Tony’s Chocolonely – Milk Chocolate Hazelnut
Tony’s is a brand that has always struck me as one that does decent chocolate, but is more a way towards sending a message and trying to drive a social message. While I don’t tend to get too involved in those type of things, I do think its admirable what the creator set out to achieve, and I don’t mind supporting that.
Now having said that, ultimately it will still come down to whether I find this product to be satisfactory or not, so in that aspect I don’t usually pull the punches. Let’s peel back the whimsical packaging and see what we are working with here. Hopefully I’m not the only one that gets classic Willy Wonka vibes from it.
The bar is perforated in strong ways and shapes, that are very different from you would normally expect out of a uniform, normal looking bar. The reason for this is pretty symbolic – the chocolate that we consume these days goes through a long process from bean to bar, and the inequality throughout that chain leads to exploitation. The bar is in uneven pieces to represent that inequality, and that’s what Tuen set out address. He’s technically a Dutch journalist and not a chocolatier but started the brand Tony’s to try and address it and make chocolate through ethical sourcing and production. It’s an interesting way to try to address a pretty big social issue and it seems to be one of the more effective ways to do it.
The texture reminds me of a Toblerone bar – the hazelnut is chopped and strewn about throughout the bar, rather than having whole pieces. The chocolate itself is fairly soft so it doesn’t take much to bite through and the texture is what you would expect from a generic chocolate bar. Nothing too special but not bad either. Ritter Sport has spoiled me a bit, so I tend to prefer whole hazelnuts, and if that doesn’t work, bigger chunks.
The chocolate in this bar is about 32%, so it’s definitely on the sweeter side. The chocolate is fairly creamy and has a good flavour to it, but being that it’s on the sweeter side, the cocoa flavour itself doesn’t have much room to bloom through. The hazelnuts don’t add much flavour, and are mostly for the texture.
As a chocolate bar in isolation, this is middle of the road, still winning out over the big mass market brands where the chocolate itself is questionable. While it’s nothing stand out, I do like the goal behind it, so I wouldn’t mind paying a bit of a premium for something I feel safer eating.