‘I have a lot of time for Ugandan cocoa beans’

Ignore the naff ‘made in Belgium’. No cocoa beans are grown in Belgium, or Switzerland for that matter. It doesn’t mean really good chocolate can’t be made there, as demonstrated by this bar, but it’s not a sign of anything other than manufacture.

I have a lot of time for Ugandan cocoa beans. Both Asda and Waitrose have excellent Ugandan bars in the 85% range. Neuhaus’s, at 5% lower than these, has a slight sugar advantage and it’s really creamy. Well worth a try if you like higher cocoa-content chocolate but maybe have had to be convinced to get there.

But! The real discovery for me at Neuhaus was their Dark Praline Assorted Ballotin (from £42). The chocolates are in layers, but with no little cases, so all butted up together in a veritable treasure trove. And they were just delicious. My first taste: a Caprice, a chewy nougatine with a vanilla cream, was just freeze-frame good and I’ll remember it for a long, long time.

Meanwhile, Waitrose has launched a new bar: White Chocolate with Pistachio Nuts and Sea salt, £2.75. ‘Smooth and creamy with crunchy roasted pistachio pieces,’ the wrapper says. I wouldn’t know, because when I got to test it it had all gone.

There’s a rule in our house, unwritten but strict, ‘Never finish the last piece in case Annalisa needs to write about it.’ Not adhered to on this occasion. Apparently it was ‘amazing and not at all overly sweet’. Let me know.