Ritter Sport – Vegan Whole Hazelnut and Amaranth

By now we have established that vegan chocolate is good if you like darker or semi-sweet varieties, and Ritter Sport has yet to disappoint. Add to that the fact that Ritter Sport does whole hazelnuts really well in their bars, and this is basically a dead ringer. But I still need to do the due diligence, and make sure this is worthy of the reputation it has with me.

Amaranth is a grain that is commonly used in cereals and snacks, and has a texture that is not dissimilar to quinoa. Given that quinoa works quite well in chocolate bars, I imagine this will too with only a slight variation in the size and texture. I can only assume the decision was to try and get in on the fad of using various healthy sounding ingredients, but I doubt it’s texture will be different enough for people to notice unless told otherwise. A marketing point, basically.

As expected the dark chocolate is delightful, and while you may detect something different from the usual dark chocolate that has dairy, this is similar enough you likely won’t mind unless you are very sensitive to it. It isn’t as smooth sure, but it’s still not brittle or acidic. It has a rich cocoa flavour to it and yet somehow manages to still stay smooth. The hazelnuts and amaranth don’t provide too much int he way of flavour, but it does have a noticeable nuttiness and the quality to it that reminds me of when I bite into some roasted nuts.Something about roasting nuts releases this distinct, delightful aroma.

The texture is pretty similar to the regular hazelnut bar where you have the chocolate enveloping the hazelnuts to keep that distinct crunch from the hazelnuts while having the chocolate smooth out the experience. The chocolate is obviously not as melty or creamy as normal dairy, but it does the job perfectly fine and it’s not brittle or firm at all. Leaving in on the palette, it still has a somewhat similar melting experience to normal dark chocolate. The amaranth provides a nice crisped rice type of texture to it, and sort of reminds me of those grain cereals. They have a pretty generous serving of them, and they give the bar an additional pop to it.

If it seems like I can’t heap enough praise on this bar, it’s because I can’t. This is really good, and I am yet again impressed by their ability to turn vegan chocolate into something delicious (nothing against vegans). I would absolutely get this again, and likely even pay a premium to get one. This is another clear winner in my books.