Part of the goody bag I recently received included a few Delicaseys chocolates from Sydney. I was hugely impressed with the Orange Bliss that I tried first.
Next on the list is Fleur De Sel – or as the package describes it: “dark chocolate with a delicate enhancement of sea salt crystals”.
I have an admission: I’ve not gone out of my way until now to try chocolate with salt / sea salt / whatever-salt-is-trendy-today. And it does seem to have become a fashionable thing, this putting salt in chocolate. So while I was checking the Delicaseys, I thought I should also check the Lindt Excellence “A touch of Sea Salt” which recently appeared on Australian supermarket shelves.
Firstly, the Lindt is pretty much the same darkish chocolate used in the Excellence range, about 47% cocoa. In tasting this, I was wondering where the salt was. I found a little saltiness now and again, but no pieces – no crystals. Nothing to get my teeth into. This is a very pleasant chocolate, and when it’s called “a touch of sea salt”, that’s exactly what it is – a touch: A nice, inoffensive chocolate.
Then it was time to try Delicaseys Fleur De Sel. As you can see, the presentation is quite different – this is clearly made from a large flat piece that has been broken up. Nothing wrong with that, in fact I quite like the contrast to a mass produced factory-made block. Checking carefully shows that salt crystals are present – you can see the little bumps here and there.
A noticeable difference from the Lindt is the texture – the Delicaseys is a harder chocolate, which takes considerably longer in the mouth to melt and begin to release its flavour. It’s worth the wait, the chocolate is deep, complex, and curiously has a slightly creamy feel – but only after melting slowly. And it releases belts and bursts of saltiness; which are even bigger, better and stronger when you find a salt crystal or two.
I don’t know that I would buy chocolate with salt regularly – I still regard it as a bit of a curiosity. But of the two, which one did I keep reaching for as I wrote this review? Delicaseys – the complex flavours, the salt hit – these grow on you, to the point where it’s hard to refuse. The Lindt is good too – it’s a softer chocolate that melts sooner; but the salt hit is far more subtle.
I have to regard these are two pretty good examples of a plain salted chocolate. Not something for every day, but an interesting change. If forced to pick between them, I”ll go for Delicaseys. I like the extra complexity of the chocolate, and that smack around the chops with the salt.
This is one of Paul A. Young’s latest creations. It was thrust into my hand at the recent Taste of London event in Regents Park, and also one of the samples on offer at Jennifer Earle’s Chocs & Tunes tasting last week. My bar has suffered slightly from the recent heat, but that shouldn’t affect the taste.
This is a simple 50g bar, and follows Paul’s standard format for solid bars. A rectangular slab divided into four pieces.
The Tellicherry pepper comes from south west India, and is named after the city of the same name. It takes the form of crushed peppercorns, scattered throughout the chocolate, and you can just make out the odd small piece when you break a chunk off.
According to Paul, one of the reasons for using this particular variety of peppercorn is because the bar is more about the flavour than outright heat. That really comes through in the first bite, when the flavour of the pepper really comes through and helps lift the smooth and fruity chocolate. It’s really quite pleasant.
Occasionally though, you come across a larger piece of peppercorn and the heat starts to come through more overtly and it becomes just a little too strong for my liking. I’m not the world’s biggest fan of spicy food, and this is just a little too much for me to enjoy casually. It’s an interesting experience, and I’d be happy to share small pieces with friends, but it’s not the kind of bar I’d buy for myself to sit down and relax with.
If you like a little bit of heat, you should definitely give this one a go, particularly if you’re looking for a little bit more flavour than your average chilli chocolate. It’s purely a matter of taste though, but personally I’d rather spend time with Paul’s Marmite XO bar. At least until I see what weird and wonderful creation he comes up with next.
One of the really wonderful things about hanging out in Montreal hunting for chocolate (apart from simply getting lots of chocolate) was discovering all kinds of Canadian companies I was unfamiliar with. And I had never heard of Laval’s Praline & Caramel before although it was hard to miss their bars on the shelves because of their unique look.
The boxed bars are square – something that might not make them stand out on Thorntons’ shelves, but is reasonably unusual in these parts – but the real clincher is the bar itself which is decorated with a rather lovely transfer. Of course, most people have seen those transfers on individual chocolates, but seeing an entire bar covered in one is pretty dramatic and it was hard to pick out just one bar from the half dozen or so in the shop.
I settled on the Cinnamon and Cayenne Pepper bar which looked like it was covered in red and gold fireworks. It was almost too pretty to eat, but that feeling passed and I jumped right in. The initial aroma was all chocolate – perhaps not surprising since this was a 70% bar, but I was still a little worried that it was going to be one of those subtle spicy bars.
I needn’t have worried though this is not a half-hearted bar. It starts with a healthy dose of cinnamon which probably never goes away, but it becomes hard to tell because of the cayenne pepper which builds up slowly before taking over your entire mouth. And then it keeps going, making it hard to each much more until the heat settles down again. Or to put it another way, this is a chocolate to savour slowly rather than munch quickly – it demands it.
The downside is that cayenne does overstay its welcome, with a bitter aftertaste that is best remedied with some more chocolate. Maybe that was their plan all along…
To celebrate the fact that we’ve reached 2,000 Facebook fans (yay! thank you!), we’re giving away not one, but two of these silicone iPhone 3G/3GS cases that make your phone look like a bar of chocolate!
All you need to do to be in with a chance of winning one is to head on over to Facebook and “like” one of our posts between now and Friday evening. This is open to anyone, anywhere in the world as they’re not real chocolate, they won’t melt in the post!
You can find out more about the cases on the MobileFun.co.uk web site.
