On the face of it, a fairly normal combination from the man we’ve all come to admire for his daring and slightly eccentric approach to chocolate making. There again, I can recall only one other grapefruit chocolate bar, and it wasn’t a huge success.
The inner wrapper describes the bar as ‘Pink Grapefruit Basic 50’ and goes on to describe how the mixture of orange and grapefruit has ‘a lot of potential’. Apparently this is quite vitamin rich and includes dried raspberries and beetroot powder (presumably in the ‘aromatic ganache’) and lemon juice – no mention of orange juice in the ingrredients for some reason.
The whole thing is wrapped in Zotter’s 50% cocoa Dark Mountain milk chocolate and it’s a great way to start any tasting. The initial rich cacao flavours quickly give way to a light, sweet ganache which has mildly spicy undertones and an earthy note which I beleive may have been the bettroot at work. These are soon washed over by a creamy, fruity sweetness that in turn climaxes with the melting jelly releasing the final grapefruit zing. As the three elements break down the palate is continually treated to little bursts of dark chocolate, creamy, aromatic ganache and peaks of citrus. The finish is clean, with the fruit acidity acting as a little palate cleanser.
I suppose if there was going to be a successful blending of grapefruit and chocolate in a commercially produced chocolate bar, it was going to be someone like Josef Zotter who was going to do it. We’ve reviewed quite a few Zotter creations on Chocablog, and opinions are fairly unanimous regarding the quality of all of his products. Regular readers know that Zotter’s chocolate is fairly traded and organic, which is really just icing on the cake that is yet another jolly tasty Zotter Bar.
Easter is rapidly approaching, and this little plastic box of a dozen ‘Quail Eggs’ from Hotel Chocolat made me smile.
First off, the simple, clear plastic egg box with all the dark, milk and white chocolate eggs showing through just looks cute. Each egg is decorated with a different colour signifying a different filling.
The fillings are Whisky Truffle, Vanilla Truffle, Strawberry Truffle, Rum Truffle, Liquid Caramel, Classic Praline, Chocolate Truffle, Blueberry Truffle, Caramel Praline, Chocolate Brownie and Amaretto Truffle.
With three (quite strong) alcoholic flavours, these might bot be the ideal gift for the kids, but they’re a little too cute to share with the children anyway.
It’s the fillings that take centre stage here. With each egg having a different flavour, there’s bound to be at least a couple that everyone will like. I like fruity flavours, so what a little disappointed that the blueberry and strawberry were both white chocolate, but that didn’t stop me scoffing them both.
The alcohol filled eggs were a little strong for my tastes, but I scoffed those too.
I paid less attention to the more every day flavours like the caramel and praline, but also scoffed these. Basically, I scoffed the lot.
The chocolate is standard Hotel Chocolat fare for this type of promotional product. Good quality, but not out of this world. Frankly, it doesn’t need to be, as any complex flavours would quickly be overtaken by the flavour of the filling. It does the job of looking good and keeping all the yumminess inside.
If I have one minor complaint with these eggs, it’s that the join where the two halves have been sealed is quite prominent, and they lose out to Rococo’s Chocolate Quail Eggs in the prettiness stakes. At £9, they’re not cheap, but they are a little different from your average Easter Egg, and I’d be happy to receive them.
The people over at Philadelphia Candies have sent me a good-sized selection for review, so I will slowly be getting through these in the coming weeks. I start off with a pair that includes something I specifically requested: Chocolate Potato Chips. But back up for a moment. The name Philadelphia Candies has a little more of a story than it sounds at first: brothers Jim and Steve Macris chose the name in 1919, after emigrating out of Greece, to mean “candies made with brotherly love.”
Now, I chose the potato chips as one of those bizarre combinations that I’ve been seeing more often, but never actually tried. I had been under the impression that it was nothing more than a random idea from the start. But it isn’t like eating a potato chip with chocolate; it’s like eating a chocolate creation with chip inside. Because the chocolate here is pretty thick, it makes it clear that this is a confection first and foremost. The chips give a more minor crunch than pretzels or nuts or anything else of the sort. When I brought the box out to share with a few people after lunch, we all agreed that they aren’t weird at all in the end. In fact, I’m rather sad to find them now gone.
Chocolate-covered pretzels I used to not care much for; I believe I’m changing my mind, though, as they can be nice for snacking. The Philadelphia pretzels are small and twisted, decorated with chocolate stripes like the chips are. To compare to the chips, there is less chocolate here and a deeper, less soft crunch. A note on the chocolate in both: it is the cool and mellow confectionary kind, though perhaps less sweet than some.
Overall, these both made for good sweet-and-crunch snacking, with the chips turning out to be my favorite of the two.
Geert Vercruysse is a Belgian chocolatier & patissier based in Kortrijk, close to the French border. I’ve known about him for a while, but got to meet him recently at a Chocolate & Love tasting. Geert brought along a selection of his chocolates to try which went down very well.
Last week he was back in the country, so I invited him to be a judge at the Academy of Chocolate Awards and he was kind enough to bring a box of his creations just for me.
Geert has a passion for chocolate and particularly enjoys seeking out new and exciting single origin chocolate that he can match to his flavours. Rather than limiting himself to one or two chocolate manufacturers, he has committed to finding the best chocolate in the world, and creating his filled chocolates to complement the natural flavours present in the chocolate itself.
To me, this just seems to be the right way to approach making fresh chocolates, but that’s all theory. How well does this approach work in practice?
The flavours here are actually quite conservative and typically Belgian – the difference is that they’re so well executed.
The first chocolate I tried was the marzipan pictured above. Marzipan chocolate may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but I particularly enjoyed this one. The flavours aren’t too strong, and the deliciously light marzipan and thin chocolate shell just melt away.
Many of Geert’s chocolates feature two layers, and my next chocolate was a Madagascan ganache with a thin layer of praline. I was surprised that the natural fruity notes in the Madagascan chocolate clearly came through here, and really brought the chocolate to life.
And that’s the case with all the chocolates I tried. A lot of thought has gone into the combinations, all of which work wonderfully together.
But while there’s a lot of attention to detail in flavour choice, there’s nothing unusual or challenging here. While the top London chocolatiers might be experimenting with more exotic fruits, spices, teas and more, Geert’s approach is more traditional, with emphasis on quality first.
I’m sure that having spent a lot of time exploring the best of London’s chocolate shops recently, he’ll be experimenting with more unusual flavours very soon. I can’t wait to see what happens when some of that British creativity is combined with Geert’s constant quest to find the best chocolate to match the flavours inside.
As it was, I loved this selection of chocolates, but I know I’d love them even more if there were some more exotic flavours. That’s partly personal taste though, and what appeals to me might not appeal to chocolate buyers in Belgium.
What I find most exciting though is Geert’s passion to try new chocolate, and the fact that a top Belgian chocolatier is coming to London to seek out new flavours and inspiration. Equally, I think there are many British chocolatiers who could learn from his methodical approach to seeking out the best chocolate for his creations.
Unfortunately, you can’t buy these online (fresh chocolates don’t cope with long distance travel very well), but if you can’t make it to Belgium, you will be able to sample some of Geert’s chocolates at the Chocolate and Love stall at the Southbank Chocolate Festival which runs 8th – 11th April.
