I like to refute the statement that you can’t judge a book by its cover: most of the time, there are certain assessments you can make from just a first look. So I was ready to write off Cero’s Candies as just another little candy company, if one with more expression than most. But the case is in fact more complicated. Cero’s is one of those candy companies with a history of family ownership; they make their base in Wichita, Kansas. But the chocolate in the nine piece box they sent me are not the usual output of small candy-makers.
Vanilla-Marshmallow – This is quite a large chocolate: its texture is not so much like a Valomilk, but more simply as a dark chocolate-dipped marshmallow. It’s pleasant.
Caramel – Usually, stiff caramels are poor quality, but this one nonetheless still tastes like caramel. That’s a positive.
Lemon Cream – The yellow dot on top gives the look of a miniature cupcake. The lemon center is soft, almost spongey. It tastes more fruity than lemony, which I don’t exactly mind.
Chipotle Chili Truffle – Now we move into the less standard (for candy companies) flavors. The dark ganache is fudge-like in nature, which I find suits the chili flavor well. Both have a quick peak and fade, yet this helps match the two together rather well.
Persian Truffle – This is the green round baby nestled in the center. Its coloration, like the other brights in the box, comes from swirls of colored cocoa butter. The list of flavorings is quite long: cumin, cardamom, Vietnamese cinnamon, pomegranate, tangerine, saffron, rose petals, crushed pistachios and almonds. Phew, is that all necessary? One thing is certain: the flavors give the cream-colored center a complex yet balanced taste that includes a little bit of spice, a hint of nuttiness, and a flowery sweetness. The finish is of fudge. An intriguing surprise of a truffle.
Passion Fruit Truffle – Orange spots against the milk chocolate skin transform this truffle into a sprightly dinosaur. The passion fruit in it is less in-your-face than in some offerings, tasting more like it does in iced tea. My anti-passion fruit perspective isn’t totally opposed to it.
Saigon Cinnamon Truffle – Enclosed in the golden-colored dark chocolate is a mix of milk and dark ganache. It tastes both dark and rich–at a medium level. The cinnamon is fresh-tasting and strong to the right extent. I find this one very enjoyable; I only wish it didn’t fade too fast for me to lose myself in it. Unless, of course, I take very tiny bite after very tiny bite of the fairly large truffle.
Lavender Truffle – With its modern, sculpture-like shape, this is one of the visual standouts. I think this is only my third lavender chocolate. The lavender here is flavorful without exceeding the tangy limit. As with the Chili Truffle, the fudge flavor of the chocolate helps keep the flavor tame.
Strawberry Champagne Truffle – While the “pearlized red sugar” makes for a pretty, sparkly look, I would be happier without its crunch intruding on the lovely experience that is this truffle. The soft pink reminds me of the Strawberry Ice Cream Parlor truffles from Godiva. Meld that with a champagne truffle and the result is girly and casually exquisite. Dark chocolate acts in balance to the sweetness of the flavored white ganache.
Overall, I’m quite pleased. Truffle boxes of this size sell for $7.50 from Cero’s, which is most reasonable. This company seems to know what it’s doing: these aren’t the same washed-out chocolates you can get anywhere. They’re more innovative, while still in the realm of casual. This is what I’m happy to discover from what I called “another little candy company.”
This morning I received a nice box of review samples from one of my favourite chocolate retailers, The Chocolate Trading Company. Packed as it was with delicious looking chocolate, this particular bar stood out for me and I couldn’t wait to review it.
It’s basically a 75% version of my favourite 100% chocolate bar, Le Criollo 100%, and I was really keen to see how the addition of a little sugar would affect the flavour of the bar.
If you don’t know François Pralus, he’s a French bean-to-bar chocolate maker. Pralus have their own plantation in Madagascar, although the packaging doesn’t actually say if the the beans in this bar come from there or elsewhere. I’m sure some knowledgable Chocablog reader will be able to tell us, but very often the answers to these questions aren’t simple.
Inside the simple paper and foil wrapper, the actual chocolate looks a little rough and ready. There’s a wonderful gloss to it, but it does look a bit scuffed and battered. Personally I like the way it looks, but this bar is more about flavour and texture than appearance.
