Impact
He's back. His appetite's tremendous, he's never gonna end this because Zotter & Co. never stops creating, always issuing forth the latest.
A flavorist; The Wild Man of Chocolate.
No one works the experimental more, & more innovatively, while staying on this side of extreme. Through it all he remains at the top of the game, among the very best barsmiths in the world.
Scroll down for the 2016 additions.
The following is a summary of Zotter’s innumerable collection of confections that fill the slot between a bar & a bombone (the shape of the former & usually the taste of the latter). In the ‘Quality’ Section below, individual confections are listed with a brief synopsis &, for some, a rating of each. The most recent batch -- 2016 -- can be found in 3 separate sub-sections below.
A flavorist; The Wild Man of Chocolate.
No one works the experimental more, & more innovatively, while staying on this side of extreme. Through it all he remains at the top of the game, among the very best barsmiths in the world.
Scroll down for the 2016 additions.
The following is a summary of Zotter’s innumerable collection of confections that fill the slot between a bar & a bombone (the shape of the former & usually the taste of the latter). In the ‘Quality’ Section below, individual confections are listed with a brief synopsis &, for some, a rating of each. The most recent batch -- 2016 -- can be found in 3 separate sub-sections below.
Appearance 4.3 / 5
| Color: | |
| Surface: | |
| Temper: | |
| Snap: |
Aroma 7.8 / 10
little middle ground... either full-on or tightly encased
Mouthfeel 12.6 / 15
| Texture: | generally thin shells with mealy centers |
| Melt: | mostly urgent |
Flavor 44.7 / 50
from crazy & extreme to the bizarre yet tastefully worked-up for the most part; throw in the occasional nod to tradition demonstrating classic technique & Zotter is obviously a skilled player unlike any other
Quality 17.5 / 20
High standards & even higher imagination.
Labooka Flavored Bar Collection
2016
Buckwheat -- stiff texture signals an inverted "dark" bar -- no dairy but sugar & cocoa butter the dominant ingredients followed by 20% buckwheat powder & only then comes the cocoa mass; simulates a Milk Chocolate with Easter Bunny chocolate flavorings, a haute candy of high order
2015
Cheeky Fruits -- gorgeous pastel-raspberry shade; on the tongue a White Chocolate / milk surge flushed with sugar crystals held in a waxen texture & cute fruits (raspberry / orange / mango / lemon); fine pablum
Superfood -- Medium Raw -- hey, carnivores order medium-rare steaks in restaurants so chocolatarians, thanks to Herr Zotter, may request likewise; sticky goo stocked with açai, maca, algae, reishi + green tea so health freaks can now geek over choc sheets to investigate the inverse relationship of fine flavor to nutritional benefits
Zotter Coffee -- Zotter needs no crutches -- of course he can coffee without toffee (see Hand Scooped 2015 collection below); notwithstanding his apparent preference for taking coffee with cream & sugar as opposed to straight black, this hits more head-on with friendly collision-course café in a sort of loco mocha; not espresso, just expressive
2014
Soja weiß -- a White Chocolate made with soy milk rather than cow's milk &, frankly, tastes of it… as though poured straight from one of those cardboard containers with cocoa butter as a stealth ingredient &, more so, anise + cinnamon; RATING 7.83
Soja Dunkel -- dirty blonde portrays this vegan Dark-Milk (40% cacáo-content) in a chocolate soy milk essentially… accented nicely by cinnamon that galvanizes a bean-cum-chestnut inflection; possibly deserves its own separate bar review; RATING 8.17
Minze -- a double dose of mint, yes, two, two mints in one; the first in 70% Dark (ironically cozy as much as cool as the cocoa mass 'n butter +, moreover, salt, warm the frostbite of peppermint oil), the other in 40% Milk Chocolate RATING 8.69
Superfood -- gotta respect dubbing this "medium raw" ala "medium rare" at a steakhouse; a health food store-medible loaded with the battery of bulk goods including 75% "raw" cacáo-content, acai, matcha green tea, chlorella, macs, & palm sugar; all adds up to the opposite of delicacy… i.e., a crudity; once more Zotter displays masterful understanding that people of the "raw" ilk demand such taste; RATING 6.00
"Hand-Scooped" Chocolate Collection
2016
Artificial Fertiliser (for Spirit & Soul) -- what a title to re-imagine immaculate conception via artificial insemination.
The battery of ingredients too exhaustive to list -- a tiny sample includes hemp, ginseng, baobab, chlorella... basically everything but granny's panties (oops, hold it, they might be in here too; nope, just a temporary dyslexic misreading) &, yet, despite the cornucopia, a strangely streamline flavor (relatively speaking) punctuated by citrus zests & coconut shreds.
