Introducing the second of the two vegan Ritter Sport bars… the Dunkle Voll-Nuss Amaranth chocolate bar! Which translates to “Dark Whole Nut Amaranth”.
Hereby we proudly announce that we have cracked the hardest nut for you: a vegan chocolate that tastes just as good as all our other varieties. All you have to do is bite the whole, roasted hazelnuts in mellow half-bitter chocolate, no more crack it. A real vegan treat with the crunchy amaranth crisps.
Unsurprisingly, Ritter Sport are using the same base chocolate as they’ve produced for their sister vegan product, the Dunkle Mandel Quinoa bar. That means you should expect a smooth and rich dark chocolate, crafted with at least 50% cocoa. It’s a deeply flavoured chocolate with reasonably pronounced bitter notes. If you don’t like a little cocoa bitterness with your chocolate, you should avoid this bar. If, on the other hand, you like a bit of bitterness, I’d imagine you’ll be fine with this chocolate.
Obviously I’m not a professional chocolate taster, but I swear I can smell dark dried fruit notes to this chocolate.
At first glance, this doesn’t look all that different from Ritter’s other vegan bar… but it is. To start with, they’re using whole hazelnuts. The flavour from those is far stronger than from the almonds in the other variety. You’re not walking into Nutella extremes, but the hazelnuts add a lovely bit of flavour to the bar.
But what’s going on with the amaranth? What even is it?
I’m not ashamed to admit that I didn’t know. Turns out amaranth was an Aztec staple, so it’s not a modern discovery. Like quinoa, it’s a seed and it’s also a “complete protein” that also happens to be gluten free. Amaranth is also a good source of fibre, vitamins and minerals.
Does that mean much for the chocolate? Well there’s a noticeably airier crunch to the bar, landing somewhere between crisped quinoa and very small rice crispies. Amaranth is supposed to impart a nutty flavour but I think this leans towards grassy in tone in the aftertaste. Which could be me talking nonsense of course, but that’s what my brain is telling me I’m getting. So that’s what I’m telling you.
I actually think the chocolate flavour comes through a little more strongly against the hazelnut and amaranth. The hint of grassy tones in the amaranth somehow makes the chocolate seem fruitier. It’s interesting and more complex than I’d expected.
You know what though? I really want to add raisins to this one. Whilst I thought the other one was missing salt, I’d like to see a bit of fruity flavour added here to compliment the chocolate. I’m sure lots of people are throwing their hands up at that, calling me a heathen… but I don’t care! I like raisins and I like raisins in chocolate. (So there!).
Read More:
Leave a Reply