The eldest son had his 18th birthday party a while ago. This meant that The Lady Of The House and I had to make ourselves scarce – apart from when it came time to do a Pizza run. A trip to the Pizza shop saw me requesting ‘t other half do a quick detour to pick up any chocolate that was going cheap (as you do). One of the things she came back with was this Lindt Passion Fruit – proudly emblazoned with “New”.
Rather than rush gobble it down, I waited until a suitable family gathering where we could all eat ourselves silly in the warm Australian spring sunshine, drink too much good wine, and scoff a bit of chocolate. Part of the reason for waiting was to get a few other opinions, because passion fruit in chocolate?? It seems a bit of a strange combination and I was very unsure about this one.
Passion fruit are one of those odd things here, where if you live in the right place, they grow very well – until the plant gets a virus whereupon it promptly drops dead. And of course all later attempts to replicate the success fail miserably. When I was child we had a Passion fruit vine which was prolific. During summers, my parents would go out each day and shake it, then collect a plastic bucket full of passion fruit off the ground. I think there are still some old photos of my younger sister aged about 4, with a plate covered in ½ shells, a happy smile on her face, and a teaspoon – having polished off most of the daily bucket-full by herself.
Anyhow – I digress. The ingredients list on this pack shows several interesting things. Firstly, this one is actually made at Kilchberg in Switzerland; most Lindt in Australia is made in France. And secondly, the passion fruit preparation is only 7% of the contents, and of that passionfruit makes up 39%. So the actual passionfruit amount is pretty small – under 3%. So it should not have a lot of flavour impact, right? Errr…. WRONG!
From having my doubts (and it is still a bit unusual) this is an intensely passionfruity chocolate. Opening the pack lets the smell drift out and unlike some things where the flavour takes a while to develop, this just reaches out and smacks you in the mouth: WHACK! WHACK! Take that for FLAVOUR! It really is quite incredible. Perhaps my only remaining reservation is that the flavour is so intense that you really don’t want to eat a vast amount in a single sitting. But that makes more for a bit later on, which has to be a good thing.
For those who may be on a budget, or perhaps fancy something a little out of the ordinary without breaking the bank, Aldi have produced this 85% cocoa dark chocolate bar with a sour cherry and chilli/chocolate mousse filling. I first became aware of the existence of this particular item a few months ago, but they were always out of stock until my most recent visit. I found myself wondering if this was due to their huge popularity or a decision not to bring too many into the UK.
I initially thought this was a hefty bar of chocolate weighing in at almost 200g, but it is in fact a packet of five mini bars, each composed of five segments, all of which bear the Moser Roth logo. The packaging is well designed and has an air of luxury about it, and the chocolate is deeply dark and looks very inviting. It may not be hand made, or sourced from rare cacao beans, but aside from a discreet Aldi logo on the back, most people would be none the wiser if you told them this was top notch Euro-choc.
As soon as your tongue makes first contact with the outer shell you know you’re eating high cocoa content chocolate. The chocolate is very reminiscent of Lindt’s 85% dark chocolate, with a bittersweet sharpness that needs to be paired with something more delicate (and sweet), and this is where the sour cherry and chocolate mousse come in.
I was hoping that the sour cherry would be suitably tart, and I wasn’t disappointed. The fruity acidity makes the mouth water, and as the sharp sweetness cuts into the dark cocoa, the light chocolate mousse joins in, with the chilli adding a hint of warmth to the finish. In fact my only crticism would be that the hint of warmth is just that, a hint. Personally I could have taken a little more heat, but I suppose this bar is designed to have mass appeal, and too much chilli might well scare many people off.
Other than a lack of ‘kick’ I have to say I was rather impressed with this. When you consider that you’re getting just shy of 200g (187g if you must know) of well made, well presented chocolate with an unusual and well put together filling for not much more than you’d pay for a standard bar of Cadbury’s, there’s s very strong argument for checking out your local Aldi. This is another high-end supermarket product at a very competitive price.
One of the intriguing things about raw chocolate is that it makes you think more. Just when you start to grow complacent in what you expect chocolate to deliver, raw chocolate will mix things up again. Buddha Chocolate, based out of Brooklyn, NY, gave me two raw chocolates, a Buddha Cup that is their version of a Reese’s Cup and a Crystal Salt Bar. The company puts in mind Wei of Chocolate, though it strikes me as more, well, intense.
