Nero & Bianco Milk, Butterscotch, White & Dark chocolate

Today's review is thanks to Nero & Bianco who kindly sent me some samples of their chocolate range recently. Nero & Bianco are a new ethical and fairtrade chocolate brand whose bars are available at Holland & Barrett, as well as other health food stores. To be quite frank I wasn't expecting a lot when I received these as the packaging design doesn't really "grab" me. It doesn't make me think of luxury like the designs of other chocolate bars in the market do.

I am very happy to be proven wrong; these bars tasted amazing and were better than a lot of other brands with much fancier packaging. They are also fair trade, organic, and contain a high percentage of cocoa.

Nero & Bianco Milk

Milk: This bar contains 39% cocoa, and I was expecting a bog-standard tasting milk chocolate which just happened to be fair trade, however I was very wrong! Biting into it I was met with a delicious creamy hit; it was very smooth in texture, and melted in the mouth beautifully. The taste was a nice balance of creamy and cocoa-rich, which is the best way I can describe it (sorry, I'm not good at this sort of thing!). It was a step above other milk chocolates known for being creamy, such as Lindt Extra Creamy for example. For a small 35g bar it was also surprisingly satisfying. Overall, a delicious milk chocolate which I intend to buy again in future.

Nero & Bianco Butterscotch

Butterscotch: Containing 39% cocoa like the Milk chocolate bar, I knew the chocolate would taste good but the question was how would the butterscotch pieces taste? Well they were nice enough, and added a burnt sugar crunch to the delicious chocolate, but weren't quite as distinctive as I was hoping for. If they were as tasty as the crunchy bits in Milka with D'aim, this would be an amazing bar. As it is, it's just a nice varient on Nero & Bianco's milk chocolate. Which is a good thing, but it could have been even better is what I'm saying.

Nero & Bianco White Chocolate

White: Containing 39% cocoa solids and ground vanilla, this is one of the nicest white chocolates I've eaten in a long time. It had a delicious creamy vanilla taste, and melted in the mouth nicely. I'd be happy to pay good money for a large bar of this, and would like to see it available in cafes as it'd go perfectly with coffee (plus it's better than the ubiquitous Green & Blacks bars found in most cafes). Overall, a great quality white chocolate.

Nero & Bianco Dark Chocolate

Dark: Containing 70% cocoa solids, this bar smelled rich and fruity like any good dark chocolate should. I was expecting the usual bitterness you often get from dark chocolate, but surprisingly there was none. It tasted very smooth, and like all of Nero & Bianco's chocolate, melted in the mouth wonderfully. It had a slightly fruity tang, but wasn't bitter at all. Overall it was a pleasure to eat, and I enjoyed it more than the comparable Green & Blacks 70% dark chocolate bar.

Overall 
I hate to sound like I'm advertising for these guys, but in my opinion Nero & Bianco's chocolate is very, very tasty, and this came as a total surprise to me. I will definitely be buying their stuff again and hope they bring out more flavours in future. My only gripe is the packaging design - it just doesn't grab me, and I don't think it communicates how good the chocolate is. That aside, I'm now a Nero & Bianco convert!

Info on Nero & Bianco: 
From their website: http://www.neroandbianco.com/
"Nero & Bianco launched in 2010 and was the brainchild of a number of crazy chocolatiers, who hadn’t noticed that we were in the worst recession since 1920".

"Because we associate chocolate with happiness and good feelings, we wanted to ensure that our business is not causing anyone to have unduly bad times. We knew from the start that creating a Fairtrade and organic chocolate was imperative to our vision and everything that we do in the future will be Fairtrade and organic too. Our chocolate is made using the finest organic and Fairtrade certificated cocoa beans from the Dominican Republic and Peru. The majority of the cocoa beans in our chocolate are trinitario beans, a family of beans renowned for their complex flavours."