A year is a long time in blogging, but it’s a whopping thirteen years since we last looked at a product from Summerdown Farms in Hampshire.
Back in 2008, Simon looked at some Summerdownpeppermint creams. I confess I hadn’t gone through the complete Chocablog archives when they got in touch to ask if they could send a care package, but given the time that has passed, I’m happy looking at them again. As well as Peppermint Creams, Summerdown Farms sent some Peppermint Thins, some Peppermint Tea (not eligible for review on Chocablog, of course!) and a rather lovely mug.
Just a side note to PR people sending gifts; I cannot be bribed. Ever. But… it is a very nice mug.
Peppermint Creams
First things first, it’s important to note that Summerdown is a peppermint farm, not a chocolate maker or chocolatier. They grow Black Mitcham variety peppermint on their 100 acre farm, then the peppermint oil to two unnamed chocolate makers in the north of England. This is a perfectly normal thing to do, but it does mean we don’t have a lot of information about the actual chocolate here.
One thing Summerdown did tell me is that the cocoa is sourced through the Cocoa Horizons project. Cocoa Horizons is a Barry Callebaut initiative (their slightly dubious answer to Fair Trade), so we can assume this is a standard Callebaut dark chocolate blend. One thing the label does tell us is that it’s 55% cocoa solids.
The precise details of the chocolate, however, are not especially relevant here. From the moment you open the box, you’re greeted by the strong, fresh aroma of peppermint. When you bite into one, that Black Mitcham peppermint is really all you can taste. The chocolate is their primarily as a vessel to hold the fondant cream in place.
That’s not to say the flavour is overpowering. It’s actually relatively restrained and well rounded, but mint is one of those flavours that naturally tends to hide everything else. The mint flavour here is actually very pleasant and refreshing. The texture is good too, with a nice snap to the thin chocolate shell and a very smooth creamy fondant.
The flavour does linger in the mouth long after the chocolate has gone, but it does so in a very pleasant way.
Peppermint Thins
Also included in my care package was a box of Peppermint thins. These are thin, solid discs of chocolate flavoured with peppermint oil. They’re nice enough as a refreshing after dinner type mint, but they’re just not quite as interesting as the peppermint creams.I also noticed they al have scuffed looking edges, so they’re just not quite as attractive. The flavour is very similar to the peppermint creams, but you do just get a hint of the dark chocolate flavour here as well. I would call these inoffensive rather than spectacular.
Love Or Hate?
I’ve never been the biggest fan of mint flavoured chocolate, especially strong peppermint. I wondered if I was alone, so I posted a poll on Twitter and was a little surprised by the result.
I'm really interested, how do you feel about the chocolate and mint combination?
If you’re one of the 78% of people that say they love mint chocolate, then I think you’ll enjoy these, especially the peppermint creams. They’re a great alternative to some of the better known chocolate mint brands, and it just seems like a lot of attention has been paid to flavour balance.
Highly recommended for mint lovers, but if you’re one of the 22% then I don’t think these will change your mind just yet.
It’s fair to say that 2020 hasn’t been the best year for most of us. I’m sure you’re looking forward to it being over as much as I am, and what better way to celebrate the end of a terrible year than by treating yourself to some great Zotter Chocolate.
When I’m looking to cheer myself, I’ll usually go for filled or flavoured chocolates more than single origin, high cocoa percentage craft chocolate. It’s quite easy to end up just buying cheep chocolate and feeling guilty, but Zotter is one chocolate maker that lets me satisfy my cravings in the knowledge that I’m getting the best quality, ethically sourced bean-to-bar chocolate at the same time. I’ve reviewed several of their chocolates before, and even visited the factory a few years ago – something I would highly recommend once we can all travel again!
With that in mind, I hit up the Zotter website and bought myself a little selection of Christmas themed chocolates to lift my spirits. Here’s what I ended up with.
Star With Almond Praline
Zotter’s Mi-Xing Bar range allows you to create your own large chocolate slabs in a huge variety of shapes and flavours. You can choose your base couverture, add fillings and toppings and really make it your own. For the lazy (like myself), they also have a “Best Of” selection of pre-designed slabs, and that’s what we have here.
There’s certainly a lot going here in this chocolate star – so much so that it’s practically a meal in itself. This is a raspberry, caramel and white chocolate couverture star with almond praline with mini cinnamon chocolate stars, cacao nibs covered in white chocolate, crispy passion fruit chocolate pieces, green tea leaves.
