Certified by the Soil Association, bearing the Fairtrade symbol and an Ethical Award winner, Seed and Bean is an organic company to be admired. Read on to see my review of some of their delicious and unusually flavoured chocolate bars.

FairTrade Fortnight
Fairtrade Fortnight is coming to an end, but you still have a chance to “choose products that save lives”. Take a look at last week’s post to find out more on why buying fairtrade chocolate helps growers in poorer parts of the world. It’s worth having a look for the chocolate cashew pie recipe alone.
Seed and Bean Review
Seed and Bean is a company founded on ethical principles and all of its products are not only Fairtrade and organic, but taste good too. I’m a fan. The 18 flavours offered are interesting and the packaging is attractive. They capture my attention every time. You can find out more about their chocolate bars in this previous review, a rainbow of delight. This post is an amalgamation of three other posts where I’ve reviewed Seed and Bean organic chocolate bars, so you’ll find plenty to choose from.
Seed and Bean Chocolate Bars
This time I was sent a bar of their award winning Sicilian Hazelnut & Almond (37%) which is pure delight. It’s a milky gianduja, which is smooth, creamy and not too sweet. It has an aroma of roasted hazelnuts and a taste of Italian sophistication. I meant to try just a little bit and before I knew it the whole bar had disappeared – how did that happen?
The dark (58%) Lemon and Cardamom is also a new one on me and I’m quite enthralled by it. Like all of the Seed and Bean chocolate I’ve tried, the flavours are subtle, but they are most definitely present. Lemon and cardamom are closely aligned in flavour, yet they complement each other well. I used this chocolate to top my lemon coconut cakes.
I was intrigued to find out what the Tangerine milk chocolate bar (37%) was like as I thought it would be hard to differentiate the flavour from that of orange. The scent of citrus was there and extraordinarly it really did taste of tangerines, not oranges. It is, in fact, quite a delicious bar.
The fourth one in the pack is another milk chocolate one, Cornish Sea Salt & Lime (37%). This is a firm favourite of mine which I have reviewed before (see below). Since writing that review, Seed and Bean have, much to my delight, upped the cocoa content of their chocolate. I’m hoping they will up it again at some point as a higher cocoa content makes for a richer and less sweet chocolate. In my world, all milk chocolate would have a minimum of 40%.
Seed and Bean also sent me an additional bar of dark Espresso (58%). But please note, this is NOT part of the giveaway. I haven’t tried it yet, but I’m thinking CT will be much enamoured.
Seed and Bean New Editions
Not only is Seed and Bean an ethical company, but it has won two great taste awards from the Academy of Chocolate. It has an interesting and unusual flavour range including coconut & raspberry, lemon & cardamom, pumpkin seeds & hemp oil and Cornish sea salt. Recently they brought out a range of new flavours and a while ago they sent me two of their new bars to review. The chocolate they use for the majority of bars is a good quality Trinitario from the Dominican Republic, so I was expecting to like them. Luckily, I wasn’t disappointed. And now I’ve tasted them, all I can say is I wish they’d sent me more.
Lemon & Poppy Seed
Creamy White Chocolate cane sugar, cocoa butter, whole milk powder, poppy seeds, lemon oil, soya lecithin, vanilla powder.
Whilst I am a big fan of using white chocolate in baking, I usually find it too sweet and sickly to eat on its own. However, this bar is neither overly sweet nor sickly and if CT hadn’t been around I would have happily eaten the whole bar all by myself. The lemon offsets any excessive sweetness that might linger on the palate. I was also pleased to discover that the lemon is quite subtle and tastes more zesty than sour.
The poppy seeds give a delightful crunch to proceedings and have a delicate nutty flavour all of their own. I’ve made lemon and poppy seed cake many a time and now I’m wondering why I’ve never added white chocolate to it – something which needs to be remedied I feel. I’m almost tempted to use a bar of this chocolate to make the cake. But perhaps that would be a waste of a good bar? It did get a great taste gold award after all.
Mandarin & Ginger
Extra Dark Chocolate 72%. cocoa mass, cane sugar, cocoa butter, vanilla extract, mandarin oil, ginger oil.
The flavour of mandarin hit first followed by a really rich punch from the dark chocolate finishing with a hint of gingery warmth which lingers in the mouth – nice. Neither too sweet nor too bitter, the ginger gave a subtle support to the mandarin and the two flavours were well balanced. The chocolate melted smoothly in the mouth and was more refined in character than many chocolates I’ve tasted. Dark is not my first chocolate of choice, but I really enjoyed this one. The great thing about good dark chocolate such as this, is that a little goes a very long way. A couple of squares and the chocolate craving has been satisfied – for a while! A very enjoyable bar.
