Best organic milk chocolate
Dark is for grown-ups, milk is for kids. Or so they say. The notion that dark chocolate is more sophisticated does have a grain of truth -- without milk (and lots of sugar), you're more likely to be able to taste the fruity, smoky or tobacco notes of the cocoa. Milk chocolate is a different product, paler and sweeter, and offers the eater different rewards.
We've rounded up five organic milk chocolate bars, all 100g or thereabouts, for a taste test, and we must say, they compete well. One is Fairtrade, a couple claim to be better than Fairtrade, and some have more elusive credentials than others.
When you're buying milk chocolate, it can help to take note of the percentage of cocoa solids. That should give some indication of how chocolaty, as opposed to sweet and milky, the finished product is. High cocoa milk chocolate, which occupies a potentially tasty middle ground, is an emerging area and we only know of one organic version, from Montezuma's. Marks of quality include the use of cane sugar and bourbon vanilla.
When checking credentials, it's useful to be aware of what is and isn't possible. Cocoa beans are largely grown in the developing world. Farmers are unlikely to be able to afford lots of pesticides and chemicals to treat their crops and organic certification can be expensive, so even non-organic chocolate could be relatively free of nasties. The developing world is also an unlikely place for sustainable energy use because the luxury of choice is rare.
Looking for recycled packaging on a delicate food product like chocolate is a futile exercise -- the available products often have bleach taints, which would affect the chocolate itself. Look instead for FSC-certified packaging and recyclable inner sleeves, although we found a frustrating lack of information on most of the packs in the test.
Guided by taste alone, our favourite milk chocolate has to be the Valrhona Cao Grande. It tastes wonderful, with the cocoa character that naysayers wouldn't expect in a milk chocolate, and it's definitely worth the money. Montezuma's and Green & Black's were both transparent about some of their processes, while the Marks & Spencer's product has the reassurance of the Fairtrade Mark. The ethical credentials of some of the other chocolates in this test are far better than Valrhona's, but we were blown away by this chocolate's flavour and we know our tastebuds will always dream of Cao Grande.
Choco-Lisa Classic Goat Milk Chocolate
Green & Black's Organic Milk Chocolate
Marks & Spencer Organic Fairtrade Milk Chocolate
Montezuma's 'The Dark Side' Milk Chocolate
Valrhona Cao Grande Lait