Firewood Brandy -- Zotter better than anyone explains:
Noble Bitter Chocolate filled with Firewood Brandy Ganache (contains alcohol)
His favorite creation. 'Wood chocolate' without the chips! Timber inspired by winemaking (barrique barrels). Traditionally, these barrels are burnt slightly, producing a layer of char or toast (double-entendre) responsible for all those fine vanilla & wooden flavor tones.
For the firewood ganache, Zotter toasted pieces of spruce, larch & pine wood, then caramelized them in the oven & steeped in sugarcane schnapps. The resulting homebrew brandy is combined with milk chocolate, caramel chocolate + a little honey for an intense cream-tasting of woody liqueur, & ultimately covered in 70% cacao-content Dark chocolate.
Perhaps lost in translation of all this, on the surface it appears to be kids' stuff (see ingredients below) with an obvious fake ID. But rubbing-strength alcohol vapes the oral chamber. One of the few such combos by Zotter showing glucose restraint. Yep, legal age appropriate.
Ingredients: raw cane sugar, cocoa mass, cocoa butter, firewood brandy°(alcoholic extract of larch, spruce & pine), full cream milk powder, caramel powder(skimmed milk, whey, sugar, butter), milk, glucose invert sugar syrup, honey, whole cane sugar, salt, soy lecithin, vanilla, cinnamon; Cocoa (cocoa mass & cocoa butter): 70% minimum in the Noble Bitter Chocolate
Black & White -- ... because that's the way of the world, right? Day & night; good & evil; African & Caucasian... ohhhh, kiddies, Herr Zotter knows better & thus shades the stark contrast of a Dark chocolate ganache surrounded by pale cocoa butter shell with "sugar cane brandy" (think 'rum') that takes the flavor concourse into less a choctail direction than toward an apértif... with relish.
Balsamic Orange -- luv Zotter's penchant for naming his bars after the main ingredients, to state the obvious, & then confecting a combine of anything but; this, for instance, essentially a dense fruitcake of rarefied impressions & magnitude replete with nut inflections (though none added unless, of course, counting the cocoa nut), the grape & the citrus (grappa & concentrate respectively) united in apple balsam vinegar so that the alcohol vaporizes the other 2 in equilibrium of exquisite proportions; unparalleled hi-craft
2015
Apple & Sea Buckthorn with Vanilla -- an unappetizing jaundiced hue to the look quickly dispelled by an applesauce-apricotish (the latter the buckthorn effect) fruit surge. Über sweet / tart at 63% cacáo-content.
Red Currant Chile Rock -- really well-timed; currant-cum-raspberry in 70% Dark Chocolate cover backed in all sorts of sweet goodness from sugars to whey-lactose powders, puckers up the mouth over some considerable length of a gradual buildup which culminates in a pepper-ping at the very tail
Chocolate Mint -- the name states it; dunno if Josef Zotter's daughter / biz partner, Julia, ever joined the Austrian equivalent of the young ladies organization, probably not anyways since this ventures well beyond Girl Scouts® cookies territory into mint jelly; strong & long, of a durable & elaborate complex both in terms of construction + flavor; a wondrous spread across the palate… refreshing at the front, then manifold at the back, including a dark gingerbread close; only Zotter
Montélimar -- Zotter knows no boundaries as he usurps French sovereignty with this nougat of a pleasure-craft linked to the village of Montélimar in Drôme, the southeast portion of France; here, soft crunch from the macerated nuts (pistachios, filberts + almonds) soaked in milk choc, sugar, honey, & egg whites; a cloy-toy of hyper-sweet seduction; oui, l'appeler un chocolatier sans frontiers
Typically Austria -- a return home, Zotter goes all poppycock, as in cocksure with poppy seeds… + walnuts + cinnamon + a bevy of more enticements (like almonds, ginger, cream) to fuse into a sort of cake-meal atypical of just about any other chocolate
Blue Poppyseed -- black, blue or white poppyseed belong to the opium family, enough so to generate false positives on drug tests; this bar just spikes the needles to get users fired in classic Milk Chocolate confection ringing with caramel overtones chasing poppies like so many shreds of confetti that mind-melt the snowflakes into delirium
