Green Chocolate?

We've had tea flavored and infused chocolate before here on The Chocolate Cult but usually in dark chocolate and occasionally in milk chocolate. Today for our first look at Voilà Chocolat we are going to reveal their Green Tea White Chocolate Bar. Why now? Well, St. Patrick's Day, a day in the USA where you wear green and do all things "green" it seems appropriate to let you all know about this option, doesn't it?

Our Tea Acolyte tested this bar one afternoon and this is his report; photos were taken by your Chocolate Priestess. His words are italicized for clarity.

First of all, green tea is a typically weak tea with a subtle flavor, not really sweet at all, so I am wondering how Voilà has approached the task of capturing this in a bar of chocolate.  They have started with a white chocolate base, so that will help – a milk or dark chocolate would immediately overwhelm the tea flavor – but even white chocolate has a flavor of its own, and there is sugar to consider as well (pure cane sugar appears first in the ingredients list on the label).  It seems to be a challenge: Can this chocolate really taste like green tea?

To be specific, the label says that this bar contains "Green Tea/Matcha Tea." There are several forms of green tea, and matcha (the powdered tea used in, among other things, the famed Japanese tea ceremony) is one of them, but they are all made from the same plant.  I'm not sure what the label means, though; is this green tea in the form of matcha, or is there some other type of green tea in this bar in addition to matcha?

The appearance of the chocolate is quite distinctive – it is definitely the color of green tea.  This is a testament to the refusal of the creators to use artificial colors; the only thing giving this white chocolate any color is the tea itself.  The bar is molded into rectangular pips that come apart easily with a dull snap.  The aroma of the chocolate is only vaguely like green tea; it is more like smelling the tea powder.

Biting into the chocolate gives a firm snap.  Allowing a piece to melt in my mouth gives an interesting combination of flavors; the very sweet white chocolate is, however, the dominant note by far.  This is not to say that the tea flavor is absent, however – there is enough tea in this chocolate to turn the bar green.  If I had been testing this in a dark room with no way to know what was in it to begin with, I'm confident that I would still have been able to say that this chocolate was flavored with green tea, as its flavor may be subtle, but it is also unique.  The texture is completely smooth; my guess would be that they either strained the tea or thoroughly mixed matcha powder in with the melted chocolate, as there is no hint of sediment or residue.  After the chocolate has melted away, a hint of the tea flavor remains for some time.  I would call this white chocolate flavored with green tea, rather than, for example, a chocolate bar that attempts to duplicate the green tea flavor (I'm not sure that could be done).

Sweetened with pure cane sugar and made with whole milk, this green tea chocolate is an East-meets-West combination of flavors from different cultures.  I'm not sure how an Asian palate would perceive it, but it is pleasing to my American one.

There you have it from our Tea Acolyte a vote of satisfaction for this bar earning it Sacrament Status on our site. Well done,  Voilà Chocolat, well done!