The ex-high school English teacher within me tends to avoid buying products that deliberately mis-spell common words, so I had seen these ‘Plantation Rype’ boxes for a while before giving in and buying some.
The ‘Rype’sters eventually won me over because I love ginger. And dark chocolate. And, let’s face it, pretty well any packaging that promises ‘delicious ginger and apple/orange fruit centres smothered in rich dark chocolate.’ Despite being made in Australia, some of the statements on the packaging sounded suspiciously non-Aussie, telling us that these simple chocolate balls ‘represent the harmony of our creations’ and one full sentence that confidently announces: ‘The unification of tastes and flavours that we have mastered.’ Okaaaay…….
Unfortunately, their bold claims are somewhat unfounded when put to the taste test. Granted, we’re conditioned to having our fruit balls and ‘scorched’ nuts encased in an ultra-fine layer of sugar coating to give them their desired glossy look, but these are almost crispy. So crispy, in fact, that the actual flavour of the chocolate is nullified before tasting the orange/ginger or apple/ginger filling.
The ingredients lists don’t fare too well either. The ‘dark’ chocolate has a relatively paltry 30% cocoa content, and the ginger in both flavours is a tiny 3% of the non-chocolate ingredients. Orange is only 3% of the total ‘fruit’ ingredient (which, in itself, makes up only 30% of each ball, with the chocolate consisting of 70%), with apple being marginally higher at 7%. There are three glazing agents listed – 903, 904 and 414. I’m no mathematician or scientist, but the sturdy, plasticky taste of the coating over the chocolate suggests that they could ‘lose’ at least two of those numbers. The other ingredients didn’t sound too thrilling either – including emulsifiers, preservative 223, semolina, maltodextrin, glycerine, vegetable oil, vegetable gums and mineral salt.
The overall taste is of a hardish chocolate with no discernible flavour coating some kind of chewy gingery, fruity filling. It was Sapphire, my trustworthy nine year old critic, who read the front of the boxes which say ‘Delicious ginger and apple/orange fruit centres smothered in rich, dark chocolate’ who said, “They should take out ‘delicious’, ‘rich’ and ‘dark’ and then it would be right.”
Well said. The packaging is unexciting, as is the actual chocolate. They’ll have to do more than improve their spelling to get another purchase from me.
This was a very pleasant surprise on my first trip to the discount store Tuesday Mornings. The retail price said sixteen dollars (I think that’s an exaggeration of the actual price), but I paid three. There are six boxes, about two-by-two each, of what look like flattened chocolate chips, each box marked with a percentage. Hence, the “numbers” in the name.
31% White Chocolate
I, of course, have little respect for white chocolate: it’s too sweet and weird. But I actually really like this one. It’s cool and soft without being overly sweet and creamy.
33% Milk Chocolate
This has a fairly strong vanilla flavor, which is always enough to make me enjoy milk chocolate, especially considering how wonderfully creamy it is.
55% Dark Chocolate
“Cacao nibs” is listed in the ingredients instead of beans, which I haven’t seen before. It has a pleasant cinnamon flavor accompanying its noticeably darker self.
58% Dark
This also has nibs, but the cinnamon taste is much fainter. It’s more dusky with a little vanilla.
61% Dark
Back to cacao beans and a darker, yet almost sweeter, taste.
72% Dark
A regular, nothing very special darkness. The box calls it “intense,” but I really see nothing intense about it. It’s my least favorite of the bunch.
Now, for three dollars, I think this is a remarkable find. I love the 31% and 55%, and I think that the boxes are very cute. But full price seems way too much. I wouldn’t be willing on paying more than eight dollars, and even that’s pushing it. So, if you ever see these on sale, pick them up: they’re fun. But be wary if they’re full price. In that case, I’d recommend buying the individual boxes instead of a set so you can leave out at least the two darker ones.
My local chocolate contact, Monique Bowley sent me a recent press release from Bracegirdles which proudly informed us that they had taken out three gold medal for chocolate at the Royal Adelaide Show this year.
Normally South Australian monolith Haigh’s or Swiss Glory get, well, all the glory in our local chocolate world, so for a relative newcomer to come in and get noticed it is very big news. I’d driven past their cafes a few times and thought it was just a coffee and hot chocolate place but when I then found out about their dark double chilli chocolate, shiraz and champagne truffles gaining such accolades it was high time for a visit.
Bracegirdle is actually the surname of Sue and Gary. No, they don’t resemble hobbits, but I didn’t check Gary’s feet too closely – mostly because he was too busy to stand still. He and wife Sue set up the business because of their passion for great chocolate, top notch coffee and to create the ideal atmosphere in order to enjoy the experience. “We want people to feel as though they’re guests in our own house,” which is why the main dining area has a fireplace, comfy chairs and a heritage home feel about it. This passion for their business also extends to each other – they wanted to work together but ironically they are now each managing a shop on opposite sides of the city and busy establishing another one in Beresford’s winery at McLaren Vale.
