Ritter Sport – Vegan Crunchy Almonds

Next in the line of Ritter Sport vegan chocolates is almonds. If I was a more skeptical and risk averse person when it comes to snacks, I would probably use this flavour to dip my toes in. Almonds and chocolate are a time tested tradition, and for good reason. Something about the two together creates a product greater than the sum of its parts. Culinary greatness, if you will. At this point for me though, it’s really not a tough sell given that the other vegan flavours have really impressed me so far.

Really the only difference here other than the chocolate being vegan, is that the almonds are accompanied by quinoa. For those who haven’t tried it, it sounds weird I know. You have to trust me that it’s actually quite tasty. Think Crunch bars with the puffed rice. While almonds alone would have been good enough, I won’t complain about the added texture from the quinoa.

The texture is where things shine – I imagine most people opt for chocolate almonds largely due to the texture. That interplay between the crunchy nut and the soft, melting chocolate is a timeless combo and this bar does that well. While not as melty as dairy milk chocolate, it still has enough give to make live up to the classic experience. Where things diverge a bit is the addition of quinoa – they are toasted so they have a very light, airy, crisp to them and add a nice pleasant texture to it.

The flavour is not that different from a darker variety of chocolate – what’s striking here is how rich the cocoa flavour is and it has that distinct liqueur quality to it. I guess when you cut out the dairy from it, you have to rely more on the cocoa to deliver that distinct chocolatey flavour. The flavour of the almonds is fairly neutral, but has the distinct roast almond that pairs really well in chocolate in general.

If it wasn’t obvious by now, this gets the seal of approval from me, for everyone – non-vegans included. This bar is good enough that if the price was the same as the normal bar, I would say get this to try out. If for no other reason, then to do a double take before realizing you indeed got a vegan bar. Man these are good.