Cicada Artisian Chocolate

5 Stars for Cicada Artisan Chocolate – Over the last few years I have had numerous bars from Cicada. I think I have tasted pretty much every bar and have always found the quality very high. I find the plain darks the most amazing and are never too sweet and sickly unlike others. I find the texture and flavor exceptional and far above anything you can buy in a supermarket. I deal with a lot of people in the food industry and have sent the bars out as part of our client Xmas gifts and always great feedback. !!excellent chocolate!!

WAY too much sugar – I've tried two - the Almond and Sea Salt and the Nibs. They both have 48% sugars according to the nutrition panel. That compares to 11% and 14% in the brands I usually buy, Lindt 85% and Green and Black 85%. I am not sure what "sugars" actually means - presume it doesn't mean nearly 50% sugar? But comparatively anyway, it means this chocolate is A LOT more sugary than it should be. You can taste it. It's really cloying. I advise people not to buy until they reduce the sugar content considerably.

Not sure about these other reviews, but this chocolate is amazing! – I was given a sample of their dark chocolate at the Rocks Markets and couldn't help but buy a few bars after! The plain dark chocolate itself is rich without being overly sweet like Cadbury - delicious, especially in the flavoured bars like Vanilla Nougat! My favourite though hands down is the Gianduja, it has this incredible toasty, nutty flavour, and the wrapping is absolutely gorgeous. I didn't have the same experience at all as these other reviewers - as someone with specific dietary requirements, they were really lovely and took the time to help me out and choose chocolate bars that I could eat. I'm definitely coming back for more!

Doesn't have the texture of artisan chocolate – I was expecting a smooth velvety consistency that melts upon contact in the mouth but it's got the consistency and melting quality of those cheap chocolates you get inside Kmart advent calanders at christmas (you know the ones, they are made using vegetable oils). Obviously this is made using higher quality ingredients which you can taste in the cocoa but I suppose it's all in the mix and technique. To be honest I was expecting more considering how beautifully presented they are and the higher quality ingredients. It's also labelled as artisan which is meant to be synonymous with excellent technique and high quality. I just didn't find that it envoked that feeling for me and I ate 4 different flavoured bars.

I guess anything can be called artisan these days when you make it your kitchen.

Id eat it again if it was gifted to me, but wouldn't purchase it again sadly

Accused of being a scammer, spoken down to, worst customer 'service' I have ever witnessed! – I was given a bar of this chocolate for Easter. Three rows in, I realised that there was no caramel or salt. I broke a few more pieces off, but to my disappointment, no caramel. It was meant to be a salted caramel block. As my partner had given it to me, I didn’t want to embarrass him and make a fuss over Easter. I sent the company an email telling them the problem. I received a quick reply asking for photos. I sent them a photo of what was remaining, and also broke a few pieces in half to show them the inside. The photos I sent had been taken of the centre of the block, four pieces long. They emailed back asking me to break the block down the middle then in half again. I did this. By then the block was in pieces. I added a note saying I’m sorry it’s in pieces as I had eaten some prior to sending them the email. I was absolutely shocked with the condescending tone of the reply- which simply stated, why would you eat the bar while you’re discussing a problem you’re having with the bar, the caramel is in the middle (which I’m sure you are now aware), goodbye.

I never wanted free products or a refund, I told him this and also added that I hadn’t continued eating the bar I had stopped when I made the complaint. I proceed to take a photo of every single square to show him that no caramel was present. My Easter gift was now in 18 pieces.

This still wasn’t enough to get a simple sorry you’re dissatisfied with the product. If they had only said something along those lines it would have been forgotten and I would have bought their product again!

I got told I had broken off every outside piece of my block, taken a photo of them, and showed him only the outside pieces which apparently have no caramel in them. He said he could clearly see caramel, and that the number of squares didn’t equal a whole block, and that I was misleading him on purpose. Of course the number of squares doesn’t equal a whole block, I had to eat some of your product to recognise there was a problem with it.

I might add here that the wrapping the chocolate comes in, is gold. And when photos are taken of the chocolate at night time on a kitchen bench with downlights, the gold can reflect. It's ridiculous that I even need to write this here but unfortunately I was made to feel as though I was a dumb customer that has no idea what caramel is suppose to look or taste like. I have eaten caramel before, funnily enough.

I replied asking for someone else at the company to answer my complaint, and low and behold I get no reply from anyone.

I was incredibly dissatisfied with the way in which the company handled my complaint, basically asking me to break my entire Easter gift into pieces so that they could insult my intelligence and talk down to me in a way which made me feel as though I was trying to lie and cheat my way into getting a free block of chocolate.

I can afford another $9 block, I don’t need to lie and take staged photographs, and go to all of this trouble, for a $9 block of chocolate. Seriously. Why would you think this?

Don’t ever expect to get any kind of customer service if you have a problem with the products you buy here, because you’ll simply be met with begrudging replies which eventually turn into accusations that you’re lying and have no idea what you’re talking about.

I posted this review originally on one of their social media pages, and was immediately emailed and accused of being a scammer which is entirely wrong.

I will once again re-iterate that I never wanted a free product, never asked for a free product or for a refund!

I was trying to tell them that they may have a batch out there that is not right because I genuinely thought that they would be interested. The chocolate is really really good from this company, but I don't appreciate how I was treated and wouldn't be buying it again. It's a shame that the customer service ruined such a great product for me.