You’ll probably recognise the Seeds of Change brand, they’ve been in the UK since the late 1990’s with their organic sauces and soups (amongst other things). It was the American branch though that sent me the chocolate.But what to do, I could just scoff all the chocolate and tell you that it’s scrumptious but where is the analysis in that?
I decided to rope my friend and chocolate connoisseur B, into a double blind taste trial. Which of course (cough) meant that we had to compare the bars against our favourite chocolate nibbles, which for me is Green and Blacks dark chocolate, and for B is Galaxy (by Mars). I bought the milk chocolate G&B bar too, so that we could compare that in the taste trial.
Now, on to the flavours; from left to right, dark chocolate,
milk chocolate,
dark chocolate with mango and cashew, and
dark chocolate with cherries and vanilla.
We went “ooooh”, when we opened up the first packet. The chocolate is split into three individually packaged mini bars. Wrapped in plastic though, plastic?! Needless to say, I’d have preferred paper. B thought the three bar idea might help her willpower and resolve not to eat the whole pack in one go!The results
Milk Chocolate
Seeds of change
B – nice smooth texture, more chocolaty that she would expect from a milk chocolate. Bit of a funny after taste though. Overall rank, second.
Me – Definitely chocolate, but I thought it had a slightly waxy texture. Overall rank, second.
Green and Black
B – creamy, smooth, but tastes of soya. Not bad though. Overall rank, third.
Me – I couldn’t really tell that this was chocolate (but I prefer dark chocolate). Overall rank third.
Galaxy
B – “mmm now we’re talking” – I think that about said it all really. Rank 1
Me – Sweeter than all the other two, honeycomb sugar taste, annoyingly I also ranked this the best of the milk chocolates. Rank 1 (on flavour and texture only).
Dark Chocolate
Seeds of change
B – It was amusing to watch her face as she analysed the flavours. I hadn't thought to ask whether she actually likes dark chocolate and didn't need to now, she spat the whole chunk out complaining that it was bitter and sour!
Me – not as chocolaty as I would expect from a dark chocolate (it’s 61% cacao). I would have said it was more milk chocolate.
Green and Black
B – decided that in the name of science she would continue with the trial. The chunk lasted a little longer before it was spat out, apparently it wasn’t as bitter.
Me – yep my favourite, definitely chocolate.
Onto the other two bars. It was odd that although the base chocolate was the same dark chocolate, B like both the flavours.
Dark chocolate with mango and cashew
B thought the bar was more mango cashew, I thought the opposite. We concluded that was just the way the chocolate chunked. A nice bar.
Dark chocolate with cherries and vanilla
Cherries, raisins, whatever. Fruity. Surprised to read that there was vanilla in there too. A little disappointed because we both thought was the more enticing combination of flavours to read.
Would I buy the chocolate? Umm, not for me (more because of what's happened since than because of the taste), but for a chocolate loving friend who hasn't tried it before as a gift - possibly. I couldn’t really tell from their website whether they have a fair trade policy for the ingredients, but they are organic and the flavour combinations were different. B will probably stick with Galaxy – she has no morals!
I have also discovered that you can now buy Seeds of Change chocolate bars in the UK. Looks like it was only the Dark chocolate flavour that made it over though.
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Are you aware that Seeds of Change are owned by M&M Mars? If you are interested in that kind of thing you can check them out at ethiscore.org. They don't come out too well.
ReplyDeleteHa! I wondered how they could afford ads in the breaks in the River Cottage programmes! That actually makes Mars a bit better that I had originally thought in my opinion.
ReplyDeleteI still buy Green and Black even though Cadbury bought them a few years ago. I decided that if Cadbury held on the core beliefs of the Green and Black brand, I would still buy it. That way (in my small way) Cadbury could see that one of their branded ethically produced products sold well, and they might be inclined to change some of their other products (Cadbury’s Dairy Milk will now be fair trade too). I guess a similar thing happened with Seeds of Change, they started off small, were successful, had to decide how to best make their product to a larger market. It’s still organic and promoting growing your own veg. If the “Mars ethic” starts to dilute the Seeds of Change ideals, I‘ll have to review. But with hopefully it will be the other way around.
Having said all that, if anyone (Transition House) is now in a dilemma about which chocolate you should buy me if you are so inclined... Go for something vegan from the Montezumas range (I can’t get hold that easily, so it would be especially nice).