DARS Chocolate – Lemon Cheesecake

I’ve had a few interesting flavours from DARS, some good, some not as good. But I’ve never had one bad enough that turned me off from trying as many of the new flavours I see as I can afford. This flavour is neither risky nor gimmicky in my mind – lemon translates well into Japanese chocolates, and cheesecake is usually just an extension of that lemon flavour. What could possibly go wrong here?

While not the most environmentally friendly way to sell chocolate, it certainly is fancy and does a decent job protecting them. All 12 of the pieces are kept in a small cardboard mini tray that keeps them from flying all over the place and helps keep the uniformity of the pieces on full showcase. The interesting thing about DARS is they are all separate pieces, so you save on the mess of having to try and snap and separate these manually. The presentation and protection is top notch, even if a bit over the top. If there’s one thing most people can agree on, it’s that Japan does over-packaging and presentation to the next level.

These are actually frighteningly tasty, despite the heat damage they have clearly sustained. It has a typical white chocolate base, but has a layer of lemon flavour in the center which brightens everything up and gives it a nice zesty flavour that instantly reminds me of a cheesecake with some lemon or limoncello on top. It also evokes memories of lemon cookies I would get as a kid. Except these aren’t dry cookies and they are actually a small piece of chocolate.

The texture is like most any other DARS offering – it’s a solid block of chocolate. Visually it may be distinctly multiple layers, but it’s really just the same texture throughout. Or it could just be the middle layer is drowned out by the other two, but regardless to me it feels like just a solid block with different layers.

Of all the gimmicky flavours I’ve tried from DARS, this is one of the ones I feel could stand on it’s own as a recurring or even regular line up option. It’s got all the right components that make a good evergreen flavour – easy to enjoy flavour, can be enjoyed all seasons and normal enough that it’s not limited to special events or seasons. I like this one, and would look forward to crossing paths with it again sometime in the future.