What I like best about this is that each bite is gives you a slightly different combination of flavours. At 100g it’s the size of a large chocolate bar, but it’s so much more interesting. And I guess you could also put it on top of your Christmas Tree (well out of reach of small, hungry children of course).
Vegan Heart With Hemp Praline
Zotter have a lot of options for vegans, but I thought I’d go for one of the more unusual ones with this heart.
The underlying coconut flavour is quite strong in this one, and for my tastes it’s just a little bit too strong and I didn’t get a lot of flavour from the hemp. I did like the raspberry mini hearts and I think this would have worked very well with a more of that raspberry flavour. It’s just a touch too coconutty for my own tastes, and I think if I’d designed it myself I would have gone for a different base couverture.
Still. What could be more 2020 than eating your own broken heart?
Zotter Chocolate Hand Scooped Bars
These filled bars are probably what Zotter is most famous for. They come in a vast range of weird and wonderful flavours, several of which I’ve reviewed here over the years. I picked out a few from their Christmas range to try.
White Chocolate Mousse
White chocolate mousse with a white chocolate coating tastes exactly like you think it might. It’s creamy, sweet, soft and smooth. In terms of flavour, it’s very simple but it’s also more than a little addictive. White chocolate fans will love it.
Jingle Bells Rock
The name doesn’t give much away, but this bar has a marzipan and red wine filling that strongly evokes Christmas for me. The red wine flavour is strong, but balanced well with the marzipan so neither gets lost. I suspect such a strongly flavoured chocolate might be polarising, but I love it.
Fröhliche Weihnachten (Spiced Marzipan on Cinnamon Praline)
Another marzipan filling, this time with a hint of cinnamon spice and a subtly crunchy praline. The flavour is much less intense than the previous bar, making it very easy to eat the whole bar in 2 minutes flat. Ask me how I know.
Aus der Weihnachtswerkstatt (From The Christmas Workshop)
French white nougat with pistachios and hazelnuts in 60% dark milk chocolate. Who doesn’t love a good nougat? This one is a soft, whipped nougat with plenty of flavour and crunch from the nuts. There’s a lovely subtle honey flavour underlying the nuttiness and the whole thing works exceptionally well with the rich dark milk chocolate coating.
Himmlische Genüsse (Heavenly Delight)
A blend of butter caramel and praline with small crunchy caramel crisps in 50% milk chocolate. The filling for this one looks like the mousse-style fillings of the other bars, but it has a strong buttery caramel flavour. There’s a hint of nuttiness in the flavour and a nice little crunch to the texture. Again very well matched flavours, although this one is just a little too sweet for my own tastes. Of course, I still ate the entire bar in no time at all.
Glücksbringer (Lucky Charm)
A sweet 40% milk chocolate mousse with 60% dark milk chocolate coating. Very simple flavours here, but they work so well. The best part of this bar though is the texture. The soft creamy mousse filling is reminiscent of a Milky Way bar, but obviously done much, much better. The chocolate shell is thick enough to give a decent crunch when you bite into it before the mousse melts in the mouth. Perfect execution.
Overall, I’m very happy with my choices here, but the truth is that Zotter’s selection is so big that they have something to suit every taste and mood. Whether it’s as a gift to someone you love, or a treat for yourself you can’t really go wrong. When I ordered, international shipping was free for orders over 35 Euros and everything arrived in perfect condition in less than a week.
It’s been a while since I’ve done a full-on chocolate review, but when Kate and Janet from The Mallow Tailor got in touch and asked if I’d like to try some of their filled chocolates, I couldn’t say no. After all, it’s 2020 and I deserve a little more quality chocolate in my life.
As is often the case, it turns out that saying yes to chocolate was a good decision on my part.
Based in the Brecon Beacons area of South Wales, The Mallow Tailor specialise in beautiful chocolates filled marshmallow, caramel and fruit ganaches. And as you can see, first impressions are very good!
Filled Chocolates
I decided to cut into one of the chocolates to get a better look and was rewarded with this glorious sight.
This is the Salted Caramel in a dark chocolate shell and as you can see from the photos, it has the perfect consistency. The filling is smooth, sweet and perfectly gooey. It’s the kind of chocolate you need to be a little careful with. Bite into it without thinking, and and you’re going to end up with caramel all over your clothes.
Luckily, I’m an expert caramel consumer with many years experience and hardly made any mess. Much.
