Shortly after my review of the (somewhat average) Gorenjka milk chocolate from Slovenia was published, a rather lovely thing happened. It began with a comment posted by a reader and culminated in her sending me a selection of fine quality Slovenian chocolate for my perusal. So, before I begin this review I ought to thank BeeBee for both her generosity and pride in her country’s chocolatiers.
I was asked what sort of things I would be interested in, and of course I asked for anything unique to Slovenia or just strange and unusual, and she came through in spades on the ‘unusual’ front with this - a 70% dark chocolate bar with Cedar.
Yes, that’s right cedar, as in the tree.
All joking about chocolate logs aside (I thought I’d get that one in before Kath) I was intrigued. How on earth does one flavour a chocolate bar with wood? Well, the answer would appear to be “with the sap of the tree”. The underside of this bar is studded with numerous gelatinous blobs which have a distinctly ‘foresty’ aroma and taste. It’s a very subtle, natural flavour (in case you were thinking pine scented bathroom freshener) with a light, citrus note combined with an earthier ‘undertaste’. On the palate the overall effect is not dissimilar to breathing forest air - very unusual indeed. The jellied blobs vary in consistency too, from ‘melts away almost at once’ to ‘quite chewy’, so there’s plenty to occupy your mouth as the chocolate melts.
The chocolate is, of course, the crux of the matter, and at 70% it’s a good strong blend with deep cocoa notes which expand outwards into a bittersweet, vanilla-chocolate-coffee complex. It has an excellent soft mouthfeel and never manages to overpower the added cedar sap blobs.
I have to say that this must be one of the oddest (if not the oddest) things I’ve ever come across in a chocolate bar, so top marks to my new Slovenian friend for picking this one out. Oddness alone is no guarantee of either quality or edibility though, so I’m glad to report that adding tree sap to chocolate (albeit as a separate entity) has worked out well for Rustika, and has also proven to me that there is good quality chocolate to be had in Slovenia.
High quality Belgian
chocolate gifts and e-chocolate from Soufflon
I’ve always heard about Reese’s pieces and knew that they were powerful enough to lure ET out of the garden shed, but seeing as they’re only available in tiny and expensive little boutique choccy shops and cost a fortune, I’ve avoided trying them until now. Peanut butter M&Ms on the other hand, I have tried and raved about for chocablog before, but have also relegated them to the ‘expensive import’ basket - even though I was desperate enough to write to Mars Confectionery Australia to find out why they don’t make them here (something to do with not being bothered enough to import the machinery required, the mean sods).
One day however, they called out to me from my local specialty chocolate shop. That and a PMS-led craving for peanut butter saw me at home with both bags ready to try and compare.
As with the Ferrero Rocher garden ‘crème filled confections’, I realised after nearly inhaling half the bag of Reese’s pieces that they don’t contain even a tiny skerrick of chocolate. Not that I minded; they still tasted pretty nice and creamy to me and if I was blindfolded, I doubt I’d be able to tell that there wasn’t some chocolate underneath the candy coating and between the peanut butter. The ingredients do not make for relaxing reading – sugar, partially defatted peanuts, partially hydrogenated vegetable oil, reduced minerals, whey, corn syrup and lots of artificial colours and wax and glaze for the sheen. Hmm, I didn’t feel quite so chipper after that.
And so it was time to drown my disappointment and sorrow with a bag of peanut butter M&Ms. Before, when I considered that Reese’s pieces tasted as though they had chocolate in them, I had not yet had the chance to remind my all-too-eager-to-be-pleased taste buds of what the real chocolate and peanut butter combination was like.
Bloody brilliant. These little gems make Reece’s pieces look like the unfortunate combination of de-fatted, partially hydrogenated, carnauba waxed and glazed imposters. Or an explosion of techno monkey poop. Even M&Ms ingredients were initially more real sounding with chocolate and sugar at numbers one and two per volume, but then those creepy sounding ‘partially defatted peanuts’ popped up again, along with the ‘partially hydrogenated palm kernel oil’. How on earth does one partially de-fat something? Is it like confectionery liposuction but some of it is pumped back? Or the poor little nuts are placed in seaweed wraps and forced to sweat some of their oils out?