Coffee Toffee -- yeah it rhymes... acoustically & organoleptically... floetry -- the soft power of Zotter in carefully deploying coffee which could easily overwhelm the progression but instead furnishes heft & support to complement the other components in a rich tapestry that sums up maple-pecan pancake syrup (none actually added);
Basmati Rice with Saffron -- intense right from the initial inhale to the last throat-clearing; the prime advertised additives interestingly hang back in favor of raspberry vinegar which carries a booze-force vapor that rice, treated as a milk here, & the metallic-hay stack given off by saffron then surround at the peripherals; highly unusual (at least in a confected chocolate format), creative, & sweetly executed (credit glucose)
Saffron & Pistachios -- so natural together; both basically Persian & the pair just duets in nimble fashion for a force multiplier FX; the Kour Pour (google him) of chocolate; a fabulist of sorts except it's all true
2014
BergEnzian -- pasted vapors; thick, heavy alcohol enshrouds bitter gentian root more so than the chocolate; for the brave-hearted only until some terrific aft-FXs as liquor calms into brandied chestnuts; RATING 8.49
Hummus -- sounds more dreadful than it tastes; hummus only 1% of this concoction with a hot start / cool finish… a cherry-marshmallow cocktail FX (literally, thanks to some grappa) bombs the senses but no cherry actually included; instead other ingredients like sesame, glucose, egg whites, & sweet whey that cream-up a white-ganache to a caramel chocolate stem of 70% cocoa-content; a lot going on -- add lemon curd + chili pepper -- & all of it hangs together with fortified strength & considerate responsibility; RATING 8.60
Messwein und Weihrauch -- nothing messy or raunchy 'bout this… just a soft-yielding, multi-layered bite down into a Milk Chocolate shell with White Chocolate filling + another strata of a cornucopia that includes 8% Zweigelt-red wine & grappa, dried currants & elderberry, frankincense + rose petals… need more?… in truth there's a plethora more but for the sake of brevity it all adds up to a dizzying carousal of coconuts, jam, chocolate, & wafer-notes toward the tail; a veritable dessert-bar; the German name literally translates "Sacramental Wine & Incense" -- with that wafer add-in holy communion too; Church Mass never tasted so sweet -- Zotter more than just a parish priest or pastor but a chocolate cardinal, a miracle-worker &, who knows, his daughter could be the pope; RATING 8.84
Kardamom + Macadamia -- cardamom a direct hit which blows delicate macs away & scatters the other forces, save for sugar & the Textural influences of all this bar's components, until late-breaking coffee cups it; RATING 7.99
Cognac + Coffee -- who else put these 2 together in chocolate? nobody 'til Zotter… crinkly texture distracts from the besotted profile, boozed up to the oaken stilts with stray wisps of coffee, their joint brilliance deferred, then seamlessly meld for an unreal synergistic finish unlike any other; an uncanny chemical match of compounds that clash only to complement as the 3 main elements agreeably interline one another; brilliance confirmed RATING 9.19
pre-2014
ZimtApfel – apple/cinnamon cream wrapped in Milk Choc; a soft mash cobbler; hedonistic in an obvious way; RATING 7.38
Sherry Trifle – Milk Choc over a restrained sherry/grappa pour that may make those reconsider their ban on alcohol & chocolate being paired together; quick melt/long decay on the spirit; RATING 8.32
Schwarzbier mit Wildreis – sounds like a deer running thru your back yard but actually just dark beer, wild rice, & Dark Choc moshed in the hop pod swamp that may be Zotter’s best integration yet; malt at the top then a smooth grain runner connecting to the bitter cocoa finish; wildly strange & likeable b/c of properly balanced elements; RATING 8.87
Lemon Curd – Dark robe/Milk fill but all chocolate w/ a rind tracer spiking; creamy, slightly acidic, mildly astringent; easy over; RATING 8.20
Kaffee-Pflaume mit Speck Krokraut – coffee-plum plant w/, yes, bacon Milk Choc which Vosges probably ripped off; kitchen catastrophe / adventurous disaster; a must-taste / involuntary spit-out; RATING 5.11
