Metrodeco Graham Greene & Chocolate Tea

This is a bit of an unusual one; a Chinese Yunnan green tea from Brighton-based Metrodeco. It’s made with echinacea and cocoa shells, which are meant to give the blend it’s “chocolatey difference”.
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Cocoa shells are a byproduct of the chocolate making process. When the cocoa beans have been dried and roasted – they have their thing, papery shells removed in the winnowing process. They’re sometimes used as a mulch, but as they retain some of the flavour of the cocoa bean, they can also be used to make a tasty infusion. It goes to show how versatile cacao is.

This is a loose tea, but Metrodeco were kind enough to supply some tea bags to make my infusion with. Some hot water and three minutes later and my tea was ready.

The most prominent flavour is the the green tea. I’m not a major fan of green tea, but I did enjoy it here. It’s refreshing, with a slightly flowery note. The cocoa flavour on the other hand is much more subtle – a lot more subtle than the Teapigs Chocolate Tea I reviewed a while back.

That said, this is a very pleasant tea, and one that I’ll certainly be enjoying again. Don’t expect a major chocolate hit from it, but if you like green tea and chocolate, it’s well worth trying.

Arabian Delights Chocodate With Almond

Now if there’s a fruit that is ‘typically Arabian’ it has to be the date. Arabs love dates. Fact.

Little surprise then that some bright spark decided to cover dates in chocolate. Sweet fruit and sweet chocolate – perfect. The cunning part was when the inventor of Chocodate decided to replace the date stone with a whole almond. Genius.

I picked these up en route home from Egypt. With hindsight I realise that those rucksack-sized bags were there for a reason. Chocodates are somewhat moreish.

Think about it, you begin with something wrapped in milk chocolate. Bite down through the shell and you encounter a whole date – soft, sweet, gooey fruitiness. Delicious. The coup de grace is the single crisp almond at the heat of each piece. It’s a great counterpoint to all that squidgy gooiness and finishes the whole experience off beautifully.

My only problem with chocodates is the obvious one. The chocolate is a bit poor. It’s a standard issue 30% cacao milk chocolate and it doesn’t really deliver much in the way of a taste experience. Each time I had a Chocodate I found myself thinking “These would be so much better if somebody decided to bring out a posh version with some proper chocolate” and that’s more or less the thrust of this review.

I can see why Chocodates are so popular, but I can also see how an upmarket version made with either a high cacao milk chocolate or a top notch mid-range dark chocolate would transform these into something quite spectacular – so when you’ve made your first batch, oh chocolatier, could I have a few to sample please?

Charbonnel Et Walker Valentines Chocolates

It’s fair to say that I’ve not loved everything I’ve reviewed from Charbonnel Et Walker in the past. They’re one of London’s oldest chocolate shops and have an old fashioned image to match. That’s great – there’s nothing wrong with a traditional approach – but sometimes I feel that image comes at the expense of quality.

I realise that’s unlikely to change. Charbonnel chocolates aren’t really designed for me – but I was still curious to see what they’d come up with for Valentines Day when they offered to send this 255g box.

The packaging is rather nice. The heart shaped box is both attractive and sturdy. It’s the kind of thing you might want to reuse for something. The list of ingredients on the back is lengthy, to say the least. But these aren’t fresh artisan chocolates, so you can expect some preservatives. Plus of course, the ingredients cover every chocolate in the box – and in this box, all the chocolates are different.

I won’t even be attempting to talk about each individual chocolate here, but rather give an overall impression of the collection.

There’s a good mix of 33.5% cocoa solids milk chocolate and 60% dark chocolate. They’re certainly designed for someone with a sweeter tooth than I, but the most noticeable thing about them is that they’re quite a bit larger than I was expecting.

There are plenty of fondant type fillings in the collection, some fudge and caramel variations, and a few with nuts. In terms of flavour, many of them reminded me of Quality Street, so if that’s your thing, you may well love them.

I have to say though that despite the nice presentation and decent sized box, these didn’t really do it for me. And with only a day to go until Valentine’s Days, I do think you’d be better off getting hold of some real, fresh artisan chocolates.

But if your Valentine is into the sweet stuff, these may suffice.

Rococo Chocolates Valentines Fresh Ganaches

I’ve not had anything from Rococo Chocolates for quite a while, so I was very excited to see this little box of Valentines ganaches show up at my door. These are also the first chocolates I’ve reviewed made by Rococo’s new head chocolatier Barry Johnson and his team too, so I was keen to see if they live up to the standard of previous head chocolatier Laurent.

The chocolates are:

Blackberry Ganache With Star Anise

A beautifully smooth dark chocolate blackberry ganache infused with star anise. I love the flavours in this chocolate, and the texture is spot on.

Pineapple & Ginger

This one is a little odd. You don’t often see pineapple flavour ganaches, and tasting this one, I can see why. It’s not unpleasant, just unusual, and not really my cup of tea. Perhaps this would be better with a milk or white chocolate ganache.

Lemon & Violet

A milk chocolate heart with a lemon and white chocolate ganache, decorated with crystalised violet. This is an incredibly zingy, citrus ganache that tastes like lemon card. The sweetness of the milk chocolate is a nice counterpoint to the lemon, but the violet is a little lost in the mix.

Passion Fruit & Rosemary Caramel

The other milk chocolate heart in the box is equally zingy. The passion fruit caramel has a wonderful flavour, but I was unprepared for quite how liquid it would be – and consequently lost half of the contents down the front of my jumper. What I did manage to get in my mouth was delicious, and the delicate rosemary flavour came through at the end very nicely.

Overall then, a rather delicious selection of fresh chocolates – with the possible exception of the pineapple, which I’m not quite sure about. I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend them if your budget can stretch to it, however it does have to be said that at £9.50 plus postage for 4 chocolates, they’re a little on the expensive side. I’m used to paying £2 a for a single artisan fresh chocolate, but £2.37 per chocolate is pushing it a bit.

You can buy them online, but if you’re in London or Chester, I highly recommend a visit to one of Rococo’s four shops to buy them in person, as that’s an experience that is worth paying a little extra for.