World Market – 72% Dark, Pomegranate Dark, and Chipotle Chili Dark

Today I’m wrapping up my coverage of Cost Plus World Market’s store brand chocolates with three of their mini squares. You can check out earlier entries on Monday and Wednesday.

72% Dark Chocolate was a plain, solid square. Instead of looking like a smaller segment of the larger bars with the World Market logo imprint, it just had a striated top.

The chocolate first melted into fatty lumps in my mouth before smoothing out. It had a light, nearly fruity sweetness with a dry, just shy of astringent finish.

Not bad, but not great texture-wise, and nothing to crow about. An O.

Pomegranate dark chocolate had a 64% base. It had a sharp snap with the same uneven melt as the plain dark chocolate.

The chocolate started with a nice touch of fruitiness that grew progressively stronger as it melted in my mouth. The flavor developed quite nicely, though I wouldn’t have pegged it as pomegranate. Some nice plain dark chocolates can carry such a fruitiness naturally.

I enjoyed the flavor, but the texture knocked it down a peg for me. An O.

Finally, the chipotle chili dark chocolate also had a 64% cacao base. It smelled quite smoky, as expected from chipotle chilis.

I usually love chili chocolate. When it’s well done, it leaves a slightly smoldering tingle in the back of your throat.

This bar packed a firey punch that did more than smolder – it burned painfully and set my whole mouth on fire, including an especially acrid burn in my throat.

It was far too spicy for my taste. A .