DARS Chocolate – Premium Apricot Brownie

I’ve had positive experiences with DARS so far, but most of that has been with less gimmicky flavours where it’s a single piece of chocolate, nothing crazy and no fillings. Similar to the other “premium” flavour I tried, I have no idea why this needs to be marketed as such. Maybe the brownie bits inside are what make it higher end. Maybe.

This flavour is a brownie flavour, but with apricot. I’m not sure why apricot is here or if it’s normal to have apricot in brownies, but it’s interesting and it definitely has my attention.

When I think of brownie flavoured chocolates, I expect something rich, decadent, dense or heavy. To me brownie is more of a texture than a flavour, so it will be interesting to see how this goes. I’ve had some chocolate bars that do a good job of emulating the brownie texture or experience, but those are usually not solid pieces of chocolate like this.

The flavour is not the typical milk chocolate, and definitely has a heavier, richer feel to it. Whether that makes this good or not is debatable, but it does sort of give it a more premium feel, in that it isn’t just straight up sugar. Again, no clue what apricot has to do with anything here, but I neither taste it or feel it at any point in the experience. Or am I getting too old to taste any fruity notes? Or is it all a conspiracy?

As far as texture goes, while it’s not exactly brownie or cake like, it does a decent job of reminding me of brownie, mostly because the chocolate feels solid and dense, and the brownie pieces don’t detract or take away from the chocolate. It’s not quite as good as the brownie chocolates I’ve had before but I guess that comes down to expectation. A lot of the other brownie chocolate bars I’ve had usually have brownie filling, whereas this is a single chocolate with brownie bits inside. I tend to prefer it as a filling, but this one still works. in the context of how hot Japan can get, it makes sense to opt for the solid block approach.

While this was by no means bad, I don’t know that I would get this again. I feel like a big part of that is I have no clue what apricots had to do with anything, and I feel a little lied to. That kind of betrayal should not be rewarded with return purchases. Maybe over time I can come to forgive this transgression, but for the time being I need some time alone with my thoughts.