I have never liked mixing the flavours of peppermint (or mint) with milk chocolate and particularly loathe Cadbury’s Peppermint block. You know the one; Dairy milk with snot-green fluid inside. However after absolutely loving Newman’s Ginger Treat, when these Peppermint Treats turned up at the corner shop, my taste buds made me buy a couple along with the newspaper.
Like their Ginger Treat, this bar has the same brown truffle centre and the main ingredient is sugar for both the peppermint filling and the chocolate coating. With the ingredients panel informing me that one bar has nearly eighteen grams of fat, of which nearly 11 grams is saturated, wasn’t making for very appetising reading. Despite this, would Newman’s, already riding high in my esteem for their loving treatment of ginger, be able to convert this wary reviewer over to milk chocolate and peppermint?
Nope. Despite not having a green or white centre, it still combines two the flavours that just do not work well together. Milk chocolate – in this case consisting of a minimum 29% cocoa solids – is too creamy and lactose-laden to do anything other than scream in sugar at the already dominating peppermint leaving me clutching my head in agony and wondering just why my taste buds decided to violently exit via the back of my brain and my eyes could no longer focus on the newsprint.
This would go down so much better if the chocolate was dark – 45% and beyond would be just fine. Please, Newman’s?
Like my fellow Chocabloke, I arrived home after our field trip to Islington with a small box of truffles and ganaches and three mini-slabs.
A Dom mentioned, we didn’t get a comprehensive list of what we had been given (poor work on our part) but there are some outstanding items here.
These are some seriously good chocolates. As you can see, the paper cases reflect the house colours of Paul’s shop – a rich, regal purple. Without exception the fillings are whisper-light, rich and bursting with flavour. You can tell that they’re made fresh on the premises – the chocolate has a fantastic fresh aroma and in particular the fruit and floral flavours used in some of the chocolates have an intensity that can only come from using fresh, top quality ingredients.
Among the selection I had was a Rose and Geranium cream. As soon as I bit into it there was a rush of rose flavour, reminiscent of Turkish Delight but without the cloying sweetness. Instead the floral bouquet was supported by rich, dark, buttery chocolate flavours. It was like an über-posh version of Cocoa Bean’s Rose milk chocolate, and I loved every second of it.
Another little wonder was the Woodford Bourbon chocolate. A caramel-coloured centre held a dark, well rounded bourbon whiskey flavour without the expected alcoholic overtones. Caramel for an adult palate with delightfully spicy bourbon notes – another winner.
The Passion Fruit and Vanilla was bursting with summery fruit flavours. The balance between citrus, vanilla and dark chocolate was exquisite. The initial bittersweet chocolate hit vanished under a wave of passion fruit which was in turn tempered by a hint of vanilla. Unlike some chocolates that attempt to fuse cittrus with cocoa and fail (a certain German Passion Fruit bar springs to mind) this creation held the balance throughout
What impresses about these chocolates isn’t just the freshness of the ingredients and their incredible flavours, it’s also the craftsmanship with which they’ve been put together. The shells are thick and crisp, dark and rich and in contrast the centres are almost impossibly light and buttery. Mr. Young is obviously a very skilled gentleman.
My three slabs are (were!)
A white chocolate slab with sencha green tea. I was a big fan of the Dolfin Green Tea bar I received last year, but this is a completely different animal. The green tea is quite brittle and ‘twiggy’ on the palate, giving an unusual texture. For me, the green tea flavours sat well with the cocoa butter flavours, but it was still very white chocolate, and the ‘bittyness’ of the tea leaves was more of a distraction than a pleasure – for me at least.
I’d say this was an acquired taste.
My second slab was a 64% dark chocolate slab with Maldon sea salt, and it was a delight. Deep, well rounded dark cocoa flavours with a tang of salt make a devastating combination. My mouth was watering within seconds of trying this little slab, and I’m very pleased (if a little ashamed) to say that it led a short life.
The best was definitely last.