I was not only distracted by their Belgian selection on the shelves which form the basis of all their handmade chocolates, but also the chocolates themselves protected from my drool by a solid glass counter:
Interesting, as I watched – and was entertained by – the cheery customers entering the store like ‘Cheers’ sitcom characters, “The usual please Gary”, that at least half of their trade is coffee. Gary explained that they had worked hard to source the best coffee and their in-house Barista has been the state coffee making champion. Their hot chocolates are the other beverage that customers such as the artist planning her exhibition, a couple of burly tradesmen, two ladies catching up on gossip, a 90 year old electrical shop proprietor, a father and grown son picking up the sugar packets they’d accidentally knocked to the ground and what the grandmother, mother and two children were ordering. In his rare moment to draw breath, I remarked to Gary just how happy everyone was in his store and he noted, “Yeah, my mate’s a mechanic and everyone he sees is annoyed, inconvenienced and very unhappy when they see the bill at the end. He wants customers like ours.”
Gary made me a version of both beverages – the Bracegirdles Mocha – top notch espresso coffee with a generous layer of Belgian milk chocolate pieces slowly melting at the bottom. It was my choice whether to scoop up the liquid heaven lurking at the bottom or stir it into the coffee to add to the flavour. Either way it was delicious and made it hard to concentrate on what Gary was saying….. I should have written more careful notes about the flavours, the specific awards, the effort Sue had put into finding the best products and taken a photo of the mug-o-heaven, but….. oh, the mocha….
What was also impressive about Bracegirdles is that they stock the usual gourmet favourites – truffles, bars, chunks and filled cups, but also had some rather cute shapes and flavours such as the koalas, snails and penguins. I bought one of each to give to Sapphire when she returns from her school camp. The koala is milk chocolate with a honey and orange ganache; the penguin has a white mango ganache centre and the snail is a more adult coffee ganache. Yes, I’m going to insist that she share them with me (later: she did and they were both amazing and just as suited for sophisticated choco-palates as well as childish ones).
But let’s be honest, I’m a chocablogger, and a visit to Bracegirdles was most definitely NOT the time to be a martyr mother and do without any chocolate myself. After a long look and a chat with Gary, the selection I waddled out with included their award winning ‘gem’ range of filled truffle centres, the gold-medal shiraz truffle, white chocolate strawberry, peanut butter square, double chilli dark, orange dark, coffee pyramid, coconut centre, champagne truffle, cocoa dusted dark…
They are all as beautiful to eat, smell and taste as they are to look at and clearly reveal the Bracegirdles’ passion for presentation and excellence. All of them have that delicious, instant melt-in-the-mouth quality and I was particularly impressed with the white chocolate truffle with the lightest, buttery strawberry ganache inside – absolutely lovely. Other highlights were the strong-but-distinguished shiraz filling inside the dark truffle; the peanut butter square that was the perfect blend of milk chocolate and caramelized peanut butter and the champagne truffle. These are the kinds of delectables that I would dearly love to be able to carefully photograph, intently savour and nibble slowly in order to extend their lifespan, but I just can’t. They’re too good and too irresistible.
No wonder he’s smiling: hasn’t life changed from being a high school physical education teacher to serving coffee and chocolate to adoring fans?
I always get excited when small chocolatiers contact us to tell us about what they’re doing. Last week, Kathleen Crymble from Crymble’s Confectionery did just that. She’d seen the discussion about the late, great Fry’s Five Centres on our Fry’s Chocolate Cream review and wanted to talk about her own fruity fondant creams. I suggested she send samples…
What’s great about Kathleen is that she makes her chocolates fresh and to order, selling them both online and at a local farmers market.
The first thing you notice about these chocolates is the rich, dark belgian chocolate. It’s smooth and glossy and has a wonderful aroma. The second thing you notice is that all the fondant fillings look the same, no matter what the flavour. That’s presumably because no artificial colours, flavours or additives are used in any of Crymble’s chocolates.
While I’m all for natural ingredients, I think I’d have liked to have seen some subtle colouring to differentiate the flavours. I also found them to be a little too firm for my liking. The taste was spot on, but the texture was just a little too solid. If they could be made a little fluffier, or even more liquid, then they would be perfect.
The dark chocolate itself was delicious and tasted every bit as good as it looked. The wonderful flavour complemented the sweetness of the fillings perfectly.
So while these aren’t really anything like the old Fry’s Five Centre bar, they are definitely worth trying… and the rest of Crymble’s range of chocolates look quite tempting too.
