I must admit that I have had this pair of chocolates waiting for quite a long time. But I have heard their tears of neglect and responded that it’s better late than never.
Originally, I think I picked them up because I had never heard of Bissinger’s Chocolate and because there are no excess ingredients in the chocolate. But I let them sit alone so long because there was no promise of a bright, original spark from the basic, white card boxes. And I don’t particularly like calorie-counting foods, either, so the promise of only 100 calories per bar disinterests me.
Since this was a new company, I wanted to try both the milk (38% cocoa solids) and dark (75%) bars. Their cocoa contents sit in place of logos on the rectangles of chocolate; since the numbers are wrapped in circles, the whole effect looks like something related to a railroad (and I don’t mean this in a necessarily bad way). Let’s just ignore the great amount of bloom on the dark chocolate, shall we?
The milk chocolate has plot lines of confectionary chocolate, but tastes more solid, possibly because its cacao percentage is a little higher. It doesn’t fall flat, but doesn’t have abundant flavor notes, either, just the standard caramel notes. It’s alright. As I began to anticipate, the dark chocolate is of what I call the Nesquick, brownie, thick-dark variety where the bitter and sweet have been meshed into one element that ends up being neither. Yet it isn’t as sweet as similar varieties tend to be. It’s also alright. Fortunately, I can’t sense anything wrong about the texture; without looking at the chocolate, I don’t think I would know it was as old as it is.
The confectionary theme I mentioned is present because confections are in fact what Bissinger’s focus on; they sell chocolate-covered fruits, truffles, and the like. Most of the Saint Louis-based company’s recipes are from a family cookbook dated 1899, and the family’s confectionary roots go back to France some years before that.
So I suppose, despite my own disinterest in calorie-counting chocolate, an 18 gram Bissinger’s bar wouldn’t be the worst choice if you’re craving chocolate but don’t want to over indulge. This is simple chocolate that some might pass over quickly, but others will return to.
A couple of years ago I met Cleo Rocos at a ‘Chocolate & Tequila’ evening that was part of the Chocolate Week celebrations. Cleo is, of course, known for being Kenny Everett’s sidekick and a mainstay of 80s TV, but she also happens to know more about the subject of tequila than just about anyone else you could hope to meet. In fact, she’s president of The Tequila Society.
In her quest for the perfect tequila, Cleo recently started producing her own range of tequilas. AquaRiva Tequila is already making quite a name for itself, so it’s really no surprise to see her team up with one of our favourite chocolatiers, Paul A Young, to produce a tequila chocolate.
The chocolate is made with AquaRiva’s Reposdao tequila and kalamansi, and sweetened only with organic agave syrup. In fact, it’s you could say this is a cocktail in chocolate form. The chocolate in question is a 64% Madagascan, but Paul tells me that this will switch to a Pacari raw Ecuadorian chocolate very soon.
It’s a simple and elegant chocolate, but one that has a little bit of bite hiding under the surface. For a tequila chocolate, it’s surprisingly smooth, but there’s a definite alcoholic kick to it which is only enhanced by the kalamansi. It’s sharp, citrussy and very slightly bitter, but not unpleasantly so.
I bought a few of these chocolates to share amongst some friends at dinner and the reaction was pretty much the same from everyone. A reaction that can probably best be summed up as “Mmmm…. oooh. Oh!”
The texture of the filling is soft and smooth without being liquid. The flavour is smooth, but intensely citrussy. There’s definite kick to it, but it’s something that builds slowly rather than slaps you in the face. The flavour of the chocolate is somewhat lost amongst the other flavours, but you do pick it up at the end as the soft filling melts quickly.
The Madagascan chocolate is a touch too sweet for the other flavours, but I’m sure the switch to the raw Pacari chocolate will help make this a more rounded experience. It’s a chocolate known for its green, grassy flavour notes and something that I think will work really well with the natural botanical notes in the tequila.
