Niko B Organic Chocolates Selection

Anthony Ferguson is an American chocolate maker who up until 2001 was working for Silicon Graphics in San Francisco. These days, he’s living in Hackney with his British wife and running a chocolate company named after his son Nikolas.

I met Anthony at the Real Food Festival at Earls Court on Friday and asked him to pick out three of his favourite chocolates for me. Here’s what he chose:

Taboo: Ameretto Soaked Fig

First up, the larger of the three chocolates, a fig, soaked in Amaretto, stuffed with Amaretto ganache and covered in dark chocolate. At about 5cm across, this one’s so big that I’d be tempted to pour cream over it and eat it as a dessert. The filling is mainly ganache, but thankfully, Anthony hasn’t gone overboard with the alcohol. There’s enough to give it a nice flavour, but it’s never overpowering. The flavours are all quite subtle, so it’s quite possible to eat the whole thing in one go. I did have a dodgy, hard bit of fig in mine, but I put that down to just bad luck.

Fever: Lemon, Ginger & Cayenne Pepper

This is one for the serious heat freaks. It doesn’t look dangerous from the outside, but all the flavours here are quite strong. There’s an initial burst of refreshing lemon, but very quickly the heat kicks in. It’s very nice, but a little too hot for my tastes.

Souk: Coffee & Cardamom

A very pleasant, soft and creamy milk chocolate with subtle flavours. There’s not much coffee in here – it’s mainly cardamom and chocolatey ganache, but that’s just the way I like it. A nice way to gently cool the mouth down after the ‘Fever’ chocolate. Very nice.

Overall, a very pleasant little selection with some nice flavours. Perhaps lacking some of the polish of the artisan chocolatiers, but still worth checking out. Anthony tells me his web site will be launching soon, but until then, you can catch him at Stoke Newington Farmers’ Market.

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