Valrhona Tanariva

After reviewing Valrhona’s Andoa Lait milk chocolate last week, I went rooting around in my chocolate stash to see if I had any other Valrhona milk chocolates to compare it to. The Andoa turned out to be one of my favourite milk chocolates for some time and I thought it would be good to see how it stacks up against other chocolates in the Valrhona range.

I found these little 20g Valrhona Tanariva bars in my collection, so I decided it was time to open them up.

The first thing to note is that the format of these smaller bars is very different from the larger Andoa bar I reviewed. They’re much thinner, and that’s actually something that can have an impact on flavour as a thinner bar will melt and release its flavour more quickly.

The Tanariva has 6% less cocoa solids than the Andoa, but it isn’t noticeably paler in colour. In fact, if anything it’s a little darker. The chocolates are made with different beans though; Tanariva uses Madagascan cocoa, whereas the Andoa uses beans from around South America & the Caribbean.

Madagascan cocoa is known for its fruity, citrus notes, but in this bar, that’s almost completely obliterated by the added milk. The overwhelming flavour is sweet and creamy, with some caramel notes. It’s quite a lot sweeter than the Andoa and much less chocolatey. I don’t think I would recognise this as Madagascan if it didn’t say so on the label.

This is a chocolate that’s Ok in small doses, but much better suited to those with a very sweet tooth. I ate one 20g bar, but didn’t feel the need to open the second. I’d recommend skipping this one and going for the Andoa instead.

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