Seed and Bean Glastonbury Festival Editions
Back in the summer of 2013, Seed & Bean brought out three limited edition 85g chocolate bars specifically for that year’s Glastonbury Festival in June. The inner wrappers are compostable, made primarily from eucalyptus trees and all bars are handmade in small batches. The colourful and festive wrappers were designed by artist Matt Lyons aka C86. If you’re quick, you may be lucky enough to get your hands on a bar. They’re available at £2.29 at the online shop, which seems reasonable for a top ethical product from a small British producer.
Sicilian Hazelnut
Fine Dark Chocolate (58% cocoa – cane sugar, cocoa butter, cocoa mass, vanilla extract, hazelnut paste).
This is like eating a fine bar of guinduja. It is rich, but very smooth and creamy at the same time, despite containing no dairy. The bitter notes from the dark chocolate has a slightly drying on the mouth quality and counteracts any cloying tendency there might have been. CT did his usual blind testing and detected hazelnut straight away. We really liked this bar.
Cornish Sea Salt & West Indies Lime
Rich Milk Chocolate (30% cocoa solids – cane sugar, cocoa butter, whole milk powder, cocoa mass, vanilla extract, lime oil, smoked sea salt, soy lecithin).
Despite having quite a low cocoa content, this was my favourite bar. Although you think I might be a little biased by the inclusion of Cornish Sea Salt, I do like milk chocolate. I’m also particularly fond of the sweet and salt combination. Some sea salt chocolate bars really go to town with the salt, but this one is much more finely balanced and suits me very well. The touch of lime, gives an uplifting quality and a tropical feel. If you can get to it before it melts, it’s ideal chocolate for the temperatures we’re currently experiencing. The chocolate is ultra smooth and melts beautifully in the mouth. A very fine chocolate bar indeed.
Raspberry & Vanilla
Creamy White Chocolate (30% cocoa solids – cane sugar, cocoa butter, whole milk powder, raspberry powder, soya lecithin, vanill powder).
White chocolate, by its very nature, is overly sweet and often cloying. But I wasn’t going to let that put me off. And actually, I guess because of the inclusion of fruit, this wasn’t as sweet as I was expecting. In my sweeter toothed moments, this bar would hit the spot very nicely. It has a grainier texture than the others, which helps to counteract the sweetness. The flavour of the raspberries themselves is quite pronounced and their sharpness reminds me of sherbet.
Let Us Know
Thanks for visiting Tin and Thyme. If you try any Seed and Bean chocolate, I’d love to hear about it in the comments below or via social media. Or you might even be the lucky winner. Do share photos on your preferred social media site and use the hashtag #tinandthyme, so I can spot them.
For more chocolate reviews and giveaways, follow me on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram or Pinterest.
Seed and Bean are offering a 20% discount on all orders during Fairtrade Fortnight, but do hurry as this ends on 8 March.
Giveaway
Seed and Bean has kindly agreed to give one of my readers four bars of their 85g chocolate bars as described above. To be in with a chance of winning, please fill in the Gleam widget below. You will need to leave a comment on this post and answer the question. This will then give you additional chances to enter if you so wish.
Gleam will pick a winner at random from the entries received. If you comment anonymously, please give me some way to identify you as I will need to verify the validity of entries. Any automated entries will be disqualified. This giveaway is only open to those with a UK postal address. Winners will need to respond within 7 days of being contacted. Failure to do this may result in another winner being picked.
Do take a look at my giveaway page to see if there is anything else you would like to enter.
Fab prize! I love the packaging.
Salted Caramel
Lemon & ginger
Salted caramel! Can’t get enough of the stuff 🙂
Peppermint
Peanut
Peppermint
Hazelnut or peanut
Strawberry 🙂
Hazelnut
caramel
Strawberry and rose
Raspberry and white chocolate
white chocolate with strawberry and black pepper
Hazelnut
Caramel and chilli
Coconut and dark chocolate
Hazelnut
Anything with chocolate is alright by me!
Where is the Gleam widget?
Just click on the link at the bottom of the page Anthea.
Anything with chocolate in it! I love them all!!!
Fig and almond?
Strawberry White Chocolate
Dark chocolate, date and pecan.
coconut and lime xx
Any except salt which just seems wrong on chocolate.
Ah, but have you tried it Alan?
Mint for me.
Chocolate with coconut and caramel.
Mint
Mint
Cherry and Almond
Butterscotch
like the sound of chilli and lime
Would be interesting to try the different flavours.
White chocolate and strawberry.
strawberry mousse
Butterscotch
Hazelnut
Hazelnut.
Mint Choc Chip
Butterscotch 🙂
Cappuccino
coconut
Sicilian Hazelnut & Almond sounds delicious.
Butterscotch
My favourite is Ginger.
Peanut Butter
Plain old mint? 😉
@smeethsaysfashn on twitter
Salted Caramel would be wonderful. Thank you!
