Last year I was lucky enough to sample a range of fantastic chocolate-themed afternoon teas, so when my friend told me about a newly launched afternoon tea at The Chancery Court Hotel I jumped at the chance to try it.
I took food blogger friend Kavey along to sample the extensive menu and see how it compares.
The Chancery Court Hotel is a beautiful setting for afternoon tea. Located a short walk from Holborn station, it’s a hidden gem in central London. Afternoon tea is served in The Lounge, a comfortable and relaxed setting facing the hotel’s central courtyard. It wasn’t busy when we were there, but there was plenty going on around us and our tea was accompanied by live piano music.
After being given the opportunity to examine the range of teas on offer, we made our choices and a tiered tray of sandwiches and scones arrived. With simple fillings and fresh bread, they were tasty, but not really what we were there for. A hint of what was to come came with the scones, which were perfectly baked, beautiful and light. Served with delicious fresh jam and clotted cream, it was difficult to resist having more than one each, but we knew we had to save space for the rather exceptional ‘chocolate’ part of this tea.
You see, as afternoon teas go, this is a little different. The main part – the patisserie – is served as a buffet – an all you can eat buffet, at that. At just £23.50 per head, that would be enough to recommend it itself, but this was some of the best patisserie I’ve ever had.
The buffet, arranged around tables and the top of the piano in the centre of the lounge was simply stunning. With beautiful cakes, brownies, desserts and even a chocolate fountain to choose from, it was difficult to know where to start. Knowing that we would soon be full, we went straight for the best looking patisserie and were rewarded with amazing flavours and attention to detail.
The range of items to choose from is extensive and it would be impossible to cover it all here, but they’re made using Valrhona chocolate and look exquisite. The Black Forest gateau comes wrapped in a thin cylinder of chocolate and is packed with flavour, as is the delicous Opéra. The blood orange and chocolate tart, topped with tiny macarons was another revelation, with a thick layer of jaffa cake-style orange jelly in the base.
The rapsberry chocolate macaron was another fantastic looking creation. With a base made from the top half of a macaron, decorated with whole raspberries and chocolate ganache and topped by the cutest, lightest mini macaron you could imagine.
There were so many highlights that it feels a little wrong to mention the creations that didn’t quite work as well for me. The Sacher torte was slightly dry and didn’t have lot of flavour and the pistachio torte looked great, but the flavours didn’t really come together. But those are tiny criticisms of what was without doubt the nicest afternoon tea I’ve had.
For chocolate lovers looking for a refuge from the Christmas shoppers or just looking for somewhere to take someone special, I can’t recommend this highly enough. Wonderful patisserie, friendly staff, a great atmosphere and exceptional value make this an unmissable chocolate experience.
Note (December 2020): The Chancery Court Hotel is now Rosewood London, but I haven’t been back since reviewing this afternoon tea in 2011, so can’t talk about the quality of the current offering.
Sometimes it’s the simple things in life that are the best. And I think these Chococo chocolate covered apricots can be included in that statement. Dried apricots, dippped in dark chocolate and packed into these very summery looking 125g bags.
The fruit in question is sun dried Turkish apricots. They’re not particularly beautiful to look at, but they don’t need to be.
Whether or not you like them will of course come down to how much you like dried fruit. These have just the write amount of flavour. They’re chew, succulent, and in my opinion, delicious.
The chocolate they’re dipped in is a 70% dark chocolate from the Grenada Chocolate Company. It’s not too sweet, but the natural sugars in the apricot balance that nicely. It works very well with the fruit, but I prefer to just let it melt away before biting into the apricot inside.
That’s really all there is to these. As chocolate snacks go, these are probably among the healthier options you could go for. Perfect for having around the house at Christmas – but they’re quite addictive so don’t expect them to last long.
Cloud Cocoland came to my attention last week, when they came joint top of The Guardian’s Christmas chocolate taste test. They tied with Fortnum & Mason and Rococo, and beat the likes of Demarquette and Baruzzo. This was a bit of a surprise, to say the least, but a few days later, I had a box in my possession to try for myself.
The first thing I noticed was the presentation. From the outset, these have the appearance of a home made product. The box is nice enough, but it’s generic, unbranded (apart from the included card) and simply decorated with a ribbon. The menu for the chocolates is a sticker on the inside of the lid.
Whether or not you like that approach will likely depend on the kind of gift you’re looking for. They definitely don’t have the refined artisan touch of some of the others in the The Guardian’s test, but if you’re looking for something with a personal, home made touch, these might fit the bill.
The look of the actual chocolates reflects the packaging. They’re pretty, but uneven, with many having ‘feet’ where the molten chocolate has succumbed to gravity. This is something I would have expected The Guardian’s test to at least mention, given the immaculate appearance of the likes of Rococo, Demarquette and Baruzzo. But it was a taste test, rather than an appearnace test, so let’s move on to the flavours.
We have Panettone Xmas Pud, Stem Ginger Truffle, Pecan Truffle, Cranberry Truffle, Star Praline, Snowflake Praline and Golden Damsen Cup. Trish Hawkins, the brains behind Cloud Cocoland tells me that most of the ingredients used are organic and/or fair trade with no preservatives, and that does come through in the flavours.
While the chocolate itself seems to be fairly standard (I assume Belgian) couverture, the fillings are rather tasty. I wasn’t a big fan of the extra large Golden Damson Cup, but the other flavours were fresh, well matched and rather nice. Some of the ganaches were a little firm for my liking, but that’s a minor issue.
Based on taste alone, Cloud Cocoland deserve a place on The Guardian’s list, but with so many beautiful, fresh, artisan chocolates to choose from, I’d like to see a little more attention to detail in terms of presentation. If you’re looking for a chocolate Christmas gift with that rustic, home made look, then they’re perfect.
Sadaharu Aoki is a Japanese patissier chocolatier with shops in Paris, Japan and Taiwan. I picked up this ultra stylish little gift box at Salon du Chocolat in Paris.
One look at the chocolates inside should give you an idea of what attracted me to them.
The simple blocks of bright colour neatly lined up in the box remind me of crayons, which immediately appealed to the child in me. This is a six piece gift box, but they come in sizes up to 36 pieces with 18 different flavours to choose from. In my little box, I have Raspberry, Valencia Orange, Yuzu, Wasabi, Green Tea and Blueberry.
All but the green tea feature simple, dark chocolate ganaches in a dark chocolate shell, and the green tea just uses a white chocolate ganache, so as not to completely overwhelm the subtle flavour. It really does work, and it’s one of the few tea chocolates I’ve had where the flavour really shines through.
The raspberry, orange and yuzu had the sharp tang of real fruit oil, but it’s done such a way that it doesn’t overwhelm the chocolate and you still get a whole range of flavour. The other fruit, the blueberry, is more subtle, but equally well rounded. The wasabi is peppery and warm, but all the chocolate flavours still come through.
These are the perfect illustration of Japanese and French attention to detail when it comes to chocolate making and patisserie. The flavours themselves are interesting, but they don’t push any boundaries. Instead, the focus is on getting the flavour balance and presentation absolutely perfect.
As far as I can make out, these chocolates aren’t available to buy online, but if you’re in Paris, Tokyo or Taipei, then I highly recommend seeking out one of Sadaharu Aoki’s boutiques and trying them for yourself.
