One of my favourite chocolate discoveries of the year was Abanico, the French chocolatier founded by Victoire Finaz. I had the pleasure of meeting Victoire last week at Salon du Chocolat where she gave me this rather attractive box of salted caramels.
The caramels come in the same distinctive packaging as the assortment I reviewed in May. Underneath the stylish purple sleeve is a layered box which fans out (“abanico” is Spanish for “fan”) to reveal the chocolates underneath.
Each layer has layer contains 12 chocolates, meaning you get 24 in this 90g box.
The chocolates themselves are thin counters of milk chocolate with just enough room inside for a small amount of salted caramel. In truth, packaging small chocolates in this way is probably not particularly efficient, but they do look good, and the box completely protects the chocolates from any damage – something that’s very important if you’re buying them as a gift.
The milk chocolate is quite sweet and creamy, but still very more-ish. I think this is partly down to the small size of the chocolates. One chocolate is never quite enough, and even if you try to restrain yourself, it’s all too easy to eat a whole layer in a matter of minutes.
Like the chocolate, the caramel is also sweet, but there’s so little of it that each chocolate you eat makes you crave another, just to get a bit more of the soft, sweet centre.
Overall, I personally prefer the variety and substance of the milk & dark Abanico assortment I reviewed previously, but these are still very, very nice. In fact my only real complaint is that they’re perhaps a little too addictive, and that beautiful box is empty before you know it!
Video Interview
If you’re interested in knowing more about Abainco, here’s the interview we did for World Chocolate Guide with Victoire Finaz, founder of Abanico.
Last weekend I was fortunate enough to get to Paris for Salon du Chocolat, the world’s largest chocolate show.
Salon is split into two shows, the ‘Professionnel’ trade-only show and the spectacular ‘Grand Public’ show which runs for four days and features hundreds of exhibitors.
The center of the exhibition floor was occupied by a large stage that hosted regular entertainment events and a fashion show featuring dresses made from chocolate – not all of which survived their journey down the catwalk!
Salon is huge with exhibitors from around the world, although the vast majority were French chocolatiers and chocolate makers. France has many more bean-to-bar chocolate makers, and we managed to chat to quite a few of them, but one thing that was striking was just how similar a lot of the chocolates were.
Most French chocolatiers use Valhrona chocolate for their creations, which combined with a French preference for quality over taking risks with unusual flavour combinations meant that we ended up trying a lot of chocolates that were very similar. One of the things I like best about the UK chocolate scene is the creativity and individuality of the relatively small number of chocolatiers we have.
But the sheer number of chocolatiers and chocolate makers in attendance more than made up for that. It was striking to see the scale of the fine chocolate market in France compared to the UK. We’ve still got a lot of catching up to do when it comes to steering the public toward real chocolate and away from cheap confectionery.
Of course, the French are also big on patisserie, and there were all kinds of stunning creations on display. But once again, there was a certain lack of creativity from the bulk of exhibitors, with most being limited to macarons in different flavours, colours and sizes. I’m not the greatest fan of macarons myself, but the French public clearly still love them.
The stand outs of the show for me were Pralus, who transformed half their stand into a bakery, turning out amazing brioche, Abanico, whose chocolates are as beautifully presented as they are delicious, and Pierre Marcolini, who took us to the VIP lounge for share champagne while we interviewed him. You’ll be able to find that video and many more on the World Chocolate Guide blog soon!
Downstairs, the Professionnel show was much quieter as it wasn’t open to the public. It was probably only really truly interesting if you’re in the market for chocolate making equipment. But it was host to the World Chocolate Masters competition and some truly amazing chocolate sculptures made by the contestants.
Many thanks to Mathilde & David whose hospitality allowed us to stay in Paris for three amazing, chocolate-filled days.
Photo Gallery
This is an oddity of sorts. It comes from the spice section at Trader Joe’s, which has recently been expanding – and what better addition than something to do with chocolate? I’m not sure what the average person’s reaction to a Sugar, Chocolate & Coffee Bean Grinder would be, but I was quick to pick it up and let it sit in my kitchen for a while as I experimented with it.
The question is, of course, what does one do with something like this? And would it be possible to use a good coffee grinder instead? The container itself suggests to put it over cupcakes, coffee, tea, buttered toast, and ice cream, which are certainly enough for a beginning. But before I get into those, I want to look at the composition of this product.
It may be useful to start at the ingredients list: brown candy sugar, white candy sugar, chocolate flakes, and coffee beans. Although I’m not sure it affects the taste much, the inclusion of two different colored sugars does have visual interest; these are in chunks slightly bigger than most salt grinders have. The chocolate flakes are smaller and do not make up a very great percentage of the whole (as you can sort of see from a close-up on the container). The coffee beans are in halves, which means that they tend to be the biggest pieces after being ground.
What with a good amount of this mixture being sugar, I did feel a little odd grinding some over ice cream, as if ice cream needs more sugar. I was also wishing that cinnamon (what I usually add) was also involved. As it was, a slight crunch and something of a coffee taste were what I got. The same goes for on top of cupcakes (yes, I tried that, too–I couldn’t turn down the excuse for cupcakes).
As I drink both coffee and tea black, that combination was never going to be my favorite, but it does add an interesting hint of flavor along with the sugar that most people add, anyway. I could see someone getting accustomed to adding this to their usual coffee or tea, maybe even to shakes.
But my definite favorite is on the buttered toaste: this is what allows you to taste all three elements, even if the chocolate still comes up last. It’s a simple twist on butter and sugar, but with more flavor. It’s also much more entertaining to sprinkle a concoction of three or four elements on toast rather than just plain sugar.
So as strange as this new item is, I rather like it, along similar lines to my preference for salt and pepper in the same format. I would complain that there is not enough chocolate, but I can’t say that the marketing was wrong–“sugar” appears on the labeling in much larger letters than does “chocolate.”
I suppose you’d be forgiven for thinking that the man who has tasted chocolate coated ants and tree sap chocolate (and still has to eat that @*!! scorpion) is about to review chocolate coated caviar, but thankfully you’re wrong.
To be honest I think chocolate and caviar are unlikely to ever be available as a pairing (unless someone like Paul A Young reads this and decides to prove me wrong). No, dear reader, I’m happy to report that the ‘90% Cocoa, Extra Quality’ seal design gives the game away. Pop the top of this jar and inside you’ll find 40g of tiny, purply-red ‘eggs’ of dark, ‘extra bitter’ chocolate.
Ah, novelty chocolate. That difficult area for years it seemed that nobody could be bothered to make the effort to produce something that was actually worth eating. Thankfully these days the likes of Rococo Chocolate and even Sainsbury’s (their giant chocolate Easter Bunny is certainly a bargain) have managed to come up with the goods, and I couldn’t help but remember the Venchi Cigar I reviewed a couple of years ago – another winner.
Again, this is really good chocolate. At 90% cacao it could have been a tongue-shriveller but the ‘extra fondente’ part of the description (‘melt in the mouth’) is also very true. The little grains of chocolate melt into a smooth paste in seconds, creating a burst of acidity which is quickly followed by a flood of rich, robust cacao with lots of fruity, woody top notes. as you might expect, superb with a good strong cup of coffee and possibly the most ‘accessible’ 90% chocolate I’ve come across.