Schilcher – all-brandy all-the-time save for a chocolate whiplash; pretty Teutonic; RATING 7.94
Zitronenpolenta – another of those German words encapsulating an entire concept or at least a whole sentence; lemon tart straight off the pastry carousel served w/ corn chips & a side of chocolate; RATING 7.55
Moosbeer-Thymian – Dark robing of cranberry-thyme... mostly nougat cream; works deutsch well; RATING 8.19
Walnuss-Marzipan - Milk Choc Walnut-Marzipan; excellent paté warmed over rum where all elements get lost & rediscovered in each other; RATING 8.71
Kurbistruffel – Milk Choc pumpkinseed cream; another unique Zotter invention falling under the category of ‘what is it?’... it’s a Zotter; RATING 8.57
Banane + Muskatnuss - banana nutmeg in Dark Choc; essentially banana bread crossed by German pound cake; RATING 8.08
Mandeln mit Grapparosinen – Dark Choc w/ almond nougat & grappa-soaked raisin; typically Zotter - strangely good; RATING 8.49
WeiBer Mohn mit Zimt - White Poppyseed & Cinnamon Cream; always the most alien fragrance that somehow fits together on the tongue; 1 of Zott’s higher CQ (Chocolate Quotient) creations hit w/ brandy but the real sizzle is the cinnamon that conjures an altern between pepper & mint; RATING 9.12
Bergkase-Walnusse-Trauben - crème cheese, walnuts & grapes; cream cheese fantasy for a Milk Choc candy cheese factory; RATING 7.08
Chili Sante Fe – a chili wrangler; long on development coursing thru the brandy until a spike’s peak that mostly whimpers toward the end; good chocolate/shallow pepper; RATING 7.99
Pinienkerne gerollt in Milchschokolade und Zitrone – yeah it’s a mouthful like zeitschaungundermoutton; the name says it all & simply lists the ingredients; textured FXs of soft pellets sprayed w/ salt under a layer of Milk Chocolate, then dances off the pines w/ lemon; another bizarre chocolate werks that somehow works; RATING 8.34
Balleros Ingwer – Dark Chocolate covered ginger; full spritz & sprite on the ginger ale tip w/o sacrificing the dark power of cocoa; one of his best; RATING 8.91
Nussen Zutoten – roughly translates ‘Nut Delight’; nothin’ nutty ‘bout it; Milk choc & sweet & chock full ‘o crunchy roundness; RATING 8.27
Hauszwetschke – more from the master of surprise; if chocolate bars were movie sets, this would be Fanny & Alexander; deep brooding late-fall/early winter brandy crossing over plum... closing in on fruit cake; RATING 7.67
Pistachio Marzipan w/ Aniseed – marzipan’d out of the mouth; RATING 5.94
Bitter Classic – bitter zotter; 65% Dark cut carefully w/ milk & glucose to create a raisin under the moon; RATING 8.59
Handgeschopft- Dark Choc w/ Cream Nougat & Pistachio; about as perfect a blend as you can get; folds right into itself; Club 9 confection; RATING 9.0
Krokant-Quintett - Dark Choc filled w/ brittle; praline FXs; shadowy taste noosed by roasted sesame (though in fact it’s a 5-piece nut band); RATING 7.53
Kandierter Ingwer – another liquor-inspired confectionary, this w/ ropes of ginger entwined around Grappa but enough sugars (cane & corn) to cool the fires; add Milk Choc ganache w/ Dark enrobing, nothing spare in this Baroque bar; 8.66
Avocado mit Mandarinenjoghurt – woa, Operation Breakfast Bar; a candied oatmeal-granola edge to this tangerine-powered assemblage, draped in a white rippling-robe... hooked up by a battery of ingredients (almonds & ginger too, add avo for its textural F/Xs); int’l cuisine in scope / all-world flavor in satisfaction; 7.84
Kaffee-Datteln Balleros - dates in Whit Choc, rolled in what seems unroasted coffee powder, calmly & slowly mediates in a long café cool-down; unnerved strength, power & verve to scare taste-buds straight; 8.81
Mitzi Blue Collection
2016
Oranges + Bananas -- Food Combining charts warn against mixing acid fruits (orange citrus for instance) with sweet fruits (like banana) which creates gastrointestinal havoc. Ha ha ha, like bio-chemistry ever got in the way to stop the Zott.
Without outright flaunting the rules of digestion, Zotter designs a bar in the shape of a disk with separate concentric flavors circling each other (banana on the inner ring & orange the outer), knowing full well consumers will break the rules for themselves. Properly scored & broken, the fruits can be ingested independently but, again, why bother.
A riotous mash-up.
