This is part of Hotel Chocolat’s new winter range, and was one of many items in our goody bag at their Christmas launch event waaaaaay back in July.
The idea of gingerbread hot chocolate sounds amazing to me. I’m a sucker for a nice warming mug of hot chocolate on a cold day, so I was really looking forward to trying this.
As with most good hot chocolates, this one is made from real chocolate. In this case, it’s tiny flakes of gingerbread flavoured milk chocolate. It looks and smells delicious.
The bottle gives instructions for preparing on a hob or in the microwave, so I opted for the traditional method, warming the milk in a pan and slowly adding the required six level teaspoons of Liquid Chocolate, then simmering for one minute.
All very easy, and in no time at all I had a nice looking mug of hot chocolate.
Unfortunately, this was where things started to go downhill a little. I had been expecting a delicious and warming chocolate drink, but instead my mouth was greeted with the intense heat of the ginger, but not much actual flavour. I actually had to go back and look at the ingredients because I was convinced some form of chilli would be high up on the list.
But no, it’s just ginger powder. There’s also nutmeg and some other flavours in there, but the ginger is just too intense to make a comforting hug in a mug. This is more like a slap in the face. And despite being made with a 40% milk chocolate, that ginger hit somewhat overpowers the chocolate flavour too.
The other day though, I had a brainwave. I was making a simple hot chocolate the way I usually do, with good quality dark chocolate and milk, and decided to add a single teaspoon of this Liquid Chocolate into the mix. The results were amazing – an intense dark chocolate flavour with a subtle and warming gingerbread flavour.
Last week, as the weather got significantly colder, I tried sprinkling a spoonful on some porridge for my breakfast. The results, again, were amazing.
So, making this according to the instructions just didn’t work for me. If you like things particularly hot and spicy, then it’s fine, but for the the rest of us, it’s perfect for spicing up to your regular hot chocolate, breakfast, ice cream, or anything else you think of!
Unfortunately there was no menu card included in this selection, so I had to just dive in and see what presented itself, but I had a fairly good idea that I was in for a few treats.
As you might expect from someone with Rafaella’s chocolate making experience, all of the ingredients used are of a very high quality. The nuts are crisp and flavoursome, the chocolate rich and dark or soft and creamy, and the fillings by turns lively and bright, rich and buttery, nutty and complex, or smooth and soft.
I did have a bit of a ‘moment’ when I bit into a licorice ganache (the red and yellow striped one, if you’re interested). I don’t like licorice much at all, and it took me completely by surprise. A strong argument for a menu, if you ask me! Other than that, there were smooth, gorgeous coconut cream fillings, a lovely pistachio cream and a rich, slightly boozy ganache – something for everyone in fact.
At around £14 a box, Baruzzo chocolates don’t come cheap (and they’re not big pieces either) but everything about this collection says ‘classy’, from the elegant box to the quality of the ingredients (many sourced in Italy, naturally) this is definitely fine chocolate.
If you check out Rafaella’s web site you can find out a little more about her products, and there’s a list of stockists as well. Not your everyday chocs, but certainly well worth tracking down if you’re looking for a gift for a chocolate lover – or a special treat for yourself.
This little Christmas selection would normally come in a box of 16 larger chocolates, but I picked them up from Demarquette’s shop in Fulham Road at the launch, and these little tasters were quite enough for my review!
There’s four different chocolates in all, with festive spices from the Victorian era being the order of the day. But rather than just throwing a few flavours into a box, Marc Demarquette has attempted to recreate some distinctive Christmas flavours, liked mulled wine and mince pie.
Christmas Tea
Starting with the most subtly flavoured of the chocolates, and one which combines Christmas spices with the very modern trend for tea flavoured chocolates. This one contains black tea, cinnamon, cloves and orange.
As you might expect, the cloves and cinnamon are the strongest flavours here, and I found the tea quite hard to detect – but then I often have that problem with tea chocolates. It’s very nice though, with a gently warming flavour that complements the dark chocolate nicely.
Mulled Wine
A red wine jelly and a ganache infused with mulled wine spices. Beautiful, Christmassy flavours that again work perfectly with the dark chocolate.
Mince Pie
Made to an authentic Victorian recipe, but with almonds used to replicate the pastry flavour. Tastes exactly like a real mince pie, with all that fruity, spicy goodness. The almonds do a great job standing in for the pastry, and the end result is a chocolate that immediately evokes childhood Christmas memories. Fabulous.
Yuletide Spices
The printed menu calls this “the essence of Christmas”, with ginger, cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg in the dark chocolate ganache. It certainly has that gentle, warming effect, but for me, the Mince Pie chocolate is the real essence of Christmas. As with the other three chocolates, the flavours work wonderfully though, particularly the ginger, which leaves a slight peppery tingle, just as the the chocolate melts away.
All in all, a small, understated Christmas selection that I absolutely love. It may be made with an array of spices, but the flavours are subtle and never overwhelm the rich, dark chocolate. Highly recommended.
The setting is Whole Foods. The focus is on me, doing some shopping. The object is a little stand at the end of an isle. I pass by it once, shielding myself from its temptation. I go choose some bread, then pass by it again on my way to the register; I still resist. But alas, I find myself waiting in line next to the display of Fairytale Brownies. I begin to feel like a vulture as I circle them with my gaze. At last, I reach out viper-quick for an Original Brownie to add to my basket.
Fairytale Brownies I recognize from one of my Google searches for chocolate shops in the Phoenix area. Started by Eileen Spitalny and David Kravetz, the company has been around since 1992. They use all natural ingredients, farm-fresh eggs and creamery butter, are certified Kosher and free from preservatives and artificial coloring, and use Callebaut chocolate. Of course, I didn’t find that last bit out until after my brownie was nearly gone as the wrapper only calls it “unsweetened Belgian chocolate.”
I happen to have brought this brownie home by bus; what would be too warm a trip for a chocolate, I thought a brownie would manage. All the same, it felt melty when I got home. I took it as a good sign, though: doesn’t it mean that there is actually chocolate added to these brownies? When I later brought it out of the refrigerator, I broke off just a corner to try.
Oh, my. Now, this is how I like brownies to be. It’s wonderfully fudgy with the crisp layer limited to the very top. Does it melt in your mouth? Oh, yes. The degree of moistness is amazing. The brownie does seem to lean on the thin side; maybe the texture was easier to keep with a thinner size (unless I’m responsible for smashing it? No, that cannot be..).
Even before I read about the Callebaut chocolate, it was apparent that the chocolate quality is above average and that Fairytale Brownies strive to maintain a limited number of ingredients versus adding piles of fillers. I couldn’t help but follow that tiny corner I pinched off with all but the last fourth; I assure you that this means much coming from me as I have a terrible need to make things last beyond one sitting. The brownie’s tag-line is “A Taste of Pure Enchantment,” and you know what, it fits well enough.