The chocolate has a strong resemblance to Paul A Young‘s famous salted caramel, both in appearance and flavour. That’s no bad thing, of course. The one thing that sets Paul’s chocolates apart though, is his choice of chocolate that perfectly complements the fillings. This Mallow Tailor can’t quite match that, and the dark chocolate shells do have a noticeable cocoa flavour
Next up was a raspberry ganache in white chocolate. Again, the filling was wonderfully smooth with a subtle but well balanced flavour. I particularly liked the balance of sweetness in this one; something that’s quite difficult to get right in a white chocolate.
The Lime Ganache in a dark chocolate shell is another well balanced chocolate. The lime is zesty and zingy, but doesn’t overpower the chocolate. This is the flavour that worked best for me with the Belgian dark chocolate that The Mallow Tailor are using.
I could tell the box wasn’t going to last long, so decided to plough on with my scientific endeavours and stuff my face some more. The Marshmallow in a milk chocolate shell was surprisingly good. I wasn’t expecting much from a mallow filled chocolate, but I can see why this is their signature creation. The filling had a nice soft texture and a very pleasant vanilla flavour that worked well with the choice of chocolate.
Finally I tried the Caramallow; a combination of salted caramel and marshmallow. I was at first expecting this to be some kind of mixture of the two fillings; a foamy caramel of some sort. Instead, we have two distinct layers in a dark chocolate shell. It’s a pretty good combination, although I think personally I do prefer the flavours separately.
Stollen Slab
Also included in my little care package was this interesting little bar. Kate calls it a “deconstructed stollen” covered in milk chocolate. I’m told that it’s made with raisins, cranberries and fresh nutmeg which are steeped in Barti rum and combined with big chunks of marzipan. And I love it. I do have a bit of a thing for marzipan in chocolate, and that’s what has had me nibbling on this bar throughout the day.
I’m so pleased to have discovered The Mallow Tailor, particularly at a time when we could all use a bit of a chocolate pick-me-up. At the start of another lockdown in the UK, we should all be thinking about supporting small local businesses, but it’s also a great time to show the ones we love that we’re thinking of them. And what better way than with the gift of chocolate.
Regular readers will know I’m a big fan of Jennifer Earle’s Chocolate Ecstasy Tours; walking tours of some of London’s best chocolate shops and sweet treat establishments.
Unfortunately, the current pandemic has meant that these tours have had to go on hold, and Jen has had to look for other ways to keep the spirit of the tours going, while giving a much needed boost to some of the smaller chocolatiers and chocolate makers who have struggled during the lockdown period. To that end, she has come up with a couple of great ideas for finding great chocolate without ever leaving the comfort of your home.
First up, Jen has created a directory of online sellers, an extensive list of small producers in the UK who are selling sweet treats and baked goods online. It’s a great place to find a chocolate gift for a loved one or a pick-me-up for yourself!
More recently, she has introduced a new and exciting idea, the Online Mystery Chocolate Tasting, and she was kind enough to send me a tasting pack for the latest tasting.
When you sign up for an Online Mystery Chocolate Tasting, you’ll be sent one of these packs in the post and a link to join the Zoom videoconferencing event via email. One of the great things about the tastings is that anyone can join the Zoom event and watch along, but obviously you’re only going to get the full experience if you have the tasting pack.
On this occassion, Jen had invited master chocolatier Paul A Young along to talk about the chocolates as we tasted them. Although structured, the discussion was quite informal and conversational. Paul gave some insights on how he uses particular flavour profiles in his own work, and after tasting and discussing each piece of chocolate, Jen revealed what it was and gave plenty of background information about the maker.
In our case, all the producers were British bean-to-bar chocolate makers, but it’s important to note that there will be different chocolates – and types of chocolate – for each tasting event. Otherwise, of course, it wouldn’t be a mystery! If you are looking to find out more about the chocolates, or have specific dietary requirements, then you can drop Jen an email beforehand just to check the chocolates in your chosen session are suitable.
While the video chat was limited to Jen and Paul, the rest of us were able to make comments via the Zoom chat as well as give quick feedback via the “Thumbs Up” feature. This was a great way to involve everyone while avoiding any chaos that may have resulted from everyone being allowed to speak. There were over 70 people in the call, so this was probably for the best!
I really enjoyed the format of this online tasting, and thoroughly recommend it to anyone who loves chocolate. It’s a great little gift, or something to do as a couple on the sofa (the tasting packs contain enough chocolate for two) and you can engage as much or as little as you are comfortable with. I really appreciated the fact that anyone can come along and join in, and Jen has also made the video from this tasting available in full. You can watch it below.
At the time of writing, the next tasting event is August 12th 2020 with Bettina Campolucci Bardi of Bettina’s kitchen. Tasting packs cost £19.95 and you can purchase yours here.