pre-2014
Kürbiskern – what smells of pumpkin seed stuck on floor wax tastes of, well... pumpkin seed & cocoa butter scraped off a well-polished floor imparting some wooded scent; unique; RATING 7.79
Cashew – w/ parika & pineapple; very sequential; Milk Choc aspects load at the forefront, carry cashew in their wake w/ peripheral fruit followed on by spice, then in the aft-math... tremendous synergy into an orchard stack; RATING 8.68
Bananen-Zimt – pure breakfast granola on the inhale from the bulk section of the organic health food store; banana, cinnamon & 37% cocoa butter standing in for oatmeal; pure banana cream pie on the tongue (White Chocolate instead of whipped cream; cinnamon for the graham cracker crust & banana as itself); RATING 8.23
Sesame – 33% seed count set in a light Milk Choc (nearly White), their joint oils bathing & lathering while whole sesame seeds exfoliate the taste buds as the Nicaraguan-sourced cacáo spices them; grand fusion; RATING 8.84
Dankeschön – very much... another one of those butter-over-mass propositions as cashew creams-up w/ cocoa oils for an ultra hi-brow edit on Nutella™ (call it Zottella) w/ anti-skid micro-crunch salt crystals; RATING 8.86
Mit Liebe - peaceful bread-scent betrays its sexy list of ingredients (rose, marigolds & cocoa butter) as this whey-heavy piece never turns the love-jets on & instead just crashes into a flowerbed; RATING 6.91
Nussmix – super-suave nut mix (brazil & filberts) w/ backing bark in sweet Milk Choc; RATING 8.55
Reviewed Summer 2011
Updated November 13, 2014
Re-Upped December 21, 2015
Doubled-up February 17, 2016
Re-Doubled-up November 22, 2016
Labooka Flavored Bar Collection
2016
Buckwheat -- stiff texture signals an inverted "dark" bar -- no dairy but sugar & cocoa butter the dominant ingredients followed by 20% buckwheat powder & only then comes the cocoa mass; simulates a Milk Chocolate with Easter Bunny chocolate flavorings, a haute candy of high order
2015
Cheeky Fruits -- gorgeous pastel-raspberry shade; on the tongue a White Chocolate / milk surge flushed with sugar crystals held in a waxen texture & cute fruits (raspberry / orange / mango / lemon); fine pablum
Superfood -- Medium Raw -- hey, carnivores order medium-rare steaks in restaurants so chocolatarians, thanks to Herr Zotter, may request likewise; sticky goo stocked with açai, maca, algae, reishi + green tea so health freaks can now geek over choc sheets to investigate the inverse relationship of fine flavor to nutritional benefits
Zotter Coffee -- Zotter needs no crutches -- of course he can coffee without toffee (see Hand Scooped 2015 collection below); notwithstanding his apparent preference for taking coffee with cream & sugar as opposed to straight black, this hits more head-on with friendly collision-course café in a sort of loco mocha; not espresso, just expressive
2014
Soja weiß -- a White Chocolate made with soy milk rather than cow's milk &, frankly, tastes of it… as though poured straight from one of those cardboard containers with cocoa butter as a stealth ingredient &, more so, anise + cinnamon; RATING 7.83
Soja Dunkel -- dirty blonde portrays this vegan Dark-Milk (40% cacáo-content) in a chocolate soy milk essentially… accented nicely by cinnamon that galvanizes a bean-cum-chestnut inflection; possibly deserves its own separate bar review; RATING 8.17
Minze -- a double dose of mint, yes, two, two mints in one; the first in 70% Dark (ironically cozy as much as cool as the cocoa mass 'n butter +, moreover, salt, warm the frostbite of peppermint oil), the other in 40% Milk Chocolate RATING 8.69
Superfood -- gotta respect dubbing this "medium raw" ala "medium rare" at a steakhouse; a health food store-medible loaded with the battery of bulk goods including 75% "raw" cacáo-content, acai, matcha green tea, chlorella, macs, & palm sugar; all adds up to the opposite of delicacy… i.e., a crudity; once more Zotter displays masterful understanding that people of the "raw" ilk demand such taste; RATING 6.00
"Hand-Scooped" Chocolate Collection
2016
Artificial Fertiliser (for Spirit & Soul) -- what a title to re-imagine immaculate conception via artificial insemination.
The battery of ingredients too exhaustive to list -- a tiny sample includes hemp, ginseng, baobab, chlorella... basically everything but granny's panties (oops, hold it, they might be in here too; nope, just a temporary dyslexic misreading) &, yet, despite the cornucopia, a strangely streamline flavor (relatively speaking) punctuated by citrus zests & coconut shreds.
Firewood Brandy -- Zotter better than anyone explains:
Noble Bitter Chocolate filled with Firewood Brandy Ganache (contains alcohol)
His favorite creation. 'Wood chocolate' without the chips! Timber inspired by winemaking (barrique barrels). Traditionally, these barrels are burnt slightly, producing a layer of char or toast (double-entendre) responsible for all those fine vanilla & wooden flavor tones.
For the firewood ganache, Zotter toasted pieces of spruce, larch & pine wood, then caramelized them in the oven & steeped in sugarcane schnapps. The resulting homebrew brandy is combined with milk chocolate, caramel chocolate + a little honey for an intense cream-tasting of woody liqueur, & ultimately covered in 70% cacao-content Dark chocolate.
