This is a somewhat more upmarket selection of fruity truffles from my recent trip to Finland. The rather charming illustration on the box gives the buyer a fairly good idea of what’s inside – four types of fruit based truffles made using ingredients from the Kvarken Archipelago, a World Nature Heritage listed zone with the fastest rising new land mass in the world. According to the booklet included with the box, it’s the berries which grow in this region that give these truffles such exquisite flavours.
There are four different types of truffle in this selection – Sea Buckthorn, Blueberry, Cranberry and Crowberry, all of which are rich in Vitamins, amino acids, proteins & antioxidants. The booklet tells you a little about where the berries can be found and at what time of year, and explains which berries have what properties. Most of us know about Blueberry and Cranberry – indeed the Blueberry was quite recently being touted as another superfood – but the Sea Buckthorn and Crowberry are relatively new to me (although I do recall drinking some sort of Crowberry alcoholic drink once).
According to the booklet, the Sea Buckthorn was one of the first plants to establish itself on the archipelago, and the berries are used in alternative medicines due to their high antioxidant content and healing oil. In combination with the dark chocolate truffle the fruit is subtle yet clearly ‘there’ with light, clean overtones that sit nicely over the deeper chocolate flavours. There’s a distinct citrus tang to this truffle, with the fruitiness persisting to the very last notes of a long, clean finish.
After the bright. light flavours of Sea Buckthorn, the Blueberry chocolate is a somewhat more measured affair. The fruit blends very well with the chocolate and I found the combination of Blueberry & chocolate very enjoyable indeed. It’s not as vibrant as the previous truffle, but those fruit flavours still persist to the end.
Of the four, I expected the Cranberry to be the most tart of the four, and it’s fair to say that it is also the most subtly flavoured of the four. There’s a cittrus tang there but it sits lower that the previous two, allowing more of the chocolate flavour to come through. The finish is very much about both flavours, with more cacao notes coming through from this one.
The Crowberry truffle was almost like a brighter version of the Blueberry, perhaps not as pronounced as the Blueberry (they do have quite a powerful flavour after all) but with more citrussy highs and slightly more acidity but less punch than the Blueberry or Sea Buckthorn. It was quite a subtle mixture of flavours, with the real fruit flavour coming through really well as the chocolate faded away at the finish.
These chocolates are sold as a premium product at Helsinki airport as part of a ‘Tastes of Finland’ type shopping area. I am happy to report that they live up to my expectations, which may be a little unusual for ‘souvenir’ chocolate, but it’s pretty obvious that Hemgården have taken the time and trouble to get these truffles ‘just right’. I would have liked ore information about the type of chocolate and cacao percentages (none of which is on any packaging) because all I can do is hazard a guess that the chocolate is around 60-70% cacao. I liked the idea of using four berries from one region to create a box of uniquely Finnish truffles and I think it works well. If you ever happen to find yourself in Helsinki I’d recommend tracking these down – they’re much more fun than a giant Toblerone or a big box of M&Ms.
Update: Congratulations to competition winner Jen Price!
Last week I was invited along to a Lindt “masterclass” at The Dorchester hotel in London. Having loved Lindt’s previous event, a meal inspired by their Excellence range, I jumped at the chance, particularly as this event promised the opportunity to go hands on and make our own Lindt chocolate creations.
This was a PR event, designed to promote Lindt’s “Creation” range of filled bars which come in four new flavours – hazelnut, orange, caramel and vanilla almond. We were given the opportunity to come up with our own flavour combinations, from an assortment of ten different ingredients.
There were bowls filled with dry ingredients like orange, caramel pieces, almond, biscuit, nougat, cranberry and more. We could mix and match and use as many different flavours as we wanted, then choose a ganache base – either hazelnut or white chocolate.
Deciding which flavours to use was tough. Using dry ingredients and a ganache base means you’re much more limited than the actual Lindt Creation range, but it was still no easy task.
We had been given chocolate bar moulds, which had been pre-filled with milk chocolate, and I really wanted something to cut through the sweetness. The obvious choice was the cranberry pieces, so that’s where I started. But I couldn’t just have cranberry, so I added nougat and crunchy caramel pieces to give my bar a bit of texture.
