In January, somebody asked if they could bring me anything from their travels to various islands via cruise ship.

T-shirts or trinkets never even crossed my mind; my immediate reply was, “No, thanks.  What I want would melt!”

Undaunted, they said they’d see what they could do.   A week or two later, I found myself the recipient of a delightful selection of (non-melted!) chocolates, including a rather fantastic assortment of Valor Chocolate (Chocolates Valor) from Spain:

In the past week, I’ve had the pleasure of tasting the following flavors:

Dark Chocolate with Almonds and Chocolate with Almonds (Sweetened with Stevia): Some people like stevia, some people dislike stevia, and some people can take it or leave it.  I’m one of those that can take it or leave it.  In this case, I’ll take it.  (Even if there are nuts involved!)  Valor stevia chocolate did a very good job of tasting like sugar-sweetened chocolate.  It was quite good, and there was no unpleasant stevia aftertaste.

(Come to think of it, I’m pretty sure I snuck a piece past our resident stevia detector.  He says he can always tell when something has stevia in it.  Anything with stevia gets rejected.  Only I don’t recall any chocolate being returned to me the evening I shared this one!)

72% Dark Chocolate with Cocoa Nibs, 70% Dark Chocolate with Orange Mousse, & Dark Chocolate with Truffle Cream (All Sweetened with Stevia):  Yummy, even yummier, and yummiest.  In that order.

70% Dark Chocolate with Mediterranean Salt & 70% Dark Chocolate with Toffee:

Both were enjoyable, especially the toffee.  I’m beginning to like chocolate with salt, but the rest of the family will take longer to be won over.  Somebody (who shall remain nameless) said, “It tastes like I dropped a piece of chocolate at the beach and ate it anyway.”

Light Milk Chocolate with Crunchy Caramel:  Delicious.  (And a nice change from all the dark chocolate.)

Many of the Valor chocolate bars are thinner than other brands of chocolate I am used to eating, but thinner bars have proved to be advantageous for at least two reasons:  They’re easier to break into pieces to share, and they melt wonderfully on my tongue.

Online:
Website: Chocolates Valor
Twitter: @chocolatesvalor
Instagram: chocolatesvalor