This Tony's Chocolonely Flavor Is Boring And Chalky

Tony's Chocolonley is a do-good chocolate brand with an important mission to end labor exploitation in the chocolate industry. The brand boasts (mostly) good, innovative flavor offerings too, ranging from milk chocolate to its "everything bar" with caramel, pretzel, almond, and nougat inclusions. However, in a recent taste test ranking of the best and worst Tony's chocolate bars, Tasting Table found a Tony's Chocolate bar that was boring and chalky: dark chocolate. A standout dark chocolate should showcase the pure taste of the cocoa, without ingredients like sugar or milk overpowering nuanced cocoa flavor notes like floral, cherry, and vanilla. Yet, when we performed a chocolate connoisseur level tasting of Tony's Dark Chocolate bar, made with 70% cocoa, there was a lack of smooth, creamy texture. Instead, we got a dry, powdery bite. 

Though it's not exactly clear what causes the brand's dark chocolate bar to fall short, it could be a matter of improper tempering, blooming (when chocolate's sugar crystallizes because of high moisture), or undissolved raw ingredients like cocoa or sugar that made the bar unpleasantly grainy. The tempering process in chocolate-making involves heating and cooling down chocolate before forming it into molds, and its purpose is to impart a melt-in-your-mouth texture that also snaps cleanly when you break off a square. Whatever the cause, the brand's dark chocolate wasn't it. So, for smooth dark chocolate, it's probably best to go with another popular chocolate brand and stick to Tony's other, sweeter flavors. 

While the dark chocolate bar from Tony's Chocolonely was a disappointment in both taste and texture, you shouldn't rule out the many other flavors the mission-oriented brand has to offer. While high percentage dark chocolate and more subtle, complex cocoa flavors do not seem to be the brand's strong point, Tony's does deliver better with lower cocoa dark chocolates like its dark chocolate almond sea salt bar with 51% cocoa, or several riffs on what it names "dark milk chocolate." For instance, Tony's Dark Milk Chocolate Toffee achieves a more flavorful palette with the addition of milk and candy pieces. However, at 42% cocoa, we found that it's still not as bold and rich as a darker chocolate should be. 

All-in-all, it seems Tony's is better suited to the front of flavor alchemy as opposed to straight-up dark chocolate goodness. If you want a chocolate bar that's got a smoother, creamier mouthfeel, try some of the brand's milk chocolate bars like Milk Chocolate Hazelnut or Milk Chocolate Caramel Sea Salt. For those craving candy-studded chocolate, some of our favorites from Tony's are the Milk Chocolate Caramel Cookie and the bar that ranked first in the taste test: White Chocolate Raspberry Popping Candy.