Valrhona Manjari is..."fresh and tangy"...uhhh, wait a minute...

I'm not sure which marketing genius wrote "fresh and tangy" on the package of the Valrhona Les Grands Crus Manjari 64% cacao bar, but I think they were on fresh and tangy acid that day. Sorry, that was just my first thought upon tasting the bar, and I probably should have just kept it to myself.  However, I was also a marketer once upon a time ago and I can understand how a product will affect one person in a completely dfifferent way than it affects other people. So perhaps "fresh and tangy" came to the mind of a Valrhona marketer one day while lounging on a picnic blanket in the middle of an orange grove leisurely tasting this decadent chocolate bar.

It may also be that the translated English version is just not quite the same as the original French version (Valrhona is a French company).  In French it reads "Frais & Acidulé" which seems a bit closer to the actual taste to me.  It is acidic.  And as soon as I opened the package, it had strong rustic out-doorsy smells with thick tobacco overtones. Of course, it is the middle of a cold winter day here for me, so perhaps I would have a different perspective if I were tasting chocolate on a bright and sunny spring day in an orange grove.

All that said, the Valrhona Manjari (64% cacao) chocolate bar tastes fantastic.  It is thick, rich in flavours and makes me feel like I am indulging in something wonderful.  Valrhona nearly always has that affect on me.  After all, they are considered to be one of the best chocolate companies in the world!

Here are the stats on this chocolate bar:

Valrhona Manjari Dark chocolate (64% cocoa minimum, pure cocoa butter)
http://www.valrhona.com/
Ingredients: cocoa beans from Madagascar, sugar, cocoa butter, emulsifier (soya lecithin), natural vanilla extract.  This product may contain traces of nuts, milk and egg proteins, gluten and peanut.