Derry Church Artisan Chocolates has an interesting history. Pastry chef and chocolatier Eric Cayton grew up around Hershey, Pennsylvania, where he grew to admire none other than Milton S. Hershey’s work. He eventually started the Derry Church company to fulfill his chocolate passion. Eric has sent me nine of their bon bons, which are all handmade without artificial flavors of preservatives. The packaging is simple, two black boxes held together by an off-white band with the small town style logo. The chocolates are nice-looking, as well. Moving clockwise, we have:
Derry Church – A good-sized 3-part milk chocolate with dulce de leche caramel. The caramel is very pale and tastes more like toffee than the average caramel, but is good. The milk chocolate is high quality, and though it looks like it would be thick, a little more wouldn’t hurt the combination.
London – Butter toffee sandwiched between 70% dark chocolate and roasted almonds. It’s the almonds that lead the flavor with a slightly bitter tone. The toffee, which is even paler than the caramel, is compared to “very thin glass,” and from getting at it in isolation, I agree. It would be nice to have more focus on it, yet it does act as a pleasant accent with the chocolate to the almonds, flavor and texture-wise.
Tangier – African honey and tangerine juice with cumin and cayenne chili. The picture shows a milk chocolate, but mine was dark. The quick-melting ganache is strong with the sweetness of the honey, the tang of the tangerine, and the warmth of the spices before it gives way to the chocolate. Similar to a passionfruit, but I found it superior with its less biting approach.
Paris – Homemade strawberry jam and French white chocolate buttercream in a ruffled and lacy dark chocolate mold. The filling is very light and airy, buttery with a smaller strawberry taste than I’d expected. The balance is fitting, though, in its delicacy; it’s the balance with the chocolate that could be improved. The filling mostly dissolves before they can work together much.
Savannah – Peaches made into a white chocolate ganache, put in a dark chocolate cup, topped with brown sugar, toasted oats, and white chocolate. It’s very pretty, like a mini dessert. The peaches are fresh and warm-tasting, with the crumbly oats and chocolate accenting their flavor.
Plymouth – “Smooth, creamy pumpkin caramel with just a hint of pumpkin pie spice” in dark chocolate. It’s a miraculously quick answer to my request for a pumpkin chocolate a couple weeks ago. Essentially, it’s pumpkin pie wrapped in dark chocolate, just with a less solid texture. The familiar flavor would make for a good Thanksgiving chocolate.
Burlington – Vermont maple syrup in a milk chocolate ganache with an oven-roasted pecan on top. Perfect flavors for this time of year. Maple syrup is very sweet, but it works with the milk chocolate in a way to keep everything balanced, with the pecan giving a nice touch.
Dublin – Bailey’s and arabica coffee in a milk chocolate ganache. A smooth blending of the three flavors into a long-lasting taste. Good, but nothing new.
Veracruz – Vanilla beans and cream infused to a white chocolate ganache and set on dark chocolate. A tiny thing, like a small flower. The air-exposed part of the ganache is stiff, but this doesn’t do any harm. I’m enjoying the raw vanilla flavor.
Overall, a nice set. The $18 price tag is a bit high, though, in comparison to other offerings. These don’t pop out enough yet for $18. I’ll still recommend them as pleasant handmade chocolates, but I would do so more wholeheartedly if that price went down.
Cocoapod is a sweet company best known for their “Build A Bar” personalised chocolates. They sell more than just chocolate though, and the review package they sent me contained an advent calendar with (mainly non-chocolate) sweets and a big bag of Fruit Salads & Blackjacks (Mmmmm!) as well a little chocolate car, a chocolate lolly and a white chocolate ‘plaque’ with my name in big milk chocolate letters.
Obviously, we can’t review the non-chocolate stuff here, suffice to say it all looks colourful and fun. Luckily, they do a variety of bars that you can use as the starting point for your customisation, then add letters (in a variety of colours) and edible transfer patterns.
The ‘plaque’ with my name on it weighs 93g and is about 6.5×2 inches. I really didn’t want to eat this – partly because it’s just so pretty and partly because it’s mainly white chocolate and I knew it was going to be sweet. I’m quite impressed with how the finished product looks, and I’m not sure that the recipient of such a gift will want to eat it in a hurry either – white chocolate or not.
