DARS Chocolate – Rum Raisin Cookie

Yet another entry from the shipment from Japan, this is something I am almost completely unfamiliar with. Well, maybe not completely unfamiliar with. I tried a DARS matcha bar way back in the day and was neither impressed nor disappointed. I later discovered that DARS is a staple chocolate brand in Japan and made by the people at Morinaga (same company that owns Hi-Chew). While nothing too spectacular, I find it to be more to my liking then what I expect from big staple brands over here in the Northern Tundra. I like to think of them as one of those standard big brands like Hershey or Cadbury. Ultimately, I bought this because I’ve yet to have a bad experience with Rum Raisin as a flavour. The only thing that has me wary is the white chocolate. In this case though, I feel white chocolate may lend itself better to the rum raisin profile.

Whether it is the form of ice cream, or chocolate, I’ve yet to be betrayed by the combination. It’s one of those flavours that make me wonder, who came up with this? Did someone actively take raisins and soak them in rum? As it turns out, that is precisely how the flavour came about. The technique was originated from Italy, and they would soak raisins in wines and mix them into vanilla gelato after it sucked up all that flavour. I’m guessing once people saw how tasty that combo was, they began mixing with other spirits and liqueurs. This particular chocolate supposedly has 0.007% alcohol content. I may be a lightweight, but I think I’m sure I can handle that. Maybe.

There are a few interesting things I noticed about the packaging. First, the package says “Rum Raisin Sand”. I’m not sure if they’re referring to the texture of the chocolate, or if it was made using real sand. I’m guessing it’s the former, since it’s supposed to be a mix of raisin and cookies, and ground up cookies remind me of sand. Another thing is that the package says “Happy DARS Day” all over it. At first I thought this was just some cute branding or slogan of theirs. I got curious so I trying find more information on it. The only thing I could find was that DARS supposedly stands for Dec, and there was a promotion for “DARS Day” on Dec 12. I don’t actually know, so if someone knows, please let me know.

Opening the package, I notice that all the pieces are actually individual, and there is no breakage necessary, unlike a lot of chocolate bars I’m used. You know, the ones where you’re supposed to snap across the mold lines, only to somehow snap it right in the middle where it clearly was not supposed to be broken. The whole thing comes very nice and neat on a little wax paper tray as well, probably intended to keep the pieces separate and prevent them from shifting around or clumping together. I would say each piece is the size of a disembodied finger tip. Perhaps a less unappetizing comparison is to that of a Hi-Chew. Obligatory quarter for scale below.

The smell upon opening the package is quite strong, and it has the unmistakable rum raisin aroma. The smell of the rum takes the wheel immediately, while the grape smell takes it’s sweet time getting out of the back seat. It’s a little tired, but still has enough energy to greet your nose receptors with it’s sweet fruity presence. An interesting thing I’ve noticed about a few chocolate flavoured items that have some alcohol content to them, is that the smell reminds me of Play-doh. I honestly can’t tell if it’s just me, but I’ve had this experience with multiple other chocolates like the Sake flavoured Kit-Kat and Rum Raisin Kit-Kat. I’m guessing it has to do with the process of getting the alcohol into that chocolate. Either way, it’s not strong enough of a resemblance to Play-Doh to make me want to avoid it, but it’s strong enough to make me want to play with it and throw it at my friends.

There are some chocolates that are designed to be chewed and there are those designed to sit on your tongue and melt. I feel like this is part of the latter group. While the argument could be made that raisins and cookie “sand” lend itself to be chewed, the chocolate isn’t firm enough for that. After trying two pieces, one I chewed immediately and the other I let melt on my tongue, the second piece felt more appropriate. This particular flavour lends itself very well to just sitting on your tongue and letting it melt, unlocking all the flavours of rum and raisin. The only downside to this is it can get a bit gritty from the cookie crumbs.

The texture is surprisingly creamy, and it has a nice melt to it. As it begins to melt, you’ll very quickly get to the raisins and the cookie “sand”. the pieces of raisin aren’t particular large, and it’s quite evenly distributed. No real choking hazards here. Coughing hazard maybe, if the sand goes down the wrong pipe. I can confidently say the odds of this becoming a choking hazard are quite low compared to other brands. Maybe they can use that as a branding technique – “our chocolate is less likely to be a choking hazard!”. I’d totally buy into that if I were a concerned parent. Not that I would buy my kid alcohol flavoured chocolate. Maybe.

Flavour-wise, it was pretty much exactly what I expected based on the smell. In this particular case, that is a good thing since they capture the rum raisin profile very well, and the white chocolate added enough sweetness without detracting from the experience. As expected, the alcohol flavour was there but faint enough that it won’t be an issue for people who don’t enjoy or can’t handle alcohol (like me). I can safely say that you could probably finish at least 6 pieces and not get tipsy. I can’t vouch for anything above that limit though, so experiment at your own risk.

All in all, I’m quite satisfied with this product. Would I buy it again? If the price isn’t too expensive, probably. I’d say my hard cut off would be anything below $3.50 would be a buy. While the chocolate isn’t too heavy, I wouldn’t eat more than 2 or 3 pieces in a sitting. This strikes me as more of a chocolate to be enjoyed slowly, and I can see how eating more than a few pieces in one sitting might not be ideal. Though that could be due to the white chocolate. I feel icky if I have too much of it in a sitting. Thankfully though, this did not disappoint me, and my record with rum raisin flavoured products is still on a winning streak. 4-0 so far…or something like that. Awesome.