On their website, the founders, Laura O’Hara and Cayce Pia, are called “two wild Yoga Teachers determined to bring health and balance to the chocolate world.” So the cacao, which is Peruvian, is naturally organic as well as raw. Neither of these chocolates has gluten, dairy, soy, or sugar. Instead of sugar, they are sweetened with raw, humane honey from Vermont. The look of Buddha Chocolate is quite established: it has the hippie feel, but I can also picture the blue and red flower patterns sitting at the counter of a trendy vintage clothing shop.
Of course, I was more curious to try the Buddha Cup. Reese’s Cups are fresh on my mind right now since I admit that I did pick some up (along with KitKats) in the post-Halloween sales this year. But I don’t know that I should make too direct of a comparison, anyway. Instead of peanut butter, this one uses almond butter. Instead of Hershey’s milk chocolate, there is rougher yet more flavorful raw chocolate. And instead of getting two smaller Reese’s cups for under a dollar, one Buddha Cup is $4.25 for 56 grams. It’s also much drier than a greasy Reese’s. I for one find it delicious. There is a clarity of flavor that’s wonderful. The chocolate is nice and cool, not bitter at all. The almond section is well-balanced, though there may be room for a tad more salt.
No worries, though. The Crystal Salt Bar has as much salt as anyone could ask for. Now, I do love salt–I’m not above sprinkling some on my hand when I want a salt kick. But I got a little frightened when I unwrapped this bar and found a heavy sprinkling of Himalayan salt on both sides. Just looking at it is enough to make your mouth pucker. It really is great salt, though–I’m tempted to just lick it all off the chocolate. The thing is, it falls off fairly easily, so the chocolate may have slightly less salt when it reaches your mouth. Also, the chocolate is potent and deep, giving an intense cacao hit. Put that together with the salt hit and this is one dense little bar. One or two squares is plenty for me. Giving this some further thought, I think I would prefer if the salt was spread inside the chocolate rather than outside: as it is, all those crystals attack your tongue first thing and are already disappearing by the time you really get into the chocolate. Maybe I would feel better about a more even combination.
The chocolate, though raw (it isn’t heated above 108 degrees Fahrenheit), isn’t wholly foreign. I mentioned it being rougher, which it is, but it has its own kind of smoothness. I find myself more likely to chew the chocolate at least a little–it doesn’t melt in quite the usual way. But it’s just different; it’s still entirely approachable.
The Buddha Cup pleases me, and even the Crystal Salt Bar grows more endearing the more I nibble from it. These two succeed as bold, flavored raw chocolates. They deliver the necessaries of pure ingredients if it’s the healthy side you’re interested in; otherwise, the rich and even explosive flavors ought to be enough to interest you.
Gail’s Bakery have only recently come to my attention, but everyone seems to be talking about them at the moment. A chain of eight bakeries around London, Gail’s is best known for its bread, but they also do a range of pastries and cakes, and were kind enough to send me some Christmassy treats to try.
Obviously, I had to what was inside that innocent looking box first. I wasted no time in ripping it open, and what I found inside was not innocent at all…
This is a cherry chocolate and rum cake (£15), covered in chocolate icing and topped with gold leaf. At least, that’s the official description. I would describe it as a “rum, rum, chocolate, rum, gold and rum cake”, because this is truly the most alcoholic cake I’ve ever tasted.
To say the texture is moist would be an understatement. It’s positively damp.
There’s so much rum in it that even after just one slice I was feeling a little tipsy. That made it quite difficult to review – but I managed to press on, consuming another three slices before concluding that I like it. But I do think I would have liked it even more had their been a touch less alcohol and a touch more chocolate.
Next up we have rum and raisin brownies (£2.50). These are much more subtle, and less moist than the cake. In fact, althought they’re moist in the centre, they rest of the brownie is a little dry for my taste – but then I am used to the rich, gooey, ganache like brownies of Paul A. Young. There’s a few raisins in there, but I didn’t pick up much rum at all. That could well be because I’d had so much of it in the cake that my taste buds were a bit frazzled. Still, they’re a pleasant snack and far too easy to eat.
Finally, we have the gingerbread reindeer (£1.95 for a bag of two). I’d love to tell you more about them, but as they don’t contain any chocolate, legally I’m not allowed to say much. (But they are crunchy, chewy, gingery and delicious.)
