Hotel Chocolat have created a range of chocolates using cocoa from their own Rabot Estate on St. Lucia, and I have been fortunate enough to have received a box of assorted bars and pralines to sample.
As mentioned in my interview with Angus Thirlwell, the Rabot Estate cannot produce enough cocoa to supply all of HC’s needs, so they’re using it to produce these rather special chocolates. As you might expect, this sort of high quality, rare chocolate comes at a price (around £4.00 for two 50g mini-slabs, to be precise) but as the wrapper explains, your money is going towards revitalising an industry that had all but died out on St. Lucia.
So what of the chocolate? Well 42% isn’t the highest cocoa content we’ve seen for milk chocolate, but when I opened the wrapper and sniffed, I knew immediately that this was no ordinary product. The chocolate has a purity about it – citrussy high notes and an underlying richness which hinted at great flavours.
At this point I feel I ought to warn you – tasting this chocolate will corrupt you forever. A small piece placed on the tongue unleashes the most amazing set of flavours. There’s very little initial sweetness and bags of lush, fruity, well rounded flavours from the Trinitario beans. It floods the mouth with a kind of ‘essence of pure milk chocolate’. To me, this was what all milk chocolate should taste like, with the cocoa flavours completely dominant and only a hint of sweetness beneath the milky, rich and frankly ridiculously moreish cocoa flavours. I will have a very hard time eating any milk chocolate after this, I’m afraid!
Of course you can’t realistically compare this with ‘ordinary’ milk chocolate. It costs many times more than a bar of Dairy Milk or Galaxy and has a pedigree most chocolate producers can’t get near. It’s a rarity, exclusive, the peak (or one of them!) of Hotel Chocolat’s work in St. Lucia. Comparing this to a bar of high street chocolate would be like trying to draw comparisons between Cheryl Cole and Ella Fitzgerald. You simply cannot.
I don’t know whether to thank Hotel Chocolat for sending me this or not. I’ll never eat a piece of milk chocolate again without casting my mind back to the day I opened this box. I’ve been corrupted forever.
This is the final ‘chapter’ in Galler’s ‘Elements’ range, and this selection reflects Earth flavours. Having experienced the flavours of the sea with Les Marines, floral flavours to reflect Air, and fiery, peppery chocolates for Fire, I was very much looking forward to seeing how Jean Galler would choose to represent the Earth, and it turns out that roots are very much the theme. The four chocolates in this selection use Galanga, Ginger, Ginseng and Beetroot fillings, thereby offering me a number of ‘firsts’ in terms of taste.
In keeping with the look of the previous three offerings, these chocolates come subtly decorated, and once again there are two milk and two dark.
My first choice was a milk chocolate disc containing Glanga – a relative of ginger with a sweeter, less fiery taste – and it was a gentle, light beginning. Biting into this chocolate released light, soft cocoa flavours which were quickly joined by vanilla notes from the cream centre. As the creamy filling broke down the sweet flavour of galanga joined the chocolate. It wasn’t as strong as I had expected, and I imagine the vanilla element was added to the centre to temper any potential heat or pepperiness from the root. That said, the sweet, exotic taste of the galanga was definitely there.
The Ginger chocolate packed a little more punch than I had expected. Another soft, light cream filling with a surprising orange colour (surprising until you realise that the ginger has been partnered with mango for a flavour twist) delivered subtle yet fiery ginger flavours which blended beautifully with the rich, dark cocoa flavours of the melting shell. It’s an old favourite, but done with a tyical Galler twist, and done very well.
The other milk chocolate on offer contained Ginseng. Now I happen to rather enjoy a cup of Ginseng Tea, despite the fact that it does have an aroma reminiscent of boiling socks. I enjoy the earthy, root flavours (and obviously the tonic effect) and so I was quite keen to see how my first taste of Ginseng and chocolate would go.
It seemed to me that there was slightly less filling in this chocolate, but I would imagine that would be because ginseng packs quite a lot of flavour. I can see how developing this chocolate might have been a balancing act – too much ginseng flavour could easily make this inedible to a lot of people, but of course not enough and you inevitably run the risk of making a ‘pointless’ flavour (i.e. one that cannot betasted except by the most sensitive of palates). Of course, the balance is spot on. Enough of the earthy, deep ginseng flavour, but tempered with Galler’s soft, creamy milk chocolate.
The final member of the quartet was a dark chocolate disc containing beetroot – another first for me, and I would imagine for most people. I’m a big fan of beetroot crisps and the prospect of beetroot combined with chocolate had me licking my lips in anticipation. Having tasted so many of Jean Galler’s creations I’m pretty confident that whatever unusual pairings he offers will have been developed for reasons of taste rather than mere novelty value, and the dark chocolate exterior soon gave way to allow the slightly sweet, subtly earthy taste of the filling out to play. If you gae me this chocolate in a blind tasting I’d probably not have guessed that it contained beetroot, but I would definitely be guessing in the area of roots and vegetables. It reflects the theme of the collection extremely well and is another example of fine chocolate making.
As a collection these chocolates certainly fall into the ‘unusual’ category. They’re not cheap, which makes me think that your ‘average’ customer might think twice about embarking on this particular taste adventure. However, if you (or someone you like) has an adventurous palate, then this could well be an ideal gift. Like their forerunners, this collection is made with top quality ingredients, and it’s a testament to the skills of M. Galler and his team, but these are definitely not ‘everyday’ chocolates. Well worth a go if you’re entertaining and want something different to have with coffee, or as a special treat for a chocolate lover though.
