Non-dairy milk chocolate? How weird! That’s what I thought when I saw this chocolate bar (made with rice milk) at my local Whole Foods. Not that the idea was a bad one: There are a lot of folks (vegans, people who keep kosher, people with milk allergies) who don’t like dark chocolate, but have had to stay away from milk chocolate because of the dairy content.  A non-dairy chocolate bar with the taste and texture of milk chocolate would be a boon for these folks.

Unfortunately the price tag, $4.39 for a 3.5 ounce bar, nearly made me gag, but I dutifully forked over the cash in the name of gastronomical investigation (in other words, I was curious).

So I brought the Terra Nostra Organic’s Ricemilk Choco Dark Truffle Center (now there’s a mouthful) bar home, and opened it up.  The bar was a nice creamy brown with a sweet cocoa-y scent, but without the nice sheen that one sees in really good chocolate.

Sadly, I found my first bite to be unsatisfying: The bar reminded me of a dietetic (i.e. low sugar for diabetics)  “chocolate” bar that I had once tried, with a bland taste and a light but almost chalky texture.  I tried a few more squares, and while there were no off flavors, nor an unpleasant aftertaste, I just wasn’t impressed. Granted, I don’t have any prohibitions on eating dairy and I suppose someone who does might find this bar more appealing, but at $4.39 a pop, they would have to be really desperate.

So my quest for a non-dairy “milk” chocolate bar continues. Incidentally, those who can’t have dairy, but who also don’t care for dark chocolate, might want to try the dark chocolate offerings from Chocolove. Their dark chocolate bars are incredibly smooth and creamy: I’ve known dark chocolate haters to fall in love at first bite.

Tags: chocolate, non-dairy, rice milk, Vegan

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