This was my final stop in the chocolate tour of Montreal because my host was saving her favourite shop until last. She loves Chocolats Geneviève Grandbois and it is easy to understand why. The shop might be tiny, but it is wonderfully elegant with chocolate goodies crammed into every square inch. The other thing that I really like about it is that they package their chocolates into tins. I’m really not sure why that matters, but there’s something about their tins that I really like. I picked up a few bits and pieces – well, more than just a few – including a tin of their 9 signature chocolates; Les Classiques.
Everything about this tin and its contents screams precision and quality – the identical shape, the mysterious symbols atop all the chocolates and carefully selected fillings which pretty much hit all the requisite flavour buttons for me at least. All of the chocolates are housed in a dark shell, which tastes like at least 60%, and are made without any preservatives so there’s only a window of 7 to 10 days to enjoy them. Not a problem. Here’s the rundown:
Safran – A layer of white chocolate ganache flavoured delicately with a hint of saffron on top of a dark vanilla ganache layer. And the flavours arrive in that order too, with the vanilla lingering around for a satisfying amount of time.
Érable – This one didn’t survive the trip back from Montreal intact. Or maybe it was the two times the tin got dropped after I got home. Either way, the maple syrup had pooled in the paper case where it had admittedly crystallized in a rather delightful way so I didn’t let it go to waste. The chocolate, though, as a result was a little on the dry side. Still very maple-y, but the pecan pieces are almost too small to be noticed.
Gianduja – Whereas the little bits of pecan didn’t make an impression in the Érable, the little pieces of caramelized hazelnuts here are just wonderful. The rich, firm hazelnut butter they are mixed throughout is lovely too, but the texture and sweetness that the nut pieces provide is what makes this one special.
Framboise – Not your typical raspberry chocolate at all, with a dark, dark ganache mixed with some raspberry coulis giving it an unexpected amount of depth of flavour. The balance between tart raspberry and the bitterness of the chocolate works really well together. There is supposedly some pepper in here too, but I really couldn’t taste it at all.
Caramel à la fleur de sel – At this point, caramel with sea salt might be a little clichéd because everyone is doing it, but they aren’t doing it like this. The caramel is luscious, yet light and begins to exit the chocolate shell after the first bite. And then there are little crystals of sea salt distributed throughout, tempering the sweetness and generally adding to the awesomeness of it all. This is an absolutely spectacular chocolate.
Chai – Dark tea which is thankfully overshadowed by the other flavours, namely and cardamom, with black pepper and anise lurking in the background. Subtle and effective at the same time.
Extra-vierge – Last time I frequented Geneviève’s shop was the first time I had ever had an olive oil chocolate and it was a bit of a revelation for me. And even now, it is still a little bit jarring to begin with, but as the chocolate and olive melt together, it is still as unique as I remember. Definitely a bit of an acquired taste though.
Le 9 – Described rather mysteriously as being based on the chocolate maker’s new discoveries, but personally I get lots of citrus notes and maybe a dusting of pepper too. Perhaps my least favourite in the tin, simply because there has to be one rather than because it was unpleasant.
Piment – The official description made me more than a little suspicious; a mild ganache spiced with a blend of Espelette, cayenne and serrano peppers; but I needn’t have worried. There’s a light touch with the peppers that means it is more of a background tongue tingle behind the buttery soft centre than just plain heat. Remarkably restrained.
This is a simply wonderful collection and I was genuinely sad when it was all over. I want more.
Time for another bar from Duffy Sheardown – one of only two bean-to-bar chocolate makers in the UK. This time it’s a milk chocolate made with Peruvian beans.
As with all the bars in the range, the packaging is simple – perhaps a little too simple, as it doesn’t really shout quality to me. But it does say ‘uncomplicated and hand made’, which is probably the look Duffy is going for.
As with a lot of the chocolate I’m reviewing at the moment, I took this to my birthday party to get feedback from my friends. Unfortunately, I didn’t have time to hear what people thought, because almost as soon as I arrived, the bar was practically gone.
The fact that these few chunks are all I had left to base my review on speaks volumes though. It was quite popular.
The chocolate has a nice clean snap and breaks into chunks nicely, almost like a dark chocolate thanks to the high cocoa content. That also gives it a nice, rich colour that means it still looks yummy even after my friends have had their hands on it.
The chocolate has a smooth texture and a creaminess that reminded my of Galaxy. You can actually taste the milk powder here.
Obviously, it’s nowhere near as sweet as Galaxy, but it was sweeter than I was expecting. Something that will no doubt appeal to newcomers to high end chocolates, but for me it was slightly too sweet.
But it’s the cocoa flavours that are the most distinctive part of this bar. The chocolate has a warm and fruity flavour. It’s more gentle than a Madagascan chocolate though – the wrapper describes it as “blackcurrants and hazelnuts with warm spices in the aftertaste”. That works for me.
I wasn’t overly keen on the flavours initially, but after a couple of pieces I was starting to want more than the few chunks my friends had left me. I’m not entirely convinced I’d by this for myself, but if you’re looking to get into higher quality chocolate and the dark stuff still scares you, this would be a great place to start.
Willie Harcourt-Cooze is one of only two bean to bar chocolate makers in the UK. Most famously, he was the subject of Channel 4’s “Willie’s Wonky Chocolate Factory”, and in chocolate circles, he’s known as much for his personality as he is for his chocolate.
Yet we’ve somehow managed to avoid reviewing any of Willie’s growing range of chocolate. I was excited to learn he was going to be at the Real Food Festival last week, but somehow I managed to miss him, despite spending a few hours there. Of course, I needn’t have worried because my local Waitrose is choc-full of Willie’s products, and that’s where I picked up this 71% Madagascar block.
