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Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.<\/span><\/p>\n Cadbury\u2019s Bournville is back on screens with its first campaign in almost 50 years. It pokes fun at the pretentiousness of the dark chocolate market. With taglines such as \u201cnothing fancy. Or schmancy\u201d, the heritage brand is positioning itself as the smooth dark chocolate that is \u201cmade to be enjoyed, not endured\u201d.<\/p>\n Cadbury\u2019s Bournville chopped hazelnut chocolate, \u00a32 for 100g. BUY<\/strong><\/p>\n Bournville has unveiled new wrappers with a cursive logo inspired by the \u201cB\u201d from the original 1908 packaging and two additional flavours, chopped hazelnut and salted caramel. The brand has also released a comic 90-second film developed with Peep Show<\/em>\u2019s Simon Blackwell in which two chocolate connoisseurs championing other brands try to outdo each other with tasting notes. Arch one-liners include \u201cthis [bar] encapsulates the bitterness of a bad break-up\u201d, \u201cthis one tastes like a phobia that hasn\u2019t been named yet\u201d and \u201cthe tasting notes on this are \u2018gloom\u2019\u201d.<\/p>\n The campaign signals an effort by Cadbury to claim its share of a rapidly growing sector. Dark chocolate accounts for only 7.2 per cent of a \u00a36.4bn UK chocolate market and yet that sector has grown by 21.5 per cent over the past year, according to Nielsen IQ \u2013 more than double the rate of the market as a whole.<\/p>\n An automatic Bournville wrapping machine in operation in the factory in 1930<\/span> <\/span>Cottages in the Cadbury village of Bournville<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n Bournville is named after the 19th-century village founded by the Cadbury brothers under Quaker ideals. Located on the river Bourn, the village\u2019s French-sounding name was adopted \u2013 ironically, given the\u00a0no-nonsense rebrand \u2013 because French chocolate was considered the most fancy at the time. Bournville is currently billed by Cadbury as the \u201cnumber one everyday dark chocolate\u201d in the UK, which pits it\u00a0against inexpensive own-label brands\u00a0such as Sainsbury\u2019s dark chocolate rather than pricier \u201cpremium\u201d products such as Green &\u00a0Black\u2019s. The most expensive \u201ccraft\u201d\u00a0category includes small-batch producers such as L\u2019Esterre and Pump Street that source and process their beans with particular care (with beans separated by origin and size for roasting, for instance) and often sell direct to consumer.\u00a0<\/p>\n A lot of bars still don\u2019t use good cocoa<\/p>\n Chocolate expert Jennifer Earle<\/p>\n \u201cIn the UK about 50 per cent of households buy dark chocolate at least once a year compared to other European countries where it\u2019s as much as 80 per cent,\u201d says Cadbury\u2019s marketing manager Michael Moore. \u201cThat\u2019s where we see\u00a0potential for Bournville: people used to milk chocolate who are looking for something more intense \u2013 perhaps because their palates have\u00a0changed as they\u2019ve got older \u2013 but are put off by the associations of\u00a0seriousness and bitterness around\u00a0dark chocolate.\u201d<\/p>\n A Bournville advert from 1910<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n Over the past 50 years, the dark chocolate market has evolved in a\u00a0way that has alienated some consumers, while the sometimes high\u00a0price point has put it out of reach of the average customer. \u201cSome craft chocolate used to taste pretty poor too,\u201d says chocolate expert and judge Jennifer Earle. \u201cA lot\u00a0of premium bars still don\u2019t use particularly good cocoa beans and taste bitter at high cocoa percentages. You can grow to like the bitterness, but for most people it\u2019s too intense.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Bournville wants to be seen as more accessible. Its recommended retail price is \u00a32.20 for a 100g bar. That is roughly equivalent to Cadbury\u2019s Dairy Milk and more affordable than most premium bars at around \u00a33.25 for 100g. Bournville is also considerably sweeter. A 100g bar contains 58g of sugar \u2013 more than twice the amount in a 75\u00a0per cent cocoa bar. Cadbury Dairy Milk contains 57g. It\u00a0also contains skimmed milk powder \u2013 contrary to the common view that dark chocolate is dairy-free and vegan. \u201cI feel like Cadbury is taking all the halo effects of dark chocolate as healthy without pointing out their dark chocolate doesn\u2019t offer most of those benefits,\u201d says Earle.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe are confident in the brand, the ingredients and the taste experience,\u201d says\u00a0Moore of Bournville\u2019s formulation, which hasn\u2019t been changed for the new campaign. He draws\u00a0a careful distinction between dark chocolate that\u00a0is\u00a0\u201cgood for [you]\u201d and chocolate like Bournville that\u00a0is a simply a \u201cme time\u201d treat.<\/p>\n Recommended<\/p>\n I found the plain dark just too sweet and barely recognisable as dark chocolate. The salted caramel bar tasted\u00a0even sweeter thanks to glucose syrup, sweetened condensed milk and other ingredients; it burned in my throat. The Old Jamaica rum and raisin was boozy as hell. My other half quite liked it. My favourite was the chopped hazelnut, mostly because the nuts masked any cloying sugariness. For all that sweetness, though, the range left a bitter taste in my mouth. It would be nice if everyone had access to good dark chocolate. Bournville isn\u2019t that.\u00a0<\/p>\n @ajesh34<\/em><\/p>\n Original Beans Virunga 70 per cent chocolate<\/p>\n Price: <\/strong>\u00a36 for 70g<\/p>\n BUY<\/strong><\/p>\n Pump Street Uganda 78 per cent chocolate<\/p>\n Price: <\/strong>\u00a38.95 for 70g<\/p>\n BUY<\/strong><\/p>\n Ocelot Black Cherry 70 per cent chocolate<\/p>\n Price: <\/strong>\u00a36.99 for 70g<\/p>\n BUY<\/strong><\/p>\n L\u2019Esterre 85 per cent Grenada chocolate buttons<\/p>\n Price: <\/strong>\u00a37 for 60g<\/p>\n BUY<\/strong><\/p>\n Firetree Madagascar Sambirano Valley 84 per cent chocolate<\/p>\n Price: <\/strong>\u00a34.25 for 70g<\/p>\n BUY<\/strong><\/p>\nFive dark secrets<\/h3>\n