Given my other decent chocolate purchase at Costco, I allowed this box to take me in. The picture looked tempting, but the rest of the design isn’t the greatest. Probably given the fact that the company (Les Delices d’Ellezelles) is a random, wholesale chocolate maker that I could find nothing else about. Even finding the name on the box was hard enough.
Inside are two separate wrapped trays. Not the nicest looking, but it will keep the chocolate fresh if forty-eight squares are too many for you to eat quickly. I was glad to find that the squares looked mostly as perfect as in the picture. some uneven sprinkling of sugar crystals and one was actually upside down, but they looked decent. This is another Belgian company, which must describe why the aroma was so much like Belfine.
Canelle
Dark chocolate with a soft cinnamon filling like mousse and hazlenu pieces on top. Cinnamon is the stronger taste, lending a nice flavor.
Vanille
White chocolate with Bourbon filling. It both smells and tastes like Frosted Animal cookies. Despite that randomness, it has a delicate creaminess and can even be a little creme brulee reminiscent with the sugar crystals.
Cafe
Milk chocolate with perhaps the smoothest coffee cream filling of the bunch. This one had a definate Belfine taste, but with coffee.
Passion
Dark chocolate with passionfruit filling. I have small experience with passionfruit, but it wasn’t my favorite. Instead of complimenting each other, both the odd dark chocolate and fruit flabors jump out and attack. It has an almost bitter pucker to it.
Noisette
Milk chocolate and hazlenut filling. The hazelnut comes in about halfway, feeling very fresh. It wasn’t hard for this one to gain my approval.
Caramel
White chocolate and caramel filling, which I was most curious to try. The flavor reminded me of kettle corn somehow, though that’s by no means what it tastes like. Just reminded me of. It was a very thoughtful chocolate.
Citron Vert
Milk chocolate and lime filling. I was also looking forward to this one. The cream is an enchanting light green color, but the lime flavor felt too strong. Its tart taste combined with the sweet milk chocolate becomes rather sickly.
Bergamot
Dark chocolate and Bergamot filling. I still don’t like the dark chocolate, but it’s better with this rich, almost tangy inside.
This isn’t a spectacular value at all. Ten dollars for forty-eight slighty bigger than quarter-size chocolates is fine, but not special. The chocolates themselves are fairly average. I enjoyed the canelle, vanilla, cafe, noisette and caramel. That’s all. Not all palates around me were as picky, though, so I imagine these would be good for entertaining as the box suggests. They’re pretty, plentiful, and edible. But not worth extended attention.
In amongst the exotically illustrated Stainer bars I received earlier this year were these two ‘Grand Cru’ bars – one with 75% cacao and a ‘medio’ chilli addition, and the other a 70% bar with Espelette chilli and pineapple.
I decided to try the pineapple bar first, as it was going to be a first for me and I was curious as to how pineapple and chocolate would get along. I had to research Espelette chillies, and it turns out that they are an AOC controlled product. Originating in South America, the peppers are now grown in the Northern part of Basque country in France. Indeed it is apparently a cornerstone of Basque cuisine and has replaced black pepper in many dishes, as it is not considered very hot for a chilli.
When the wrapper came off there was absolutely no doubting the fruit content of this bar. The pineapple smell was all too evident, putting me in mind of those pineapple cube sweets I used to see in jars as a child. Naturally it was also the first thing I tasted as well, but it was very quickly followed by a warming note of chilli which intensified as the chocolate began to melt. As I allowed the chocolate to break down in my mouth the chilli just kept on giving – almost to the point of worry! Pretty intense chilli heat flooded my mouth, but oddly enough it never obliterated the citrussy tang of the pineapple. Indeed, the finish proved to be an equal balance between the two added flavours, and as the heat died away I was left with a rather lovely aftertaste of pineapple.
Having been a little worried by the intensity of the pineapple and chilli bar, the sight of three Italian chillies on the second bar had me pondering just how hot this one was likely to be – especially with no additional flavours on offer to moderate the heat of the chilli!
As it turned out, this bar was a little less intense. As the first square began to melt I could taste a whole series of dark, leathery, woody notes with an undercurrent of nuttiness which actually gave way to much lighter, unexpectedly delicate finish. At no time did I get the rush of chilli that I had experienced with the previous bar, rather it seemed to just be there as a delicate counterpoint to the rich flavours of the cocoa, adding warmth and a little spice to what was principally a very good, deep, complex blend.
I thoroughly enjoyed tasting both of these, but if I had to make a choice it would be the second bar, primarily because Stainers seem to have managed to enhance the flavour of the cocoa rather than putting something else alongside it, which is the impression I got from the pineapple bar. Chilli and chocolate virgins would do well to seek out the Stainer 75% bar. With such an array of flavours and so delicate a balance it could well be the start of a whole new taste experience for you.
