Duffy’s Star Of Peru 43%

Time for another bar from Duffy Sheardown – one of only two bean-to-bar chocolate makers in the UK. This time it’s a milk chocolate made with Peruvian beans.

As with all the bars in the range, the packaging is simple – perhaps a little too simple, as it doesn’t really shout quality to me. But it does say ‘uncomplicated and hand made’, which is probably the look Duffy is going for.

As with a lot of the chocolate I’m reviewing at the moment, I took this to my birthday party to get feedback from my friends. Unfortunately, I didn’t have time to hear what people thought, because almost as soon as I arrived, the bar was practically gone.

The fact that these few chunks are all I had left to base my review on speaks volumes though. It was quite popular.

The chocolate has a nice clean snap and breaks into chunks nicely, almost like a dark chocolate thanks to the high cocoa content. That also gives it a nice, rich colour that means it still looks yummy even after my friends have had their hands on it.

The chocolate has a smooth texture and a creaminess that reminded my of Galaxy. You can actually taste the milk powder here.

Obviously, it’s nowhere near as sweet as Galaxy, but it was sweeter than I was expecting. Something that will no doubt appeal to newcomers to high end chocolates, but for me it was slightly too sweet.

But it’s the cocoa flavours that are the most distinctive part of this bar. The chocolate has a warm and fruity flavour. It’s more gentle than a Madagascan chocolate though – the wrapper describes it as “blackcurrants and hazelnuts with warm spices in the aftertaste”. That works for me.

I wasn’t overly keen on the flavours initially, but after a couple of pieces I was starting to want more than the few chunks my friends had left me. I’m not entirely convinced I’d by this for myself, but if you’re looking to get into higher quality chocolate and the dark stuff still scares you, this would be a great place to start.

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