great.
While the texture of these are perfect for snacking on and chewing through right away, I like to make these things last and let it sit in my mouth as the chocolate melts away first, leaving behind the two (sometimes three) dome shaped jelly halves. I then let halves sit on my tongue as the flavour dissolves away. I feel like I really get to experience the flavours this way, as opposed to just chomping down right away. Also, with fresher packs, the jelly is still somewhat sticky, so doing that ends up with bits getting stuck between the teeth.
The flavour of the outer chocolate is similar to the other flavours, unsurprisingly. It’s got a nice semisweet quality to it, not being too bitter while not being too sweet. Like most standard dark chocolates it has a bit of slight bitterness to it, but it’s hardly noticeable. It has a tinge of smoky flavour to it, but again it’s not that noticeable unless you pay attention to it. Once the chocolate is gone, I’m left with the main attraction here, the fruit jelly. The two halves separate so I can have two mini domes sit on my tongue as the flavour dissolves away slowly. The flavour is at first a very floral grape and does indeed remind me a bit of grapes used for wine. They taste similar to what the grapes would smell, very fragrant and fruity. The blackcurrant helps lend a bit of tartness to the flavour and give it a little tang. Something I found interesting was I get very strong notes of vanilla as the jellies begin to melt away. While not a flavour profile I generally gravitate towards, I find it actually works pretty well overall. I can’t say I’ve experienced enough Merlot to confirm whether that’s a feature, but I can say that it’s a good fit. Like when you put on a thinner glove before putting on your winter mitts. It just works.
I would recommend this, as I really do enjoy it. I do however, caution about the price, as this is considered one of their more premium lines. You won’t find this at a cheaper price point then the standard flavours that they sell in bigger bags and in bulk at Costco. You’ll have to pay a pretty penny for it, but if you’re good with that, these are the way to go.
