Monggo is a Javanese word that translates to "Please, go ahead."    I've been going ahead with this brand for 2 1/2 years now.  Chocolate Monggo didn't make a great first or second or third impression on me.  The bars were all the rage among the tourist community in Yogyakarta (Java, Indonesia) when I first tried them in August 2009.   Alongside my girlfriend, I re-tried a few in Bali 8 months later, still no more impressed.  With the Chocolate Republic firmly underway, I asked my girlfriend-turned-wife to bring back a collection of Chocolate Monggo bars to give the brand range a fair assessment.         

In 2009, the per capita consumption of chocolate in Indonesia was just a third of a kilogram. In Switzerland, the consumption per capita is over 10 kg. Monggo sources their cacao from Javanese, Sumatran, and Celebes plantations.  As I researched the company, I could find nothing to suggest they're a bean-to-bar manufacturer, and it would probably be overkill if they were.  Chocolate Monggo likely is better than anything else out there in the Indonesian marketplace at present.  Undeveloped Indonesian palates --- and hell, foreign palates, too -- wouldn't know the difference if Monggo upped the quality by an order of magnitude.  To Joe Tourist, Monggo bars are just a mementoes with Indonesian motifs on the wrapper to take back home and gift as souvenirs.             

The Raisin & Cashew Nuts is a block bar.  What I mean by that is that Monggo's souvenir bar is smaller in length but thicker than the larger-seeming 80 gram tablet bars.  The horrendous macadamia bar may have benefitted from extra girth rather than being overly thin with too few nuts.   Monggo was likely no more generous with the cashew nuts here than they were with the macadamia nuts there, but the thicker size of their souvenir bar means more nuts enters the mouth with each given chew -- or it seems that way.     Monggo doesn't list nut percentages on the back wrapper. I assume that means there aren't many nuts contained within, according to Knell's Law of Ingredient Omissions.  If 50% of the ingredients were composed of nuts, you can be sure we would've seen that plastered all over the wrappers.  Every Monggo bar proudly proclaims "100% Cocoa Butter" on it.  If 50% of the cocoa butter were removed and palm oil substituted, the label would not read "Contains 50% Cocoa Butter."  The cocoa butter boast would be removed altogether.   In light with the Monggo brand overall, assume the cashew nuts and raisins used are of suitable but not premium quality.      

When you're in Rome, I'd advise you to eat Italian food; when in China, on Chinese.  Snack on this one if you consider yourself a fruit and nut lover as you travel in Indonesia.  Do so out of respect for the land you're visiting, not to fool yourself you're eating fine chocolate.  You'll need to drink a lot of alcohol to convince yourself this is truly splendid stuff, and Indonesia, mostly Muslim, isn't a great place to buy alcohol -- or still, to get great chocolate.