01/26/2025
New product alert! Over the past few months, the absolute busiest time of year for chocolate makers, has been next-level busy adding to and shifting its wholesale lineup with new and seasonal releases that speak to industry shifts and trends.
The release of the 65% Tanzania bar, sweet and fruity with coffee notes, quietly signaled a watershed moment in Dick Taylor’s story by essentially replacing the Madagascar bar, which exited along with the Brazil origin bar late last year. That Madagascar bar has been around from Dick Taylor’s earliest days; I believe it may have been their second release, and I never thought it would go. It will be missed, but the Tanzania bar is a delight.
It’s put to excellent use as couverture for butter toffee hazelnuts, Dick Taylor’s third panned confection, a clear indicator of the confectionery angle craft chocolate is beginning to embrace. If these sound good, just wait until you taste! Each one is a textural masterpiece, with creamy chocolate, crackly toffee and crunchy roasted hazelnuts. Divine.
While the Tanzania bar’s release was borne by necessity from supply chain challenges, the Quinoa Crunch milk chocolate release is Dick Taylor’s downright overachieving. Think next-level Crunch bar, with creamy A2/A2 milk, crispy quinoa, vanilla bean and sea salt. This one also highlights that the purist days of two-ingredient single-origin bars as the sole focus of craft chocolate are behind us. Though that chocolate is central, many use it as a launching point for milks, infusions, inclusions and confections, with Dick Taylor a leading example.
And just in time for Valentine’s Day, Dick Taylor’s Strawberries and Cream seasonal release bar is back. This one’s a feat and visual feast, with heart-shaped swirls of strawberry white chocolate through Belize’s fruity chocolate base. As makers grow, seasonal releases offer an excellent opportunity to keep wholesale offerings fresh without reinventing the wheel every holiday. Smart. Fun and delicious too.