Chuao's Maple Bacon Chocolate - It's more about the crunch than the bacon

San Diego-based Chuao Chocolatier offers a plethora of chocolaty taste sensations. There is always a new Chuao flavour available at Chapters-Indigo, such as the Honeycomb or the Potato Chip chocolate bars that I picked up recently. And the newest chocolate bar to catch my eye was Chuao's 'maple bacon' bar - a high percentage milk chocolate (41% cocoa solids) with all-natural inclusions, including maple sugar, bacon, and 'bonfire smoked' sea salt (my favourite 'smoked' description ever).

As for the taste, it was good. The milk chocolate was not super sweet (just the way I like my milk chocolate). And the salt was not overwhelming, but yet there was a nice crunchy texture from the maple sugar, salt, and the crispy bacon. The bacon flavour was minimal; although it was there, it was there in a noncommittal sort of way (although when it comes to bacon flavour in chocolate, sometimes less really is better).

Albeit tasty, I must admit that I preferred Chuao's Potato Chip chocolate bar, which I purchased at the same time, and tasted last week. The potato chip bar was also made with a high-percentage milk chocolate and it had a little more crunch to it, with a saltier taste. It gave me a little more of that savoury taste that I was expecting from the bacon bar.

As a fan of bacon and chocolate, I am happy that this bar is available to us, since I can no longer buy Vosges's Mo's Bacon Bar in my region of Canada. That is definitely a chocolate-and-bacon experience that is out of this world.

If you really like the flavours of bacon and chocolate, try this chocolate-dipped bacon recipe. Candy the bacon with maple syrup instead of brown sugar or sprinkle a little maple sugar on top, if you want to replicate Chuao's excellent idea of maple and bacon flavour.

Chuao's Maple Bacon Chocolate Bar cost $6.75 at Chapters-Indigo. It is gluten-free and it won an Excellence Award at the International Chocolate Salon.

Here are the package details, including ingredients from the chocolate that I tasted today:

Maple Bacon All Natural chocolate bar, 2.8 oz (80g)
Chuao Chocolatier (San Diego, CA)
www.ChuaoChocolatier.com
Ingredients: Premium milk chocolate (41% cacao, cacao butter, sugar, dehydrated milk, soy lecithin [as an emulsifier], natural vanilla), maple sugar, bacon (pork, water, salt, turbinado sugar, seasoning), bonfire smoked sea salt, natural maple flavor (maple, canola oil). Contains: Milk, Soy. Non GMO Ingredients. Manufactured in a facility that uses tree nuts and wheat in other products.