The first thing that didn’t seem right about this set was that, although it has three chocolates from different origins, they’re all different percentages cacao. Wouldn’t it make more sense to have them all the same so that you can taste the slight differences the beans cause?
The second thing was that the first ingredient is sugar.
The 37% from Java didn’t encourage me much. It has a pleasant vanilla taste, but is such a sweet and sticky mess. The 50% Arriba was more promising. It definately has a middle-tone darkness, then gets, just as the bag describes, a “floral” taste. That was a little shocking at first, but soon became gentle and nice.
The thrid chocolate, a 70% from Sao Tome, started off bitter before slowing down with a light, far off sweetness to keep it tame. I enjoyed it, although it was a bit plasticy.
I’m impressed. These chocolates actually had some flavor besides sugar. And good flavors, at that. Still not my favorite, but if you find yourself in front of a selection of Hershey’s, these might be one of the better choices.
I love specialty shops. You know the kind of place. Small, independent places that you find tucked away down some back street. Usually run by a slightly mad middle-aged woman who has turned her life-long passion for crocheted bunny rabbits into a “business”. Of course, I’d never actually buy anything from one of these places, but it’s good to know they exist so that other slightly mad middle-aged women have somewhere to go to satisfy their own woolen leporine fetishes.
So imagine a specialty shop dedicated to chocolate. Sounds good, but not particularly specialist, right? Well imagine it was dedicated to one particular chocolate manufacturer? Still not specialist enough for you?
Well how about this; We Love Yorkies is a shop that only sells Yorkies. But that just wasn’t specialist enough for them, so they only sell Raisin & Biscuit Yorkies. Nothing else.
And the really shocking thing is, they sell them to girls. That’s just outrageous!
Luckily, they were kind enough to send us some samples of their range… er.. Raisin & Biscuit Yorkies, which somehow we have neglected to review thus far.
Now I’ve never been a particular fan of Yorkies. I think that’s partly down to the slightly bizarre marketing campaigns they’ve had…
So, not having had a Yorkie in many years, and never having had a Raisin & Biscuit variety, this was something of a novelty for me. And I’m slightly shocked to say I really enjoyed this. If Milky Way is the sweet you can eat between meals without ruining your appetite, then Yorkie Raisin & Biscuit is the meal itself.
The 61g bar contains five big chunks of above average milk chocolate, with just the right amount of small pieces of biscuit to give it a bit of crunch and just enough raisins to give it a slight chewy texture and a bit of a fruity tang. But make no mistake, this is still mainly thick milk chocolate.
It’s thick and tasty with a bit of crunchy chewiness thrown in for good measure.
Quite obviously, the chocolate isn’t on a par with the likes of Lindt or Hotel Chocolat, but it doesn’t need to be. You don’t eat Lindt because you’re hungry or need a quick chocolate fix, and you don’t eat Yorkie in order to indulge your senses.
I’m quite certain I’ll be looking out for one of these next time I’m out and in need of something filling. Definitely worth a try – even if you’re a girl…
(Oh, and if you can’t find them locally, do give We Love Yorkies a try. They seem nice. A bit mad, but nice.)
My links to what’s hip and groovy in the music world are hazy at best, but DMC Confectionery remind me of the rappers Run-DMC. Thankfully though, DMC Confectionery have a much larger range, more skilled and far better products.
The lovely Barbara gave me a range of their products to try, all of which are made in McLaren Vale, South Australia. Close cousin to the Barossa Valley in terms of fame for wines.
They use Belgian chocolate for their products but local ingredients for their fillings. Their flavoured jellies (also known as pectins, for purists who know about ‘real’ jellies and not the chemical-laden ones) are already famous in Australia and when combined with good quality chocolate they’re just begging to be eaten.
‘Mini pecs’ sounds like they’re a tiny box of muscles and, in a way, they are. These gorgeous half-orbs of milk chocolate-smothered Turkish Delight were utterly delicious. Nine year old Sapphire and I love Turkish Delight, but have struggled to find something that has good chocolate (Cadbury’s is OK) with a good filling (Cadbury’s is most definitely not OK), and with these, we have found it. The delicate rosey fragrance also contributes to the enjoyment of them and these smelled as delicious as they tasted. I’d love to know if they also do them in a dark chocolate style as well because, as with caramel, I think that dark chocolate would pair up magnificently well with rose fillings.
DMC Confectionery also make a white chocolate called ‘Passionfruit Charlottes’. They may look like a particularly attractive box of truffles but their inside are – as the name suggests – a passion fruit flavour but made as a jelly instead of the usual chocolate paste or cream filling. It may initially seem unusual until you taste it: having such a tangy and strong fruit flavour in a jelly seems to result in a much fresher taste than smothering it in cloying butter and cocoa.
Once again, as with the ‘Mini Pecs,’ Turkish Delights, the Charlottes smell so sweet and delicious the second the see-through cover is removed. Also, the white chocolate seems a more appropriate partner than milk or dark chocolate (I never thought I’d ever be writing such a sentence!) as it complements the fruit filling as fresh cream or ice-cream would.
At the moment, these delicacies are sold at selected wineries and gourmet chocolate stores and cafes but interest is increasing. If you’re nice, Barbara (barbara [at] dmcconfectionery.com.au) might tell you where you can find them. Trust me; they’re worth it.
After my recent spate of ‘oddball’ reviews I thought I’d pop in something a little more ‘normal’ – a Lindt bar I bought in Spain a little while ago.
Another member of the ‘Intense’ range, I hadn’t seen this in the UK at all, so it’s probably another one of those bars that are only available on the continent. The combination of pear and chocolate is also something of an oddity. I don’t believe it has cropped up on Chocablog at all in the past, other than in the Pear & Chocolate Jam I reviewed earlier in the year, and that was from Spain.
Like the rest of the range, it’s cocoa content is only 47% but the chocolate is pleasantly dark in colour. As you can see, it’s also shot through with flaked almonds, an addition which seemed a little superfluous until I got down to the business of tasting it.
Now, as collective Chocablogger experience has shown time and again, Lindt products consistently deliver and this is no exception. Intense is definitely a word I’d use to describe the aroma of the chocolate. It’s dark and deep, with a slight citrus overtone and tons of cocoa.
I was a little surprised by the lack of pear smells, and for a minute I wondered if this was going to be a bit of a wimpy bar when it came to the fruit element, but of course it’s Lindt, and of course it has pear flavour. Pop a square in your mouth and bite down and the moment it starts to break down your taste buds are flooded with an absolutely stunning combination of chocolate and pear. The chocolate is not perhaps as deep and dark as the aroma might suggest, but the two flavours are blended superbly well. The addition of flaked roasted almonds adds an unexpected crunchy counterpoint to the chocolate and pear, rounding off the whole taste experience rather well. It’s unusual, it’s delicious, and it ought to be available everywhere, not just on the continent!
I suppose the only way to conclude is to repeat the oft-heard Chocablog “Why oh why aren’t we allowed more of this yummy stuff in the UK” plea. Come on Lindt, we Brits love our chocolate too.
Send us your entire range of products and sweep away the bland and the boring for once and for all.
