Butlers Organic 70% Dark with Ginger Pieces

My sister-in-law recently made a quick trip to Ireland (as you do), and clearly knows me too well. The chocolate ginger reputation is well and truly preceding me.

In her travels she discovered Butlers of Dublin who claim to be “Purveyors of Happiness”. As you can see from the photo, she had to write that on the pack so I would not forget.

In my check of the web site, I found the cost of these is kind of frightful – about €3.50 each for 100 grams! You’d hope for that money it’s worthwhile, and doubly so having survived the trip back to the land down under.

My criteria for a good chocolate ginger, as I’ve written before, is root ginger, crystallised, big pieces… lots of it. The ginger needs to give you a smack around the head. The chocolate needs to be dark, rich, and there needs to be lots of it. Blocks and bars are all very well, but big lumpy chunky pieces are even better.

So, we have here a block, not pieces. That, in my highly subjective and biased opinion automatically takes a few points off. I really like the huge great pieces, like the Ballantynes. I was guessing this would be part way between that, and something like a Lindt block, which seems to be flavoured with some kind of essence of ginger – but without the lumpy bits it just doesn’t do much for me.

Well, I’m pleased to report that this has to rate as one of the best chocolate gingers, ever. On the highly biased scale – another 8 out of 10. Which is high praise indeed for a block.

The chocolate was not in the least bitter like some dark chocolates can get, and is surprisingly rich and creamy. It melts very slowly, and there really are pieces of ginger in there with a delightful zing as you find them and bite them. The pieces are very small – mere grains – but its enough.

This is so good that the Lady of the House is cooking dinner, and I’ve just scoffed down three rather large pieces. I’ll be in trouble now for ruining my appetite. But it was worth it!

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