Perhaps it is best for this process to remain a mystery but I will continue my lament to Mars Australia – please can’t you make peanut butter M&Ms here and maybe just with normal-sounding, unadulterated peanuts? Please??
Candy, snack & soda
Vending Machines for sale
Xeni Jardin of BoingBoing TV got in touch to tell us about the latest episode of their wonderful show, featuring a tour of the TCHO chocolate factory in San Francisco.
The video explains the first part of the chocolate making process in some detail, so if you have any interest at all in what what you’re stuffing into your mouth, it’s well worth a watch!
This is just Part 1, so if you want to watch the rest, I really recommend subscribing to BoingBoingTV.
Buy Beautiful
Chocolate Gift Baskets full of Ghirardelli, Godiva, Belgian and other fine chocolates.
Here’s something a little different from the Cocoa Bean sisters - a selection of chocolate discs in a variety of flavours, hand finished and packaged in a funky little cylinder.
The hand finished element comes in the wrapping. Each of the seven discs comes enfolded in a piece of brightly coloured tissue paper, and I have to say I really liked this approach. It’s the same wrapping used on the chocolate squares I reviewed a while back, but without the stickers telling you which one is which, and it makes opening each disc like receiving a small gift. It’s a novel approach to packaging, and to my mind it works very well. You can see the product before you buy it, and it doesn’t take too long to get into them!
As I mentioned, there are seven discs in the box - three milk chocolate, three dark chocolate and one white chocolate. Four of these discs are flavoured the same way as four of the five bars I have already reviewed - milk chocolate with honey and rose and pistachio, and dark chocolate with gin & tonic and sea salt. Which leaves me with the white chocolate and raspberry, the dark chocolate with lemon, and a milk chocolate disc flavoured with vanilla.
The raspberry disc (as you can see) comes sprinkled with fragments of freeze dried raspberry. Obviously there isn’t a huge amount of cocoa flavour there, so the additional fruity element was very welcome to this palate.
The dark chocolate with lemon oil was very pleasant indeed. After trying it on it’s own I had a few pieces on top of a lemon tart, and it went very well. Good rich cocoa flavours with a lively citrus note which came through at the finish.
The vanilla disc was similarly flavoursome, producing a good, well rounded flavour which complimented the smooth creamy milk chocolate very well.
The packaging and overall look and feel of these discs put me in mind of summer weddings or garden parties. They’re bright, cheerful looking things which would work extremely well as table ‘extras’ or favours. Alternatively, they would just add a splash of colour to an outdoor lunch or picnic, and the handy little box makes transporting them very easy indeed.
I liked the look of these almost as much as I enjoyed eating them. Another fun, bold approach to product design which makes Cocoa Bean’s merchandise stand out from the crowd - and that can only be a good thing. Well worth checking out as a gift or for personal indulgence.
Last time I reviewed a Kshocolât product, I wasn’t particularly complimentary. The pretentious name and the address on the packaging “Suite 64 Glasgow G51 3TR” were my first warning signals, and the chocolate itself was extremely bland.
This time, I received two bars as a gift from my friend Paola. And while I probably wouldn’t have chosen to buy Kshocolât again, I rarely turn chocolate down when it’s free.
The first thing I noticed about this bar is that the address on the packaging has changed. No longer are Kshocolât stuck in Suite 64 - they’re now at “113 West Regent Street”. I’ve no idea if that’s a step up or down, but it certainly sounds better.
As you can see, the product itself looks quite appealing. 8 large squares of white chocolate, with plenty of flecks of ground pepper. It looks good and has a pleasant, subtle lemon aroma.
And that lemon is the first flavour to come through when you bite into a chunk, too. It tastes natural and fresh, without being overpowering.
Once it starts to melt, the creamy white chocolate flavour comes through. As with most white chocolates, there isn’t much actual chocolateyness here, but again, it’s quite a pleasant taste, and importantly, it’s not too sweet.
Only when the white chocolate has all but disappeared do you get the kick of the pepper. Again, it’s quite subtle, but strong enough to let you know it’s there.
Kshocolât seem to have put a lot more thought into this than the rather haphazard orange slices I reviewed back in October. If I was ever in the mood for white chocolate (which admittedly isn’t that often), I would certainly choose this over something like Cadbury Dream or Milky Bar. It’s simple, subtle and quite refreshing.
