Things have been a might hectic of late and, as a result, not a lot of chocolate has been consumed around my little chocolate-obsessed home. Things have started to calm down a bit so Sunday night I opened up some chocolate. I grabbed a Vosges Black Pearl bar (ginger, wasabi, and black sesame seeds in a 55% cacao dark chocolate) and gave it a shot.

The packaging is standard Vosges fare which is to say a lovely little box with a friendly little “How To Eat An Exotic Candy Bar” section on the back. The bar itself has a nice gloss, is well formed, and has a serious snap to it. The aroma is… spicy? I can’t get my head around the aroma beyond spice and a definite whiff of ginger. The taste is interesting. It’s spicy and the ginger, sesame seeds, and wasabi are all present. I’d probably like it more without the wasabi, but it’s still quite nice. The only real negative I can find is the texture. The sesame seeds are sort of chewy and I’m not exactly in love with that chewiness.

Good bar but not quite my cup of tea. I’ll call it a 6.5 out of 10 but there is probably a lot of personal taste involved in that number. Not something I’d want on a regular basis and with it’s price as high as it is ($7 – ow!) I will probably go for something I like more before I try this again.

That said, I'm VERY interested in the Black Pearl Layer Cake created by Katrina Markoff, the CEO of Vosges. I have a feeling I'd like the combination of flavors in a cake more than I do inn a bar. If anybody is interested the recipe can be found on Epicurious.