One of the most disappointing reactions anyone can have after looking forward to their daily (for me) or weekly chocolate treat is to snap off a few squares, let it swirl around the mouth for a few moments before dismissively grunting, “Meh”.
Perhaps my hopes should have been much lower to start with. Firstly, it’s a supermarket ‘own brand’ of chocolate and secondly it’s in a wrapper makes the product look about as appealing as an ingrown toenail removal. This is not the kind of chocolate you can take to a friend’s house to share and hope to receive a warm welcome. Usually, such products are made by a more well-known commercial enterprise as a bit of an earner on the side, but when I contacted Woolworths, I was told that they weren’t allowed to tell me the manufacturing firm because it was “commercially sensitive.”
Okaaaaay, so “Commercially Sensitive” might be a more tactful code word for ‘Second Rate’ or ‘Company Rejects’ because this stuff is bland, bland bland. Despite having sugar as the number one ingredient, followed by the expected almonds, full cream milk powder and cocoa mass and consisting of 33% cocoa solids (which isn’t bad for milk chocolate), there was no impact on the taste buds when a square or four was sampled.
The almonds inside were nice and crunchy, but the chocolate covering them was impossible to taste. Frantic chewing, slow sucking, gentle melting, serving at room temperature, nothing helped to bring out any distinct flavour. It might as well have been sugarless carob for all of the impact and enjoyment it provided, and no, that’s NOT a compliment. AVOID.
Simon and I each took home a small selection of samples from our recent trip to see Paul A. Young. My haul consisted of three small bars and a small box of truffles.
The bars are similar in size to a Hotel Chocolat ‘mini slab’ format, but helpfully are divided into 4 chunks along the back, so can easily be snapped, shared and sampled.
My chosen bars were:
White Chocolate With Sesame and Sea Salt
I know how many people don’t regard white chocolate as ‘proper’ chocolate, but I’m quite partial to it occasionally, and this little bar was one of the nicest white chocolates I’ve had. The flavours were subtle and the sesame seeds added an interesting texture to the bar. It’s not too sweet and the flavour of the sea salt comes through at the end – along with the nutty flavour from the small pile of sesame seeds left in your mouth. Very nice.
Milk Chocolate With Stem Ginger
I’m a big fan of ginger and chocolate, and this was a great example of how to do it right. One side of this creamy milk chocolate was studded with crystalised ginger in a similar way to the Cocoa Tree ginger bar I reviewed last year – although thankfully not quite as packed-in. The milk chocolate has wonderful subtle flavours as it melts until you’re left with just the ginger to bite into, releasing wonderfully peppery taste.
Dark Chocolate With Green Peppercorns
A dark and fruity 72% Venezuelan chocolate with a glossy sheen to it. Interestingly, you can’t actually see any peppercorns on the surface as they’ve been ground – not too finely – and mixed in with the chocolate. The peppery flavour is actually quite subtle and complements the chocolate particularly well.
Three very different – but equally interesting – little bars.
The Truffles
Foolishly, I didn’t actually take the time to write down the names of the individual chocolates in my little box, but as you can see they all look wonderful.
There were three in particular that stood out for various reasons – the caramel, the tobacco truffle and a Marmite ganache (pictured).
Now before you run away screaming, I have to tell you that I loved the Marmite ganache. The flavour was extremely subtle and started out as a slight saltiness and built to a fuller Marmite flavour. It was so subtle that you probably wouldn’t know what it was if you hadn’t been told, but the combination of flavours really did work.
The tobacco truffle on the other hand, was not my cup of tea. The tobacco was far too strong for my taste and got to a point where the tingling feeling almost started to sting. You can tell it’s made with quality ingredients, but this one was just too much for me.
Finally, we have Paul’s award winning sea-salted caramels. We’ve mentioned before how a touch of salt can enhance the flavour of caramel, and this is one of the best examples of that I’ve tasted. The filling is beautifully soft, but just the right consistency so it doesn’t flow out when you bite into it. If you visit Paul’s shop, this is one you have to try.
James Road?
Who on earth is James Road? Or where is it? Is it a name or a place?
Such are the questions that spring to mind when presented with this box – a gift from the Lady of the House’s Big Sister. A quick internet search yields little, apart from James Road chocolates being sold by all manner of places selling gourmet indulgent food. The list makes exciting reading – chocolate apricots, chocolate strawberries, fudge cookies. Mmmmm….. mind you, it’s not cheap.
