mmmmmmmm :)

This is a real treat! It is so rich and decadent. I loved it! Full of great quality dark chocolate and caramel... my favorite combo! It is a little more expensive than a regular chocolate bar but it is so worth it for a better quality chocolate.

I am still not sure how I feel about this chocolate. I love dark chocolate but this just didn't do it for me. I think it was because the caramel was crunchy and not smooth. I am not a fan of getting caramel stuck in my teeth and that definitely happened with this chocolate. Don't get me wrong - it tastes good, but i prefer a smooth caramel, not a crunchy one. I wouldn't say this is my top choice of the 4 different flavors.

This one was my favourite of the four Nestle Noir Eclat chocolate bars. I tend to love caramel so it was wonderful to have crunchy bits of caramel scattered throughout the rich dark chocolate. The chocolate was smooth and well-balanced by the sweet hint of caramel, making this a delicious treat. This went great with a cup of coffee in the afternoon, especially after an hour of shovelling the mountain of snow that piled up in the driveway last weekend!

My very first impression .... "wow, this is toooooo sweet!" When I'm expecting a bitter dark chocolate and then am greeted w/ sweetness on the level of a milk chocolate, it is alarming. I didn't mind the sweetness, but felt it was a bit too pronounced for a bar that is DARK chocolate. This bar will most likely not sit well w/ dark chocolate lovers.

After I got used to the sweetness and began to expect it, I settled into its flavor. It reminded me a lot of a slightly bitter Toblerone! A big plus for me, the caramel pieces did not get stuck in my teeth like Toberlone's crunchies often do.

Delicious, my favourite of the 4 Nestle Noir series! I was worried the bar might be too sweet from the caramel bits but this was not the case. It's just perfect! Rich and not too sweet, like the others I've tried, the caramel bits add a lovely crunchy texture and subtle toffee flavour to the experience. The caramel flavour is not overwhelming and compliments the bar nicely.

Again, my mind goes to cooking uses and this would be magical grated or smashed up and added to brownie batter.

I was expecting a much sweeter taste from the caramel. I think that since I wanted this bar to be sweeter I was a little disappointed when it wasn't. With no expectations this is a great bar. The little bits of sweet caramel with the bitter/sweet smooth chocolate is a great combination. I like the cruchy bits with the smooth chocolate. The contrast was very pleasing. Delicious!

I loved this bar! Definitely my favourite of the bunch, and one that I would buy again. With the first bite, I was kind of disappointed to not taste any caramel, until I hit one of the caramel bits, I was in heaven. The sweet taste went great with the bitter chocolate. Like ggggg mentioned, I didn't taste much of the caramel when chewing the chocolate, it was when I just let it melt in my mouth, the taste came out as the chocolate disappeared. I really liked the idea of the caramel being hard little bits throughout the chocolate, rather than a gooey mess, it made it a little more enjoyable, not having a sticky mess left on my fingers afterwards.
I could probably eat this bar in a whole sitting!

Our taste testers were:
Rachel: 32 year old woman, extreme chocolate lover
Jeff: 31 year old man, enjoys chocolate, picky eater
Kelly: 32 year old female
Ben: 30 year old male
Alice: 10 year old girl, part time host of online cooking show, enjoys chocolate

Each taste tester tried each bar, and rated it on a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being the best chocolate ever, and 1 being “yucky”. As a benchmark, we rated a plain Hershey bar and a Nestle Crunch bar as 8 on the scale. After a bit of quick research, I read that in the April 2007 edition of “Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry”, a research team from the Nestlé Research Center (Lausanne, Switzerland) reported on Polyphenols. They claim these “powerful antioxidants” positively affect arterial function, blood pressure, cholesterol levels, insulin sensitivity and oxidative stress.

In Nestle’s experiment with Nestle Noir, they have added value to their brand by creating new flavors and utilizing recent research to make buyers think that this snack food will not make them feel guilty or fat, but rather relaxed and heart-healthy. This is not a chocolate bar you’ll see melting in a 7-year-old’s palm, but rather an adult’s much deserved “special treat”. The packaging says it each bar is “a good source of magnesium which helps build strong bones” and “contains 300 mg of Polyphenols per serving.”

What’s really going to sell chocolate, though, is taste.

The Eclat Caramel has the 64% cocoa mixed with pieces of crunchy caramel. Rachel was poked in the roof of the mouth by one of the caramel pieces and pouted. Alice said, “If I walked away remembering one candy bar it would be this one.” Jeff enjoyed its “little bit of crunch.” At first bite, Rachel was very impressed but the mix of sweet caramel and bitter dark chocolate, but by the third bite it began to taste just like all the others. Ben thought the 2 flavors did not go well together. Kelly thought it was too much like toffee and not enough like caramel. Alice, Kelly and Jeff gave it a 7 but Rachel gave it a 6 and Ben gave it a 4.

I really liked this chocolate bar. The rich, dark chocolate pairs beautifully with the crunchy, sweet caramel bits, and it was a real treat to eat! Unlike the cherry and cocoa bars, I didn't find the amount of caramel overwhelming in this bar. Beware though, unlike most dark chocolate, this bar is very easy to munch down the entire thing!

I'm on NutriSystem so I've been spreading the Nestle Noir love around. I shared this with my husband and sons. I was curious to see their reactions because all of them prefer milk chocolate. I was pleasantly surprised. Each one of them enjoyed this rich, dark chocolate bar with caramel crisps. In fact, they fought over it and I had to promise to buy them more.