A friend of my husband recently recommended trying Raw Chocolate Pie by Living Food of St Ives so, when we spotted some at the Infinity Foods Cooperative in Brighton recently, we had to give them a go.

We bought a selection of flavours, including the Nut Pie, Ginger and Orange Zest Pie, Naked Pie, The Booster Bar and Peppermint Pie. There are several others too (Festive Pie, Chilli Pie, Goji Pie, Cardamon Pie and Pink Himalayan Salt Pie) but we had to draw the line somewhere and so just chose the ones that most appealed to us!

In addition to have all the usual  benefits of raw chocolate, most of these Raw Choc Pies are also suitable for vegetarians and vegans, diabetics, coeliacs and anyone with a dairy, egg or soya intolerance. The one exception is The Booster Bar, which contains barley grass and bee pollen so is not gluten free or vegan.

We are already fans of some brands of raw chocolate (especially Rawr Chocolate and Mr Popple’s) but have been disappointed by others (The Raw Chocolate Factory Vanoffe), so I wasn’t really sure what to expect.

First impressions were good. The ‘pies’ are presented as chunky little 60g bars with cute packaging that will appeal to both kids and adults. I’ve included a picture of what they look like once unwrapped too. We sliced them up to make them easier to share and also to pop in your mouth, as they are square rather than flat bars.

Although they are a type of raw chocolate the texture and taste is actually almost more like a fridge cake (they do in fact recommend you serve it from the fridge). I found them very different from the Rawr Chocolate, though still very enjoyable. They are less melt in the mouth and have a crunchiness to them (which I assume is due to bits of raw cacao nibs as well as whatever nuts, etc are included.

My favourite was the Nut Pie. I expected the Ginger and Orange Zest Pie to be on my most preferred list, but found the slight crunchiness disconcerting when it wasn’t down to the pieces of nuts. This didn’t seem to bother hubbie or kids though, who loved them all.

They are quite rich, so I did feel satisfied with just a small amount (though of course if nobody else wanted any I’d have been happy to eat it all myself…)

I still prefer Rawr Chocolate overall, but these did make a nice change and I will almost certainly get them again if I come across them.

If there are any other raw chocolate products you’ve tried and recommend, please let me know, as I do feel it’s my duty to sample as many as possible – purely in the interest of research for these reviews of course