TCHO for National Milk Chocolate Day

Today, July 28th, is "National Milk Chocolate Day" but TCHO is probably not a brand you strongly associate with milk chocolate.  That is because until last year, they didn't make milk chocolate anything.  We've looked at their dark chocolate before but today, in this pre-written feature, we will reveal their milk chocolate in it's full glory.  We have high hopes for TCHO based on their performance with dark chocolate so let's see if they can meet those standards in the world of milk chocolate.  They call their product "SeriousMilk" and I think we'll see why in just a minute.  Note: this feature was pre-written months ago and then scheduled for a later date but it was still written live during the testing of the chocolate.

We can see above that we have two of their bigger bars, "Classic" and "Cacao," as well as a cube of six small bars.  We've featured the four dark bars before, here, so we won't touch on those again.  Please do check out that post though and feel free to leave comments now on it; that's the great thing about the Internet, we can get feedback months and years later.  Your feedback, Sisters and Brothers, is our reward since we do not charge anything for our feature reviews.

The SeriousMilk bars do have whole and non-fat milk powder in them but they are much higher cacao content that I imagine most American readers will be familiar with. The blue wrapper has the "Classic" version with 39% cacao in it.  The larger bar is 3 5/8th inch square and 0.25 inches thick; the smaller bar is the same thickness but 1.5 inch square meaning that is bigger than one of the sections on the large bar.  This had the same flowing hatch pattern etched on the top of the bar as the darker bars do.  It feels slicker and has a creamier scent when I hold it in my finger tips, it even starts to melt a bit.  The bar makes a soft snap when I take a bite.  As I chew I get a burst of sugary, creamy cocoa that turns sweeter but in a tangy, almost caramel like fashion even though no caramel is included. This is the natural reactions of the cacao and other ingredients and the result is a little cocoa buzz with a coated mouth of creamy sweetness.  Letting it melt brings out more of this caramel-like flavor as well as increasing the creaminess.

The brown wrapper holds the 53% "Cacao" bar and this is now pushing into the range that big names like Hershey call "dark chocolate."  Our final photo will compare the two in terms of color but right now I can smell this is much stronger in terms of cocoa, the scent is more earthly and intense.  It makes a slightly louder snap when I take a bite.  Immediately there is chocolate but with each bite it gets thicker and deeper, indeed like fudge in terms of texture and flavor with each bite.  Letting it melt in my mouth seems to create a more hot cocoa like flavor, not as thick and not as sticky for some reason.    For both of these, your Chocolate Priestess prefers to chew rather than let them melt and generally it is the other way around for me.

So there we have it, the relatively new milk chocolate from TCHO. They call these "SeriousMilk" for a reason. The amount of cacao in each is much higher than many of our American readers will be familiar with but also higher than European readers may normally call milk chocolate.  All of this chocolate is certified organic, kosher, and uses no slave labor; important social factors for many of us here on The Chocolate Cult. For all of these reasons, the SeriousMilk from TCHO is as worthy as Sacrament as their dark chocolate has been.  Great job TCHO, keep it up.  Sisters and Brothers, you need to try TCHO, you really, really need to give them a try.