Xeni Jardin of BoingBoing TV got in touch to tell us about the latest episode of their wonderful show, featuring a tour of the TCHO chocolate factory in San Francisco.
The video explains the first part of the chocolate making process in some detail, so if you have any interest at all in what what you’re stuffing into your mouth, it’s well worth a watch!
This is just Part 1, so if you want to watch the rest, I really recommend subscribing to BoingBoingTV.
Here’s something a little different from the Cocoa Bean sisters – a selection of chocolate discs in a variety of flavours, hand finished and packaged in a funky little cylinder.
The hand finished element comes in the wrapping. Each of the seven discs comes enfolded in a piece of brightly coloured tissue paper, and I have to say I really liked this approach. It’s the same wrapping used on the chocolate squares I reviewed a while back, but without the stickers telling you which one is which, and it makes opening each disc like receiving a small gift. It’s a novel approach to packaging, and to my mind it works very well. You can see the product before you buy it, and it doesn’t take too long to get into them!
As I mentioned, there are seven discs in the box – three milk chocolate, three dark chocolate and one white chocolate. Four of these discs are flavoured the same way as four of the five bars I have already reviewed – milk chocolate with honey and rose and pistachio, and dark chocolate with gin & tonic and sea salt. Which leaves me with the white chocolate and raspberry, the dark chocolate with lemon, and a milk chocolate disc flavoured with vanilla.
The raspberry disc (as you can see) comes sprinkled with fragments of freeze dried raspberry. Obviously there isn’t a huge amount of cocoa flavour there, so the additional fruity element was very welcome to this palate.
The dark chocolate with lemon oil was very pleasant indeed. After trying it on it’s own I had a few pieces on top of a lemon tart, and it went very well. Good rich cocoa flavours with a lively citrus note which came through at the finish.
The vanilla disc was similarly flavoursome, producing a good, well rounded flavour which complimented the smooth creamy milk chocolate very well.
The packaging and overall look and feel of these discs put me in mind of summer weddings or garden parties. They’re bright, cheerful looking things which would work extremely well as table ‘extras’ or favours. Alternatively, they would just add a splash of colour to an outdoor lunch or picnic, and the handy little box makes transporting them very easy indeed.
I liked the look of these almost as much as I enjoyed eating them. Another fun, bold approach to product design which makes Cocoa Bean’s merchandise stand out from the crowd – and that can only be a good thing. Well worth checking out as a gift or for personal indulgence.
Last time I reviewed a Kshocolât product, I wasn’t particularly complimentary. The pretentious name and the address on the packaging “Suite 64 Glasgow G51 3TR” were my first warning signals, and the chocolate itself was extremely bland.
This time, I received two bars as a gift from my friend Paola. And while I probably wouldn’t have chosen to buy Kshocolât again, I rarely turn chocolate down when it’s free.
The first thing I noticed about this bar is that the address on the packaging has changed. No longer are Kshocolât stuck in Suite 64 – they’re now at “113 West Regent Street”. I’ve no idea if that’s a step up or down, but it certainly sounds better.
As you can see, the product itself looks quite appealing. 8 large squares of white chocolate, with plenty of flecks of ground pepper. It looks good and has a pleasant, subtle lemon aroma.
And that lemon is the first flavour to come through when you bite into a chunk, too. It tastes natural and fresh, without being overpowering.
Once it starts to melt, the creamy white chocolate flavour comes through. As with most white chocolates, there isn’t much actual chocolateyness here, but again, it’s quite a pleasant taste, and importantly, it’s not too sweet.
Only when the white chocolate has all but disappeared do you get the kick of the pepper. Again, it’s quite subtle, but strong enough to let you know it’s there.
Kshocolât seem to have put a lot more thought into this than the rather haphazard orange slices I reviewed back in October. If I was ever in the mood for white chocolate (which admittedly isn’t that often), I would certainly choose this over something like Cadbury Dream or Milky Bar. It’s simple, subtle and quite refreshing.
Here is my second Kakawa purchase, also from a French company. It has a nice, simple design, but one slight detail was a little worrisome. It’s tilted upward to the right as if it wasn’t packaged with much care. Not very good show.
However, the bar itself has an elegant design of similar style: twenty-four plain, small squares and a larger piece with the Pralus signature thickly and smoothly engraved in it.
The slight bloom is purely my fault: it gets hard to protect chocolate in a seven hour drive through hundred degree weather. But it survived fairly well.
When you break off a piece, it has a soft, slight crumble, which you also get when you chew it. But I prefer to let it slowly disssolve, releasing the full range of flavors. It starts off creamy, with a vanilla taste coming quickly in. Then it becomes more grainy, with a caramel taste. In fact, even the texture reminds me of caramel. Very interesting.
I fell in love with the Michel Cluizel bar, but I enjoyed this one just as much. It’s much sweeter, but it just goes to show how nice a milk chocolate can be when properly done. At twelve dollars for 100 grams, it’s also the most expensive bar I’ve had so far, however, it seems to go for a little less online. For whichever price, it’s highly enjoyable. But just wait until I review Pralus’s 100% bar next.