All the flavours sound very moreish. Tangerine is one I’ve never heard of which sounds yummy!
Almond and coffee
I know one already has cardamom…but I’d say rose and cardamom, as it’s one of my favourite flavour combinations!
Ooh now that does sound good Emily and not one I’ve tried.
Raspberry n almond
Expresso sounds so good!
toasted marshmallow would be a nice chocolate 🙂
Ginger
Coconut for me!
Banana Flavour xxx
Espresso
Pistachio would be yummy.
Pistachio and lime for me x
Salted Caramel would be lovely
banana!
Can’t see a Gleam widget in any browser on two different computers, has this ended?
No it’s still live William. If you click the link at the bottom of the post, it will take you to gleam.
Strawberries and cream
ameretto
chocolate and peanut butter.
salted caramel
Great giveaway – and I LOVE your name!
Haha, thank you Rowan 😀
Anything that involves coffee
Pictachio and Coconut
Salted caramel 🙂
Salted caramel
Butterscotch
chocolate and peanut butter
Cappuccino
love banana or strawberry but love to try the lemon tangy
Hazelnut!
Rhubarb and Coconut
Sicilian Hazelnut & Almond
peanut butter flavour
Salted caramel
Which existing flavour? White Poppy and Lemon – I’d love to try this one.
I love coffee flavoured chocolate, so I would like to see an amaretto coffee flavour
cookies and cream
I would love a cherry and dark chocolate one!
I love chocolate 🙂
Mmm. Lemon and black pepper
White chocolate and raspberry
Bookmarked to enter as Gleam is not appearing anywhere for me at the moment unfortunately
Hi Olivia, you should see a link right at the bottom of the page which will take you to Gleam.
Hi! Thanks – I clicked on the name of the prize and that seemed to work.
Mint
I would like to see Incan berry and date
apricot
Praline!
Praline
Definitely Praline, it’s my all time favourite
chilli chocolate 😀
salted caramel!
Chilli 🙂
Butterscotch 🙂
Something with strawberry would be nice
Butterscotch 🙂
White chocolate and honeycomb
salted caramel 😛
Pecan!
Fiona S
peanut and pineapple
Raspberry and vanilla
Salted caramel looks lush, but I wouldn’t say no to any of them!
I’d love to see a cherry one
salted caramel
salted caramel
A walnut bar
Coconut!
wow they sound lovely. maybe a peanut butter one?
Chilli
Would love to try these,they look totally delicious Lindsey M. xx
coconut and pineapple in dark choc!
Baileys flavour
Mint
Vanilla and lemon
@rachiegr
peach
sea salt & caramel
Cinnamon
Toffee or butterscotch
Marzipan and Baileys
Mandarinand ginger would be lovely to try
Date & Walnut or Maple Pecan would be great additions to the range.
Rhubarb and ginger
These look delicious!!!
Salted caramel !
Coconut and Raspberry
Coffee and mint
Caramel!
anything with nuts
Coconut & Raspberry is fab
Tangerine milk chocolate 😀
Nutmeg xx
Dark chocolate and cherry
Honeycomb
Mint x
a fudge/caramel type flavour
Caramel flavour
They do have some very interesting flavours! I would like to see something with freeze dried raspberries maybe?
Salted caramel or something with added vanilla
Banana flavour would be amazing! 🙂 xx
Strawberry white chocolate would be lovely
Bacon and cinammon
SAlted caramel
I have not tried any of these chocolate flavours so would be great to win and see what they taste like!
Goji Berry
coconut
Coconut & Pineapple.
Maple & pecan x
Dark chocolate and almond x
dark choc wins
Strawberry and rose!
I love Cherry flavour 🙂
Cornish sea salt – it’s my favourite x
Orange Crisp
tangerine
Strawberry white chocolate
I would love to give these to my “bestie”!
Rich Milk would be tasty.
Raspberry and White Chocolate x
Peppermint fudge!
Cornish sea salt sounds lovely
I’ve just been to their site and I have to say, I fancy trying the pumpkin and hemp flavoured bar. Purely because I have absolutely no idea what it would taste like
butterscotch xx
Pistachio and lime
(Spencer Broadley)
I’d love to see a chili flavor!
Cornish Sea Salt & Lime sounds wonderful!!
I’ve added it to The Food Blog Diary for you.
Anything with caramel in!
I think dates go really well with chocolate, but I’ve never seen a bar with dates in.
Cherry and Almond would be a new one I would like to try
Lemon and cardamon sounds really exciting!
Butterscotch
Banana Flavour
salted caramel thankyou
almond ..
Sicilian Hazelnut & Almond
Praline
salted caramel yummm !!!
Chilli and Carmelised toffee!
Ashleigh
A walnut bar or almond bar
Honey and almond x
Banana Flavour xxx
What a fab giveaway Choclette!
Thanks Karen, the chocolate sure is good.