But in the interests of science, I bit into my name… and was surprised at how good it tasted.
Both milk and white varieties are actually pretty good. The white chocolate is 28% cocoa solids, and while it doesn’t have much flavour, it’s not too sweet, meaning you can chomp through it without feeling sick before you get to that strawberry flavoured pig.
The milk chocolate is 33% cocoa solids and is smooth, creamy and rather good. I had been expecting something along the lines of cheap Easter Egg chocolate, but this turned out to be very enjoyable. The lolly and the car are made from the same chocolate and disappeared disturbingly fast.
Obviously, you’re probably not going to buy this stuff for yourself, but for a unique Christmas gift, they Cocoapod certainly has my seal of approval.
Today brings another sampling of the staple food of the chocolate fiend: the Chocolate Mint biscuit.
I spotted the Leda Minton “(Now with a DARK CHOC coating)” in my local supermarket the other day, and thought it was worth a try – especially after my previous experience with a health-claiming choc-mint biscuit.
This seems to be similar, with its claims of Gluten Free, Dairy Free, Egg Free, Vegan, non GMO. I’m left wondering if it has any actual FOOD in it. The claims on the pack are pretty much the high point.
Firstly, the chocolate is compound: Raw cane sugar, palm kernel oil, soy flour, cocoa powder. Whilst the chocolate coating is claimed as 34% of the product, the percentage cocoa in that chocolate is not stated. But it’s very soft, and quite sticky. You need to wash hands after eating.
Secondly, the remainder has the usual suspects for ingredients – to avoid the gluten there is chickpea, tapioca and rice flour, more palm oil, etc.
The biscuit part is actually not bad. It’s nice and crunchy, and youngest son compares it quite favourably to a Tim Tam (which is therefore high praise). The mint splat on top uses natural peppermint oil, and is very minty – but the flavour in this case does not linger for hours after.
The disappointment though is the chocolate. A dark chocolate coating is not soft. This is soft. And really, there is no excuse for compounded chocolate – it’s possible to use real chocolate which is still free of the gluten, eggs, and what-not. Perhaps worst of all though, the chocolate tastes pretty ordinary. The palm oil does have some kind of flavour coming through which is slightly unpleasant, and this detracts from the experience.
For those with health troubles or allergies this might be a way to get a chocolatey treat. For everyone else, you can do better elsewhere. The poor quality of the chocolate and the use of palm oil mean that I struggle to recommend this. Edible: yes. Do again: No.
Another one of Holly Caulfield’s handmade, organic chocolate bars, this time infused with cardamom – one of my favourite spices.
This is a 37% cocoa milk chocolate bar, made using organic ingredients and is of a similar high standard to Holly’s dark chocolate bar which I reviewed back in September. At almost £4.00 a bar, this stuff isn’t cheap. It’s in the same price bracket as a Hotel Chocolat ‘Purist’ bar, but it is handmade and Holly does use top quality ingredients – and this shows when it comes to tasting.
A well balanced, smooth and creamy milk chocolate with a good whiff of cardamom which was evident as the packaging was removed. The chocolate is very smooth, full bodied and not too sweet, with the cardamom adding it’s own unique top notes to the mix. It’s quite gentle, subtle blend – don’t expect rampaging cardamom flavours, after all, this is primarily chocolate, and Holly loves her chocolate.
Like it’s darker sibling, there’s a sense of good quality ingredients blended together with love and skill, and the result is a very tasty bar of chocolate. Full flavoured and creamy milk chocolate with a very pleasing mouthfeel, long on flavour with an underlying tang of cardamom which lingers on the palate as the chocolate melts away. Despite my best efforts to the contrary this bar didn’t last as long as I would have liked.
Ms Caulfield is very active when it comes to publicising her wares. A glance at the Chocoholly website shows that she’s often out and about, giving away samples of her chocolate at various shops and food events, or persuading local business to give samples on her behalf. You can buy this and the rest of her range of products at John Lewis’ food halls, so it isn’t hard to track down, and I’d say it was well worth doing so if you’re partial to some good quality chocs with interesting flavours and beautiful packaging.