Actually, using the term ‘block’ is inaccurate, because the 80g pack contains two individually wrapped 40g squares. I think this is a great idea for fine chocolate – I always have leftover pieces of random chocolate in my stash. This way, I know at least half of the chocolate will remain fresh. I could even give it away if I was that way inclined.
But I’m not.
Obviously, I chose this particular variety because of my inability to resist Madagascan chocolate. I’ve tried many such chocolates recently, including the wonderful Mast Brothers with Fleur de Sel, and the Hotel Chocolat Purist bar, which while good didn’t quite reach the same heady levels.
I would have to place Willie’s bar somewhere between the two. It’s a little more refined than the mass produced Hotel Chocolat bar, and the fruitiness which I love so much come through more clearly. Yet it doesn’t quite have the depth of flavour or the refinement of the Mast Brothers bar or Amano’s Madagscar bar. But it’s still something I could happily nibble on all day.
I would say that with Willie’s Cacao being so widely available, it’s a great opportunity to pick up a few different varieties and try them together. At £3 a pack, it’s an affordable way to explore the range of flavours in artisan dark chocolate. Next time you’re passing your local Waitrose, pick up a few blocks and have yourself a chocolate tasting party.
(You can also buy it online, but Willie’s web site and online shop are hideous Flash-based monstrosities that you might want to avoid.)
Finding myself in Nottingham for the day I decided to see if I could find any noteworthy chocolate shops, and Chocolate Utopia popped up at the top of the list. Since the shop was only a five minute walk away I really had no excuse for not paying them a visit, did I?
When I arrived at the shop (which is also a café selling hot chocolate and other beverages) it was fairly busy – never a bad sign. It’s not a huge place, and has a continental ‘small café’ feel to it, and a distinctive chocolate aroma thanks to the chocolate machine churning away in the background.
There are over forty individual chocolates and a number of handmade chocolate novelties available at Chocolate Utopia, so it took a little while to narrow my choices down. Some help came from the ‘favourites’ tags on some of the displays – something I haven’t seen in a chocolate shop before. I eventually chose seven chocolates, some of which were new to me, others I picked out to compare with familiar flavours.
First up we have a white chocolate with a pineapple cream filling.
I chose this for a couple of reasons. One is that pineapple and chocolate is still a fairly unusual pairing, but also because it can be quite tricky to get right. Citrus fruits and cacao can be difficult to balance well but this chocolate achieved a great balance between the two main flavours. The white chocolate came through well and the pineapple was subtle and never tasted artificial or ‘perfumey’. I was surprised at how well balanced everything was, particularly the delicate balance of cream and pineapple in the filling.
My second choice was also a white chocolate, but this time the filling was both darker AND alcoholic – Bristol Cream Sherry, to be exact.
At first bite I was immediately aware of the alcohol, but not in an overpowering way. Once again, the cacoa flavours were to the fore, with the sherry element sitting in among the mix rather well. The filling was once again light as a feather, melting away quickly and leaving plenty of the shell to chew on afterwards.
The only milk chocolate I selected was another boozy number, only this time it contained Malibu. Not known for being a powerful tasting drink, I thought the coconut element might work rather well in a milk chocolate, and I was right. A mouthful of creamy soft filling wrapped in another thick shell, with good milk chocolate flavours and another light, melting centre with a hint of coconut and a smidgeon of alcohol. The Malibu wasn’t strong on the palate, so much so that you’d be hard pressed to say whether or not there was any alcohol in this one, but there was definitely ‘another element’ in there, and I found it a very pleasant, light combination.
The final four chocolates were all dark, and the first of them was a Tonka ganache.
My own previous experience with Tonka bean only goes as far as milk chocolate, so this Lauden lookalike was a definite must-try.
The dark exterior wasn’t as thick as the previous chocolates, but that just meant that I got to the ganache more quickly. I have to say that the Tonka Bean didn’t really shape the overall flavour as much as I had expected. There was a definite vanilla/nut not to the ganache, but this chocolate came across more like a ‘reduced intensity’ dark ganache than something one could directly pinpoint as Tonka Bean.
Next up was another Lauden clone, this time using Madagascan cocoa.
There’s been a lot said on Chocablog about how good Madagascan cocoa is, so it was an obvious choice, and I have to say that even the smell of this one was promising. Citrussy, green top notes flew off this morsel, and once bitten they developed into complex, well rounded cocoa with subtle hints of green, slightly woody flavours. The centre was obviously toned down by virtue of it being a ganache but the outer shell held a lot of that vibrant, fresh cocoa flavours which mingled with the softer, lighter filling in a very pleasing way. It was over too quickly and I immediately wished I’d bought two. Or three.
My penultimate choice was a Dark Ganache, packing 80% cocoa dark chocolate.
After the complexity of the Madagascar chocolate I had high hopes for this one. The centre was a little more dense than its predecessors, but no less quick to melt, flooding my mouth with a soft yet bittersweet combination. Never too sharp and too rich to be sweet, I didn’t think it was as interesting as the Madagascar, but don’t let that give you the impression that this is an inferior product.
Finally, another new combination of flavours – whisky and ginger, no less.
I could smell the ginger lurking beneath the surface of this one, so I knew I was going to be hit with that flavour, but how would the whisky fare? The centre was smooth, and the ginger was slightly sweet but when the whisky came into the mix, it provided a touch more warmth and a counterpoint to the ginger. The ginger was definitely the dominant component, but the alcohol definitely added to the overall flavour. I’m not a (Scotch) whisky drinker but this was a very enjoyable piece of work, and one I’m glad I found.
Chocolate Utopia does (of course) have a website but no online shop. They will, however, take mail orders so you don’t have to live near (or visit) Nottingham if you happen to be keen to try some of their creations.
