Before we delve further into this bar, a little background is certainly needed. Firstly, what’s the deal with the bacon-chocolate combo? And next, what’s the deal with Zotter!?
Bacon + Chocolate. It might not seem like a natural fit, but think of the pluses on both sides. Bacon is smoky, rich and salty, whilst chocolate can exhibit a range of fruit, smoke and earthy flavours (just to name a few), as well as a sweetness that wonderfully contrasts ingredients like bacon.
Over the last decade, chocolatiers (especially those in the U.S.) have played with this combo, bringing salty-sweet to forefront. I posted back in October on some of the chocolatiers I encountered in Portland. One of them is Xocolatl de David, and he’s pushing the sweet-salt contrast to the extreme, mixing things like Parmesan cheese, and even foie gras (hello, “Foietella”), with his chocolate. To this day, one of our most requested items is the chocolate-covered bacon we break out around Fathers’ Day.
Zotter, a bean-to-bar manufacturer hailing from Austria, is one of the only European makers we carry playing with salty and savoury ingredients. Their ganache-filled “hand scooped” bars became a quick favourite of customers, with Fig, Walnut and Blue Cheese, Bacon Bits and Rosemary Polenta bars mingling with more classic efforts like Marc de Champagne, Scotch and Coffee. You can browse their many flavours here.
Last month, we appealed to you, our customers, to send us your pick for December’s Bar of the Month. After much deliberation, we decided that Zotter’s Bacon Bits bar (and the spirited nomination it received) was the right choice. Smooth 70% dark chocolate enrobes a cinnamon-infused milk chocolate ganache, studded with crunchy hazelnut nougat and salty pork crackling. The bacon flavour barely hits you until the end, so if you’ve tried the combination before in a more obvious form – i.e. bacon dipped in chocolate – and didn’t love it, there’s still a good chance that this bar will delight. It’s creamy-crunchy texture and salty-sweet flavour makes it a definite favourite among Zotter-lovers, and hopefully you’ll fall in love too.
