I recently went to the launch of Hotel Chocolat’s Easter range at their shop near St Paul’s, and the thing that struck me most was the sheer size of the range of products on offer now. A quick glance at the Hotel Chocolat website shows they have 51 products in the Easter category alone.
The next thing I noticed was that as large as the range is, everything seems to be carefully thought out. Take this tin, for example. It’s the kind of thing that you might want to keep long after you’ve eaten the 11 mini egg chocolates inside. Designed with a flat base, so it sits nicely at an angle without rolling away, it’s a bit flowery for my own tastes, but it would still be a bit of a shame to throw it away.
There are three different chocolates inside the tin – salted caramel, pink champagne and a house praline.
The salted caramel is surprisingly good for a mass produced chocolate. The milk chocolate shell is maybe a little thick, but the soft and sweet caramel inside is very nice indeed. I’ve been spoilt by a lot of handmade artisan salted caramels lately, but I’d still quite happily eat a whole bag full of these.
The milk chocolate praline egg is also very good, with a very smooth praline filling. I’m not a big praline fan, but I did find myself eating all of these without thinking!
Finally, the pink champagne egg is just a little sweet for my tastes, but it is one of the nicest champagne truffles I’ve had in a while. It tastes of pink, so if that’s your kind of thing (or the recipient of this gift’s thing), then it’ll be perfect.
I actually like this rather a lot. When it comes down to it, it may just be 11 mini eggs for £15, but it’s simple and elegant and just a little bit different from your average Easter egg.
Rogers’ Chocolates have made their name making classic, old school chocolates that haven’t really changed much since their inception back in 1885. Nothing wrong with that at all. But recently they’ve began to dip their toes into some newer waters, adding an organic line although the most exciting addition is their Artisan Assortment.
Housed in a very smart, contemporary box, the Artisan Assortment is a hand-crafted collection of chocolates that still embraces a lot of the company’s traditions. For example, most of the chocolates are much larger than you might expect, although not nearly as large as their signature Victoria Creams. They are also rather plain to look at, or maybe understated is a better word, but there’s nothing wrong with that. There aren’t many percentages thrown around – the dark chocolate comes in at 53%, but no clues about the milk or white varieties – and with a relatively quick “best before” date, there doesn’t appear to be too many chemically things used.
Here’s a rundown of the different varieties:
Madagascar Vanilla Mousse – a richly flavoured vanilla mousse covered in dark chocolate. Nothing fancy, but well done thanks to a healthy amount of vanilla, probably from Madagascar I’d imagine.
Sea Salt Caramel Truffle – to be honest I’m kinda over run of the mill sea salt caramels at this point because everybody does one and they are invariably not as good as Paul A. Young’s. But turning this into more of a truffle is just about enough to make it interesting again. The one problem is that the sea salt is only on the outside so it only really works when everything is mixed together. One to munch rather than nibble.
Triple Chocolate Bliss – On the surface, not the most exciting chocolate. A rather large white chocolate disc, with a layer of milk hidden underneath and a few dark chocolate stripes; no big deal. But throw in some salty pistachios and bing cherries and something magical happens. There are hints of marzipan, the occasional explosion of salt and just the right amount of sweetness – the best thing in the box by far. Rogers need to make bars of this and then send me five boxes of them.
Raspberry Caramel Harmony – nice chewy caramel covered in dark chocolate. That bit I understand. I don’t get the vague raspberry undertones because they don’t really add anything of value. Probably the weakest chocolate in the box.
Crème Brulee – a remarkably faithful recreation of a crème brulee from both a flavour and texture viewpoint. White chocolate custard and a crunchy layer of burnt sugar, with the added bonus of being covered in milk chocolate. Really good stuff.
Dark Hazelnut Delight – another rather mundane one that works because it delivers big flavours. There’s a layer of hazelnut praline with plenty of big chunks of nut which give some crunch and a layer of smooth hazelnutty ganache. Not a subtle chocolate but an effective one.
PB&J – or Peanut Butter and Jelly to the uninformed. This has a very peanutty layer of peanut butter topped with some solid raspberry jelly. The peanuts dominate at the start before letting the jelly have its turn in the spotlight. Really novel, extremely well executed and absolutely delicious.
