Smooth, melt-in-your mouth texture. Strong dark chocolatey taste, but with enough sweetness that is doesn't taste like cheap chocolate. The combination of bitter and sweet was just enough. Not too much of either. I enjoyed that this one is plain with no "bits" in it. The taste is a bit strong to sit and eat the entire thing, but a square here and there or crumbed over some ice cream is great!

Of the 4, this one ranked as number 2! I love plain dark chocolate, and was happy to see that they included one that didn't have any extra features (like the caramel, cherry or the cocoa bean pieces). I did find the intense to have more of a bite compared to the others, which of course was expected, though it didn't seem to be too much different from other brands of dark chocolates I've tried. I did find though that it was very smooth and creamy, and melted in my mouth, which made it stand out from most dark chocolates. This is one that would be perfect to sit back and enjoy with a nice hot drink.

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

Rated 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!

In Nestle’s experiment with Nestle Noir, they have added value to their brand by creating new flavors and utilizing recent research to make buyers think that this snack food will not make them feel guilty or fat, but rather relaxed and heart-healthy. This is not a chocolate bar you’ll see melting in a 7-year-old’s palm, but rather an adult’s much deserved “special treat”. 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. We tasted the Intense, made with 70% Cocoa solids. The package says it “snaps at first bite”, which we did not agree with. We have had dark chocolate bars with more intense flavor and more “bite”, such as Cacao Reserve by Hershey’s. We did find this bar to be yummy and the creamiest of the four flavors. Ben noted it was not bitter. Alice gave it a 7, Jeff gave it a 6 and Rachel gave it a 7, Kelly & Ben gave it a 9. This was the first candy bar of the 4 flavors to disappear completely.

Kelly and Ben loved the creaminess of the Intense.

i loved this one out of the 4 i tried the best - creamy, smooth, and melts in your mouth! surpringly, not anywhere near as bitter as the Eclat Noir, which surprisingly has a lower dark chocolate content but is much more bitter.

It's funny - out of all of the Noir bars, I expected to like this one the best. I was a bit shocked to see that it was my second least favourite from the line.

While tasting the four bars, I had purposely left this to the end of the line to taste. Having sampled a pretty good dark chocolate base in the other bars, I expected to encounter the same flavour in the straight-up, chocolate only bar. I was disappointed to say that I didn't. I feel like the chocolate in the chocolate-only bar was less complex and less flavourful then the bases used in the mix-in bars. That made me sad.

Chocolate shouldn't make a girl sad.

Damn you, Noir Intense. You deserve a fist shaking for your inability to live up to expectation.

This was truly a wonderful treat! I thought this would be too intense for me but it was extremely delicious and enjoyable. It was very creamy, smooth, sweet and really not bitter at all for the amount of cocoa in it. It was much better than the Eclat Noir (which was quite bitter) and would definitely choose this if purchasing chocolate. I really want to repeat how creamy, smooth, sweet and delicious this chocolate was for a dark chocolate. It really was.

I love chocolate so much I can't help but chew it. But, it was so good I chose to let it melt in my mouth, which is the way you are supposed to eat chocolate, and really found myself a little bit closer to heaven for a few minutes. I think even milk chocolate lovers would like this. It's a winner for Nestle!

If you like dark chocolate you will surely enjoy this. My boyfriend is absolutely in love with this chocolate!! It has a very unique taste, and I think I enjoyed it most one square at a time with a little bit of tea. The word intense describes it best I think. For those looking for something that will satisfy with just one square instead of the whole bar, I think you will really enjoy this delicious treat!

Sometimes the best flavour comes from the simplest food. This intense dark chocolate was perfect. The bittersweet chocolate is smooth and quickly melts in your mouth. It is probably the best dark chocolate out in the market without having to pay an arm and a leg for it. While the other 3 flavours were all special in their own way, this decadent dark chocolate is simply to die for. I highly recommend this to anyone who adores dark chocolate because you will not regret this purchase!

This definitely is the best dark chocolate I have ever tried. I am surprised that Nestle could make such a decadent and rich treat! It is high quality chocolate, I find better than any other Nestle pure chocolate that's out there.

For me something that makes the chocolate feel more special is the packaging. The gold foil on the inside makes me feel like I'm opening chocolate bar with the golden ticket from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory! Just a little bit of fun anticipation you get when you open a bar of chocolate... like when you were a kid!

Nutritionally it's not that bad either. 70% dark chocolate can give you endorphins -- and lifts your mood! Plus, it is way less processed than milk or white chocolate. Although all chocolate is high in calories, the bittersweetness of dark chocolate (especially I find from this particular one) makes you crave less and eat less of it in order to feel satisfied. This one was not too bitter and had more sweetness to it, which I particularly enjoyed. All the more reason to treat yourself!

I am a big fan of dark chocolate, and this is definitely the best I've ever tried! It doesn't have the same bite that other dark chocolates have. It's a bit sweeter and very rich and creamy. Certainly not as "intense" as others I've tried, which is a good thing because while I love dark chocolate some of the more intense ones are just too much. But this one is somehow perfect with the great bitterness you want from dark chocolate without being overwhelming.