Welcome, welcome to our next exciting instalment in The Collection Of The Bosses Chocolate Collected in Croatia To Be Eaten In Meetings.
Today’s exciting and fun-packed instalment is brought to you courtesy of Mikado Chocolate – a Croatian special. It remains something of a mystery WHY this is called Mikado with the cutesy oriental style writing, but comes from Croatia.
This chocolate is widely sold; I have seen it for sale in Australian specialty shops but have never bought any.
“Brusnica” is Croatian, and just means Cranberry. And that’s exactly what it has in it. Cranberries. Quite a lot of them.
This chocolate is a bit strange. Firstly, the cranberries are large and have a strange, full feel to them. Maybe that’s how they go when preserved, or treated, or whatever is done to get a decent shelf life. They remind me of glacé fruit. They don’t really taste of anything much though.
The other thing about this is that (ignoring the berries), the chocolate is very light – it is only 30% cocoa solids so the dark chocolate haters might like it, but it does not have a lot of chocolately flavour. It is very sweet, and has a slightly fatty / greasy mouth feel. This is not because of the evil palm oil (it has none), but is more likely to be due to the main ingredient: sweetened condensed milk. The number 2 ingredient is cranberries, and the number 3 is cocoa butter. This explains the sweetness and the mouth feel – lightening off the fat would be a good thing.
The general consensus amongst the meeting participants was that this is pretty ordinary. The label calls it premium but none of us could agree with that. Perhaps most telling was that at the end of an hour long meeting there was some left over. It’s not like this is awful, it’s just not very good.
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Ah, Christmas – another holiday synonymous with novelty chocolate items. Like Easter, there’s an awful lot of seasonal chocolate out there, and most of it can be overpriced, if not downright unpleasant and overpriced. This festive offering from James chocolate promised to be a cut above the average supermarket offerings without breaking the bank.
James Chocolates have made this 45g Christmas Pudding truffle available for the festive season, and at £2.50 it isn’t going to break the bank, but it could make a good stocking filler or novelty gift. One thing is immediately apparent when reading the ingredients though – it’s authentic blend of ingredients mean it’s not for children due to the brandy content.
As you can see, the chocolate itself is a kind of oversized dark chocolate shelled truffle with a white chocolate topping and coloured chocolate leaves & berries. The shell and base are surprisingly thick and appear to be made from James’ 70% dark chocolate.
The truffle filling is as close to a Christmas Pudding in a chocolate as I have eaten. Dark chocolate mixes with muscovedo sugar, dried fruit and citrus peel, with a good dollop of brandy thrown into the mix. The fruit and spice combination hit your palate immediately and the chocolate truffle has enough body to mean it doesn’t get lost in the mix. The shell and particularly the base are very thick, and te It’s rich, it’s undoubtedly festive, and it did two things. It made me smile before I ate it and again when I tasted the truffle.
This is quite a neat little Christmas novelty. Hand made & reasonably priced, I think this is quite a neat little item. The flavours are authentic enough for it to do as it promises, and the price isn’t likely to scare anyone off. They’re available to order from James’ website right now.
I always love it when I discover someone doing something a bit different with chocolate. Whether it’s experimenting with unusual flavours or going to great length to source cocoa beans, it shows a passion for producing something special.
Black River Chocolate is a new company, making filled chocolates from single origin Jamaican cocoa beans. The company sources the beans in Jamaica then has them sent to Belgium where the chocolates are made. So while they don’t actually make the chocolate themselves, they have control over the process. More importantly, they’re one of only a few companies selling single origin Jamaican chocolate, and as far as I know, the only one making filled chocolates with it.
This little sample box was given to me at the South Bank Chocolate Festival, and I was keen to try them. In total, Black River make 20 different chocolates, but I have four to try; Calvados Ganache, Praline, Praline with Crème Brulée and Praline With Hazelnuts.
Calvados Ganache
A nicely made dark chocolate decorated with a transfer on top. Thin chocolate and a soft ganache with just the right amount of alcohol. Difficult to pick up any specific flavour notes from the chocolate, but very tastey nonetheless.
Praline
A large sea-shell shaped dark chocolate filled with a sweet, peanut butter like praline. Although this is a bit sweeter than the chocolates I normally go for, it was very moreish. Lucky for me, I only had the one then!
Praline With Crème Brulée
An oval-shaped milk chocolate filled with a very light, creamy praline with small, crunchy crème brulée. This one was a bit too sweet for me, but I still found it pleasant. Still delicious, but I couldn’t manage more than one this time.
Praline With Hazelnuts
Another simple praline, but this time crunchy hazelnut pieces. Probably my favourite of the bunch, and another light, creamy praline that’s very easy to eat.
All in all, a very nice selection of chocolates, presented in a nice little box that closes with a magnetic catch (it’s the simple things that please me). For my tastes they are slightly too sweet, and I wasn’t able to pick out flavour notes in the chocolate itself. But the average consumer who is used to the likes of Hotel Chocolat and Thorntons isn’t going to care too much about that. They want well made, tasty chocolates. and these certainly fit the bill.
I think Black River is a great idea, and I’m certain they’ll be a success. I’d love to see them experiment and go in other directions, beyond these Belgian chocolates too. Perhaps some simple bars that show off the flavour of the chocolate itself, or maybe to work with some British chocolatiers using shorter shelf life ingredients to really enhance the flavour of the Jamaican cacao.
But whatever direction they decide to go in, I think the future is bright for Black River.