Hahndorf is an old German town nestled in the hills of Adelaide, South Australia and is more known for its kitsch souvenirs and dodgy looking sausages and sauerkraut than chocolate. However, earlier this year a new player emerged amongst the bee-sting cakes, the ugg boot makers and cuckoo clocks – Chocolate @ No5. Yeah, like Chanel, all classy and stuff.
Inside their cute little 1850s (which is considered very ‘old’ here in Ozstrayah) they have managed to combine serving top notch coffees and hot chocolates with selling an array of local and internationally renowned chocolates. Try Melbourne’s Chocolatier and Max Brenner, New York’s Marie Belle, Switzerland’s Alice Chocolate and our South Aussie Cocolat.
It was my birthday on the day I visited, so I just bought a whole assortment entirely based on appearances and the flavours that appealed to me. These included dark chili chocolate, strawberry, white choc lemon myrtle, bailey’s irish cream, champagne truffles, mint truffles, cointreau and peanut cups.
Interestingly, it is the milk chocolates that mostly win out here. Actually to be really honest, it is the white chocolate lemon myrtle truffle that is the stand out. It is the perfect combination of a hard outer shell and soft creamy flavour inside that would easily convert a white-chocolate naysayer.
The milk chocolate peanut cups were also delicious. It wasn’t a peanut butter filling, but finely chopped peanuts that still gave a really fresh nut flavour and almost merged with the chocolate itself. The strawberry centre was another milk chocolate champion that was divinely pale and creamy, melting too tantalizingly quickly. Perhaps the only so-so was the champagne truffle – yes it was milk chocolate, but any champagne flavour was imperceptible.
The dark chocolates tasted as though they were all from the Cocolat stable and their dark chocolate has a dull and stodgy taste in my opinion. The chilli was the only flavour that could quite literally fight through and leave a tingle – the other truffles were less successful in allowing their flavoured centres to escape the domination of ordinary dark chocolate coating the outside.
What was most appealing was the sample of a layered marzipan dark chocolate crafted especially for their store by Steven ter Horst, a chocolatier who has completed his training in France. His wares look as artistic as any by Max Brenner or Marie Belle and will be available at No5 in the new year. If they are all as good as the one owner Sophie Zervas gave me, there will soon be standing room only at this establishment.
Another from the stable of chocky that claims to be good for you, this one came courtesy of the health food aisle in our local Woolworths.
There seems to be a trend in making and selling things high in antioxidants, it’s the new Big Thing – we have adverts on TV from a large multinational food maker for their coffee containing green beans, because this blend is supposed to be high in antioxidants. There are numerous other examples.
The label in this block prooudly proclaims: “Very High in Antioxidants”. The back label is even more flowing with hyperbole, claiming an 80g block has an antioxidant value equivalent to 12 cups of green tea. Oh, and this is a sugar free product as well, so it must be good for you!
The Açaí fruit is supposed to make this even better. But what the heck is Açaí fruit? From the picture on the front of the pack it looks a lot like a blueberry. A check of Mr Google yields an answer. The Açaí ah-sa-ee) is a palm that grows in South America, the fruit is quite large, has a big seed, and is high in all sorts of fats. Oh, and grapes have a higher antioxidant potency! You’d be better off eating a mango, though. In this case, the Açaí is “restructured”, which means the pieces you find are Açaí puree 27%, apple and pear concentrate 70%, cellulose powder, palm oil, and pectin. Hmm.
I have admit to being skepical of the wonderous antioxidant claims on just about anything, especially when a little research courtesy of Dr Ben Goldacre, and Wikipedia, would seem to indicate otherwise.
The sugar free part comes about because the sweetener is polydextrose and sucralose (aka Splenda, Sucraplus, E955). After reading the ingredients list I feel in need of brushing up my high school chemistry lessons.
The saving grace in all this is that it is 70% cocoa, which keeps my dark side placated. In appearence, it’s nothing very special. A bling-free-zone, moulded so you can break bits off.
In spite of the chemistry lessons, it doesn’t taste too bad. It has a slightly bitter, slightly sweet, slightly fruity flavour and there is plenty of richness from all that yummy cocoa. The fruity bits, when you find them, have a strange flavour that is hard to identify – not unpleasant, just a bit unusual. We shared this around among the family, the consensus is that it’s not bad.
Youngest son thinks its Very Good Indeed. The Lady of the house found a slightly bitter after-taste, which I can also pick if I try hard. My suspicion is that this is linked to the artificial sweeteners, because of the similarity to the after-taste with other artificially sweetened products.
Summary: It’s OK. But I’d rather eat something with a bit less pushing of it’s virtues, and a bit more of nature in the ingredients list.
