There’s nothing new about bringing together alcohol and chocolate, but Twice The Vice have taken a slightly different approach. They’ve tried to put as much alcohol as possible into each and every chocolate, but not resort to the usual method of simply filling a chocolate shell with liquor.
Instead, they use a smooth ganache as the vehicle to carry the alcohol and are trying to make a higher class of liquors, although there is definitely a tongue in cheek element to how they achieve that.
These are not subtle chocolates, and that is reflected in the tagline on the insert – Enjoy Irresponsibly – and also in the warning on the back of the box which states that pregnant women should not consume them and not to operate any heavy machinery whilst under their influence. Yikes.
They manage to squeeze about 1/10th of a shot into each of the generously sized chocolates, making them ridiculously boozy – even with the box shut, the alcohol vapours can be clearly smelled. And the first bite has the potential to take your breath away because this is more alcohol than anybody would ever expect in a chocolate.
The chocolates look elegant, thanks to a simplistic design with just enough information on them to make it easy to identify which is which. When it comes down to it, these chocolates are all about the alcohol simply because that is the dominant flavour. It almost doesn’t matter that there has been some effort to use good quality chocolate because of all that alcohol, but it still has impact on the texture, especially of the ganache – which is great – and the lingering taste at the end. So it does what it needs to and a touch more.
There are a few different options when it comes to the types of drinks, including tequila, whiksy and a bunch of mixed drinks like White Russians and Margaritas. The four varieties in The Gentlemen’s Club Collection which found its way into my hands are:
Single Malt Scotch
My absolute favourite of the quartet, thanks to the presence of some 18 year old Glenlivet. A big, bold punch of whisky with plenty of sweetness and hints of toffee which is well matched by the chocolate lurking in the background. Delicious.
Single Barrel Bourbon
This one benefits from the choice of another really, really unsubtle huge flavour. This time, it is a 10 year old bourbon (Eagle Rare, if that means anything to you…) which comes barrelling out of the gate, all woody and smoky. Not bad at all.
Martini
Compared to the first two, this is a whole lot meeker and not in a good way. There’s no doubt that this is a martini, but it suffers by comparison and so was at the bottom of the quartet in my view.
Manhattan
This is the better of the two cocktails, thanks to the hints of cherry and bitters which linger at the end. All in all, a more well rounded chocolate but not a patch on the whisky and bourbon.
So Twice The Vice have succeeded in doing what they were trying to do – classing up liqueur chocolates. Definitely a niche product, but a well done niche product. And it might just be the liquor talking now that I’ve worked my way through most of the box, but I enjoyed these more than I anticipating – now I’m going to go and lie down for a while…
It’s time to explore some more wacky chocolate from the mind of Josef Zotter, the mad scientist of Austrian chocolate.
Zotter Monte Limar is a little more restrained than usual though. There’s no Advocaat, polenta or bacon here. What we have here is a relatively restrained nougat bar.
I say ‘relatively restrained’, because life is never simple with Zotter. Take the chocolate. It’s a 60% cocoa solids organic, Fair Trade, bean-to-bar milk chocolate. That’s richer than many dark chocolates, and it tastes better than most too.
Inside, the bar isn’t just nougat either. There’s actually two layers. As far as I can make out, one is almond nougat and the other is hazelnut nougat. Both are soft, creamy and delicious. And then there’s the pistachios. Just look at the pistachios!
I’m a bit of a sucker for pistachios and love them almost as much as I love nougat, so you probably won’t be surprised to learn that this 70g bar disappeared very, very quickly. As I write this review, I have one tiny bite-sized piece left. A memory of what used to be.
As is often the case with these ‘hand scooped’ Zotter bars, my only real complaint is that the chocolate is so thin. Its primary purpose is to hold the filling in place and it doesn’t have a great impact on the overall experience. I love that Zotter bring quality ingredients to what is really a confectionery product.