This is the kind of chocolate where you probably won’t need more than one in a single sitting. But it’s also something that needs to be tried, and Paul has plenty of other chocolates to fill your box with…
Paul A Young does not have an online store, but if you call the shop, they will usually be happy to post an order for you.
Those of you who follow Chocablog on Twitter and Facebook will know that recently we spent a day as guests of Pierre Marcolini at his factory in Brussels.
One of the things we saw being made was these vanilla and dark chocolate marshmallows. We had the chance to try these straight off the production line, and were lucky enough to receive this box in a little bag of goodies we were given as we left.
As chocolate makers go, Pierre Marcolini is a bit special. Nearly all chocolatiers buy in their chocolate chocolate from large, multi-national corporations. Those who actually chocolate from the bean, don’t generally make filled chocolates from it themselves. Pierre Marcolini does all of this from a compact factory on the outskirts of Brussels. They source the beans from around the world, roast, grind, conch and refine the chocolate before making it into truffles, pralines, bars and other novelties.
We’ll have a full report and video from our visit to Pierre Marcolini over on our sister site World Chocolate Guide soon as well as more reviews here, but let’s start with these fluffy cubes of goodness.
These marshmallows are made in giant, pillow-like slabs which are then cut into squares roughly an inch across with bladed rollers. They then pass through a curtain of dark chocolate which enrobes them in a thin layer, before cooling and being enrobed again to double the thickness of the chocolate.
As chocolate coatings go though, it’s still quite thin. It takes no effort at all to bite through the chocolate, revealing the fluffy center within.
Texture-wise, the marshmallow is closer to a Tunnocks Tea Cake than those bags of cheap, pink marshmallows you find in the supermarket. It’s light and fluffy, with a delicate flavour. It’s not too sweet and it’s so light that it quickly melts away, leaving only the rich dark chocolate.
The chocolate itself is only 59% cocoa solids, but works well with something as sweet as marshmallow. I know a lot of people dislike them intensely, but I happen to enjoy them as an occasional treat. Overall, it’s what I would class as high-end confectionery rather than serious chocolate, but it’s one of those things that’s very difficult to stop eating once you start.
Pierre Marcolini does have an online shop that delivers to the UK, but these currently aren’t listed. They are currently working to add more products to the store, but if you’re particularly interested in the marshmallows, just drop them an email and tell them Chocablog sent you.
I was strolling through my local Foodland store a few days ago looking for Smoked Salmon (as you do), when I stumbled across a few different kinds of Vivani chocolate (as you do, too).
I don’t normally associate Germany with being a big chocolate-making country – that’s for the Swiss, Belgians, etc, so I thought this would be something interesting to try. Translated, it just means Whole Milk Hazelnut. Instead of the usual nice picture on the outside telling lies, this has a cutout in the packaging so that you can actually see that, yes, it really does actually have nuts in. And you can see the colour of the chocolate. Nice touch.
For those into Organic food – this should tick all the boxes – all of the ingredients are certified organic. This does push the price up a bit though, at around $5 for 100 grams, this is not a cheap treat. Nevertheless, I took this one along to a quiz night. The chocolate was deemed very pleasant, and VERY nutty. This was however, by the time we’d supped on cheese and consumed rather a lot of red wine. The gathered opinions of the tasting panel might therefore be considered a little suspect. Out of fairness, I tried the little that was left, properly, a few days later when sobriety was regained.
The original opinions were pretty much bang on the money: the chocolate is quite soft, and represents a very rich, quite sweet, creamy well-made milk chocolate. The nuts are crunchy, and there are a lot of them. Unlike some hazelnuts, these actually have a decent hazelnut flavour as well. I’m a dark-side dweller, not much favouring a milk-chocolate, but I have to confess that this one is rather more-ish. And being one of those European exports with German, English, French and Italian on the back, you can probably find this through about half the world from the more specialised organic food suppliers.
