Notes on chocolate: a thrilling new cocoa powder discovery

There is a creamy new hot chocolate favourite in the house

Funny how last week I was talking about finding good Yorkshires, because I’ve since sampled something even better. Yorkshire pudding wraps: actual Yorkshire puddings, made flatter, wrapped around an actual whole roast dinner. And I ate one, on the street, in Yorkshire. Dreams do come true!

But: chocolate. A new hot choc favourite in my house is Chocolarder's House Blend 64%, £12.50. It's a powder blended from cocoa from two different estates to give just the right mixture of depth and creaminess, in a reusable tin, but the really important bit is that it's really good hot chocolate.

Sometimes you do have to try things you don't think you’d like, but therein lie some lovely surprises. Such was Marou's Popped Rice and Coconut Milk bar, £2.95. Marou, a Vietnamese maker, makes normal-size chocolate bars, but these are smaller, chunkier, the sort of thing you’d pop in your pocket and eat in one sitting. I tested it out of obligation and finished it out of sheer love. There are three other incarnations, all dark chocolate in the mid-60s. I’m keen to try the peanut, ginger and salted caramel version. The Iron Bar, £2.95, had tropical fruits, crunchy cashews and toasted oats. It's like a cross between a Yorkie bar and a Fruit & Nut bar if both had grown up to be 2023 craft chocolate versions.

Finally, I must mention Eponine again for its Honey Nougat bar, £6. Many people have tried to make a more upmarket Toblerone, but this is the one that comes closest. Proper stick-to-your-teeth bits of nougat in 39% milk chocolate. Absolutely exquisite.

Follow Annalisa on Twitter @AnnalisaB