Ice cream time again! When I opened these up to see if they would be distinguishable in a picture if I put them in the same bowl, I found myself looking at two identicals. One just had some brownie bits hidden in it. Where’s the swirl of fudge from the box cover? So I decided to put them together for the picture, just to illustrate. You can’t tell they’re different kinds at all.
Definitely easy to tell this is double-churned. It scoops out of the container and melts quickly. Which I like because I like to let ice cream melt a little anyway so it doesn’t freeze my teeth.
The French Chocolate, which I was curious about, reminded me of a sort of French Vanilla coffee. I guess that’s where the “French” part comes from. The Chocolate Fudge Brownie tastes much the same, but with a little less flavor. And the “brownies.” Whatever brand, brownie pieces never seem to taste right. Some even taste bad. These don’t, but they’re still not too great.
So we’re looking at some pretty average ice cream here. Not a fancy dessert or even really a satisfaction to a chocolate craving. But if you’re just looking for something cool this summer, I’d recommend the French over the odd Fudge Brownie.
Time for another tale of chocoincidence, choco-karma or whatever you wish to call it…
Picture this, it’s a hot day in August and I’m in Bath town centre. My dodgy knee has decided it doesn’t want to play and so when my fellow holidaymakers decide they want to nip to the supermarket up the hill, I suggest it might be better if I just hang out near the centre of town and do some people watching until they return. As I stand loitering by a Post box, a large gentleman in a T-shirt and apron approaches and deposits his post. Only when he turns his back to me do I see that his t-shirt bears the legend “I Heart Chocolate” on the back (in appropriately chocolatey script). Naturally my curiosity was aroused and I decided to follow him. (As you do).
Luckily for my bum knee, it’s only a minute or two before he makes a right turn into a shop, and as I reach the premises I’m delighted to find that he’s a chocolatier. After a brief introduction, I discover that he is none other than Phillipe Wall, a Belgian chocolatier and co-owner of House of Minerva. (That’s him on the left of the photo).
We begin to chat and with characteristically Gallic enthusiasm, he tells me how he and his partner founded the shop. It’s a Micro Chocolate Factory and uses Valrhona chocolate as it’s base product, which is then used to make hot chocolate as well as various novelty shaped bars and of course a variety of truffles and ganaches. (They also sell champagne). House of Minerva’s web site, whilst not the swankiest of designs, does have a good deal of information about events and courses on offer. Basically what we have here are two guys who love their work and want to share it with the rest of us.
As I’m in holiday mode and unable to conserve a large amount of chocolate, I elect to buy only a small number of the wide range of chocolates on offer, opting for flavours I haven’t seen before, or those recommended by my new friend M. Wall.
First up is a dark ganache with Tea (not an advertisement for a 90’s band). The chocolate is a well balanced, slightly citrussy tasting blend whose initial sharpness is very quickly tempered by a rich and very delicately flavoured filing with a light mouthfeel. The tea flavouring isn’t too powerful. allowing the cocoa flavours from the chocolate and the filling to intermingle on the palate, giving a very satisfying finish. Not the strongest tea chocolate I’ve had, but a very good blending of flavours nonetheless.
Second up is a cognac ‘log’. It’s also a dark chocolate, and again the alcohol element is never allowed to overpower the chocolate flavours. Where something like Skellig’s rather splendid Brandy Plums uses the booze to give a strong ‘kick’ to the flavours on offer, this (like the previous choice) uses the flavour of cognac very subtly. It’s primarily about the flavours of the chocolate. Not an unusual pairing, but done well.
My third choice was a milk chocolate ganache with Lemon and Coriander, chosen because they’re both flavours I like (a coriander bar featured in our 2008 Chocsters) and also because I hadn’t come across the two together before. This one packs a serious lemony punch from the off, and it’s only as the filling melts and spreads across your tongue that the more subtle coriander taste begins to make itself known. The lemon is light, fresh and surprisingly upfront, making this a definite favourite.