I adore the flavour of the Pralus 100% bar. It has a touch of natural sweetness, but it has a very distintive flavour that for some reason reminds me of Marmite. But in a good way! The smooth, glossy texture – thanks to a high cocoa butter content – makes it incredibly easy to eat, and that was something I was hoping for in this bar.
I wasn’t disappointed. All the distinctive Madagascan flavour notes are there, but the addition of sugar seems to enhance the deep, red fruit notes naturally present in the chocolate. I could nibble at the 100% bar all day – this bar would be lucky if it lasted half a day! It has an ultra-smooth, buttery texture that I personally love because it’s so different from most other high cocoa chocolates, although it might be a touch too buttery for some.
The flavour is what I really love though. It’s a mixture of full on, deep, roasted cocoa beans and light, sweet, raspberries. There’s a little acidity to it, but the fruity notes are what really come through, and stay with you long after the chocolate has gone. Now I just need someone to take it away from me or I may just eat the rest of the bar in one sitting.
Highly recommended – but I’d also recommend you try the 100% bar for comparison!
Here’s a nifty way of carrying around a quick chocolate fix. This little tin contains 1.5oz (43g for metric readers) of dark chocolate balls – perfect for a pocket/bag/handbag. One notable thing about this product is the lack of any sort of information regarding cocoa content or ingredients. I therefore have to conclude that these are made from Godiva’s house dark chocolate. My attempts to garner further information via the web were pretty fruitless, although I did discover that they contain soy and may contain nuts’. Not much help there, then.
The Pearls have a glazed surface, but that soon melts away, releasing the chocolate onto your palate. It’s more ‘bittersweet’ than dark if you ask me – probably nearer 60% cocoa than 72% and definitely erring on the sweeter side of the dark chocolate spectrum, and of course the form lends itself to ‘just another one’ far too easily (although I did find it fairly easy to stop after five or six). The chocolate doesn’t come across as being particularly high quality, being sweet and slightly greasy, which is a shame because these things are not cheap. If you pop into Selfridge’s or John Lewis for a tin you’re not going to get much change out of £3.50, and when you consider that a similar amount of money will buy you (for example) an 80g bar of Duffy Sheardown’s amazing Red Star chocolate it suddenly becomes fairly obvious that this is overpriced, low quality confectionery. One might even coin the phrase ‘overpriced junk’.
I can’t help feeling that this is another example of a ‘big name’ manufacturer coasting along, trading on their reputation, totally oblivious to some of the magical things that are being produced by people with a passion for chocolate. Break down the price and you’re looking at 7p per gram of anonymous, factory produced chocolate. Throw a few more pennies in and you could be enjoying something from a company with a reputation for passion, creativity and above all great tasting ingredients. It’s a no-brainer. Avoid .
The first of a handful of items of varying quality purchased on a recent trip to Finland, this Fazer bar had me in mind of the Lindt Petits Desserts range we worked through a couple of years ago. Fazer is synonymous with Finnish chocolate, and this range of bars seem to be the more upmarket end of the Fazer range – they’ve even used Karl Fazer’s full name on the box. As you can see from the illustrations and gold embossing, Fazer have gone for a refined approach to th packaging design for these bars (yes, there are more).
So what of this ‘Finest milk chocolate’? At 30% cocoa solids it’s hardly world class stuff to be honest but in the context of what was always going to be a sweet confectionery bar with milk chocolate, that could be forgiven. In fact an awful lot can be forgiven when you taste a piece of this bar. It is Blueberry Pie in chocolate, or as close to it as I think it might be possible to get.
The (even sweeter than the chocolate) creamy filling is home to tiny pieces of biscuit and blueberry which deliver a near-perfect reproduction of Blueberry Pie. It’s uncanny. It’s a very well balanced set of flavours. It is also incredibly sweet – so much so that more than I could just finish a second piece. In the hands (and mouth) of a younger chocolate muncher it was a very different story. Favourite new chocolate by a mile, and I am now under oath to bring back LOADS of it should I ever return to Finland.
It’s a bit of a tribute/cover version of the Petits Desserts range, right down to the way it looks, but it goes in a slightly different, fruitier direction and pulls it off admirably. The chocolate is fairly average but the overall combination works very well – just don’t go there if you don’t have a sweet tooth.
