Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Isle of Skye Seeds of Change Milk with Crispies

Isle of Skye Seeds of Change Milk with CrispiesSeeds of Change makes chocolate bars that are both organic and donate a portion of their proceed towards sustainable agriculture. Unlike many other niche chocolate makers, they don’t have straight chocolate bars, instead each is an eclectic mix of flavors like blueberries with walnuts or mango, coconut & cashews.

I didn’t have to look very hard to find Seeds of Change, it was at Long’s Drug, along with jumbo Hershey’s bars, Dove, Lindt and Cote d’Or. Happily it was also on sale for $2.69 for a 3.5 ounce bar.

I picked up the Isle of Skye which boasts dark milk chocolate blended with crispy puffed grains. I thought this might be the answer to the gaping hole in my candy life, a really good crisped rice bar.

This one starts with 40% cacao milk chocolate with crisps made from oats, wheat, rice, barley and millet.

The wrapper is beautifully designed with lovely engraved flourishes. It illustrates the origin of the name of the bar, the Isle of Sky is an agricultural area in Scotland that grows the various grains featured in the bar (well, maybe not the ones that are actually in the bar, but you get the idea).

Isle of Skye Seeds of Change Milk with Crispies

The bar does look pretty dark. It smells deep and smoky and a little like milk and malt.

The crispies aren’t quite as dense as I would have liked, but they’re still plentiful, making up the bottom third or half of the bar.

The chocolate is smooth and creamy, deep and complex. It blends the milky tastes of dairy in a European-style along with some noticeable burnt notes and a little hint of raisins.

The crunchies are crispy and hold up well. They have a distinct cereal taste of breakfast cereal, though not at all sweet there’s a bit of hint of malt and salt.

While I often characterize myself as a dark chocolate lover, this sort of very dark milk chocolate might be my true passion. The more I try these sorts of bars, the more I fall in love with the combination of dairy notes and smoothness with the complex flavors of the cocoa bean. (I do take a little milk in my coffee, so maybe it’s just the way I roll.)

It’s a really tasty bar and for an organic bar the price is pretty stunning, about the same price as many other mid-range brands and socially and environmentally responsible to boot. (They’re only $2.45 on the Seeds of Change webstore.) I’m accustomed to paying about this much for Ritter Sport’s Knusperflakes (Corn Flakes) bar. I wish it came in a single serve size, it could definitely out-compete Nestle Crunch even at twice the price.

Made in Italy and Kosher.

The bar is not 100% organic (the label is pretty clear about this) the soy lecithin is the only item in the ingredients that isn’t.

Related Candies

  1. World’s Finest W.F. Crisp
  2. Hershey’s Miniatures
  3. Nestle Crunch (Now Even Richer Milk Chocolate)
  4. Wheat Chocolate
  5. Palmer Nest Eggs
  6. Endangered Species: Peanut Butter Brittle & Rice Crisp
  7. K Chocolatier
Name: Isle of Skye (40% cacao milk chocolate with crisps)
    RATING:
  • 10 SUPERB
  • 9 YUMMY
  • 8 TASTY
  • 7 WORTH IT
  • 6 TEMPTING
  • 5 PLEASANT
  • 4 BENIGN
  • 3 UNAPPEALING
  • 2 APPALLING
  • 1 INEDIBLE
Brand: Seeds of Change
Place Purchased: Long's (Dublin, CA)
Price: $2.69
Size: 3.5 ounces
Calories per ounce: 143
Categories: Chocolate, Cookie, Italy, Kosher

POSTED BY Cybele AT 11:39 am Tracker Pixel for Entry    

Comments
  1. I tried to pick a gourmet chocolate bar in Target yesterday and was so overwhelmed! I couldn’t believe I had to come home and check this site so next time I’ll be ready!

    Comment by Bonney on 9/23/08 at 12:31 pm #
  2. Man Cyble, wherever you live you get the shaft on prices- $2.45 for a ritter sport? Yikes! $1.97 at target for one of the 100g bars is high out my way, their bars oddly enough rang from about $1.79 to $1.97 at my local target depending on the flavor. The biscuit bars are the cheapest, for some odd reason. They’re also my second favorite, so go figure.

    1. Cornflakes
    2. Biscuit
    3. Whole Almonds/hazlenuts

    And that bar you recviewed sounds good; I haven’t seen any of that in Target yet, maybe I need to check trader joe’s.

    Comment by Yurei on 9/23/08 at 1:18 pm #
  3. Nice!  I’m on the lookout for a crisped rice bar too.  I tried a Ghirardelli Luxe Milk Crisp bar the other week—pretty tasty but with an odd sour-milk note that took a little while to get used to.  However, this did not prevent me from eating the whole bar…

    Comment by Michaela on 9/23/08 at 6:05 pm #
  4. Yay! I’m so glad you like this bar. It’s one of my favorites. I agree with you about the dark milk chocolate. It satisfies both dark and milk choco cravings. And I would also like more of the crunchy bits in this bar. Their whole line of wrappers are so beautiful, I’ve kept one from each bar.

    I’ve only seen these at Whole Foods, so it’s nice to know they are making it to a wider market. Although, Longs won’t be around much longer…

    Comment by KateC on 9/24/08 at 6:13 am #
  5. Soy lecithin can be organic. The soy lecithin they use probably is.

    Comment by Steph on 9/24/08 at 1:50 pm #
  6. Cybele's avatar

    Bonney - I feel the same way at Target. Especially the Frey bars.

    Yurei - yes, I can go to Target, but they rarely have Knusperflakes. The Cost Plus is a half a block away from my office and they’re usually $2.29 there. At the drug store they’re $2.75 I think, unless on sale.

    Michaela - I haven’t seen the Ghirardelli, I’ll keep an eye out for it. It’s like I’m collecting crisp bars lately.

    KateC - hopefully whoever buys Longs will keep their confectionery buyer on staff, too.

    Steph - yes, soy can be organic, but they specifically say that it isn’t in this particular bar. (I don’t know why, I know I’ve seen it in others or at least marked Non-GMO.)

    Comment by Cybele on 9/24/08 at 1:57 pm #
  7. Grocery Outlet in Portland (Gresham store on Division) has these for 99 cents right now, as well as the dark chocolate/coconut and milk chocolate/hazelnut. Yumminess at a great price!

    Comment by Liz/PDX on 2/26/09 at 2:45 pm #
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