Another offering from artist-turned-chocolate maker Holly Caulfield, these chocolate fish actually taste like flowers – geraniums to be precise. Having had both good and merely reasonable geranium flavoured chocolate before, I was interested to see what these fish shaped chocolates had to offer. (I was also very relieved that they weren’t mackerel flavoured).
Holly’s organic milk chocolate weighs in at a hefty 45% cocoa, so to my mind all that was required was to get the flavour balance right and we’d have a winner. However, too much geranium and I was going to feel like I’d been drinking air freshener, and too little and I’d merely be disappointed.
You can see how dark this ‘milk’ chocolate was – bursting with potential.
There are differences, but essentially when you taste geranium chocolate for the first time, you tend to think of Turkish Delight. Floral flavours are uncommon in confectionery (well, they used to be – other reviews will bear this out) giving little room for comparison with anything else, but you soon begin to notice the differences in flavour between geranium and rose.
It was always going to be the geranium flavour which arrived first. Waves of bright floral scents and a natural heady sweetness preceeded any cocoa flavours by a long way, and it was only as the chocolate really began to break down that it was allowed to show off a little. In fact, I found myself wondering if Chocoholly might produce a bar of this chocolate in an unadulterated form, just so we could really appreciate the potential of a 45% Organic milk chocolate.
Because of its very nature, the floral flavour arrives quickly and takes a long time to leave. The chocolate flavours are always going to be slightly masked by the burst of geranium, but upping the cocoa content was a smart move. When tested on my usual group of (all adult) guinea pigs, the only complaint was that couldn’t have one each. So, a curious flavour which obviously has wide ranging appeal.
I’ve only encountered James Chocolates once before – when their Hot & Spicy Ginger & Chilli Chocs went down rather well with my friends.
Like those, I found these cute little (tiny) piglets in John Lewis. As you’d expect from – well, just about anything purchased in John Lewis – they were obscenely expensive – at £4 for 54g of chocolate, you don’t exactly get a lot for your money.
The milk chocolate is 31% cocoa solids, which is better than some, but frankly not as good as I would have hoped for given the price. That’s reflected in the taste as well. It’s sweet and creamy, but not particularly chocolatey.
Luckily, you do get a single, solitary pink pig in the pack. This is white chocolate flavoured with strawberry, and while not great, it’s certainly the most interesting thing in the box.
The overall effect reminds me of a cheap version of Guylian Seashells, from the creaminess of the chocolate to the shiny, marbled effect of the exterior. The problem is that there’s no real ‘wow’ factor. Even the box is cheap plastic.
This particular product is clearly trading of the fact that there is a certain section of the community that is mad about all things cute and piglety. They’re not designed for people who love chocolate, they’re designed for people who love pigs.
The problem is, I don’t think I could even recommend them as a gift for piggy fans. They’re just not worth the price – they are penny sweets being sold as a luxury gift. So if you know someone who you think would love these, do them a favour and protect them from themselves by buying them a large pack of bacon instead.
Strangely enough, chocolate biscuits are a bit of a weakness of mine. Finding something new was a bit a treat. I found these chocky bikkies in my local supermarket a week or so ago and they have been calling, tempting me, ever since. Today was the day.
These are however, from the Health Food Section of the supermarket – itself something a warning, because the usual suspects are trotted out. No this, better that, and more of something else. Blah blah blah. In this case, it’s Gluten Free – a quite legitimate claim for those who can’t tolerate the gluten – and something of an achievement to get a gluten free biscuit. Other claims we have are: egg free, yeast free, high fibre, no added salt, no preservatives, no artificial flavours. I suppose I shouldn’t sound off too much – there are other products which get far more bit carried away with their virtues.
Actually, the part about this product that puts me off most is the name. D’Lush. Sounds like a way to refer to D’drunken sot and trying to be kind of nice about it. Strange. When I opened up, the thing that’s really noticeable here is the peppermint. They say on the pack that it’s made with natural peppermint oil, and they aint kiddin’. The chocolate is pretty soft, and turns out to be compounded – made with sugar, cocoa powder, vegetable fat of some unspecified kind, and milk solids. It is 40% cocoa, but still, standards – please!
The biscuit within is very crunchy, and pepperminty. So how to you make a biscuit without wheat flour? The ingredients are, again, revealing: raw sugar (it shows), water, rice flour, vegetable oil, soy flour, maize flour, cocoa powder, soy fibre, peppermint oil.
All things considered, not bad. Could be improved using real chocolate instead of compounded. Not something I’d eat every day, but its OK for a change – perhaps up to a point. 3 hours after eating 3 of these, I still have a very strong peppermint after-taste in my mouth that just won’t go away, and I’m doing strong peppermint burps. You can have too much of a good thing.
Wow, what a week!
This week has been by far our busiest ever. We’ve gone all out to cover as many of he great Chocolate Week participants as we could, but there were many more that we simply didn’t get around to talking about. Over the next few weeks, we’ll be continuing to talk about some of the great products we tried – and great people we met – during this year’s festivities. We’ll just be doing it at a slightly more manageable pace!
If you’ve discovered Chocablog in the last week, we really hope you’ll stick around and let us know what you think.
Oh – and if you happen to be in the Dublin area and just can’t get enough of the chocolate-related festivities, I’m reliably informed that the Temple Bar Chocolate Festival starts on Friday 30th October. I don’t think any of the Chocablog team are going to be able to make it, but if you’re in the area and want to cover it for us, please get in touch!
