It’s been a while since I’ve looked at any mass market confectionery chocolate, but these new Galaxy Vegan chocolate bars really caught my eye when they were announced recently.
In theory, creating vegan chocolate is easy. All dark chocolate should be dairy free and therefore vegan. But if you want to replicate the sweetness and creaminess of a milk chocolate, it’s a lot more difficult.
There are a few options that manufacturers can use to replace the milk in milk chocolate, but they all have drawbacks. A common one is rice flour, but if you’d ever tried a pure rice milk chocolate, you’ll know it doesn’t really taste much like milk chocolate. Rice lacks the creaminess or the fat content to give that satisfying milk chocolate flavour and mouthfeel.
Some manufacturers use oat or almond flours, but they have drawbacks of their own, not least of which is the fact that they add a distinct flavour to the chocolate.
One dairy alternative that we don’t see very often is hazelnut paste. Of course, there are many chocolate products that contain hazelnuts, including everything from Nutella to high end gianduja, but it’s rarely marketed as a vegan milk chocolate alternative.
For these new Galaxy Vegan bars, Mars has opted to use a combination of hazelnut and rice flour to replace the dairy. Hazelnuts have a high fat content, which is great for replicating the mouthfeel of milk chocolate, but they do also have a strong flavour. I suspect that’s one of the reasons why rice has been used as well in the chocolate recipe. The hazelnut gives creaminess, but the rice helps to offset the flavour and give the chocolate “body”. Hazelnut paste is a thick liquid at room temperature, so if too much were used, the chocolate would end up very soft.
So how well does it work in these bars?
To my surprise, very well indeed.
There are three flavours in the range; Caramelised Hazelnut, Caramel & Sea Salt and Smooth Orange. There’s no “unflavoured” option, likely because they’re all going to taste of hazelnuts to some extent. They are smooth and creamy, and you might never guess they were dairy free if you hadn’t been told.
I particularly liked the Smooth Orange, but other friends who sampled them preferred the Caramel & Sea Salt.
For a product that I’d class as a “supermarket chocolate”, these are a great choice for vegans and non-vegans alike. You pay a little more than a standard Galaxy bar, but you’re getting a large (100g) bar and a product with a very clean ingredients list. There’s no palm oil or shea, and only natural flavourings and a little sunflower lecithin added.
I’m sure the increased price and the very fact that it says “Vegan” on the front will annoy some, but I’d be quite happy to eat any of these, which is more than I can say for most confectionery chocolate these days.
Until a few days ago, I didn’t realise how much I needed a hot chocolate shaker in my life. This little plastic cup from The Chocolate Society has changed the way I make hot chocolate for good.
What is a hot chocolate shaker? Put simply, it’s just a cup with a lid that allows you to make a perfectly smooth hot chocolate by shaking chocolate with hot milk or water. The simple act of shaking helps the drink form an emulsion much more effectively than stirring or whisking.
If you try to shake a hot drink in a normal jar or bottle however, you’re more than likely going to be faced with an explosion of hot liquid. The problem is that heat from the liquid causes the air in container to expand rapidly, effectively turning the whole thing into a hot chocolate bomb. It’s not something I recommend trying at home.
Al Garnsworthy at The Chocolate Society thought about this problem and came up with a fantastically elegant solution; an expanding rubber lid that pops up when the pressure inside the jar increases. It’s a simple idea, but it works incredibly well.
There’s also a few other design features that make this a must-have device for any hot chocolate lover. Most importantly is the way the lid firmly seals onto the jar. Let’s not forget you’re going to be shaking a container full of hot liquid, so it’s absolutely vital that lid stays firmly in place when shaking. I was a little nervous the first time I tried the shaker, but I needn’t have worried. As long as you’re careful to make sure the lid is nice and tight, the seal is good and strong.
After a couple of seconds shaking, the lid pops up. After about 10 seconds shaking, your hot chocolate is ready.
The other nice design touch is the jar is insulated with a double wall, meaning it stays cool to the touch at all times. It’s made from a very strong plastic and feels like it can take a lot of abuse and keep going for years. It’s dishwasher safe, but because there’s no nasty residue, it’s really easy to wash by hand too.
