Candy Bar Lab

The last Lake Champlain bar I tasted was absolutely one of the best candy bars I’ve ever had. Sadly, it’s been a while since I’ve had any of their products. Recently, I stopped at the Lake Champlain Chocolates store in Stowe, VT and was inspired to test out this peppermint bar.

Structure
A molded bar of dark chocolate with small pieces of peppermint pieces mixed in, segmented into eight large squares.

Texture
The chocolate is perfectly tempered - smooth with a firm snap. Unfortunately, the peppermint bits they’ve added don’t improve upon the texture of the plain chocolate. They’re small, hard, and not really all that delightful to bite into.
Taste
Again, the chocolate is really good and the peppermint disappoints. This is only a 54% cocoa product, which is a low percentage for dark chocolate, but right in the range that I prefer. It’s not overly sweet and not too bitter. As far as the peppermint pieces I mentioned, they disappoint because they don’t really add much flavor. There’s a hint of peppermint on the finish, but not nearly enough to live up to the billing of the packaging, which lead me to believe that peppermint was going to be the main flavor character.

Verdict
A bad candy bar by Lake Champlain Chocolates would be a huge accomplishment for some other manufacturers. Honestly though, I really didn’t enjoy this candy bar. I did like the chocolate, but would have preferred it either without the peppermint all together or with more peppermint punch built in.