Seed & Bean are a UK company producing ethical and organic chocolate bars. They sent us their entire range (expect more reviews soon!), but this caught my eye as I’ve never reviewed a chocolate bar with poppy seeds.
Simon recently tried James’ Chocolates version of this bar, which suggests that more than one person thinks lemon, poppy seeds and white chocolate go together well. I’ll be the judge of that.
As you can see, the white chocolate is heavily dotted with poppy seeds. You might think that one reason for using them with white chocolate is simply that they look good.
Unfortunately, they don’t add much else to this bar. They have little, if any flavour, and while they do add a bit of texture to the chocolate, it’s more annoying than pleasant. I’m still picking poppy seeds out of my teeth.
The lemon flavour is very nice though. It’s fresh, but never overpowering, and just helps to cut through the sweetness of the white chocolate a little bit. The result is a half decent white chocolate that isn’t sickly sweet, but is actually quite moreish.
Personally, I could do without the poppy seeds. Or maybe have them replaced with black pepper for a similar visual effect and a little bit of heat. Otherwise, this is quite an enjoyable little bar that disappears all to quickly.
Well, this is an interesting idea and as far as I know, something really quite unique. Perfume maker Ayala Moriel has collaborated with Vancouver chocolatier Rachel Sawatzky (also known as the CocoaNymph) to come up with a trio of chocolate bars that are inspired by three of Moriel’s scents. In fact, these are bars where the smell is just as important as the taste, with lots of aromatic ingredients added to create what they’ve decided to call Perfume Bars.
The one that landed in my hands was Epionage, based on a perfume which is described as smelling of peaty Scotch, leather, cigar smoke and musky-vanilla. Sounds interesting. The accompanying bar, however, is a little less complex than that with smoked salt, jasmine and juniper combined with 64% dark chocolate, but it still sounds like an interesting combination.
Not surprisingly, it smells really good. The floral notes of the jasmine mixes with the fruitiness of the juniper, and that just serves to raise expectations. Unfortunately, the taste really doesn’t measure up because the chocolate is incredibly over-salted. Every single bite or even nibble is completely dominated by the large crystals of smoky salt and nothing else stands a chance. It isn’t that I’m adverse to salt in chocolate either – this is just way too much and after just eating the corner of the bar, all I could taste was salt for quite a while afterwards. Not pleasant at all.
I’m not quite ready to condemn the entire project yet. The range also includes Guilt (64% cocoa with orange blossom, blood orange and wild oranges) and Roses et Chocolat (72% cocoa with rose, saffron & chilli), both of which sound like they might have a little bit more subtlety and flavour than Espionage did. As it stands, Ayala’s Perfume Bars promise much and deliver very little, something which is quite disappointing considering their premium price tag of $12 for a 50g bar.
Well would you look at that. Another slightly mad chocolate bar from Zotter. Who would ever have thought. Oh, and more bacon too. Because it’s just not real chocolate if it doesn’t contain bacon.
The official description of this bar is:
Plums marinated in red wine and coffee with roasted and caramelised bacon and dipped in a chocolate filling. Covered in a strong dark chocolate coating.
In other words, it’s a fairly run of the mill filled Zotter bar with everything but the kitchen sink in it (and I fully expect them to come out with a kitchen sink flavour bar at some point this year).
The format is exactly the same as the other filled Zotter bars. A single slab of filling with a thin chocolate coating and an interesting rippled finish. It works pretty well and allows the maximum amount of filling for the size.
But these bars are all about the weird flavours rather than the chocolate that holds them together.
When you break into the bar, you’re first greeted by a pleasant, fruity aroma. Small pieces of plum are visible, but the bacon isn’t immediately obvious.
That’s reflected in the taste. Wine is predominant flavour, with a fairly subtle plum flavour coming in later. The coffee is very subtle, and I didn’t pick up anything at all from the bacon. In fact, the only real indication of bacon is the occasional small, flavourless lump. There’s no flavour to it, so I have to assume the primary reason it’s there is so it can be written on the wrapper to get your attention.
The 70% dark chocolate – or what there is of it – is pleasant, although tasting it in isolation is fairly difficult. Consequently, it mainly tastes of wine and plums to me.
Much as I love Zotter, I think this does seem to be a bar that’s using bacon for bacon’s sake. Take it out and add a little more fruit, and it would be a very pleasant little nibble. The bacon turns it into more of a gimmick – fine as a curiosity if you’ve never tried the Zotter range, bu not really for me.
I think all the chocolatiers got together recently and decided to make their boxes wooden in order to impress me. It’s hard to look at others after the American Heritage box, but still, there is something about the plain wood box of truffles I got from 5th Avenue Chocolatiere that is nicer than a cardboard box.
A family-owned company based in New York, 5th Avenue has been around since 1973, when it was started by John Whaley. From their website:”We create chocolates for year-round gift-giving in addition to traditional holidays.” Besides these, they also make the more standard-looking round truffles, chocolate cremes and a variety of chocolate-covered items (including bananas), and a selection of molded chocolates.
My box is the medium size, with 15 truffles for a standard $22 price tag. Red is the accent color, on both the small logo stamp and the red tissue paper. The gold of the box’s tray works quite well; it surrounds the chocolate faces as they stare up at you like so many members of royalty. I like their square shape as a change from the usual truffle look, as well.
A downside for me was getting them out of their golden beds. It may only be because of my warmer climate that I had trouble, but I can’t be sure. They’re lovely otherwise, thick and rich. Like little ganaches or mousses with substance, they have a soft, smooth, and semi-fluffy texture. The constant taste is full of deepness and richness and chocolateness. There is no ingredients list, but I’m not tasting fillers.
Few people there must be who wouldn’t like a gift of a box of these. Having that similarity to mousse (which, as a dessert, has a certain degree of sweetness), it has a richness that remains approachable.