Perhaps lost in translation of all this, on the surface it appears to be kids' stuff (see ingredients below) with an obvious fake ID. But rubbing-strength alcohol vapes the oral chamber. One of the few such combos by Zotter showing glucose restraint. Yep, legal age appropriate.
Ingredients: raw cane sugar, cocoa mass, cocoa butter, firewood brandy°(alcoholic extract of larch, spruce & pine), full cream milk powder, caramel powder(skimmed milk, whey, sugar, butter), milk, glucose invert sugar syrup, honey, whole cane sugar, salt, soy lecithin, vanilla, cinnamon; Cocoa (cocoa mass & cocoa butter): 70% minimum in the Noble Bitter Chocolate
Black & White -- ... because that's the way of the world, right? Day & night; good & evil; African & Caucasian... ohhhh, kiddies, Herr Zotter knows better & thus shades the stark contrast of a Dark chocolate ganache surrounded by pale cocoa butter shell with "sugar cane brandy" (think 'rum') that takes the flavor concourse into less a choctail direction than toward an apértif... with relish.
Balsamic Orange -- luv Zotter's penchant for naming his bars after the main ingredients, to state the obvious, & then confecting a combine of anything but; this, for instance, essentially a dense fruitcake of rarefied impressions & magnitude replete with nut inflections (though none added unless, of course, counting the cocoa nut), the grape & the citrus (grappa & concentrate respectively) united in apple balsam vinegar so that the alcohol vaporizes the other 2 in equilibrium of exquisite proportions; unparalleled hi-craft
2015
Apple & Sea Buckthorn with Vanilla -- an unappetizing jaundiced hue to the look quickly dispelled by an applesauce-apricotish (the latter the buckthorn effect) fruit surge. Über sweet / tart at 63% cacáo-content.
Red Currant Chile Rock -- really well-timed; currant-cum-raspberry in 70% Dark Chocolate cover backed in all sorts of sweet goodness from sugars to whey-lactose powders, puckers up the mouth over some considerable length of a gradual buildup which culminates in a pepper-ping at the very tail
Chocolate Mint -- the name states it; dunno if Josef Zotter's daughter / biz partner, Julia, ever joined the Austrian equivalent of the young ladies organization, probably not anyways since this ventures well beyond Girl Scouts® cookies territory into mint jelly; strong & long, of a durable & elaborate complex both in terms of construction + flavor; a wondrous spread across the palate… refreshing at the front, then manifold at the back, including a dark gingerbread close; only Zotter
Montélimar -- Zotter knows no boundaries as he usurps French sovereignty with this nougat of a pleasure-craft linked to the village of Montélimar in Drôme, the southeast portion of France; here, soft crunch from the macerated nuts (pistachios, filberts + almonds) soaked in milk choc, sugar, honey, & egg whites; a cloy-toy of hyper-sweet seduction; oui, l'appeler un chocolatier sans frontiers
Typically Austria -- a return home, Zotter goes all poppycock, as in cocksure with poppy seeds… + walnuts + cinnamon + a bevy of more enticements (like almonds, ginger, cream) to fuse into a sort of cake-meal atypical of just about any other chocolate
Blue Poppyseed -- black, blue or white poppyseed belong to the opium family, enough so to generate false positives on drug tests; this bar just spikes the needles to get users fired in classic Milk Chocolate confection ringing with caramel overtones chasing poppies like so many shreds of confetti that mind-melt the snowflakes into delirium
Coffee Toffee -- yeah it rhymes... acoustically & organoleptically... floetry -- the soft power of Zotter in carefully deploying coffee which could easily overwhelm the progression but instead furnishes heft & support to complement the other components in a rich tapestry that sums up maple-pecan pancake syrup (none actually added);
Basmati Rice with Saffron -- intense right from the initial inhale to the last throat-clearing; the prime advertised additives interestingly hang back in favor of raspberry vinegar which carries a booze-force vapor that rice, treated as a milk here, & the metallic-hay stack given off by saffron then surround at the peripherals; highly unusual (at least in a confected chocolate format), creative, & sweetly executed (credit glucose)
Saffron & Pistachios -- so natural together; both basically Persian & the pair just duets in nimble fashion for a force multiplier FX; the Kour Pour (google him) of chocolate; a fabulist of sorts except it's all true
2014
