Time for another little box of chocolates from Henley’s Gorvett & Stone. This time we have a box of twelve 40% milk chocolates with a rum and raisin ganache made from 70% dark chocolate.
As with Gorvett & Stone’s other creations, Valrhona chocolate is used throughout, but what sets this apart from other rum and raisin flavour chocolates you may have had is that it’s made with real rum and real raisins.
There’s a thin dusting of cocoa powder covering the chocolates, which means that the first flavour you get is that of an intense dark chocolates. That very quickly gives way to the smooth milk chocolate, which slowly intensifies as the rum and raisin flavours develop.
You get a complete range of flavours along the way, with all the key ingredients being easily discernable, including the fresh cream used in the ganache.
Occasionally you’ll find a piece of raisin, which gives a fruity edge to proceedings, but overall this is a delicate and subtlety flavoured chocolate. None of the flavours are overpowering, and you get to experience the flavour of the rum, rather than being hit with alcohol, as is so often the case with cheap rum & raisin chocolates.
Gorvett & Stone is one of those chocolatiers that you can’t go wrong with and this is another winner. It’s just a shame I don’t have any left to share…
I want trawling through my box of chocolate waiting to be tried (as you do), and found this little gem tucked away.
This is another from the Kaoka stable – again found in my local Foodland supermarket.
The back of the pack has quite a long spiel about how they work with their producers, its organic (and certified). Oh, and it’s made in France. Which explains why the back label descends into Franglais at times.
At 80%, I was expecting this to be a pretty mouth-puckering bitter bad-boy. It’s not. Well, not quite. Milk chocolate lovers won’t like this one, but the dark side dwellers will. It compares very favourably with my personal favourite from Lindt. In this case the comparison is against the Lindt 85% – which is considerable harsher by comparison. Those who think a 70% is about right may find both of these to be a little on the bitter side.
Interestingly, when I first tried this it was a warm day (and I had kept this in the fridge), so I was sitting under the air conditioner drinking a dry Cider. And I find that the two go together unexpectedly well. I have to point out though, that mixing this with a sweet cider would be sheer folly.
This chap is certainly not for everybody, but it does carry its 80% off with some finesse. There is enough bitterness that you know you are dealing with something BIG. The first taste is “oh goodness”. The second though, is something quite special. And the third… hooked.
At about $5 for 100 grams, this is no bargain – but worth hunting down if looking for something a little unusual.
Devnaa is a brother and sister partnership producing “Indian Inspired” chocolates and confectionery in the UK. As you can see first impressions are great, with beautiful brightly coloured packaging that immediately makes you want to open the box.
The one thing you can’t get away from though is that Great Taste Award sticker on the box. I touched on my opinion of these awards in my Ben Tre bar review. I think they’re overused to the point of being meaningless. Many people don’t even notice that the stickers carry one, two or three stars, with three stars being the top rated.
This box has one star, and in my opinion, that’s tantamount to putting a sticker on your packaging that says “look at me! I taste average!”
For some reason, I don’t seem to have everything listed on the menu card – all the barfi chocolate covered sweets are missing, and have been replaced by more traditional chocolates. I don’t know if they were deliberately removed from this collection or if it’s just my box, but I was a little disappointed that I didn’t get to try them.
The chocolates we do have are all made with Callebaut chocolate with fillings made from unusual combinations and Indian spices.
Saffron Caramel Truffle
Saffron infused caramel in white chocolate, sprinkled with pistachios. A very sweet caramel in a very sweet white chocolate. It’s an interesting experience, but the saffron just didn’t work against all that sugar for me.
Chai Masala Truffle
Devanaa’s version of a salted caramel, with added cloves, cinnamon, ginger and cardamom in a milk chocolate shell. I really enjoyed the flavours of this one, and the filling has a nice liquid consistency. But it is slightly grainy in texture, and the shell is a little too thick.
Cardamom & Coconut Truffle
Another salted caramel, this time in a dark chocolate and flavoured with cardamom, vanilla and coconut. Another enjoyable chocolate, although in this case the caramel is probably a little too liquid. The flavours are all easy to pick out, without being overpowering. The dark chocolate doesn’t have a lot of flavour of its own though.
Cinnamon Crispy Praline
Cinnamon praline with crisped rice in milk chocolate. A more traditional flavour combination than any of the others in the box, and perhaps surprisingly, one of my favourites. It’s light, with a gentle crisp, and isn’t too sweet. The cinnamon is perhaps a little too subtle, but all in all a very nice chocolate.
Rose Cream
Rose flavoured fondant in dark chocolate. This was far too sweet for me, with the rose flavour tasting a little artificial. The overall effect is that of a cheap, creamy Turkish Delight in a very average dark chocolate.
Saffron & Ginger Fudge
Saffron infused white chocolate fudge with crystalised ginger, enrobed in milk chocolate. This has some lovely subtle flavours, but as with some of the other chocolates in this collection, they are ultimately overwhelmed by the sweetness.
And that’s my main gripe about these chocolates as a whole. There are some exciting and unusual flavour combinations, but they are just too sweet for my tastes. However, Indian sweets are often very sweet, so the target market for these chocolates may well go mad for them.
The nature of the market for these chocolates also means Devnaa ship a lot overseas. That in turn means they have added preservatives in order to increase shelf life. A necessary evil perhaps, but unfortunately that does impact on the flavour. They can’t, for instance, compete with the likes of Katie Kristoffers’ Matcha Chocolat, who uses some similarly exotic flavour combinations in her creations.
Personally, I’d love to see fresh versions of these chocolates, made with less sugar and higher quality chocolate, but I don’t know if that would appeal to the Indian market in the same way.
Information
- Buy it online from:
- Contains dark chocolate, milk chocolate, white chocolate (28, 33, 60% cocoa solids).
- Filed under assortment, cardamom, cinnamon, coconut, dark chocolate, devnaa, ginger, milk chocolate, rose, saffron, uk, white chocolate.
Last week, I had the opportunity to go to San Francisco’s Fall Luxury Chocolate Salon, a smaller version of Taste TV’s International Salon that’s become a yearly happening. As it was, there were still over thirty participants, all eagerly displaying their artistic endeavors.
As someone unfamiliar with attending events like this, I just have to share one of my favorite parts: the moment when you walk in from the outside world, past the inner door, and into the first room of booths. There are chocolate-crazed people everywhere you look, plates of fresh truffles sit on a table at your left hand awaiting you, and everywhere is the aroma of chocolate. The scent is like your host, beckoning you to come farther in.
Though it looks like the International Salon is on a much larger scale, this event did introduce me to a variety of new names. Two whose displays really stood out to me are Vice Chocolates and Gateau et Ganache — their chocolates looked as dazzling as jewelry. Vice took away many of the salon awards, along with Amano (no surprise there). Speaking of Amano, they were, much to my excitement, selling boxed chocolates at the salon; the small box I snagged will be getting a review presently, along with the other assortment of things I picked up both at the salon and in local shops.
If you get a chance to go to a salon, do so, if only to wholeheartedly devote an afternoon or morning to your friend chocolate.
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