What do you think of when you consider “kosher chocolate”? You may well not answer “upmarket”, and instead suggest American or Israeli slabs, full of sugar and not really aimed at connoisseurs. Well, stop right there. As it’s World Chocolate Day today, we’ve decided it’s time to give kosher chocolate aficionados a treat. Here are some top-class kosher chocolates. All should be gratefully received – and not just by us here at the office.
Let’s start with Kennard’s.
Kennard’s artisan chocolates are not just certified kosher, but vegan too, and they recently won two awards from the Academy of Chocolate.
The company was set up specifically to address the question of why it was so hard to get good quality kosher chocolates. It is named after Andrew Kennard, who set up his own food business, Desire4food in 2012.
JC staff tried a box of 16 assorted “premium” chocolates (£17) and generally thought they were delicious, with a great variety of fillings, from raspberry flower to smooth caramel. The peanut butter truffle (which you can see in the main pic above) was a particular winner. Our in-house plain chocolate expert thought they were a little bit sweet, but he was generally outvoted…
Stockists include Kosher Kingdom, B Kosher, Flax’s, Tapuach, Shefra Mehadrin in Manchester and Dansky's in Gateshead, but by the end of the year they plan to be exporting to the US and Israel. You can also order online
Cocoa Runners are another artisan chocolate specialist, who make special chocolate bars.
The company say they have tasted over 5,000 different bars from different makers and that they only sell the bars they love. The packaging is all very hipster – and looks great.
We tried a number of bars including Bonnat Madagascar (£10.95), Taza “stone ground” from Belize (£7.95) and Askinosie, 77 per cent dark from the Philippines.
Our dark chocolate expert was torn between the Taza and Askinosie for his favourite, while others picked the Bonnat as the most delicious. The Taza was certainly different, with a rough texture, while the Askinosie tasted the most like “normal” chocolate apparently (whatever that is). All would appeal to chocolate enthusiasts, who like the dark stuff to be strong and pure.
Finally, Shoshana Gertner runs Yum Artisanal Chocolate which makes Honeycomb crunch, peanut butter rocky road, sweet and salty pretzel (utterly delicious) and fruit and nut. These are sold by the box at £12 and the jar for £15. Contact yumchoc@hotmail.com
