Zazubean – Slinky – Hazelnut Almond Crunch

Zazubean is definitely a brand that has caught my eye before with their weird and interesting combination of flavours. They also tend to be what I consider more experimental, and I am truly a sucker for novelty. Keep in mind when I say novelty, I don’t mean doing weird vogue flavours like adding bacon to everything, or whatever is on vogue in the contemporary zeitgeist. I mean thinking up interesting and at least seemingly thought out ideas.

This bar has zero added sugar, is vegan, gluten free, and keto. Most of that is interesting but nothing super important to me. The most interesting thing though is that this is chocolate made with oat flour instead of the typical dairy products. I assume it’s to mimic oat milk, but I’m curious to see how it affects the flavour. The idea situation here is getting at least 80% of the original or intended product by swapping out for “healthier” ingredients. If they can do that, I am pretty happy.

The flavour is definitely less sweet than a typical milk chocolate bar, but it still had a good flavour profile going. The chocolate itself has a good cocoa flavour, but is slightly more muted than a typical dairy milk bar. The nuts actually have a distinct, notable nutty flavour which is less present when the chocolate itself is more overwhelming. The sea salt is ever present, and is one of the stronger flavours here.

Texture is very soft and melty. If you pick it up and have warm hands, it will start to melt on you almost instantly. In the mouth, it is also soft and like it’s it’s barely holding itself together. It has a nice, smooth melt to it and at the same time still manages to hold itself together without leaving a mess. I wonder if it has anything to do with the oat ingredients. The slivers of almond and hazelnut are also noticeably softer than what I was expecting, so the whole experience is very smooth and gentle on the jaw. While it does have a nice pleasant mouth feel, I can’t help but feel it’s not quite dairy chocolate and it’s got a distinct difference. It’s almost like it’s, for lack of a better term, more oily and smooth but in a non-creamy way.

Overall this bar is not bad, and served as a nice gateway into trying oat milk chocolates. While this particular bar was nothing spectacular or draws me in enough to get the exact same bar, it does draw me in enough to try other Zazubean oat milk bars. I’m definitely curious to see if I find one that gets added to my staple roster.