Zotter are still relatively difficult to get hold of in the UK, and a quick search of the usual online stockists like Chocolatiers doesn’t bring up this new bar yet, but you can find it on the Austrian website, and I’m sure it will be more widely available soon.
I love chocolate collaborations. When chocolate makers get their flavours from other artisan suppliers and actually name them on the product. The Askinosie “CollaBARation” bars spring to mind and here in the UK, Paul A Young does it with his creations all the time.
I don’t know how closely San Francisco’s Blue Bottle Coffee were in the creation of this particular bar, but I do like the fact that they are named. This is TCHO’s first flavoured chocolate bar, and the coffe & chocolate combination is notoriously difficult to get right, so I’m sure there was some input. But intriguingly, TCHO also have what they call a “Beta Test” program, where public “testers” give feedback on recipes like this one as they’re being developed. So the creation of this particular bar has truly been a collaboration.
Judging by the International Chocolate Award sticker on the front, they must be doing something right – although closer examination does reveal it’s a silver award rather than gold, and for the “Americas” region rather than truly international. But it’s still a good sign.
The chocolate is a blend of TCHO’s “Seriousmilk” milk chocolate and 99% dark chocolate. It’s 45% cocoa solids (although I can’t see that fact on the packaging), so while it’s a high range in terms of cacao content, it’s not actually that serious. It has a pleasantly dark appearance and a good snap to it. But the really important thing is how it tastes, of course.
Coffee is clearly the predominant flavour here. But it’s not overwhelming like it so often is in coffee flavoured chocolate. In fact, after a few seconds, the chocolate flavours make themselves known, first with creamy, malty, then sweet caramel notes. The coffee is still there all the time, but the chocolate flavours grow as it melts.
Another interesting aspect of this particular bar is the texture. It’s incredibly smooth for a coffee flavoured bar. I’m so used to chocolate with a pronounced texture of ground coffee that this took me by surprise somewhat. From the texture alone, you would think this was a pure milk chocolate.
I’m not much of a coffee drinker myself, but I do like this bar a lot.
I’m still in two minds about whether I would buy it over the unflavoured SeriousMilk chocolate though. But that’s purely a matter of personal taste, and if you enjoy your coffee, this is a bar you’ll probably want to seek out.
It was way back in October 2010 that I last reviewed a bar in this range from Melt.
Melt Chocolates is one of my favourite London chocolate shops, but being tucked away in Notting Hill, it’s a little out of the way. When I do visit, I’m so engrossed in exploring the beautiful range of fresh chocolates that I often overlook these 90g bars, so these this bar is part of a box of samples the Melt team sent me over Easter.
One of the things I like best about Melt is that they’re slightly disconnected from the main ‘chocolate scene’ in London. While they can be quite experimental with their flavours, they’re not as influenced by fashion as the big names, and just quietly get on with life, making what their customers want.
Simply wrapped in paper inside a tasteful card sleeve, the bar has a luxurious, handmade feel to it. Open it up and you’re presented with what looks like a giant lego brick.
This is a healthy 38% milk chocolate, which has a great balance of cocoa notes and sweetness. There’s a subtle nuttiness to it, but the overwhelming flavour is sweet, buttery popcorn. Given how finely the popcorn has been chopped, I was a little surprised just how intense the flavour is. I wouldn’t have considered popcorn to be a strong flavour, but the small amount in this bar is plenty.
I have to confess though, that I’m not much of a popcorn fan. I don’t have anything particular against it, I simply prefer the flavour of unadulterated chocolate. So while I can happily munch on this is a snack, I don’t think I could justify spending a hefty £7.20 on a bar.
With a handmade bar like this, you’re paying as much for the labour and skill of the chocolatier as you are for the ingredients, so that price isn’t completely astronomical. But you’d have to be seriously into popcorn to want to buy it. I would recommend spending your money on some of Melt’s delicious fresh chocolate range instead.
