Zazubean – Sassy – Pomegranate & Hazelnut
When I think of the word sassy, I think of someone who has a metaphorical utility belt of witty responses to every situation. They have a pocket for humorous retorts or answers, a pocket for back handed compliments, and a pocket for insults that cut to the bone. They are basically wordsmiths, or word assassins depending on how you look at it. You basically don’t want to get on their bad side because you are not coming out of that exchange favourably. I guess my perception of sassy is what makes this chocolate bar intriguing. How bruised will my ego be after trying this bar?!
I didn’t really notice until after I bought this that this is made with coconut milk. Coconut generally has a distinct flavour and isn’t quite as neutral as I find normal milk to be. This will be interesting regardless of what happens. What I can say is that I kind of tunnel vision on the pomegranate and hazelnut and kind of loss all other senses. I don’t have anything against coconut milk, I just tend to gently avoid it when possible as I feel it’s a bit of a gimmick and not a flavour I really enjoy. Too late to cry over spilled milk at this point though (pun intended).
Being that this is a 55% cacao chocolate, it’s basically milk chocolate that’s slightly bitter, so I’m hoping it’s not too sweet. Thankfully it’s not. The chocolate doesn’t taste like coconut milk, so that’s great for me. I don’t like coconut flavoured items, so the flavour not being present is actually a plus for me. The hazelnuts are mostly for texture, and the dried pomegranate is what offers most of the flavour. It’s got a very strong, tart and floral aroma that is common in pomegranate flavoured things which I love. This flavour lends itself well to a bar that I can simply let melt in my mouth like a hard candy, or chew like a normal candy bar – versatile.
Texture is surprisingly not that different from a typical fruit and nut bar. The chocolate itself is not all that different from a normal milk chocolate, and has a decent melt to it if you leave it in the mouth. At least in this bar, I can’t tell the difference between using dairy vs. using coconut milk, which is a good thing in my books. If any ingredient can be subbed out successfully without losing too much while making it more accessible to more people (aka making this bar vegan), then I am all for it. The chopped hazelnut adds a little bit of crunchiness to it, which is sort of offset by the chewy, almost jerky like quality of the dried pomegranate.
As far as fruit and nut chocolate bars go, this is quite an interesting take on it that I haven’t seen before. I t was quite a tasty bar and the addition or swap to coconut milk didn’t really impact my enjoyment of the bar so overall I’d give this two thumbs up. Would I do it again? Yes, and I would also recommend others to try it as well. If you can get pass the mental block of eating something “sassy”, that is.