Lemon Sesame Ganache – a subtle layer of lemon cream which just manages to keep its head above the chocolate ganache. There is also a layer of sesame seeds which adds an unusual amount of chewiness and leaves a strong sesame aftertaste. Peculiar, but not in a bad way.
While not perfect, there is a lot to like about this box and it is definitely worth a try. Rogers are taking some real risks with the flavour combinations compared to the rest of their range and for the most part it works. This is a great example of a company trying to reinvent itself for a new generation, and doing a pretty good job of it. It will be very interesting to see where they go next.
Back in January, Simon reviewed a bar from Naive, a Lithuanian bean-to-bar chocolate maker. The guys at Naive were kind enough to send me some more bars to try, and first on the list is this little number. It’s a 70g bar of 68% cocoa solids chocolate with fleur de sel, and as you can see from the label, it’s made with Ugandan beans with a 55 hour conch time. We like bars that give us details like that.
The packaging is very simple and precise. Hand wrapped in foil and recycled paper, it feels like an artisan product – a feeling that’s echoed in the bar itself.
It’s quite difficult to get a photo of the front of the bar, as it’s one of the glossiest, nicely tempered slabs of chocolate I’ve sene in a long time. You’ll have to trust me that my photos don’t do it justice.
The only thing breaking up the sheer gloss is the beautiful embossed Naive logo. It’s all very stylish.
The underside of the bar is covered with salt. It doesn’t seem like a lot, but it’s immediately noticeable when you taste it. There’s an intense salty burst before the flavour of the chocolate comes through.
But the chocolate itself tastes wonderful. It’s smooth and melts evenly on the tongue, releasing an intensely warm, rich flavour. It has a natural sweetness with plenty of caramel and vanilla notes in there, but there’s also a subtle fruitiness to it. Not citrussy like a Madagascan chocolate, but much more mellow. It’s some of the nicest African chocolate I’ve had in a long time.
I’m not convinced that the salt is entirely necessary though. Maybe there’s just a little too much of it, but I find it too intense. Luckily, it only rests loosely on the surface, and if you brush a little of it off, the flavour is amazing. Just a few crystals of salt bring out the flavour of the chocolate perfectly.
Naive, being Lithuanian, isn’t the easiest thing to get hold of in the UK or elsewhere. They tell me they’re currently working on that, and you can currently pick their chocolate up from the Real Food Market and Fernandez & Wells.
If you can’t find it, I’d recommend getting in touch with them – their website is still in development, but they do have an active presence of Facebook, and I assume they’ll be doing more specialist food markets over here in the UK too. Either way, if you do get a chance to try this chocolate, don’t miss the opportunity.
Here’s a new twist on ‘ethical’ chocolate production. This bar is not only Fairtrade certified, but it is also Carbon Neutral, which means that M&S have planted trees in the area to offset the CO2 generated in the production of this chocolate.
The chocolate is produced by 1800 or so growers as part of the ACOPAGRO cooperative in Peru’s Alto Huayabamba region. Good credentials to be sure, but how does the end product measure up?
The taste description on the wrapper says ‘Delicious and full bodied with fruity red berry notes’, and that’s fairly accurate. The chocolate melts quite quickly, and those tangy, mildly acidic fruit notes are there almost immediately, backed up with a darker, richer set of flavours that creep in slowly.
At 60% cacao this isn’t a really ‘dark’ dark chocolate, but neither is it one of those ‘semi-sweet’ creations that often inhabit the 50-65% region. This is light on the palette with good acidity, those red berry and fruit notes and some excellent cacao flavours, with a long, clean finish. The relatively modest cacao percentage means there’s a reasonable amount of (Fairtrade) cane sugar in there, lending the bar a rich sweetness to accompany the cacao. When I checked the ingredients I was pleasantly surprised to see that this is a 100% Fairtrade bar with only three listed ingredients, making it one of the ‘purest’ supermarket bars I’ve seen in quite a while.
It’s also rather moreish, especially mid afternoon with a cup of coffee. That mouthwatering acidity coupled with the light, fruitiness of the cacao means it’s far too easy to keep munching chunk after chunk. Definitely one of my better supermarket picks, and one I’d recommend if you happen across it.
