Nestle Noir Cherry bars gets my vote for great tasting chocolate. I am just not a fan of cherries with my chocloate. I did not like the taste of this bar, and I would not purchase this again. This one is for cherry lovers, doesn't agree with my taste buds.

Of the four Nestle Noir chocolate bars that I sampled, I was expecting this to be my least favourite because I am not generally a fan of cherries or chocolate covered cherries. There's something about the goeey texture of chocolate covered cherries that turns me off and reminds me of the liquid medicine I had to take for colds as a child. (It's not a surprise that I have avoided cherry-flavoured anything since childhood.) I was skeptical about whether I would like this, but I was pleasantly surprised. Instead of the soft maraschino cherries I was expecting, Nestle opted to use small bits of chewy, dried cherry. It was a very good complement to the slight bitterness of dark chocolate. While this isn't my favourite of the group, I found myself unexpectedly enjoying the Nestle Noir Cherry.

When I tried this bar for the first time, I wasn't too fond of it. I thought the cherry bits overpowered the taste of the dark chocolate. The second time I had some, I really enjoyed it. I'm a fan of chocolate covered cherries, but sometimes they can be far too sweet. I found the cherry pieces in this bar to be a little sour, which was a nice change and actually went well with the dark chocolate. I would probably pick up this bar, if the caramel wasn't available.

I really do not like traditional chocolate covered cherries. Mostly because the cherry is usually floating in the red gooey mess. So this is a welcome change. I liked the chewiness of the cherries while the bitter/sweet chocoalate melted on my tongue. I think this is a great dark chocolate change from the usually overly sweet bars on the market!

This is the first of the 4 Nestle Noir I've sampled and now I can't wait to try the other 3!

I normally prefer milk chocolate to dark, but this had a lovely rich taste and was not too sweet. The addition of cherry added a wonderful tart complexity and overall, I think the combination worked very well.

As the bar is huge and quite rich to eat at one sitting, I'm pondering culinary possibilities for this product and I think the following would be fantastic;
-grated and added to steamed milk for a delicious hot chocolate
-grated (or just smashed up) and added to any brownie recipe
-grated and melted with hot cream for a chocolate fondue

Our taste testers were:
Rachel: 32 year old woman, extreme chocolate lover
Jeff: 31 year old man, enjoys chocolate, picky eater
Kelly: 32 year old female
Ben: 30 year old male
Alice: 10 year old girl, part time host of online cooking show, enjoys chocolate

Each taste tester tried each bar, and rated it on a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being the best chocolate ever, and 1 being “yucky”. As a benchmark, we rated a plain Hershey bar and a Nestle Crunch bar as 8 on the scale. All of the bars were large, 100g compared to the 43 g of a “plain, old” Hershey bar. The bars were split into 10 squares, wrapped in gold foil (reminiscent of a Wonka Golden Ticket), and placed in a cardboard outer wrapper with graphics and information geared toward a sophisticated chocolate eater. The cardboard packaging even had instructions for how to open it!

After a bit of quick research, I read that in the April 2007 edition of “Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry”, a research team from the Nestlé Research Center (Lausanne, Switzerland) reported on Polyphenols. They claim these “powerful antioxidants” positively affect arterial function, blood pressure, cholesterol levels, insulin sensitivity and oxidative stress. The packaging says it each bar is “a good source of magnesium which helps build strong bones” and “contains 300 mg of Polyphenols per serving.”

What’s really going to sell chocolate, though, is taste.

The Cerise is dark chocolate with cherry flavored pieces. Rachel is not a fan of cherry, and at first did not want to try this flavor. Kelly said she is not a big fan of fruit mixed with chocolate. We can happily say that instead of the cherry being a thick, oozing filling, as is often the case with candy, the cherry was in small bits, about the size of Nerds candy, but softer. It is 64% cocoa solids. The ingredients do list cherries, as well as apple and pineapple, surprisingly. Alice rated the cherry bar a 5.5, Jeff gave it a 4 and Rachel & Kelly gave it a 6. Ben thought the cherry flavor got a bit lost, but gave it a 7. We noted that the cherry bar had no after taste.

In the end, Rachel enjoyed the cherry that she didn’t even want to try – due to the blend of sweet fruit flavor with semi-dark chocolate.

I'm on NutriSystem so I've been spreading the Nestle Noir love around. I shared this with my co-workers at a team meeting. I got to watch six other women enjoy the Nestle Noir Cherry bar. Everyone loved the dark chocolate mixed with dried cherries. I was expecting at least one dissenter because her husband travels to Switzerland and is always brining home exquisite Swiss chocolate. Guess what? She truly enjoyed this chocolate, cherry treat. Guess I'll have to wait until I reach my goal weight first but this is on my list of one of the treats to try - in moderation, of course. ;)

I usually really dislike chocolate with fruity fillings. This is a major exception to that rule! The base is the same velvety chocolate I love in the other Nestle Noir bars, with the addition of tiny cherry bits sprinkled through. You get that mini burst of fruity flavor but none of the disgusting cherry liqueur goop like other brands use.

I think that other flavors like orange or cranberry as others have suggested might be even better. I did enjoy this bar, but do prefer the simpler varieties just a little better. Still, thumbs up!

I have never been a big fan of cherry chocolate but this Noir Cherry had surpassed my expectations. In short, it was delicious and I'd totally buy this again. The dark chocolate was rich and smooth. The chewy cherry chunks add a fruity kick to the bitter sweet chocolate without being overpowering. I shared this with a friend of mine and she also loved the taste of this cherry/chocolate combo. Yummy!!