Simon and I celebrated Chocablog’s third birthday on Tuesday by visiting one of the UK’s top chocolatiers in his Islington shop. Paul A. Young started out as a pastry chef but now has two shops in London and plans to expand further.
The shop itself is small and unassuming, tucked away down an alley that only the locals (and chocolate addicts) would know about. But the purple exterior grabs your attention and the moment you open the door, you enter a chocolate wonderland.
The interior of the shop is simple but stylish. It’s a strange mix of country kitchen and gothic. Bars of chocolate are arranged neatly on a welsh dresser while large gilt frames house photographs of chocolate cakes and desserts. It’s a little surreal, but welcoming and friendly.
As the door closes, the real world quickly fades and the sumptuous aroma of quality handmade chocolates permeates the air.
By the door there is a small table with a large pan of thick, dairy free Aztec hot chocolate warming on a hot plate and an array of brightly coloured spice jars. We are immediately welcomed and offered a cup. And, of course, it’s divine.
A large counter toward the rear of the shop is covered in neatly ordered ranks of ganaches and truffles, some subtly decorated in burnished metallics (both coatings and foils). The range is interesting and exciting, with everything from simple caramels to more adventurous creations like Marmite truffles (which I’ll be reviewing later!)
Paul clearly loves what he does – as I write this, I’m watching the man himself on TV making truffles – but he seems most at home in his own shop, producing wonderfully fresh chocolate creations on the premises every day.
If you’re in the area, I highly recommend paying a visit yourself.
Nestlé have been selling “Club” chocolate in the wide brown land of Oz for roughly forever. As my colleague and fellow enthusiast Kath has pointed out, the brand has had something of a revamp. Having tried the mixed berry, the Lady Of The House though it was time we gave the Fruit and Nut a go.
Fruit and Nut (pronounced in Australia “Froot-n-nut”) is so time-worn as to have become a cliché. The best known and most likely biggest selling would have to be the Cadbury Dairy Milk. I’m sure Noah knocked up the recipe for that to fill in time when he was tootling around in that ark thing. Frankly, if you have a few almonds and sultanas, you’re all set. It can’t be hard – can it? To get it right, the nuts need a decent crunch, and the sultanas need to be soft and juicy. So it is possible to mess it up then. Stale nuts are easy to pick – the taste is a bit off, the oils in the nuts start going rancid. Bruising nuts is a sure way to get them going off before their time. And dry solid sultanas are pretty yuck as well.
The Club Fruit & Nut suffers none of those defects. The chocolate is however a touch disappointing – at least as far as its claims meeting reality. To call this “Rich Dark Chocolate”, when it is only 40% cocoa does seem a bit of a stretch. In my books that barely qualifies as dark. The texture is quite soft, and it melts quickly. This just confirms that it’s not as dark as some. In spite of this, the flavour is pretty good, but it is quite sweet. Nevertheless, the nuts are good – fresh, nutty and crunchy. They’ve been roasted and the crunch and flavour show this. The sultanas are very juicy and full of flavour.
The packaging has the usual get-me-riled health claims that it’s a natural source of antioxidants, yada, yada yada. At 40% if you really want antioxidants from chocolate, eat something darker!
This is a pleasant eating chocolate. It would make a fine introduction to something a bit dark for those who live in the land of white or milk chocolate. The nuts and sultanas are good, and it’s easy to scoff a block without trying at all. We left one sitting on the kitchen bench and the Young Gentlemen have been scarfing it down.
Idea!! A Lindt 70% Fruit And Nut block. That’s something I’d like see!
Chocablog is three years old today! Yay!
Over the last three years we’ve posted 691 posts, received 3,151 comments (not including the 87,344 spam comments we deleted) and gained 2,100 rather lovely subscribers. We love you all. But unfortunately, once again, we only have enough celebratory chocolate cake for ourselves. Sorry.
I’d personally like to thank everyone that has contributed to Chocablog – both the writers and you, the readers. You have made it an incredibly fun thing to do.
But.. we’d really like to grow even bigger in the next year, so we need your help. Here’s a few things you can do:
- Subscribe to our RSS feed or daily email version. That way you’ll never miss your daily dose of chocolatey goodness!
- Follow us on Twitter and add us on Facebook, if you’re into that kind of thing!
- Blog about us! If you’ve got your own blog, a quick post letting your readers know how chocolatey we are would be a wonderful birthday gift for us! You know we deserve it, we’ve been really good this year.
- Tell your friends about Chocablog. Go on. Go and tell someone about us right now!
- Comment on more posts. We know a lot of you just like to read (and look at the pictures), but getting involved in the comments is fun and brings the Chocablog community closer together.
- Speaking of community, visit our Chocolate Forums and join in! If you’ve anything chocolate related to say or a question to ask, then that’s the place to do it!
- Go out and find interesting chocolate and tell us about it. We love getting suggestions for reviews from readers, and where we can, we’ll try and track down your favourite chocolates for review.
When I opened up the last box I got in the mail, I found some special edition Raspberry variations on 3 Musketeers and these two Mint ones. One is a 61.2 gram “2 to Go” and the other is 35.2 grams, being about half the thickness. They’re both in two pieces, presumably for either sharing or saving half for later, but I imagine most people will just eat through both.
I’ve always liked 3 Musketeers, or Milky Way as the non-Americans call it. I got particularly close to it back in the braces days when the orthodontist tells you not to eat caramel, but you still want something similar. Anyway, Mars is trying for something a little more with the Mint by using dark chocolate as opposed to milk. Honestly, I don’t know how much difference it really makes. The chocolate might get a bit more emphasis (though is still isn’t enough to really taste it), but that’s all.
When you tear open the light green and silver wrapper, a good, strong mint smell is instantly revealed. The nougat is white with its minty friend, but somehow doesn’t seem quite as soft as usual. It’s just a little chewier. The ‘2 to Go’ is thicker, so it has a greater abundance of fluffy white in it, leading to a slightly different experience.
Basically, it’s just a bigger version of a peppermint pattie. But there’s still something very appealing in the coolness of the mint with the light and airy, yet firm nougat. Of course, 3 Musketeers loves to talk about how it has “45% less fat than average of the leading chocolate brands.” Not that there’s really too much chocolate in here, anyway. Even though it isn’t at all a new idea, the inside does get a chance to come out more since it isn’t pressed flat and thin like a peppermint pattie, so I’d say this is worth seeking out on the candy shelves.
