We Tried Hu Chocolate's Best-Selling Bars And Ranked Them

If you melt over chocolate like I do, you'll understand why I jumped at the chance to try Hu Chocolate's best-selling bars when offered the opportunity to review them. Just the word "chocolate" gets the mouth watering and heart rate up in anticipation of the dark, sweet, creamy treat. But when your taste buds are ready for you to chomp into thick, delicious goodness, the last thing you want is to be disappointed. Well, that's how the co-founders of Hu Chocolate felt and what drove them to create simple-ingredient chocolate bars.

Claiming "no weird ingredients, ever," Hu Chocolate bases its various chocolate bars on three primary ingredients: cacao, cocoa butter, and unrefined coconut sugar. Happy to keep ingredients to a minimum, I was intrigued by the simple list but admittedly had to wonder how they would taste -- especially when the chocolate is marketed as having an "unbeatable taste." For chocolate lovers, that's a bold claim to hear.

I received a box of eight chocolate bars, which were noted as best sellers. From simple milk chocolate to combination flavors, the range of chocolate bars did not disappoint. I had my favorite and least favorite among the bunch, but in the end, it comes down to your personal preference. The base chocolate is classic, clean-tasting, and thankfully has no aftertaste. Hu Chocolate isn't too sweet, is consistent throughout, and makes for a delicious treat.

Some recommendations are based on firsthand impressions of promotional materials and products provided by the manufacturer/distributor/etc.

Read more: 25 Chocolate Brands, Ranked Worst To Best

8. Almond Butter Milk Chocolate

The day peanut butter and chocolate got together, creating one of life's best pairings, the heavens rejoiced. But seriously, chocolate and peanut butter are not easily outdone by another flavor combination (have you tried cheese and chocolate paired together, though?) Similar to peanut butter, it's no surprise that pairing chocolate and almond butter is a hit.

All of Hu Chocolate's bars feature fair-trade chocolate with organic ingredients. This milk chocolate bar filled with almond butter features seven ingredients, all of which are simple enough that you could technically make this chocolate at home if you're a whiz in the kitchen. In addition to boasting no strange ingredients, Hu Chocolate claims its chocolate products are free of soy, palm oil, lecithins, and emulsifiers. Furthermore, the company cares about where its ingredients are sourced and crafts its chocolate with milk from grass-fed cows.

Hu Chocolate's almond butter milk chocolate bar reminded me of a high-end peanut butter cup -- with far less filling. Much to our pleasant surprise, it wasn't overly sweet like your typical peanut butter cup. Though it wasn't outstanding in any particular way, it was everything you'd want in a nutty, chocolatey combination. I didn't, however, notice a crunch, and because it had some tough competition, it unfortunately ended up in last place.

7. Cashew Butter Milk Chocolate

Cashews have a culinary quality that can expand your kitchen skills. They add a thick, buttery, creaminess to a multitude of savory or sweet sauces when they're soaked and pureed. There are a variety of other creative ways to use cashews; naturally, making cashews into cashew butter is on the list. Like almonds, cashews are fairly mild and hold a distinct flavor.

I love cashews and admit to eating more than my fair share over the years, so my expectations were a little high with this bar. Hu Chocolate's milk chocolate bar filled with cashew butter is a chocolate and nut combination worthy of a tasty, best-selling bar. Cashew butter matches the deep richness of chocolate but adds a nutty bite, which makes another happy dessert pairing. It didn't knock my socks off, but combining cashew's rich density and milk chocolate's smooth creaminess created a satisfying mouthful.

6. Cashew Butter Dark Chocolate

Hu Chocolate's cashew butter dark chocolate bar also features vanilla bean. In addition to staying clear of weird ingredients and caring where ingredients are sourced from, Hu Chocolate ensures the ingredients in its dark chocolate are compatible with a vegan lifestyle. Depending on where you fall on the dark chocolate scale, this dark chocolate is either perfect for you or not dark enough. Customers like that the 70% dark chocolate is neither bitter nor too sweet. And I agree -- it's not remotely bitter nor overly sweet.

But when I see the term dark chocolate, my taste buds expect a certain level of bitterness -- an underlying sharp tang that signals the back of the tongue, similar to strong coffee. I know some folks can be picky about dark chocolate, so in all fairness, I wouldn't call this a true dark chocolate. I would, however, call it delicious. The hint of vanilla was a nice complement to both nutty cashew and rich dark chocolate, which gave the bar a well-balanced bite.

5. Simple Dark Chocolate

Tasting Table has previously stated that Hu Chocolate ranks among the best chocolate brands; for good reason, too. With the simple ingredients and great taste, I enjoyed all of the bars I tried. Simple dark chocolate is for people looking for a milder dark chocolate that doesn't punch you in the face. It's much creamier than most dark chocolate bars I've tasted before or eaten regularly. It's neither bitter nor sweet and it doesn't linger on the tongue like many other dark chocolates tend to do.

