Melt White Chocolate, Strawberry & Tarragon Bar

I'll preface this review with a few points to keep in mind: I'm one of those people who really enjoys white chocolate, especially the nicer & more buttery stuff. White chocolate & strawberry are a natural flavor combination to me, and I'm quite open to interesting & different taste sensations.

That being said, I will never again eat white chocolate with French cooking herbs. There are some things that just aren't ever meant to be combined.

This was another purchase from the Chocolate Festival, and I've had some lovely things from Melt in the past so it is no fault of the chocolate - it's just the flavors not working together.

I even understand where the idea came from, as tarragon smells a bit like anise, which is like black licorice, which is by all accounts a 'sweet' in some people's mind - and it's bitter & herbaceous taste might blend nicely with white chocolate. Yeah, on paper it makes some sense - but in execution it didn't work, at least not this time, and not in this instance.

I think the first problem was that there was bits of dried herb on top of the bar - it made for a cool look, but the tasting was overwhelmed by the actual dried herbs on top, just the same as it would be for a piece of chicken that had a layer of dried herbs just crumbled on top. If it was all blended into it you get the nice merging of the flavors. Now, there were some bits inside the chocolate as well, that came off as fresher (they looked brighter green, but I'm no tarragon expert) and maybe if it had been left like that I could've handled eating it - but as it was, I took one bite and threw the rest out. First time I can remember where I've thrown away chocolate - especially the good stuff like this!

It was really quite bad to me - the white chocolate was basically just a carrier for tarragon and strawberry, the gentle buttery taste of it was completely lost to the tangy sweetness from the strawberry and the alkaline, herbaceous & savory taste of the tarragon. Which is so not a nice combination. I mean, maybe my palette isn't refined enough, I'll admit that - but for people considering this bar, you've got to know that it isn't just a 'hint' of tarragon, and just doesn't gel that nicely. Genuinely, it tastes like the tarragon was a mistake, like someone meant to add another spice or just more strawberry, but they got mixed up. There's not no 'coming together' of the flavors, and the dried herbs on top make the texture strange & just up the flavors & smell of the already overwhelming tarragon.

This certainly doesn't discourage me from buying Melt chocolates, as I know they're very good otherwise! However, I would be surprised to hear if there were any repeat buyers on this bar. The flavor combination just straight up doesn't work and that's a shame.