For his Sea Slated Caramel slab Paul has used the 64% dark chocolate, but the caramel is made using Valrhona Jivara milk chocolate, and ‘caramel’ doesn’t even come close to describing what lies at the heart of this bar.
A practically liquid, lightly salted and hugely chocolatey confection which had me laughing to myself and shaking my head in wonderment. This is a seriously addictive piece of confectionery, believe me. Nothing short of a masterpiece – stunning.
It’s pretty safe to say that Mr. Young is operating at the top end of the chocolate market. His creations are hovering somewhere between alchemy and art, and any serious lover of anything cocoa-based would be insane not to try some of these. I consider myself a very lucky Chocabloke indeed.
For more information on Paul A. Young and his shops, take a look at his web site.
It’s easter egg time again! The second egg that Hotel Chocolat sent us this year was this attractive looking creation dressed in black and gold. As you’d expect from Hotel Chocolat, the packaging is top-notch.
Inside the tastefully designed box, each egg half is wrapped separately in sliver foil and hides a big bag of truffles.
One half of the egg is 35% milk chocolate, the other 74% dark chocolate, and they both look and taste divine. I particularly like the way the Hotel Chocolat logo is embossed into the shell. Simple and classy.
As you’d expect, the chocolate taste wonderful. The milk chocolate is rich and creamy and melts away in the mouth in an incredibly moreish manner. The dark chocolate is delicious and fruity and equally moreish.
My only real issue here is that the chocolate is so thick, it’s really difficult to break. I ended up having to smash it on the table just to get a small piece, and even then I nearly managed to break the table.
The truffle mini eggs inside each half all contain alcohol. They’re packed in quite tightly, making this 440g egg almost solid chocolate. Just the way an easter egg should be!
The truffle eggs are:
Rum and Raisin
Soft and smooth truffle in a milk chocolate shell with a much more subtle taste than I was expecting. It’s very definitely rum and raisin, but the alcohol isn’t too overpowering.
Kir Royal
A 74% dark chocolate truffle with a blackcurrant and champagne filling. This one has a wonderful deep purple centre. Again, the flavours are subtle and don’t overpower the rich notes of the chocolate.
Pink Marc de Champagne
The only white chocolate here, and probably the least alcoholic in flavour. The Marc de Champagne flavour is quite delicate and works well with the white chocolate. But it’s not pink!
Grand Marnier and Vanilla
Milk chocolate with a very soft, almost liquid centre. Again, the alcohol flavour doesn’t overpower the chocolate – and more surprisingly, the vanilla comes through most of all here. Very nice.
Whisky Caramel
Another dark chocolate, this time with… whisky, oddly enough. I have to say though that I didn’t pick up a great deal of whisky flavours here. The alcohol is quite strong, and there’s a subtle woody taste, but not much whiskyness. Still delicious, but probably my least favourite of the bunch.
What more is there to say? This is a quality product – an altogether classier proposition than the Egg Sandwich I previously reviewed. I highly recommend it as a gift for either a dark or milk chocolate lover – just so long as they like truffles in their alcohol alcohol in their truffles.
Here are the other two bars from Kallari, this time with green and blue leaves. I was expecting them to taste much like the 70%, but it turns out that each bar is distinctive while still maintaining a Kallari style.
The 75% has a red depth to its smell, which continues into the taste. A little bit of bitterness gets in there, too, with fruit at the end. “Passion fruit and mahogany notes” is how they describe it. The chocolate is cool in its remarkable cleanness, yet warm in its softness or “delicate” feel.
It’s a slightly bigger jump up to 85%, so this one naturally strikes (well, not as harsh as that) you some with its calm darkness. The cocoa flavor is steady with an interesting depth. It kind of tastes a little blue like the leaf cover. I think it must be the gentlest 85% I’ve had, and yes, it’s delicate, too.
All three of these have a certain underlying sweetness that acts subtley on the palate. It’s hard to think of it as “sweetness” just because that word kind of has a bad connotation to me, but it’s a pure and good sweetness. It adds just the right personality. So Kallari scores high on both the taste and ethics charts.
