Ho Ho Ho Holiday Bark

I've made bark and we've tested numerous barks here on The Chocolate Cult but today I want to introduce you to the Ho Ho Ho Holiday Bark from Sugar Plum Chocolates. You met from Sugar Plum a few days ago in this interview but today I'm going to take your senses into this tin gift box and show you a treat you may still have time to get for your winter holiday celebrations or even a seasonal birthday for the chocolate and peppermint lovers in your life. I think the tin, bow, and gift tag on it are wintery but not  any particularly holiday so that gives this wider appeal and great potential gift-giving use. Sugar Plum Chocolates sent us this tin in exchange for our testing it out and writing about it; no other form of compensation was received for this article.

The bark is three slabs of bark each individually wrapped. Only one small section of one slab broke in transit. Other barks I've received to test and write about have been broken into pieces. You can see the unbroken bark as your chance to control how much you eat at any given time or your chance to have fun breaking it up. If you know you want to share this with a small group, portion control might appeal, if you sharing with a large group then you may need a lot of pieces. Each slab's wrapper has the product name on the label but the nutritional and ingredient information is on the bottom of the tin itself. The three slabs nutritionally have 16 servings. Using a knife to cut it doesn't work very well as is the case in general for barks and solid chocolates. The "White Chocolate" does not meet the FDA definition of that product but the "Dark Chocolate" for the drizzle is basic sugar, chocolate liquor, cocoa butter, soy lecithin, and vanilla.

Note: I pointed out this problem with "white chocolate" to the folks at Sugar Plum Chocolates and they are working on fixing their labels. Hopefully they will also fix the information on their website. This is how responsible companies react when you contact them to point out problems. I applaud them for doing so!

We used scissors to cut open the wrappers and the first fragrance was peppermint though not as much as you might expect. The bark broke into pieces easily with a snapping sound. the amount of dark chocolate drizzle and peppermint candies varied from slab to slab and piece to piece. The intensity of the peppermint was the strongest flavor followed by sweetness. Only letting the drizzled side melt against my tongue allowed that flavor to come out. The peppermint pieces and the cookies provided chunch without stickiness while the peppermint was a tingling coolness in our mouths. One tester described it as a "a bit too rich to eat much" but the others just thought it was the level of richness you expect from such a treat.

For us on The Chocolate Cult, earning Sacramental status is based in part upon the quality of chocolate and how well it stands up against other flavors. The chocolate in this Ho Ho Ho Holiday Bark is dark chocolate drizzle but it's flavor just could not power through the white candy, peppermint, and cookies. All three testers I had help me with this evaluation agreed on the dark chocolate flavor absence. However, we did all really like this product. We all love peppermint and this bark is really for the peppermint lovers in your life for Christmas, another winter holiday, or a birthday. Heck, I wouldn't offended to get this for Valentine's Day either.

Leave a comment and let us know what you think.