BergEnzian -- pasted vapors; thick, heavy alcohol enshrouds bitter gentian root more so than the chocolate; for the brave-hearted only until some terrific aft-FXs as liquor calms into brandied chestnuts; RATING 8.49
Hummus -- sounds more dreadful than it tastes; hummus only 1% of this concoction with a hot start / cool finish… a cherry-marshmallow cocktail FX (literally, thanks to some grappa) bombs the senses but no cherry actually included; instead other ingredients like sesame, glucose, egg whites, & sweet whey that cream-up a white-ganache to a caramel chocolate stem of 70% cocoa-content; a lot going on -- add lemon curd + chili pepper -- & all of it hangs together with fortified strength & considerate responsibility; RATING 8.60
Messwein und Weihrauch -- nothing messy or raunchy 'bout this… just a soft-yielding, multi-layered bite down into a Milk Chocolate shell with White Chocolate filling + another strata of a cornucopia that includes 8% Zweigelt-red wine & grappa, dried currants & elderberry, frankincense + rose petals… need more?… in truth there's a plethora more but for the sake of brevity it all adds up to a dizzying carousal of coconuts, jam, chocolate, & wafer-notes toward the tail; a veritable dessert-bar; the German name literally translates "Sacramental Wine & Incense" -- with that wafer add-in holy communion too; Church Mass never tasted so sweet -- Zotter more than just a parish priest or pastor but a chocolate cardinal, a miracle-worker &, who knows, his daughter could be the pope; RATING 8.84
Kardamom + Macadamia -- cardamom a direct hit which blows delicate macs away & scatters the other forces, save for sugar & the Textural influences of all this bar's components, until late-breaking coffee cups it; RATING 7.99
Cognac + Coffee -- who else put these 2 together in chocolate? nobody 'til Zotter… crinkly texture distracts from the besotted profile, boozed up to the oaken stilts with stray wisps of coffee, their joint brilliance deferred, then seamlessly meld for an unreal synergistic finish unlike any other; an uncanny chemical match of compounds that clash only to complement as the 3 main elements agreeably interline one another; brilliance confirmed RATING 9.19
pre-2014
ZimtApfel – apple/cinnamon cream wrapped in Milk Choc; a soft mash cobbler; hedonistic in an obvious way; RATING 7.38
Sherry Trifle – Milk Choc over a restrained sherry/grappa pour that may make those reconsider their ban on alcohol & chocolate being paired together; quick melt/long decay on the spirit; RATING 8.32
Schwarzbier mit Wildreis – sounds like a deer running thru your back yard but actually just dark beer, wild rice, & Dark Choc moshed in the hop pod swamp that may be Zotter’s best integration yet; malt at the top then a smooth grain runner connecting to the bitter cocoa finish; wildly strange & likeable b/c of properly balanced elements; RATING 8.87
Lemon Curd – Dark robe/Milk fill but all chocolate w/ a rind tracer spiking; creamy, slightly acidic, mildly astringent; easy over; RATING 8.20
Kaffee-Pflaume mit Speck Krokraut – coffee-plum plant w/, yes, bacon Milk Choc which Vosges probably ripped off; kitchen catastrophe / adventurous disaster; a must-taste / involuntary spit-out; RATING 5.11
Schilcher – all-brandy all-the-time save for a chocolate whiplash; pretty Teutonic; RATING 7.94
Zitronenpolenta – another of those German words encapsulating an entire concept or at least a whole sentence; lemon tart straight off the pastry carousel served w/ corn chips & a side of chocolate; RATING 7.55
Moosbeer-Thymian – Dark robing of cranberry-thyme... mostly nougat cream; works deutsch well; RATING 8.19
Walnuss-Marzipan - Milk Choc Walnut-Marzipan; excellent paté warmed over rum where all elements get lost & rediscovered in each other; RATING 8.71
Kurbistruffel – Milk Choc pumpkinseed cream; another unique Zotter invention falling under the category of ‘what is it?’... it’s a Zotter; RATING 8.57
Banane + Muskatnuss - banana nutmeg in Dark Choc; essentially banana bread crossed by German pound cake; RATING 8.08
Mandeln mit Grapparosinen – Dark Choc w/ almond nougat & grappa-soaked raisin; typically Zotter - strangely good; RATING 8.49
WeiBer Mohn mit Zimt - White Poppyseed & Cinnamon Cream; always the most alien fragrance that somehow fits together on the tongue; 1 of Zott’s higher CQ (Chocolate Quotient) creations hit w/ brandy but the real sizzle is the cinnamon that conjures an altern between pepper & mint; RATING 9.12
Bergkase-Walnusse-Trauben - crème cheese, walnuts & grapes; cream cheese fantasy for a Milk Choc candy cheese factory; RATING 7.08
