Bean-to-Bar Chocolate Brand from Poland, “Chocolate Story,” Is Divine, Deserves Awards

Come one, come all. Gather ’round and let me tell you a tale of great chocolate…a tale of the brand Chocolate Story (Manufaktura Czekolady). The Polish chocolate maker has produced a delicious, complex chocolate bar with their 85% Colombian cocoa offering. We love trying cocoa beans from unique destinations… and also love trying chocolate bars manufactured in unique countries from around the world. So when we saw Poland online in the Bar & Cocoa shop, we were immediately intrigued. Is Poland known for chocolate making? Is it an up-and-coming chocolate making country? Looks like Chocolate Story is the first bean-to-bar maker in the country!

Chocolate story packaging

The Chocolate Story 85% Cocoa, Colombia bar packaging was simply too beautiful for us to pass up. The front of the package depicts a serene pink, light purple and blue sunset, and a couple reaching for each other/dancing from across a gap between two cliffs… how very 2020. Romantic, tragic, and still hopeful. Maybe they will reach each other in the end and live happily ever after.

The reverse of the bar is in English and Polish, stating the nutritional information, and ingredients (including roasted cocoa beans, sugar, cocoa solids (85% min). The tasting notes were also listed, but we tried to quickly move past those as to not influence our taste-buds in advance. We’ll get back to those, later.

Buy your own Chocolate Story chocolate bars online!

There was also a little stamp picture, with the world “Balsi” and the description, “simple words, a simple smile. Simple posters, deep content.” Was this the artist or the package designer? (By the way, yes, it looks like Balsi is the packaging artist, and this art is called “Couple Playing in the Sun.”)

When you open the flap, the chocolate bar is wrapped in silver plastic, and there’s a small cardstock version of the artwork on the front of the packaging (the couple). Perhaps this is a nod to collectors cards? Like a toy in the Cracker Jack box, or a collector baseball card? We loved it.

Chocolate tasting notes

The molding of the Chocolate Story bar is simple and lovely — multiple rectangular squares with the Chocolate Story logo (two cocoa pods overlapping, with one pod open to show the cocoa beans). We snapped off a row of a few squares. The snap was clean and sharp, a good sign.

We smelled the chocolate and enjoyed a deep chocolate aroma. It smelled “bright” and somewhat fruity.

Nibbling into the chocolate, this bar immediately proved complex. We pulled up a tasting wheel online and reviewed some of the possible notes we were puzzled by, ultimately settling on:

1. Spicy: Licorice
2. Fruity: Dried banana
3. Cocoa: Baked brownie
4. Floral?: We kept getting something else at the finish that we cannot place. It’s very slightly floral. Perhaps rose?

How interesting this bar is!! Did our tasting notes match the brand’s description?

Chocolate Story’s packaging lists this bar’s tasting notes as: “Tobacco, Green Tea Matcha.”

It could be that we confused “spicy” for” smoky,” in which case our tasting of “licorice” could be loosely tied to “tobacco.” In terms of the “green tea matcha,” that is also intriguing. We didn’t get the earthy element at first, but, we can understand how matcha would make sense. Either way, this bar is wonderful.

Our description of “dried banana” may be too sweet, but there is 100% a “fruity” element of this bar, at least for us. In any case, according to some websites, Colombian cocoa is generally known for tasting from earthy and bitter to floral and vanilla. Perhaps that is why we were stuck on floral/”rose.”

It’s always fun to test ourselves when tasting chocolate! Forever learning. And remember, there isn’t a “wrong” answer when tasting chocolate! This Chocolate Story bar definitely provided a time cupsoul. It’s absolutely delicious and inspired.

It is our humble opinion that this Chocolate Story bar deserves international acclaim. We think it would place in the International Chocolate Awards.

Curious to taste this bar? This post is not sponsored, but if you’re intrigued, you can buy Chocolate Story chocolate online, here.

Wishing you a wonderful 2021. Hope that you have many time cupsouls in the coming year. Take care.

This post contains a few affiliate links, which means that if you do click through and then buy something, you may help support an insatiable coffee and chocolate habit at no cost to you. Any written opinions here are by time cupsoul/our own.