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Christmas is afoot and this means Annas pepparkakor starts to become as ubiquitous as the ceaseless tunes heard everywhere during this festive period. But anyone who is not seduced by these sinful confections assuredly lacks a functioning palate as one can never say no to yet another bite, and this year, Annas dares to dip its gingerbread crumbles into the highly busy and competetive chocolate market.

It entices my curiosity. It makes me wonder if it is even possible to emulsify these two elements of pepparkakor and cocoa into delectable chocolate bars. Certainly a valid concern as I have experienced first hand the miserable attempt from Marabou into making an edible product out of this amalgamation. It is often an alchemy not possible to be achieved but it sill begs to be tried, and so I did.

The red packaging knows its the audience fairly well, it immediately whispers the flavours of peppakakor into the heart of the feeble man in need of his fix, and it tightly wraps around a thick chocolate tablet. A bold choice from Annas, only the most proficient chocolate makers take a stab at such format as the quantity can easily dominate over the quality.

The first bite is somewhat uneventful, tasting no more than a regular milk chocolate. The second bite brings out the bits of gingerbread cookies, definitely a pleasant take albeit an unexceptional one. But it is on the third bite where things start to become interesting: the sweet familiar feeling of chocolate is enhanced by the addicting flavour of Annas pepparkakor and tweaked by the odd flavour of gingerbread. Every consequent bite feels like I am unraveling the flavours of Christmas, every bit of pepparkakor invoking in me the cozy warm feelings of spending Christmas tucked inside sheltered from the harsh cold world out there.

If I could taste Christmas, this is how I would imagine it would taste like.

It earns a justified 8.5 out of 10, “Santa Claus is coming to town”

–P