I’ll admit it – I’ve never heard of Yves Thuriès. A quick peek at his website assures me that he is a master chocolatier from the south west of France, and he apparently founded a Sugar Museum in his homeland too. But I bought this bar of chocolate because of the nibs. All that was visible through the cellophane window in the box was a very generous scattering of nibs and that was good enough for me.
There’s no denying that this is a very good looking bar of chocolate thanks to the caramelized nibs which are good enough to be satisfying all on their own. If Yves ever packages them in convenient little tubes for addicts to get their fix on the run, I’d be at the front of the line to buy them.
The chocolate is equally good, at a robust 70% cocoa solids with a large amount of cocoa butter which makes it remarkably smooth and not at all harsh. In fact, it probably wouldn’t have enough personality by itself and that makes it the perfect accompaniment for bursts of intense flavour that comes from the many, many nibs. A very good match indeed.
That said, the bar is a little pedestrian. Nothing very spectacular, but a perfectly adequate chocolate experience that I was more than happy to finish and a good alternative to the usual mainstream suspects. They really do need to sell those nibs separately though…
Update: This competition is now closed.
Regular readers will know how much we love Gü Puds – and not just because their head chef Fred Ponnavoy cooked us dinner. We like their sense of fun indulgence as much as we like their desserts. So we’ve teamed up with them to bring you a great competition, just in time for summer.
You could win one of these great insulated Gü cool bags, along with a £15 voucher for Gü Puds to fill it with. Perfect for an indulgent summer chocolate picnic!
This competition is for our Twitter followers, but if you’re not on Twitter already, it only takes a minute to sign up.
To enter, just follow Chocablog and Gü Puds (so we can let you know if you win!), then retweet a link to this page.
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The Small Print
This competition is open to UK residents only. One entry per person.
The competition will close at 12 noon GMT on Friday 10th June 2011, and a winner will be picked at random and notified by direct message on Twitter.
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Update: This competition is now closed.
I’m not sure I should review this.
For one thing, it’s barely chocolate. Sure, it contains cacao nibs – lots of nibs – but it doesn’t look very chocolatey. For another thing, unless you happen to live in Orem, Utah, I think you’d have a hard time actually buying this stuff. It’s not currently available on Amano’s website and my little bag came direct from Art Pollard via Martin Christy of SeventyPercent.com, who discovered its addictive qualities the hard way.
For such a simple creation, it’s one of the most more-ish confections I’ve tasted in a long time. It’s a simple cinder toffee / honeycomb with nibs scattered throught the mix.
The pieces are thin enough that you never risk breaking your teeth biting into it, like you do with some of the larger honeycomb chunks we’ve looked at in the past. And the rich, slightly bitter nibs take the edge of that sweetness, allowing you to eat just a little more than is healthy.
It’s still very sweet of course, but it’s impossibly addictive and very difficult to stop eating. The simple bag that they came in had no labelling but really it should have been covered in large warning stickers, it’s that addictive. And if you do manage to stop eating for a few minutes, the bits of honeycomb and nibs that get stuck in your teeth just remind you of how good it tasted and draw you back in for more.
So really, you should probably be thankful this stuff isn’t easy to get hold of. And consider this a public health warning, rather than a review. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to email Amano and get them to send more…
I pretty much avoid the grocery store boxed chocolates. I just don’t see the point in them. And unfortunately, they’re all that come to mind as I sit with the next box from Philadelphia Candies. While I was okay with the previous two as simple sweets, I’m finding it harder to latch onto any particular trait of the Milk Chocolate Creams.
As usual, the one pound box is filled with rows of individual chocolates. I have to say that this time I had quite a bit of fun tearing half of them apart to make sure I hadn’t missed a flavor. Because although the chocolate swirls on top do seem to differ slightly with the flavors, it’s not exactly a method to rely on. As it was, I only found about seven flavors, though there are nine listed online (chocolate, vanilla, strawberry, raspberry, blueberry, orange, lemon, maple and butter). This really isn’t a cause for concern as they all taste rather similar.
The sticky fillings vary in color from caramel, bright pink, and bright yellow to light purple, dark brown, and rose. Sure, you can tell that the caramel color has a sweet maple flavor and the yellow tastes of lemon, but none of these flavors are particularly enticing. They’re also strictly artificial-tasting; I can’t say I wholly minded this in the case of the strawberry cream, but it was just not enough for the chocolate cream. And while I don’t care too much for coconut, anyway, still it was disappointing to find the white cream with so slight a coconut taste as it had.
Even the sticky, gooey texture of the fillings could be improved on. As creams, I think they shouldn’t be quite so close to free-flowing. With the milk chocolate already being average, there isn’t room to cut many more corners. I’ll still eat them, though, of course; I just can’t see myself seeking them out or being thrilled if I got them as a gift. Because, actually, there is a second thing these chocolates remind me of: cotton candy.
