Posted• @eglazener England's @solkiki_chocolatemaker makes the Solkiki Cherryleaf Tea 65 as a sibling to its Cherry Leaf Latte 39 White Chocolate bar. This vegan dark milk chocolate bar won a Silver medal in "Milk chocolate bars with an infusion or flavouring" @chocawards 2021-22 European, Middle Eastern and African Bean-to-Bar competition. The cacao in this bar is the special Gran Palo Blanco grown by farmer Juan De La Cruz Rivera Olemar in Piura, Peru. The bar has a nice melt into a smooth texture & creamy mouthfeel. The tannins in the green tea infusion make the mouthfeel seem the very tiniest bit dusty. The tea is Cherryleaf tea, a green tea with added sakura (Japanese cherry) leaves popular in Japan. Solkiki then adorns each bar with a dried, umeboshi-salt-pickled sakura blossom. The chocolate already has floral notes on its own, & the grassy yet sweet, mildly citrusy, & very slightly astringent notes of the green tea & the light cherry blossom & rose/plum-like floral notes of the tea infusion are such a perfect match for it. This bar would be stunning visually & a delight to eat if that were the end. But it's not. That salt-pickled cherry blossom (you get one per bar) suddenly lifts the entire bar to a plane of visual beauty, deliciousness, & sensory pleasure. The salt elevates the flavors, & the blossom's crunch adds an intriguing textural note. In addition, the blossom's subtle yet profound floral notes lift the floral notes temporarily just above the herbaceous tea notes, drawing on & building the flavors from the sakura leaves in the tea. Then the salt draws you back into the delightful & creamy base chocolate again, this time disguising the well-balanced tannins from the Cherryleaf tea until they reappear in the finish & aftertaste. The alchemists of flavor have done it again. A delightful bar of chocolate that will leave you wanting more. 😇 HIGHLY RECOMMENDED ---- Iris Stork & Bob Spink founded Solkiki in 2007 & operate this family micro-business in Dorset, UK, crafting award-winning always vegan chocolate with bold flavors. #craftchocolate #beantobarchocolate #finechocolate #chocolate #milkchocolate #vegan #UK #England #peru #japan #sakura https://www.instagram.com/p/CfwMVCHDg6V/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=