Soma Microbatch Black Science and Dark Fire

Everyone who knows me knows I love Soma chocolate and hate their awful customer service. Any shop where someone walks away while I fish for a business card or forces a woman whose water has broken to either wait her turn in line or abandon her purchases instead of letting her pay and go to hospital has awful customer service.

Problem with the shop is Soma also has fantastic chocolate.  It’s as though they know they have great chocolate and so think they can treat customers like crap because they’ll always get them back – or they’ll survive on the tourist trade.

The Dark Fire bar with its chilli was surprising.  Unlike other chocolates with chilli, this warmth isn’t the chilli of dried flakes added to chocolate and hammering your taste buds suddenly before catching in your throat.  This is a gentle warmth that delicately surrounds the mouth and comes away cleam, without a dried powdery flavour hanging in the mouth.

The Black Science Madagascar 70% (batch M11) was delicious.  Letting a square melt in your mouth was a delicious experience that surrounded your tongue in a balanced experience of fruit and bean and delicious flavour.  Unlike some single origin chocolates that tend to activate only a single area of the mouth and result in a somewhat flat flavour, this is delicious.

If possible, avoid going in to the shop or if you do, expect to be treated like something the staff scrapped off their shoe.  Much as I loathe to admit it, the chocolate is really good.  Since their site is flash it’ll be impossible to order online so you’re stuck with the shop.  Forget it – order yourself some Askinosie chocolate instead.