Valentine’s Day is nearly upon us, which means vast arrays of pink, heart shaped products from all the big chocolate companies. Divine sent us these white chocolate hearts with strawberry pieces to review, but they also do 70% dark chocolate and milk chocolate hearts.
Being Divine, the cocoa butter and sugar are of course, Fairtrade (Kuapa Kokoo, the Fairtrade Certified Cocoa Farmers Co-operative owns 45% of Divine). In total, 71% of the ingredients are certified themselves.
The hearts themselves are simple affairs. Just a couple of centimetres across and wrapped in silver foil.
The hearts themselves are equally simple. White chocolate with flecks of pink from the strawberry pieces inside.
I was expecting the strawberry pieces to be simple freeze-dried fruit, but they’re actually “strawberry crisp”, made with strawberries, sugar and starch. I’m sure there’s a good reason for this, and they do melt in the mouth better than simple pieces of fruit, but they do make a sweet chocolate even sweeter.
But they are quite tasty, and small enough that they’re never too sweet (as long as you don’t eat the whole box in one go). I’m not a white chocolate kind of person, but still found these very enjoyable. That little hint of strawberry flavour makes all the difference.
Despite the fact that they’re aimed at those with a sweeter tooth than me, I’d still be quite happy to receive them as a gift. Not that I ever get Valentine’s gifts myself…
I drink a lot of tea. Sometimes I think if “chocolate” and “tea” were the only two food groups left on Earth, I would be quite happy. In fact, my diet would probably be pretty much the same as it is now.
But just because I like tea, doesn’t mean I have good taste in tea, and I rarely try more exotic blends. As long as I have my constant supply of PG Tips, and a little Rare Tea Company Silver Tip for special occasions, I’m quite happy. So while was excited when the lovely people at Teapigs sent me this Chocolate Flake Tea to try, I can’t say I was expecting it to be my… uh… cup of tea.
Open the box and you’re greeted by a satisfying chocolatey aroma. There are 15 “tea temples” (very fancy biodegradable tea bags) inside, and the instructions say to let it infuse for three minutes, then serve with milk or cream. So that’s what I did.
I was surprised just how much the finished product looked like my regular cuppa, although if I’m honest, I was hoping to find a tiny pig swimming around in it. This was not the case.
None of the chocolatey aroma from the bags is lost in the finished product, and that carries through to the flavour. It’s just like your normal, every day tea, but with a hint of chocolate that somehow manages not to overwhelm the flavour from the tea itself.
Tea and chocolate may seem like an odd flavour combination, but it works very well. It’s not going to give you the same hit as a hot chocolate made from made from 100% cacao and spices, but it’s perfect for that mid morning cuppa. I like it a lot. I might even be persuaded to try the rest of the Teapigs range. If only they could be persuaded to add chocolate to them all.
This year’s offerings from President’s Choice, the store brand for the Loblaws supermarket chain in Canada, are for the most part, rather uninspiring – just their own versions of more familiar chocolates. But there are a few more intriguing items that can be found currently on their shelves, including their Dulce De Leche Truffles. It was only a matter of time before they got around to putting some of the South American caramel inside chocolates because they’ve been selling it as a spread and on cheesecake for a couple of years now, but I was still looking forward to trying them.
The box contains 16 of the ball-shaped truffles spread over two layers, and it states on the box they were “Imported From England” but I’m really not sure who the maker might be. Palm Oil is listed in the ingredients but to be perfectly honest, the chocolate tastes pretty good to me. The truffles have a lovely thick shell which means that it takes a little bit of work to get inside, and that’s a good thing because the dulce de leche in the centre is very, very runny.
The potential issue with any combination of milk chocolate and dulce de leche is that it can be very sweet, but fortunately these stay just on the right side of the line. The creamy chocolate and creamy caramel work very well together, and there’s a real lushness to the truffles that makes them feel more luxurious than you’d expect from a supermarket. I found myself quickly working my way through half of the top layer.
And that’s how I discovered the real problem with this box – the chocolates are rather one note. There’s absolutely nothing about them which isn’t revealed after the first bite. No hidden depths. No layers of flavour. Just chocolate and dulce de leche, although it is done very well. But after four, I’ve had enough and I’m going to share the rest of the box, something which speaks volumes.
It was just before Christmas when I came across the Naive stall at the Southbank Christmas food market in London. Pausing for a chat and a sample, I discovered that Naive are a bean-to-bar manufacturer based in Lithuania, no less. They don’t really have a web site yet, but there is a Facebook page you can visit.
The wrapper put me in mind of Idilio’s plain, somewhat clinical design, with very little in the way of flourishes and adornments. Under the Naive logo you will find a brief ‘company statement’ which begins with “We walk when everybody is running, we listen when everybody is talking. Why not bring a little tranquility into your daily chaos” and continues with an invitation to visit the Naive farm. (If only).
So what of the chocolate? Well this particular bar is made from beans from Ghana and Cuba and comes stamped with the date it was produced and the autograph of the maker/packer. The bar has wonderfully vibrant red fruit aromas with a deep, woody undertone, and these flavours are definitely there in the mouth. The forty eight hour conch means that the chocolate still has a slightly grainy texture to it, but that’s in no way unpleasant – it’s just not as super-smooth as say a classic Swiss chocolate. As soon as a piece of this chocolate hits your mouth the acidity has your salival glands off and running. This is one of those light, fruity acidic type dark chocolates, with the red fruit and wood aromas translating into a big mouthful of dark, earthy cacao lows with top notes of new wood, fruit and an undertone of coffee.
The first thing I noticed when tasting was the lightness and acidity of the first rush of flavour. The cacao flavours are light and quite soft, with that fruitiness persisting throughout. The mouthfeel remains light throughout, and the finish is long and clean, making it all to easy to eat another chunk, then another . . .
As you might imagine, I recommend tracking this down. Bean to bar chocolate makers are still thin on the ground, and Naive would appear to be making great progress both with their product and their international presence, and that’s something that deserves more support. If you follow them on Facebook I’m sure you’ll be kept abreast of when and where they’ll be selling in London and/or other UK locations.
