Chunks of butter biscuit through silky milk chocolate, from Meurisse — Belgium's oldest chocolate maker, established 1845. Cacao from Papua New Guinea, 39%. Organic, Fairtrade and plastic-free packaging.
CONTAINS MILK AND WHEAT
Milk from the chocolate, wheat and butter from the biscuit. Both are named allergens under EU law, and neither is usually stated up front on a listing for this bar. Check the wrapper for the full declaration and traces.
39% cacao in a milk chocolate is high
Under EU law, milk chocolate needs a minimum of 25% total cocoa solids. Most mass-market milk chocolate sits close to that floor — which is why it tastes principally of sugar and milk.
At 39%, this has roughly half as much again, and it changes the balance completely: you taste cocoa alongside the milk rather than behind it. If you have always found milk chocolate cloying, a high-percentage one is the thing to try before giving up on the category.
Papua New Guinea cacao — and why single origin means something in cocoa
Most chocolate is made from blended bulk cocoa, largely West African, chosen for consistency and price. Naming an origin means committing to beans from one place, with all the variation that brings.
Papua New Guinea is one of the more distinctive origins. Much of its cocoa is dried over wood fires rather than in the sun — a consequence of the climate — which gives many PNG beans a characteristic smoky note. It is a genuine regional signature, and it is unusually recognisable in a milk chocolate, where there is less bitterness to hide behind.
The 1845 claim
Meurisse is Belgium's oldest chocolate manufacturer, founded in Antwerp. That predates the invention of milk chocolate itself — Daniel Peter's successful version came in 1875 — and it predates conching, Rodolphe Lindt's 1879 process that made chocolate smooth rather than gritty. So a chocolate house founded in 1845 was making something quite unlike this bar.
Plastic-free packaging
Genuinely uncommon and worth noting. Most chocolate wrappers are a metallised plastic film — effectively unrecyclable, because separating the layers is not economic. Paper and foil can each be recycled.
The trade-off is honest: paper and foil are more permeable than plastic film, so a plastic-free bar has a somewhat shorter shelf life and needs storing properly. Which is a reason to eat it rather than keep it.
Smart Organic
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