I’ve reviewed a few James Chocolates products before and had mixed experiences. More often than not, they’re beautifully presented original designs, but the actual chocolate has left something to be desired.
I usually find James products in the “expensive chocolate section” of John Lewis, but this time they sent a few bits and pieces direct. So I didn’t buy this, but according to their web site, it will set you back £9 if you want to pick one up.
As you can see, it’s an egg made to look a bit like a big cupcake. It comes in a giant cupcake case and is decorated by what looks like lashings of whipped cream.
Unfortunately, when you excitedly bite into it, you’ll find it’s solid rather than creamy. It’s just white chocolate. Not soft, not light and fluffy. Not cupcakey.
And it looked so tempting, too.
The actual egg is a simple 60% dark chocolate with no country of origin given on the label. But it seems to be the same chocolate used in the chocolate fish I reviewed in January. It’s quite sweet, but fairly nondescript. No doubt chosen so as not to put the kids off, but with my house
currently knee-deep in quality chocolate, this one does nothing special for me at all.
I still think most people would be quite happy to get this as an Easter gift though. It’s something a little out of the ordinary and a step up from the average mass produced egg, palm-oil laden egg. James’ products seem to be universally visually appealing – I just wish the tastes and textures would match up to the presentation.
When you receive an e-mail asking if it would ok to send you some chocolate to write about, it is tough to say no. And that’s why I got a lovely package of goodies from Vancouver’s CocoaNymph, including a shiny box of their handmade chocolates.
These are pretty little chocolates, made with a real eye for detail and named with a welcome sense of humour. CocoaNymph’s owner Rachel Sawatzky obviously has an artistic streak which means there are nice little touches that would make them stand out from the crowd. But looks are only one very small part of the puzzle, so do they taste as good as they look?
The eight chocolates in the box were:
The Liz – really easy to identify because of the little piece of gold leaf sitting on top, hinting at real luxuriousness. Inside is a smooth white chocolate filling which could do with a bit more vanilla to offset the darkness of the shell. But not overly sweet which is usually the issue with white chocolate and that’s the important thing.
Lucy in the Chai – dark chocolate ganache with is flavoured, not surprisingly, with black tea. There are other spices in there too and to be perfectly honest, that is the dominant flavour with a nice mix of nutmeg and cinnamon which isn’t a bad thing at all.
Barnabas the Tortoise – I seriously love the way the slightly too big sugar-crusted pecan dominates this chocolate. The centre is supposed to just have a hint of brandy, but mine seemed to get a healthy dose because it was more obvious than the caramel that was also in there although I’m not complaining.
Melissa – I’m not really a big fan of honey chocolates because of its tendency to overwhelm, but it was handled with a light touch here, plus the addition of some hazelnuts and crispy flakes distracted me enough to really not notice the sweetness. Not my favourite.
Fresh – a very aptly named chocolate, with its green brushstroked decorations and peppermint tea centre. Again, there’s a real skilful balance between a potentially dominant flavour and the bitter chocolate which could be overwhelmed. Cool and refreshing.
Glinda – with half of the interior taken up by a firm blackberry jelly, this chocolate isn’t short on fruit flavour. But flavouring the ganache in the other half with blackberry too might have been a step too far.
Papillion – this is apparently the classic combination of dark chocolate and raspberries according to the menu card, and that is exactly what you get too. You’ve probably had something very similar before, but it is executed perfectly with a big burst of raspberries in each bite.
Illa – Some chocolate ganache with a healthy dose of caramel to give it a lovely rich, dark sugary flavour. It was sprinkled with salt at one point, but most of it has been shaken loose during shipping so was now distributed over all the other chocolates in the box too. It did mean that when a crystal of sea salt entered into mix, it was really quite special and really added to the whole experience.
So plenty of highlights and not too many lowlights, but not too many unusual or unique flavours either although I’ve heard that they do have some of those showing up in their Vancouver store from time to time. When it comes down to it though, there’s very little to complain about with such a well made box of rich, tasty chocolates and I’m looking forward to working my way through the other goodies that they sent. So we can add CocoaNymph to what is turning into a long list of accomplished chocolatiers in Western Canada.
I was a little surprised when this arrived – no trademark Galler orange packaging for these eggs, just a simple sellophane bag tied with a neat little ribbon.
At a shade under £5 for nine eggs (that’s a little over 50p per egg) they’re not the cheapest little eggs on offer, but they are made by a company who have a knack of producing some very interesting products, and while these may not have the most sophisticated looking packaging, the eggs themselves are classic Galler creations.
My little bag contained two each of four varieties (all of which were milk chocolate) and a solitary dark chocolate egg (not the proportionse I would have chosen!). The packaging doesn’t go into any great detail about the fillings but it was easy enough to guess that pralines, crisped rice and coffee would be involved. The dark egg contained a smooth, creamy praline filling, a lighter version of which popped up inside a white chocolate egg (the one with lilac foil). Galler tend to pair their white chocolate exteriors with a nicely balanced praline – darker flavours to counter the sweetness of the white chocolate – and it works very well. I rarely enjoy white chocolate on it’s own, but like the Bouchée bars the eggs’ creamy praline centre gets the balance right.