Chili Sante Fe – a chili wrangler; long on development coursing thru the brandy until a spike’s peak that mostly whimpers toward the end; good chocolate/shallow pepper; RATING 7.99
Pinienkerne gerollt in Milchschokolade und Zitrone – yeah it’s a mouthful like zeitschaungundermoutton; the name says it all & simply lists the ingredients; textured FXs of soft pellets sprayed w/ salt under a layer of Milk Chocolate, then dances off the pines w/ lemon; another bizarre chocolate werks that somehow works; RATING 8.34
Balleros Ingwer – Dark Chocolate covered ginger; full spritz & sprite on the ginger ale tip w/o sacrificing the dark power of cocoa; one of his best; RATING 8.91
Nussen Zutoten – roughly translates ‘Nut Delight’; nothin’ nutty ‘bout it; Milk choc & sweet & chock full ‘o crunchy roundness; RATING 8.27
Hauszwetschke – more from the master of surprise; if chocolate bars were movie sets, this would be Fanny & Alexander; deep brooding late-fall/early winter brandy crossing over plum... closing in on fruit cake; RATING 7.67
Pistachio Marzipan w/ Aniseed – marzipan’d out of the mouth; RATING 5.94
Bitter Classic – bitter zotter; 65% Dark cut carefully w/ milk & glucose to create a raisin under the moon; RATING 8.59
Handgeschopft- Dark Choc w/ Cream Nougat & Pistachio; about as perfect a blend as you can get; folds right into itself; Club 9 confection; RATING 9.0
Krokant-Quintett - Dark Choc filled w/ brittle; praline FXs; shadowy taste noosed by roasted sesame (though in fact it’s a 5-piece nut band); RATING 7.53
Kandierter Ingwer – another liquor-inspired confectionary, this w/ ropes of ginger entwined around Grappa but enough sugars (cane & corn) to cool the fires; add Milk Choc ganache w/ Dark enrobing, nothing spare in this Baroque bar; 8.66
Avocado mit Mandarinenjoghurt – woa, Operation Breakfast Bar; a candied oatmeal-granola edge to this tangerine-powered assemblage, draped in a white rippling-robe... hooked up by a battery of ingredients (almonds & ginger too, add avo for its textural F/Xs); int’l cuisine in scope / all-world flavor in satisfaction; 7.84
Kaffee-Datteln Balleros - dates in Whit Choc, rolled in what seems unroasted coffee powder, calmly & slowly mediates in a long café cool-down; unnerved strength, power & verve to scare taste-buds straight; 8.81
Mitzi Blue Collection
2016
Oranges + Bananas -- Food Combining charts warn against mixing acid fruits (orange citrus for instance) with sweet fruits (like banana) which creates gastrointestinal havoc. Ha ha ha, like bio-chemistry ever got in the way to stop the Zott.
Without outright flaunting the rules of digestion, Zotter designs a bar in the shape of a disk with separate concentric flavors circling each other (banana on the inner ring & orange the outer), knowing full well consumers will break the rules for themselves. Properly scored & broken, the fruits can be ingested independently but, again, why bother.
A riotous mash-up.
pre-2014
Kürbiskern – what smells of pumpkin seed stuck on floor wax tastes of, well... pumpkin seed & cocoa butter scraped off a well-polished floor imparting some wooded scent; unique; RATING 7.79
Cashew – w/ parika & pineapple; very sequential; Milk Choc aspects load at the forefront, carry cashew in their wake w/ peripheral fruit followed on by spice, then in the aft-math... tremendous synergy into an orchard stack; RATING 8.68
Bananen-Zimt – pure breakfast granola on the inhale from the bulk section of the organic health food store; banana, cinnamon & 37% cocoa butter standing in for oatmeal; pure banana cream pie on the tongue (White Chocolate instead of whipped cream; cinnamon for the graham cracker crust & banana as itself); RATING 8.23
Sesame – 33% seed count set in a light Milk Choc (nearly White), their joint oils bathing & lathering while whole sesame seeds exfoliate the taste buds as the Nicaraguan-sourced cacáo spices them; grand fusion; RATING 8.84
Dankeschön – very much... another one of those butter-over-mass propositions as cashew creams-up w/ cocoa oils for an ultra hi-brow edit on Nutella™ (call it Zottella) w/ anti-skid micro-crunch salt crystals; RATING 8.86
Mit Liebe - peaceful bread-scent betrays its sexy list of ingredients (rose, marigolds & cocoa butter) as this whey-heavy piece never turns the love-jets on & instead just crashes into a flowerbed; RATING 6.91
Nussmix – super-suave nut mix (brazil & filberts) w/ backing bark in sweet Milk Choc; RATING 8.55
Reviewed Summer 2011
Updated November 13, 2014
Re-Upped December 21, 2015
Doubled-up February 17, 2016
Re-Doubled-up November 22, 2016