Update: This competition is now closed.
We’re still getting used to the fact it’s 2013, and what better way to start the new year than with new chocolate!
We’ve teamed up with range cooker provider Leisure to bring you the chance to win a prize that will wipe away the January blues.
This amazing chocolate stash, worth over £100 could be yours to share or keep to yourself. We recommend sharing though, as there’s an awful lot of chocolate here! Featuring some of our favourite chocolates, it’s one of the biggest prizes we’ve ever given away on Chocablog – so big, we couldn’t fit it all in the picture above.
All you need to do to be in with a chance of winning this fantastic prize is answer the simple question below.
In what year did Leisure produce their first range cooker? Was it..
(Hint: You’ll find the answer on the Leisure web site)
Update: This competition is now closed.
Competition Rules
- One entry per person household.
- The winner will be picked at random from correct entries and notified by email. The name of the winner will also be announced on our Facebook and Twitter pages.
- Chocablog staff writers and employees of Leisure may not enter.
- This prize can only be sent to a mainland UK address.
- The competition closes on Friday 1st February 2013.
- The judges’ decision is final.
- Rules are subject to change without notice (if we’ve forgotten something because we’re a bit slow).
From what I can ascertain, this is the Chocolate Bar Formerly Known As Moho River. Those fine fellows at The Chocolate Society threatened me with samples of ‘some new Mast Brothers Bars’ at the end of last summer, but I’m guessing the rebranding coupled with the general chaos of Christmas meant that I didn’t see this until Christmas!
So, what do we know about the Belize bar? The country borders Guatemala and the organic beans are grown in a lush tropical area that was home to the Mayans by a cooperative, possibly the Toledo Cacao Growers Association who produce the cacao that goes into Green & Blacks’ Maya Gold bars. It’s a typical Mast Brothers Bar, with just two ingredients – the cacao and some cane sugar – which allows the full flavours of the cacao to come out. It’s all about the beans, and the tasting notes on the packaging tell me I’m in for ‘raisin, plum and sarsaparilla’.
First impressions were of deep, earthy cacao with red fruits and a lot of woody undertones. It’s certainly a bittersweet chocolate, but not in the 55% cacao European way! There’s a slight bitterness and good acidity, and as the chocolate melts these fruity notes give way to more earthy flavours, with the bittersweet element persisting throughout. The chocolate itself has a slightly grainy texture on the tongue, but this isn’t carried through when it melts.
Overall, it’s a big bundle of quite robust flavours, with the promised raisin being the most obvious. Other flavours I caught were cherry & wood but there wasn’t much in this bar that said ‘sarsaparilla’ to me. It doesn’t really offer much complexity but if you’re partial to bold, upfront bittersweet chocolate ten this is definitely worth tracking down.
As you probably already know, Damian Allsop is famous for his water ganaches. Most filled chocolates are made with an emulsion of chocolate and cream (the ganache), but Damian uses a special technique and a healthy dose of magic to create ganaches using water instead. This isn’t as easy as it may at first sound, as anyone who has tried mixing chocolate with water will tell you.
The result is a ganache that retains all the flavour of the chocolate, but without the dairy. Of course, there’s nothing wrong with cream ganaches, but adding dairy to a chocolate completely changes the flavour. With a water ganache, you get much more of the natural flavour notes from the chocolate. In fact, a water ganache can even intensify the flavour as the ganache melts more quickly and covers the tongue more quickly.
Another benefit of water ganaches is that they have a longer shelf life than conventional fresh chocolates. A preservative-free chocolate with fresh cream tends to have a shelf life of a couple of weeks at the most. But I’ve had these water ganaches since attending the launch of Damian’s pop-up shop at The Corinthian late last year, and they’re still absolutely fine.
I’m sure you’ve already worked out that these chocolates are made with 67% dark chocolate made with beans from the Dominican Republic. The packaging is even helpful enough to tell us that the chocolate in question is Michel Cluizel Los Anconès. In a world where tracing where your chocolate has come from is increasingly complex, I really appreciate having that information on display prominently. And I already know it’s a great chocolate, so I can concentrate on the skill of the chocolatier, rather than trying to figure out what I’m tasting.
What’s even better is that this particular box contains four mini ‘bars’ of solid Los Anconès along with the four water ganaches. That means you can try both together and really get to grips with how the water ganache changes the flavour and texture of the chocolate. I can’t think of a better way of presenting a fine chocolate like this.
I decided to try one of these little bars first. It’s rather delicious, naturally sweet with hints of red fruits. Very easy to eat and very well balanced.
Moving on to the ganaches themselves. The first thing to note is just how elegant they look. Beautiful, dark cubes with shiny sides and a dimpled top. Bite into it and let it melt for a couple of seconds and the flavour simply floods your mouth. It definitely has the same notes as the solid chocolate bar, but those flavours are enhanced massively. What comes to the front most noticeably are the red fruits. In fact, it’s so fruity that you’ll probably want to check the ingredients to see what has been added. For the record, the ganache contains chocolate, spring water, glucose, sunflower oil and sea salt).
It’s difficult to say how much the sea salt has lifted the natural chocolate flavour and how much is down to the water. But that balance is down to the skill of the chocolatier and it’s something that’s been done perfectly here.
The texture of the ganache is ultra smooth and the ganache melts quickly and evenly. I suspect the addition of sunflower oil has something to do with this, but the texture is never oily, so I assume only a tiny amount is used.
As you may have guessed, I’ve fallen in love with these particular chocolates. If you’ve never tried Damian Allsop’s chocolates, you really must give them a go. You can buy them online from his website, and they really are worth spending your money on. I don’t think this particular box is available to buy, but his ‘Pure’ collection features this and other single origin chocolates (including many personal favourites). I can’t wait to try them.
Do yourself a favour and treat yourself to a box now.
It might be a bit of an understatement to say that I’m a fan of Soma Chocolatemaker but since I haven’t set foot in Toronto in the past 12 months, I’ve been reduced to slowly whittling away the stash I had built up. And just when I was getting to the bottom of the my chocolate cooler, a friend sent me a bar from her bi-monthly pilgrimage to Soma.
So what’s new with Soma? Well, they’ve made a mint bar and they called it Mint Bar too which makes perfect sense because it is a no nonsense bar of chocolate. They’ve used milk chocolate which was a bit of a surprise, but they’ve gone for a generous 45% which gives it a lovely richness but it is still nice and creamy too. It also leaves lots of room for mint too, but Soma have showed some real restraint and added just enough to get their point across.
It’s a very subtle minty blend that doesn’t overwhelm the chocolate and that makes for an easy eating bar which doesn’t stick around for long. Even those not inclined towards mint and chocolate are likely to be surprised by how well balanced a mix this is.
Soma Mint Bar might be a lesser bar in the Soma canon in that it doesn’t offer the complex flavours of their glorious Chuao chocolate, but it demonstrates just how deftly they can handle everyday flavours too. A very tasty bar of mint chocolate, just like they promised on the wrapper.