The milk chocolate eggs contained more soft, rich praline, some with crisped rice, others with a coffee praline. The pair of orange wrapped eggs had a solid milk chocolate centre which was sweet, creamy and had a very good mouthfeel.
I thought these little eggs delivered a lot in terms of taste. More classic Belgian chocolate and praline, but unusually not dressed up in fancy packaging. Of course, if you want something bigger and more traditional Galler can also provide that, but if you’re more inclined towards content over style (and after all, you can’t eat the box) then perhaps these little eggs fit your bill? They’re also available in bigger bags, should you feel that nine eggs isn’t quite enough (and who would argue with that?).
For the most part these little eggs duplicate the flavours of the Bouchée bars, only in egg form. I quite liked the unfussy packaging (after all, most Easter eggs are generally 70% packaging, 30% contents with the price ramped up to ridiculous proportions) and these eggs aren’t particularly fragile so they can survive in a bag. There are no surprises here, but that’s fine – after all, Easter Eggs are something of a tradition. Recommended if you fancy a Belgian Easter treat but don’t want to break the bank doing so.
Update: Louise Thomas no longer runs her consultancy, but if you do find yourself in need of a chocolate consultant or chocolate expert, Chocablog Editor Dom Ramsey is available for chocolate consultancy work.
“Chocolate Consultant” sounds like a dream job, but what exactly does the job involve and how do you get to be one? I caught up with Louise Thomas after her talk at the London Chocolate Festival to find out!
How long have you been a chocolate consultant and what does the job involve?
“I started the company last August, but I have been working in the chocolate industry for 2 years and been passionate about chocolate for 6 years. I became frustrated by the lack of education and awareness regarding fine chocolate, so started my company to share my love of fine chocolate. I do events and tastings, similar to wine tastings and several pairings (chocolate and tea, wine, rum, cigars, cheese, whiskey) as well as consultancy for hospitality and retail, so to find a particular chocolate for a client, extend their range or create and work on chocolate recipes with my clients. My favourite work, unsurprisingly, is working with chocolatiers and chocolate makers to help develop their product, I love seeing the evolution of a product over a few weeks or months. I also review fine chocolate products.”
What were you doing before becoming The Chocolate Consultant?
“I previously worked as a pastry chef where I discovered Valrhona. I lived in New York and my mum would bring two suitcases back home to the UK when we visited, one for her clothes and one empty one. When we came back to New York, this spare suitcase would be full of Flakes and Crunchies, which we kept in a special cupboard in our basement. So when I discovered Valrhona, it was completely different, so new and exciting. I never realised chocolate could be like this.
I moved to London to continue my kitchen work, but in my spare time I would taste, read, talk, watch, listen, smell, dream chocolate. It was only when I had an argument with a head chef about the finer points of chocolate that I decided to leave the kitchen and work in the chocolate industry.”
Do you have a favourite chocolatier or type of chocolate? Do you prefer beans of any specific origin?
“I have over 700 chocolate bars at home, and a specially tinkered with fridge (which has a constant humidity and temperature of 16C) for storing chocolate. They have become like good friends, I know which to turn to for which mood I am in, if I want something to excite and tempt my palate or to soothe and comfort me, and then I have old faithfuls which I will always return to, especially Manjari by Valrhona. This was the chocolate I found as a commis-pastry chef in Wales and changed my life (without any exaggeration).
I am really excited by small Artisan bean to bar producers, I have finally found a good white chocolate I can eat, the White Chocolate & Salted Pistachio Bar by Askinosie (available in Selfridges), though they have some fantastic dark chocolate bars and admirable ethos and morals, Amano’s Dos Rios bar (available in Fortnum and Masons) is really exciting as they are experimenting with the fermentation technique applied to the beans.
I can’t forget the single origin Madagascan bar from Mast Brothers (available at Paul A. Young, London), 2 young boys in Brooklyn making bean to bar mostly by hand.
I’m very excited, though yet to try Duffy’s chocolate from Red Star Chocolate, our new bean to bar producer in the UK. I do not have a favourite bean from a specific location, that is not important to me, what is important is the quality of the bean, how it has been cared for by the chocolate industry to develop its flavour, how much love has gone into it.”
Is there anyone you’d particularly like to meet or work with?
“I would like to meet Raymond Blanc, he seems honest and genuine and passionate about his food and I admire that. I was lucky enough to meet Art Pollard from Amano earlier this year and that was like Christmas, again, another man driven by his passion. I’d love to meet Darren Williams, the confectionary buyer at Fortnum and Masons.
Twitter has been a very useful tool since starting my business, it makes it 100 times easier to communicate with people I admire and respect and I think bridges gaps of communication (though there have been obvious cases where it has been mistreated and abused). Through Twitter I have learned about at least 10 companies I wouldn’t have heard of and attended many great events I might have missed.”
Thanks Louise!
If you’d like to communicate with Louise yourself, you can find her at twitter.com/TChocolateC.
