I know people like my chocolate posts so today we have another international tournament: Greek chocolate vs Swedish chocolate! I’m not entirely sure those two countries have ever been pitted together in any arena except football because the Mediterranean cradle of western civilisation has nothing to compare to the Scandinavian seat of northern European power. But they both have chocolate and I’m here to taste them and decide which is best.
In the red corner, quite literally, we have the Greek brand Lacta.
Now, I think this one loses immediately on appearance. While I like the bold bright minimalism of the Lacta wrapper, it also looks budget and basic. But if I turn it over, I see that it’s owned by Mondelez and that’s a very good sign because Mondelez owns pretty much all my favourite chocolate.
Lacta is almost entirely labelled in Greek, which I don’t speak at all, although I can now recognise a few – a very few! – letters. A glance at a 30+ year old phrasebook that my parents bought when they went to Corfu when I was tiny suggests that the first half of the second word there is milk and I’m reasonably confident that the first word is chocolate and besides, on the edge there are the only English words on the entire bar: milk chocolate.
In the yellow corner, we have Swedish Marabou, an old faithful and one of my favourite brands. I admit, this one is open and half-eaten. That’s because it’s the very bar used in my Swedish chocolate vs Swedish chocolate post last month.
It definitely wins on appearances. This looks like pretty good chocolate. The packaging has many colours on it and it has an absolutely perfect picture of the chocolate inside on it too.
Next up, appearance of the chocolate.
Hmm. The Lacta has got a bit battered in transit, which makes it harder to judge but it seems there are six rows of small squares and two rows with a Lacta embossed larger square. That’s interesting. It’s a bit lighter than the Marabou and a square of Lacta seems to be the best part of an entire third of the size of a square of Marabou. Right now I’m inclined to think the Marabou looks richer and more chocolatey and the Lacta looks more anaemic and under-cocoaed but we’ll see.
Time for the taste test. It’s a hard life, being a travel blogger and eating chocolate for work.
Ok, the Lacta is sort of sweet, quite milky. It tastes a bit like those little Kinder chocolate bars, the one with the “creamy milky filling”. And I’m right, the Marabou is a lot more chocolatey. It’s thicker and yes, richer. The Lacta tastes like a poor relation right after and then you get the creamy milky taste and this is not as clear cut as I thought it would be.
You know what? I really like them both but they’re not the same sort of chocolate at all. How can I pick a favourite? It’s like choosing between apples and oranges. One has the emphasis on milk, the other has the emphasis on chocolate. Marabou wins, no questions, on appearance but it’s a dead heat when it comes to taste.