Private Selection – Cranberry, Orange, and Honey
June 21, 2019
Private Selection is a Kroger store-brand that spans across many item categories, including chocolate bars. The price point for the Private Selection chocolate is certainly appealing. I paid $1.79 for the Cranberry Orange Honey Swiss Bar.
As with any low cost chocolate, I’m skeptical from the beginning. Many times my expectations don’t match my actual tasting experience. My expectations are always high so my tasting experience usually falls short of those high expectations.
So, how did this bar fare?
The 72% Dark Chocolate Cranberry Orange Honey is tasty but strange. The part I found most unusual was that the fruit and honey were not chewy bits and pieces but instead brittle, sugary granules. There were cranberry granules, orange granules and honey granules.
The bar was very crunchy and very bumpy looking. According to the label, the granules are made with either added sugar or glucose syrup, and I feel that increased the overall sweetness. This came as a surprise to me because I wasn’t expecting a higher sweetness level with a 72% dark.
But I should not have been surprised. Right there on the package, in decent sized font it says, “rich and smooth dark chocolate blended with granules of cranberry, orange and honey”. I must have left my chocolate-savvy, label-scrutinizing self at home that day!
The chocolate itself was earthy and grassy but faded quickly into sweet bursts of tart cranberry and subdued citrus notes. Like I said, tasty but strange.
There’s something else written on the packaging that’s easy to see. Says it pairs well with a Chardonnay or Sauvingnon Blanc. I bet that won’t be a surprise.
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I found the crunchy bits to be strongly satisfying. I very much enjoyed this.