Galler Les Florales

Having been thoroughly impressed with Galler’s ‘Les Marines‘ box of salted and seaweedy chocolates, I find myself deemed worthy of a chance to sample the entire range (including one which is only just available this month).

Les Florales was Jean Galler’s initial foray into this particular style of chocolate, and as the name suggests, these discs are filled with one of four quite different flower flavours.

As you can see from the information offered up on the inside of the box lid, these chocolates came about when Daniël Öst presented Jean Galler with the four different flowers – (clockwise from top left) Violet, Orange blossom Jasmine and Rose. (Interesting mingling of English and French in the title, by the way).

So, what of these fragrant little beauties? Well, for starters the chocolate used in the shells is excellent. Creamy, buttery milk chocolate rich, slightly tangy dark chocolate, and a creamy white chocolate to accompany what is already the sweetest of the quartet, the Rose. The filling doesn’t hold back on Rose flavours for a moment, flooding the mouth with its distinctive taste as the chocolate melts and mingles. A sweet treat for sure.

The only milk chocolate on offer here is the Jasmine, and I found myself liking this much more than the Rose. The floral part of the pairing is beautifully balanced with the buttery milk chocolate. It’s not so subtle as to be understated, but neither does it ever become too much for the taste buds. As the chocolate melts away the mouth is left with a lingering floral freshness which is very pleasant indeed.

As a young lad I would often buy Parma Violets but a recent(ish) nostalgia experiment proved that I’m a little beyond sugar-based, artificially flavoured sweets, so I was quite looking forward to the Violet chocolate. The disappointing showing from the Moon Estates violet choc also had me hoping that M. Galler and co. had managed to pull it off.

The use of dark chocolate serves as an excellent counterpoint to what is undoubtedly a quite sweet and powerful flavour. It’s a balance which is held to the last melting moment of the dark chocolate, and like the Jasmine chocolate, this one left my tongue awash with summer flavours. Once again I can appreciate the flavour of violet without feeling as though I’ve licked a sachet of pot pourri found in an old lady’s sock drawer.

The final member of the Florales quartet is a dark chocolate disc flavoured with Orange Flower. – something of an old favourite in the world of chocolate, but of course this is a floral orange rather than a fruity flavour. As soon as I popped the disc into my mouth the flavour began to spread., and as the chocolate shell melted and released the creamy filling the flavour of oranges reached its peak. Never cloying or artificial in character, as the orange reached it’s height the dark chocolate released its flavours, the bitter sweetness of the cocoa tempering the sweetness and making the finish more cocoa than orange, with the final lingering tastes being a combination of dark, rich cocoa and light, fragrant orange.

These are definitely sweeter in nature than the ‘Les Marines’ (naturally – sea salt and seaweed are never going to be THAT sweet) and the use of flower essences puts one in mind of a summer’s afternoon. These are apparently very popular with female consumers, and I can see why. If you enjoy the occasional Chocolate Orange, have a penchant for light, slightly sweet and fruity flavours with your chocolate, or just fancy enjoying something fragrant and floral, then you could do a lot worse than to check out these well thought out and carefully constructed little discs of delight.

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