June
2006
Addicted to the purple cow
Ask your average Romanian what’s the first chocolate brand name that comes to his mind and he’ll probably answer Milka. This swiss chocolate, advertised by purple (or lavender, if you insist) cows and talking 3d groundhogs can be found in most of the local supermarkets, positioned as a high end product.
They recently put two limited editions on the market, one of them with lime and green tea, the other with maracuja and hibiscus filling. Naturally, I had to try them. Off to the supermarkets we went for our weekend shopping, and in the second store there they were, purple and white and chocolatey all over. We bought one of each and brought them home, where they patiently waited in front of the monitor to be opened and consumed in the name of science.
Maracuja and hibiscus was the first to be taken out of its aluminium foil. The chocolate coat looks light brown, exactly what you’d expect from, you know, a *milk* chocolate. The inside is half white cream, half clear brownish jelly. The taste is complex, you switch between the milky choc taste, the light sourish-sweet of the jelly and the discrete, un peu bland sweetness of the cream. All in all, not a bad experience, but nothing extraordinary.
But then came the lime and green tea. Oh, it looked so innocent, disguised in a simple white chocolate with no visible filling, whispering sweetly “Don’t mind li’l old me, I’m just sitting here in this foil, I promise I won’t do a thing to you! Maybe try me a little, you’ll forget about it in no time!” Until you take a bite.
It’s good. Nah, not enough. Delicious. Still not enough. Food-orgasm inducing? Yeah, more like it. It’s sweet and limey and creamy and tantalisingly subtle-yet-also-strong tasting. It’s the equivalent of a Shakespeare sonet or a Renoir baigneuse in the chocolate world. You feel like starting a career in mud wrestling if the producers promise to substitute said mud with this celestial goodness. Dudes, it’s AWESOME.
Do I recommend them? Let’s see:
Maracuja & hibiscus - yeah, why not? This chocolate would probably be a good gift - it isn’t an everyday flavour, yet the taste is middle-of-the-road enough to avoid disliking.
Lime & green tea - of course. If you don’t have it in your country, search for it on eBay, Amazon, whatever, it’s worth the effort. Or, on a second thought, don’t buy it. This way there’ll be more for ME.
There is something about Eastern European chocolate that is amazing - my mom always finds these Polish chocolate thingies that are SO amazing and better than any of those half-ton Toblerones you get at the airport. And they always seem to be in the most innocuous containers and cost about 10 cents. But they are like chocolate heaven/crack!
I don’t really like my chocolate to taste flowery, so I’ll pass on the hibiscus one. However that lime and green tea chocolate has me super-curious! I love trying new foods.
Guess where I’ll pit stop first thing in the morning. And I used to consider myself lucky for not using a TV set! The groundhogs got me.
Banana Esq - you mean you don’t have all these crazy flavours? I thought for you guys over the pond these will seem simply boring.
GDG - planning a trip to Ro for your vacation?
Gorgeoux - they should send me a huge case of the limey variety as a thank-you gift.. *guy from Kraft Jacobs who’s IP I saw yesterday visiting - hint, hint?*
Lime and chocolate? I can’t even imagine it! But I SO want to see the ads with the purple cows. I’ll have to search for that!
Miss C, your wish is my command. Here you go:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3IqLwGVQo0
You’ve blown your cover! Now everybody knows that you’re in fact a chocolate connoisseur. If we’re here, I would recommend Lindt. They’ve got the best non-filled non-blended sortiments I ever tryed. Now, if you like plain white chocolate with a touch of vanilla, your tounge is in for an orgasm. They have a 90-grade black variety too but I couldn’t get hold of it here in Bucharest and neither in the airport.
But back to our Milka’s - I tryed only the green-tea-lemon. I can’t say I like it, but I am seriously ATTRACTED to it. As you know, attraction isn’t a choice.
The taste is rather violent and it reminds me of the “icecube variety” introduced by Excelent/Kandia a few years ago. But it’s a much better crafted flavor… it’s not harsh but complex (as you well say).
Bon appetit!
Ouch, I remember that summer edition from Kandia. The two of them aren’t even playing in the same league. That was an abomination, artificially- tasting to the core and leaving a very strange aftersensation in the mouth and throat. I tried to like it but it was nearly impossible.
Have you tried the lemon-lime white choc from Primola? That’s one butchered lime flavour.