Ingredients: 70% cacao beans, 30% sugar.

At the time of writing, the described bar is not yet available to purchase. Still, I am sure we shall all get acquainted with the Bønnhørt brand, as it may soon evolve into an important player in the craft chocolate market. Not only in the Kingdom of Norway, the birthplace of this ambitious new project.

What does the name mean? According to the founder, Henrik Wold Nilsen, “the name of the chocolate, “Bønnhørt”, is a Norwegian word play meaning either “prayers are heard”, or “beans are heard” – motivated by the goal of preserving the identity of the beans when turning them into chocolate”. His philosophy was clear to me even before I unpacked the bars – they smelled like some world-class Domori chocolate.

To evaluate the samples I met with Maciej Chybowski, one of the leading Polish experts in all things fine chocolate, in the past – the first Polish importer of various foreign artisan chocolate brands, including established European star, Zotter. During our tasting, we tried to compare products of this new maker with selected dark “Labooko” Zotter bars (made in Austria). What was the result? Our preference, sorted from the best:

1. Zotter Peru 82% Criollo Cuvee (blend with Porcelana strain beans)
2. Bønnhørt Belize Maya Mountain
3. Bønnhørt Jamaica
4. Bønnhørt Madagascar Sambirano
5. Zotter Peru 75% Barranquita
6. Zotter Nikaragua 60%
7. Zotter Belize 82
8. Bønnhørt Dominican Republic La Red

Silver medal, excellent result for a new kid in town! 🙂 Zotter Chocolate describes their Belize as “perfect, authentic and simply breath-taking”. I am sure these words apply more to the Bønnhørt version. Why?

Bønnhørt bar had much more interesting aroma – with orange, flowers, etc. The taste was a little bit more sour, much more diverse and eventful, slowly unfolding an interesting story. Starting with raisins and cherry, later fresh grapes, oranges, figs, and a hint of something more spicy. The finish was delicate, pleasant and almost neverending.

I would rate this truly exceptional bar 92/100, as this clearly was one of the best bars I tried in months.

More info:

Official website (work in progress)
Twitter account
Blog article (in Norwegian)