Speciale Italia Peperonciono

I've tried a few chocolates now with hot pepper or chili as its underlying flavour, including ones from Lindt, Slitti from Tuscany, and a Sicilian Aztec version, they've been fairly tasty, except not so much the Lindt one, this one comes from a company that has made several chocolate bars that I've enjoyed, Speciale Italia. This one, unlike some of the other ones, has a more subtle spiciness to it, a little more than mild-spicy, but still enough to complement the good chocolate. The cacao content is at 58%, and the ingredient listing is not as good as some of their other products, but still better than a lot of chocolate out there, cocoa paste, icing sugar (with 3% cornflour) (icing sugar!), cocoa butter, chili pepper powder (0.35%), soy lecithin (as an emulsifier) and aromas (likely vanilla/vanillin).

How does it taste? Fairly good, though not as good as some of their other offerings. I would eat this product again.

Speciale Italia Caffe

One of my favourite chocolate bars is the Ecuador bar from the Italian Chocolatier Speciale Italia srl. This one, the fourth I have tried, a Spicy Chocolate with a cacao content of 68%, contains coffee as a flavouring (I have seen both ground coffee and espresso offered from Speciale Italia; no doubt they use their own brands in this chocolate bar). The ingredient listing is good, just cocoa paste, sugar, low fat cocoa powder, cocoa butter, coffee, instant coffee and soy lecithin (as an emulsifying agent).

How does it taste? Quite good, the underlying coffee is interesting and enhances the flavour of the chocolate. Notice, too, the plastic bag, very different than many chocolatiers, who normally use foil. I liked this almost as much as the Ecuador bar. I would definitely buy this again.

Speciale Italia Cuba

The third of the three chocolate bars I tried from the Italian company Speciale Italia srl contains cacao beans from Cuba. The cacao content of this chocolate bar is 75%. The ingredients look good, as the other two, cocoa paste, sugar, cocoa butter, lecithin as an emulsifier and natural aromas. This one I did not like as much as the other two, the flavour was good, though it seemed a little too dry, a little chalky, rather than smooth melting. I would eat this bar again, though I preferred the one from Ecuador, and next the one from Santo Domingo. One odd thing about these chocolate bars that I had not mentioned, is that these are the only chocolate products that come in plastic bags rather than foil. It doesn't seem to affect the flavour. Now, let's hope I can find any of these bars somewhere again.

Speciale Italia Ecuador

I got to try another of the single source chocolate bars from the Italian company called Speciale Italia srl; the cacao beans are from Ecuador. The cacao content of this chocolate bar is 75%. Too, the ingredients look pretty good, cocoa paste, sugar, cocoa butter, lecithin as an emulsifier and natural aromas. It tastes pretty good too, melts in your mouth easily, with a good bitter chocolate taste, very similar to the Santo Domingo version. I would eat this bar again, assuming I could find it again in stores.

Speciale Italia Santo Domingo

This ciocicolato monorigin, or single source chocolate, of cacao beans from the island of Santo Domingo in the Caribbean, comes from an Italian company called Speciale Italia srl. The cacao content of this chocolate bar is 75%. Too, the ingredients look pretty good, cocoa paste, sugar, cocoa butter, lecithin as an emulsifier and natural aromas. It tastes pretty good too, melts in your mouth easily, with a good bitter chocolate taste.