I had already been in possession of these rather lovely looking chocolates for a little while when Dom and I met Stephen Trigg, co-owner of Lauden (and a lovely bloke) at the Chocolate Unwrapped event last weekend. As you can see from the photo, Lauden use edible transfers to give identity to their chocolates (and occasionally Stephen gets them wrong – much to his wife’s annoyance, as he confessed to us!) so tasting Lauden chocolates means matching designs to pictures on the menu.
The twelve chocolates I was sent included the already-reviewed salted caramel (which is why it isn’t in the photo – I gave it to a friend to try) and the Single Origin, leaving me with ten new flavours to tackle.
The other ten chocolates were, as I had expected, of a similarly high standard to our two ‘teasers’ I had previously tried. There were some that stood out more than others, but the whole selection was delightful – Stephen and Sun Trigg are making some great chocolates.
It’s been a while since I had a lemon chocolate, and this one had a light, delicate cream filling which contained minute fragments of lemon peel, giving a lovely tart-yet-sweet combination of flavours reminiscent of a really good lemon meringue filling with a chocolate finish. A definite winner.
The Marc de Champagne had a dark chocolate centre with light alcoholic overtones which build to a heady, winey crescendo before melting away and allowing the dark chocolate shell to finish off proceedings. If you enjoy alcohol and chocolate then you ought to try this one.
Like it’s predecessor, the Spearmint chocolate held it’s flavours in a dark truffle centre. I really enjoyed this pairing – the spearmint feels fresh and natural and makes a great partner for the dark cocoa flavours of both filling and shell. At no time did it feel as though I was eating anything chemical or concentrated. Great balance of flavours and a fresh minty finish. A slight twist on an old classic, done extremely well.
The Passion Fruit chocolate had a more solid feeling, thicker filling with slowly developing Passion Fruit flavours which allowed the chocolate to melt before the fruit tastes take over. However, because the filling melts quickly the fruit flavours peak and fade before the chocolate shell is finished, giving the dark cocoa flavours a chance to shine at the finish.
This Rose & Lychee chocolate had me intrigued before I tasted it.
In my mind I could see how the lychee would work as a counter to the (potentially overpowering) rose flavours, and I was not disappointed. Exquisitely light floral notes start things off before the more subtle flavours of the lychee come in to to temper the floral flavours. It’s a magical combination of flavours, and had me wishing for more as soon as I’d finished it. The balance is perfect.
When we met Stephen, I was waxing lyrical about this one to Dom, which prompted Stephen to tell me that this is their most expensive chocolate to produce. Apparently Sun had rejected numerous rose oils before settling on one that costs something like £1000 for 100ml! He also told me that the lychee flavour requires a huge amount of fruit to create. Well worth all the trouble though – this is flagship material.
The Mediterranean Orange chocolate had a filling with a consistency somewhere between the Passion Fruit and the Rose & Lychee. As soon as I bit into it I was hit with a burst of bittersweet, fresh orange flavour. This was so different from a lot of chocolate/orange pairings – the fruit was fresh, alive, and full of sunshine. It never became too sweet, and never tasted artificial or cloying. It left my mouth clean and refreshed, and wanting more.
After the triumphant pairing of Rose & Lychee, the Raspberry and Rose was always going to be a second best. The centre is more jelly-like, and again it isn’t too Rose-y. I found myself wishing I’d tasted this before the Rose & Lychee, because it is a very good chocolate. It’s just that the Rose & Lychee was so fantastic that I found myself wishing I’d had another one to try!
A Blackcurrant and Redcurrant chocolate was another well balanced combination. The blackcurrant never took over, and the redcurrant tempered the sharpness verey well. I was surprised to find seeds and peel in the filling (most of the previous chocolates had smooth fillings) , but obviously fresh fruit was used. A good berry combination – fresh, clean and with a touch of blackcurrant zing.
Lauden’s fine chocolates are just that – fine chocolates. This is of course reflected in the price (at £8.00 or so for a dozen they’re definitely special treats) but the quality of the ingredients shines through in all of their creations. As a small chocolate maker, Stephen and Sun Trigg can still maintain their high standards, as they are involved at every step. As Stephen said to me, the next phase will be interesting for them – upscaling production while maintaining their high standards. I wish them every success and recommend you try some of these rather lovely chocolates.
Our third and final offering from Gorvett & Stone for this Chocolate Week is a little bag of broken chunks of dark chocolate with freeze dried strawberry and ground black pepper.
The chocolate used here is a 70% cocoa solids from Valrhona, so as you’d expect, it’s very, very good. It’s rich, full of flavour and not too sweet. It also looks fantastic with the big chunks of bright red strawberries showing through.
The pepper adds an interesting dimension, but it’s quite subtle and adds more flavour than it does heat – unless you happen to bite into one of the larger pieces of ground pepper that are left after the chocolate and strawberry have melted away.
This isn’t a sweet bar, but it is full of interesting flavours and textures. If you prefer something a little sweeter, then you might be better off with something like the Thorntons Milk Chocolate With Strawberry block we reviewed a while back.
Alternatively, for those with very sweet tooths, Gorvett & Stone also do a white chocolate (Valrhona again) with freeze-dried raspberries. I had planned on reviewing that too, but made the mistake of taking it to a barbecue, where it not only disappeared within seconds, but was unanimously declared the best of the considerable chocolate stash I took along.
Gorvett & Stone seem to do something for everyone, with a great range of flavours. They obviously use quality ingredients – and with products like their wonderful little exploding frog, they have a sense of fun too. I’m looking forward to trying more of their creations in the future.