But the best thing about the Hot Chocolate Shaker is the quality of the drink it makes. With traditional hot chocolate making methods, I always find some residue at the bottom of the mug or pan I’m making it in, even after thorough whisking. Every time I’ve tried the shaker, I’ve produced a perfectly smooth drink with no residue at all. It actually tastes better because more of the chocolate is emulsified and less is left behind.
I know there are fancy hot chocolate making machines on the market at the moment, and I’ve not tried any of those. They may be wonderful and produce an even more satisfying experience, but I love the simplicity of my hot chocolate shaker. I can take it to work, heat some milk in the microwave and make myself a fast and delicious drink that’s as good as any I’ve had.
It’s currently on sale for under £20, which is great deal for such an effective kitchen gadget. If you love hot chocolate or know someone who does, do yourself a favour and pick one up.
My hot chocolate shaker was provided free of charge for review by The Chocolate Society.
Earlier this week I paid a visit to my friend Max Scotford at Bullion Chocolate in Sheffield.
Bullion is a bean-to-bar chocolate maker that has just moved into a brand new space in a converted cutlery factory. The Cutlery Works is now a trendy food hall shared with 13 other producers.
Watch the video for my full chocolate factory tour and interview with Max.
Back in 2013, I participated in a focus group for a new chocolate liqueur drink. That product was launched as Baileys Chocolat Luxe later that year, and it was fair to say I wasn’t a fan of it from the start. Ostensibly a more chocolatey Bailey’s made with ‘Belgian chocolate’, it turned out not to be especially chocolatey and had an unappetising curdled appearance when poured.
I personally found Thorntons offering preferable to the the Baileys, but I’ve always felt it must be possible to do it better. It’s not just a matter of choosing better quality ingredients – although that certainly goes a long way. The difficult part is getting chocolate to stay in suspension in a drink with a luxurious and smooth texture.
But with Bouvery CV, a vodka based chocolate drink, it seems someone might have finally cracked it.
Danny Bouvery, a Londoner now living in New York, has been working on the problem for nearly 20 years. From simple experiments at home, through many years of methodical testing and trials, he developed his idea from a home made drink that took several days to produce into a best-in-class product.
Working with Westford Hills distillers in Connecticut, Bouvery has managed to produce a chocolate liqueur drink that is quite unlike anything else on the market. It’s rich, thick, luxuriously chocolatey and shockingly easy to drink. Tasting a sip feels like being enveloped in a blanket of chocolate with a warming vodka kick. The texture is smooth and thick to the point that it almost feels like the chocolate is melting in the mouth and the vodka kick hits a perfect note.
The bottle I was given was batch 3, so it’s still early days for Bouvery CV as a product, but from what Danny Bouvery tells me, it’s very much being produced in a similar way to craft chocolate. Each batch will have subtle differences, and I expect it will develop over time. It’s currently made with a blend of Peru, Dominican Republic and Ecuadorian cocoa which produces a very strongly chocolatey flavour.
I managed to consume half the bottle before deciding it would be good to get some opinion from friends, so took the rest to a cocktail party at a friends house. It’s the kind of drink that would be perfect for chocolate based cocktails if it weren’t for one thing: It’s just too good to mix.
My friends universally loved it neat served neat, and within a matter of minutes the bottle was gone.
My one experiment with mixing it was to add it to a white chocolate and coconut hot chocolate drink. Simply stirring it in was enough to take a sweet and creamy hot drink to another level.
I’m quite certain that it could do the same for many drinks, cocktails and desserts, both hot and cold. But to truly enjoy Bouvery CV, you really have to drink it neat, preferably over ice and with friends.
Bouvery CV is not yet available to buy in the UK, but it is available in the US and to buy online. I really hope it comes to the UK soon, because in my opinion, there really isn’t anything else that comes close. In the mean time, if you’re outside the US, I’d suggest having a word with any travelling friends and getting them to bring back a case or three.