The cranberry pieces were a bit big to be piped into the mould, so I put them in first while I mixed up the caramel & nougat with the ganache.
Then, with a little help from Stefan, the Lindt chocolatier, I poured the ganache into a piping bag and piped it on top. Everything was going great until the last couple of squares where I just added a little too much. Luckily, there was still room for a layer of chocolate on top to complete the bar, so I wasn’t too worried.
And that, unfortunately, was the end of our masterclass. We labelled up our creations, and the Lindt people took them away to set before adding the final layer of milk chocolate themselves. It was a little frustrating not to get the chance to actually work with the chocolate at this event, but still fun.
A couple of days later, a courier knocked on my door with a box containing my finished bar. I’m pretty happy with the way it came out. It’s quite sweet of course, but it looks great and it’s really rather tasty.
Overall, a fun event and a great way to promote the Lindt range. I would have loved for it to be a little more involved and to have had the chance to have worked with the chocolate more, so I’m really hoping there will be an opportunity to do that in the future.
Competition
Update: This competition is now closed.
In the mean time, if you want to try the new Lindt Creation range for yourself, here’s your chance. Leave a comment on this post telling us what flavour combination you would like to see in a Lindt Creation bar, and we’ll pick our favourite to receive one of each of the new bars and a rather cute Lindt USB stick!
Make sure you use an email address that works when leaving a comment so we can get in touch with the winner. Entries close at 8pm on Friday 13th July. One entry per person, UK residents only.
Photo Gallery
This 80g bar from Côte D’Or (a Kraft brand) was sent to me some time ago as part of a promotion. Unfortunately, I’ve long since lost the details that came with it and all the writing on the pack is in French and Flemish.
What is clear is that it’s a 35% cocoa solids milk chocolate with coriander and caramelised pecan. Which sounds rather nice.
And rather surprisingly, it actually is. The milk chocolate is sweet and creamy, but the overwhelming flavour is the coriander. It’s warm and spicy and really rather nice. But as far as I’m concerned, the best part of this bar is the small pieces of caramelised pecan. They’re sweet and crunchy and really quite moreish.
It’s actually a bit of a shame that you don’t seem to be able to buy this any more. It may well be available somewhere in the world, but I’ve not managed to find it. Let us know if you find it anywhere!
I’ve never been a big fan of chocolate and orange together. Even as a child, I remember finding Terry’s Chocolate Orange sweet and sickly. I think perhaps the thought of that cheap, greasy chocolate is what has put me off trying it more often.
Will this bar change my mind? Willie Harcourt-Cooze is, of course, the UK’s best known bean-to-bar chocolate maker, and he’s recently come out with his first flavoured chocolate bars. In addition to this orange chocolate, there’s a ginger & lime and a hazelnut & raisin bar.
Having control over the entire chocolate making process makes a huge difference to a flavoured chocolate. As well as being able to match cacao origin to the flavour you’re creating, the chocolate making process can be precisely controlled to enhance the natural flavours in the chocolate.
For this bar, Willie has chosen a 65% dark chocolate made with Cuban cocoa beans. Added to that is just 0.1% orange oil. In fact, it contains just four ingredients: Cocoa mass, Cuban raw cane sugar, cocoa butter and essential orange oil.
As you can see, my bar is a little battered, but that’s probably down to my own mis-treatment. It certainly didn’t effect the flavour.
The chocolate has a nice clean snap, although the texture on the tongue is a little soft and it’s not as smooth or glossy as a lot of the bars I’ve had lately. But the upshot of that is that it melts quite quickly and releases loads of flavour the moment it hits your tongue.
It’s nothing like the nasty, cheap orange flavoured chocolates I’m used to. This is a sweet, natural orange flavour that works perfectly with the warm honey notes of the Cuban chocolate without overpowering it. It’s reminiscent of the natural citrus notes you find in chocolate anyway. It’s very approachable and very difficult to stop eating.
And that brings me to the biggest down side of this bar. You just get a single 50g square per pack. And if you’re anything like me, 50g won’t last very long!
The up side is that it’s great value at just £1.90. You’re unlikely to find a bean-to-bar chocolate at a better price, so you can always buy two or try some of the other flavours. There’s also a fantastic white chocolate that I’m hoping to review very soon!