A bit more investigating shows these are made at the old Lobethal woollen mills. So there’s a story of renewal here as well. The mills were built when Australia made fortunes from sheep and exporting wool. Those same mills, and many others, were in decline by the 1970’s and finally closed in the 1990’s. Now those empty buildings are occupied by the niche cheese and chocolate makers.
But the gift, and the subject of today’s taste-test is the James Road Chocolate coated oranges. It’s worth quoting the box:
“Hand made from choice oranges, sliced and dried and dipped in smooth dark chocolate. A gourmet delight to indulge your friends and to enjoy at any time.”
Ingredients time: I’m totally confused. The ingredients list has oranges at 15%, milk solids at 10%, and the chocolate as 15% cocoa solids, BUT also gives the impression that it’s compounded chocolate because it contains vegetable fat. And how does 15% qualify as dark? And the above all adds up to 40%. Where is the other 60%? And what is it? Black holes perhaps? I know: Dark Matter!
(And that leads me to this weeks interesting aside: for the astronomy geeks out there. The universe is, it seems, not heavy enough. The folks-who-seem-to-know have coined the term “dark matter” to describe the bits that they can’t see or find but which must contain the missing weight. I think I know differently: perhaps the missing dark matter is in fact chocolate. As we eat it the universe gets lighter. Great theory! Tell all the small kids and see if you can convince them.)
The tasting is what really matters. Taking these out of the pack gives a whiff of orange. A bite and a look inside, shows that yes, this really does have dried orange inside and it’s truly delicious. I don’t care any more what the chocolate composition is (though the niggling part of me wants the Dark Matter thing resolved). These are divine. The orange almost shatters when you bit into a piece, the flavour is intense, the chocolate is rich and yummmmmmmmmy.
Get some today. Good stuff. Great present. Thanks big-sister-in-law!
As I slowly plough my way through the spoils of last year’s road trip across Europe, I’m remembering the stops we made, the people we met, and finally I’m tasting some of the chocolate as well.
While wandering around Venice on a day off, about to head off in search of a hotel somewhere away from overpriced tourist hell, we passed a chocolatier – or should that be cioccolateria, since we were in Italy? Opening the door and escaping from the heat of an early summer afternoon, the cool rush of air conditioning was almost as welcome as the blast of rich cocoa flavours from both stock and new chocolates being made on the premises. The VizioVirtù ’boutique’ is a classy establishment in a rather lovely part of Venice. The web site has directions to the shop (an essential if you’ve ever wandered around Venice) and a brief overview of some of the products made on the premises.
As one might expect from an Italian choco-boutique located in Venice, the produce was rather pricey, and given the heat of the day and potential transportation and storage problems, I resolved to choose just one bar from the myriad on offer. This one caught my eye for two reasons. One, it’s made using organic ingredients (the cocoa, cane sugar and cocoa butter are all ‘biologico’) and two, it contains violet flavoured sugar crystals.
As a young lad suffering the hardships of living in a sweetshop in the 1970s, I ate mor than my share of parma violets (among many things) and while previous attempts at nostalgic sweetie-tasting have been less than satisfying (too much sugary, perfumey sweetness for me these days) I did think that a sprinkling of violet flavour tempered with a good hefty dose of Dominican Republic cocoa might be worth investigating.
In the style of many handmade bars, the ‘extra’ stuff is studded into the back of the bar, as you can see. (Or is it the front? I tend to think of the top or front surface as being the one with the squares, but this packaging seems to contradict that. Answers on a postcard.)
This chocolate is a light, soft flavoured confection with fresh, creamy properties not unlike a full bodied milk chocolate. There’s a very subtle underlying bitterness and acidity to the finish, but in the main this is a surprisingly soft and delicately flavoured bar. The sugar crystals do pack a sizeable amount of violet flavour, but they don’t hang around for too long, blending well with the darker flavours of the chocolate and enhancing rather than overpowering the taste experience.
I was expecting a more hefty cocoa taste from a 74% bar, but this proves that good quality chocolate doesn’t need to overpower the palate in order to deliver. Soft in the mouth, well rounded, and with a clean, mildly acidic finish, I liked this a lot. Shame Venice is a bit of a hike from Berkshire really. Still, if you ever find yourself in Venice, do pop in. It’s a welcome relief from carnival masks and coloured glass ornaments!