For my final choice I asked Phillipe to recommend something, and he suggested the Poire William. Now in my experience pear and chocolate is still a pretty rare combination, so I was more than happy to act on his recommendation. I didn’t know it at the time, but unlike all of my previous choices, this was a liqueur chocolate, and as such it has the sugary inner shell to keep the alcohol from making a mess of the chocolate. This of course means that there’s a lot of sweetness to this particular confection – not my favourite. Having said that, the pear liqueur was a first. The flavour isn’t perhaps as ‘peary’ as the Lindt Pear bar I reviewed a while ago, but there’s no doubt that this is what you’re tasting.
So there we are. If you’re in (or near) Bath, I can highly recommend popping in to House of Minerva. You’ll find plenty to please the palate – champagne, hot chocolate, bars, truffles, ganaches and a range of excellent Valrhona bars as well – and of course the ebullient and very friendly Monsieur Wall.
Chocablog readers of a sensitive disposition may wish to stop reading here, because these are some of the strangest (and frankly, disgusting) looking chocolates I’ve seen in a long time.
The box describes these as “5 fine Belgian flaked truffles”. I could describe them as something else entirely, but as this is a family web site, I’ll let you judge for yourself…
If you can get past the initial appearance and try one, what you’ll find is large, irregular, slightly flaked chocolates with a soft whipped filling.
This is actually the second Duc d’O offering we’ve reviewed. The first time round, one of my major complaints was that the chocolates tasted just a little bit bland.
Unfortunately, these truffles suffer from exactly the same issue. They are pleasant, but they just don’t taste of anything much. The milk chocolate is Ok, but certainly nothing special, and the filling tastes of fresh cream but not much else.
I think this is probably one of those products that “seemed like a good idea at the time”. I’m quite certain Duc D’O are capable of making fabulous chocolates, but this looks bizarre and tastes very ordinary.
Matt-tastic from Lindt never lets me down. He popped into Choco-Locketts the other day to present me with two clear boxes of Lindt Lindor Balls. The first box, was filled with some bronzed little chaps I’ve heard about and been dying to try for ages – Lindor Peanut Butter.
Now we all know that Peanut Butter M&Ms are the bees’ knees. The judges’ decision is final and no further correspondence will be entered into. The Lindor balls, however, are even better. Instead of a brightly coloured crispy shell we have Lindt’s always-superbly creamy and soft milk chocolate with the expected – and granted – buttery peanut centre. Heaven.
My fellow tasters – 41 year old Love Chunks and 9 year old Sapphire agreed and neither of them are peanut butter fans. The trouble is that it is extremely difficult to politely eat only one, or two or three, and our box of eighteen barely lasted one evening. And before you ask, the answer is No. No reading of the ingredients panel, or fat content was undertaken, as that would only spoil things.
The second box, containing Lindor orange, raspberry and mint balls is a seasonal mix that is likely to start appearing on the shelves as Christmas gift ideas. Although, if you’re like me, you’ll have to buy them about six times over again due to eating them yourself before seeing the gift recipient.
Clockwise from top left: Orange, Mint, Peanut Butter, Raspberry
Like a brain surgeon I carefully selected one of each flavour to dissect. It’s so disappointing when it takes me more than one ball to get the cutting right because it means I have to eat – that’s right, the endless sacrifices made in this job – the damaged stuff and try again.
The orange Lindor ball is coated in milk chocolate which is nice. That’s right, just nice, because dark chocolate would be even nicer, Lindt; hint hint. The mint is coated in dark and has long been a favourite of mine as the filling is a creamy white chocolate that melts perfectly after the dark coating is gone. The raspberry Lindor ball is the only one I’m not so confident about. It tastes a tiny bit too ‘chemical-ish’ for me and leads me to hope that one day the Lindt chefs get confused and add their already-fabulous strawberry or pistachio fillings that they use in their milk blocks into the balls instead by mistake. Or maybe they have another go at improving the raspberry flavour?
