Fortina Living Chocolate ~ Review

Howdy!  How are you this fine day?  Awesome?  Knew it!  I am too (I know you were wondering).

So let’s get on shall we?  Brand new to the UK raw chocolate market and brought to us by the lovely (and I do mean very lovely) Viva Pure website is Fortina Living Chocolate, all the way from sunny Arizona!

Let’s start with the packaging even though it’s what’s inside that counts right?  Right?  Like all things in life, give me what’s on the inside dag nam it!  However, sometimes what’s on the outside is nice to look at.  Where am I going with this?  Yes, the packaging.  Environmentally sustainable, printed on 100% recycled paper using water-based inks.  Wrappers are made of wood cellulose and 100% compostable.  Terrific.

From an ethical point of view, these dudes use only organic fair-trade cacao and work directly with farmers in Ecuador.  Smashing.

Another lovely thing I’d like to share is that Fortina is actually For-Tina, yep, he dedicated the chocolate bar to his granny!  How cute is that?  Because “through our time together, I came to remember that unconditional Love is my truth, my guide, my life’s path, and a sacred way to relate to all things”.  Marvellous.

Yeah yeah so on to the chocolate.

Well it tastes great.  There’s no doubt this is a quality bar.  The more bars I taste the more discernment (ooh check me) I gather for quality and not so quality and this is quality cacao!  Remember I said in one of my earlier reviews that it’s great there are so many bars coming to market now but we need to be careful (we as in people making chocolate, not we as in eaters, we don’t need to be careful about ANYTHING other than not eating too much cacao, especially before bedtime)…where was I?  Oh yes!  Raw chocolate manufacturers need to be aware that just cos it’s raw doesn’t guarantee a quality product and it’d be nice to entice people away from the sugar and shite on the shop shelves.

That said, this bar does come in at the pricier end being a whopping £3.45 for 28g!  Stingy.

The taste is definitely rich but still creamy.  Dark but sweet.  It’s got the whole dichotomy thang going on and the flavour stays with you right till the end, it doesn’t leave you high and dry after the first melt/bite manoeuvre.

It’s tempered so it’s shiny and has SNAP, which I love.  The make of a good quality chocolate is in the tempering!  I’m also a bit in love with the shape, sort of reminds me of proper chocolate bars from my childhood and the designs on the front are beautiful.  It’s like a wee work of art!

ANOTHER reason to love this bar is the fact it has no agave in it!  You know me and my no agave in cacao bars campaign!  No?  Oh well I do have one promise.  Placards and everything!

 

Ingredients are Cacao,  Local Arizona Wild Honey, Maca, Raw Lucuma, Mesquite Powder, Yacon Root Powder, Vanilla Bean.

So yeah, I’d give this bar 4 out of 5.

 

Get yours now from Viva Pure