Hu Chocolate dark chocolate is a solid option for those with dietary specifications since the company claims it's gluten-free, dairy-free, non-GMO, and Kosher. Though it's not marketed as baking chocolate, the simplicity of the ingredients coupled with the smooth taste would be a welcome addition to many dark chocolate recipes, such as dark chocolate raspberry cheesecake truffles. Can you say yes, please? But full disclosure, I wouldn't opt for this bar if I was looking for dark chocolate to snack on. It's not dark and bitter enough, which is also why most folks love it.

4. Simple Milk Chocolate

Sometimes you just want a simple milk chocolate bar -- one that delivers and satisfies that chocolate craving -- and this bar is a delicious choice. It's the type of chocolate that hits all of your taste buds in a creamy, well-balanced manner. It's not too sweet like many other milk chocolate brands on the market. There's no weird aftertaste and it's the kind of chocolate that keeps you coming back for more.

Just like its other bars, Hu Chocolate keeps the ingredients to a minimum, which is a plus for those who painstakingly read labels looking for an option that doesn't carry un-pronounceable ingredients. With just four organic ingredients, you can enjoy milk chocolate that contains fair trade cacao and cocoa butter, made with milk from grass-fed cows and sweetened with coconut sugar. Hu Chocolate is a popular chocolate product at Whole Foods, so the next time you're wandering around the store, you can pick up some milk chocolate for your sweet (but not too sweet) needs.

3. Salty Dark Chocolate

Sweet and salty are tried and true flavor combinations, and so too are salty and bitter. When I tried the Hu Chocolate salty dark chocolate bar, it was the third Hu Chocolate bar I sunk my teeth into. And I immediately declared it as my favorite. That's how tough it was for me to rank all of these bars -- I declared four of them as my favorites before I was even done.

Though Hu Chocolate salty dark chocolate struck me exactly the same as simple dark chocolate (this is how consistent I think the chocolate itself is), the salt added something to the bite that knocked the taste up significantly. The tangy bite of salt, which gets the saliva going, enhanced and highlighted the depth of dark cacao. Unlike some other salty chocolate bars I've had in the past (it is a great combination), there weren't large bits of salt, nor was it too salty. The flavor was consistent throughout the bite and bar.

2. Hazelnut Butter Dark Chocolate

I love the rich, nutty taste of hazelnut — whether it's the nut itself, flavored coffee, or paired with chocolate. So even though I had high hopes for this combination, Hu Chocolate hazelnut butter dark chocolate delivered, and it was an immediate hit. Dark, nutty hazelnut butter mixed with dark chocolate blended together to create a deep, earthy dessert bite. With just four ingredients, hazelnut butter-filled dark chocolate might also be an option for some folks with dietary restrictions.

But I'm not the only one who enjoyed smooth dark chocolate with creamy, toasty hazelnut butter. Other customers rave about this chocolate bar. It's understandable why it's a best seller. And now that I've found a tasty treat to indulge in, I'm intrigued by some of the other flavor combinations, such as hazelnut coffee dark chocolate — a mocha-style chocolate bar with chunks of hazelnuts that features only six ingredients. But though it blew my socks off, nothing could compare to the first place winner.

1. Hazelnut Butter Milk Chocolate

When I tried the Hu Chocolate hazelnut butter milk chocolate with hazelnut crunch, I just knew this was a winner. This was the chocolate bar. I did my best to refrain from eating the whole thing in one sitting. Normally, I'm a much bigger fan of dark chocolate, but I found Hu Chocolate hazelnut butter milk chocolate to be my favorite because of the added hazelnut crunch. What more could you ask for in a sweet treat? You've got milk chocolate that isn't too sweet, hazelnut butter that's rich and creamy, and the added light crunch of bits of hazelnuts. It reminded me of one of my favorite chocolate candies of all time (Ferrero Rocher) -- but with much better ingredients.

As a matter of fact, Ferrero Rocher offers a line of chocolate bars that are spin-offs of its signature chocolate and hazelnut candy truffle, but the ingredient list is not nearly as simple as Hu Chocolate. So if you're a fan of chocolate and hazelnut candies but watch every ingredient you eat, then Hu Chocolate may be your better choice.

Methodology

I was offered the chance to try some of Hu Chocolate's best-selling, simple-ingredient chocolate bars. If you love chocolate as much as I do, then you've probably sampled a number of types and brands yourself. And maybe you've even created chocolate candy recipes like I have.

My write-up focused mostly on taste. At the end of the day, people reach for chocolate because they want it to taste good and fit a certain mood. I was already happy with the short, simple ingredient list, but also paid attention to texture and bite. Bars were refrigerated for preservation (due to the warm weather climate) and then brought to room temperature. A note about eating them right from the fridge: The bars were too hard for me to enjoy them cold.

Ordinarily, each 2.1-ounce bar is $6 (when purchased in bulk online) and I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the heavier price tag for this chocolate, compared to similar brands on the market. The cost, however, did not factor into the review or ranking of flavors.

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