Last week I posted some of the highlights of The San Fransisco International Chocolate Salon. The salon also featured a tasting panel that tasted and rated the chocolate show's participants based on several categories. The award winners have just been posted. Notably, Amano Artisan Chocolate received 3 gold awards including Best Dark Chocolate and Most Gifted Chocolatier. Unfortunately, they do not give details on which dark chocolate bar won the award. Personally, I most enjoyed their Madagascar 70%.
I found myself in Toronto's distillery district yesterday and visited a fascinating chocolate boutique called Soma Chocolatemaker. In addition to handmade truffles, gelatos, and dipped chocolate confections, Soma also makes small limited edition batches of pure artisan chocolate made from heirloom cacao beans right in their in-house micro chocolate factory. Needless to say, I bought a bunch of their bars - I haven't tried them yet though.
What I did try were two revelatory truffles, also made with pure chocolate that's produced from scratch in-house. I've always been fascinated by the concept of using savory ingredients in chocolate truffles and confections:
"Arbequina" estate olive oil dark Venezuelan truffle cone: The olive oil in this quite pointy (but quite elegant) cone-shaped molded chocolate was subtle, providing just a hint of savory flavor without overpowering the chocolate. The olive oil flavor shows itself in the beginning, disappears in the middle somewhere, and re-emerges near the end for the credits. A delicate and gentle truffle with a soft ganache.
8 year aged balsamic vinegar dark Venezuelan truffle: An interesting counterpart to the olive oil truffle, the balsamic truffle begins with a burst of flavor that softens slightly after a second or so. The savory elements are more powerful here, less subtle than the olive oil truffle, but still nicely-balanced. It makes for a very stimulating flavor combination.
Pairing red wines and pure dark chocolate can be tricky – in general, I’ve found that big, medium to full-bodied, jammy reds work well, while tart, light-bodied reds do not (though there are always exceptions). Even before you taste, you can often pick out a red that will go well with chocolate purely by smell. Sweet aromas of ripe, sweet fruits such as cherries and raspberries as well as rich aromas of cocoa, black plums, and dried figs are tell-tale signs of good pairing potential.
These past few months I've had the great pleasure of working with Belgium's Cote d'Or to develop some interesting wine and spirit pairings for their Experiences line and their Petits. It's been quite an enlightening task thus far. My favorite bar in the Cote d'Or line is the Noir 70%. Here are a some tasting notes for the Noir 70% as well as a Shiraz and a Zinfandel blend that make extremely interesting pairings:
Cote d'Or Noir 70%: A real asset to the Cote d'Or line, this 70% is nicely-balanced with a smooth, even texture, a strong snap, and aromas of red fruits that open into flavors of raspberries and cherries as the chocolate melts.
At my other [non-chocolate] gig, I have the pleasure of working with English tea retailer Whittard of Chelsea, who just opened a boutique on Boston's Newbury Street. A few days ago, I asked Whittard's tea and coffee guru, Giles Hilton, for his thoughts on pairing tea and chocolate. Mr. Hilton has been traveling around the world sourcing the best teas and developing Whittard's tea blends for more than 30 years and draws from quite an incredible and eclectic pool of experience. In between his various trips to different tea gardens, he was able to sit down and email along a few ideas to start:
Milk chocolate: I would try a regular tea like Assam or Ceylon with a dash of milk.
Pure chocolate, with fillings and other flavours: Vanilla flavoured tea. Even Indian Spice Chai, which can be made the Indian way with milk and sugar, or lightly brewed and black.
Dark Chocolate (even bitter chocolate): l immediately thought Darjeeling tea - it's wonderful, light, aromatic, and chases the chocolate all round your palate. A Jasmine could work too!
Pairing tea and chocolate can be tricky in light of tea's astringency and tannins. The suggestions above are a good foundation to begin exploring. I'll check back in with Giles soon and post some more ideas.
Here's a week-long round-up of everything I've tried this week:
Saturday: I stopped by Best Cellars in Boston's Back Bay for a 'Cake and Champagne' event, courtesy of Sweet Cheeks Cake Company. I tried Mom's Classic Birthday Cake, a chocolate cake with a cream cheese and chocolate chip filling, and a family specialty of Sweet Cheeks founder Kendra Strasburg. Kendra told me that she grew up in a 'baking family' and that many of the recipes for her cakes come from her childhood. Kendra also told me that she's looking into starting up a retail space, and may decide to also start offering some of her cakes in cupcake form. The Sweet Cheeks (non-retail) cake-baking studio is currently located somewhere in Jamaica Plain.
Friday: I shared some Venchi 85% dark chocolate (Italy) with my assistant Lindsey today. Here's what she had to say:
Being relatively new to dark chocolate and an avid milk chocolateThursday: I'm in love with Petsi Pies. I stopped by their tiny little storefront and picked up two mini savory tarts (Tomato Provincial) and a whoopie cupcake that features a not too sweet, dense and moist but not-too-spongey chocolate cupcake filled with a little bit of cream and topped with a soft chocolate ganache. I definitely have a thing for good cupcakes.
supporter one would think that I'd shy away from the 85% cocoa Venchi
you gave me to try. Not so! I've fully embraced it's rich and
slightly sweet taste with open arms. Perhaps I've been converted?
Wednesday: L'artisan du Chocolat - I picked up a "surprise box" of truffles made by L'artisan du Chocolate last week when I was in San Fransciso. The surprise box is just that, a bunch of random truffles that aren't labeled, and then you have to guess what you're eating. It can get pretty interesting in light of the fact that their truffle flavors include ingredients such as rosemary, thyme, habanero, and kalamata olive. We weren't 100% sure about a couple of the flavors we tried today, but here's a excerpt from an email that Dan sent me after we tried a few:
What was that one? I put it in my mouth, very creamy.. first thought of caramel, then changed my mind to honey. Any idea what it was?To be honest, after looking at their list of flavors, there's so much going on there that I really have no idea. Such is the fun of 'blind' tasting... but we did identify their Lavender Milk Chocolate truffle, which featured a pretty interesting balance of flavors. A lot more savory than most lavender truffles I've tried.
Lillie Belle Farms is a certified organic farm in Southern Oregon and the home of Lillie Belle Farm Handmade Chocolates. The chocolatiers at Lillie Belle use the farm's homegrown fruits and berries to make fruit-infused chocolate truffles and confections. At the San Francisco International Chocolate Salon last week, I had the pleasure of chatting with founder Jeff Shepherd about his latest chocolate creation.
The Smokey Blue Truffle: The almond-encrusted ganache of the Smokey Blue is made of milk chocolate and award-winning Smoked Oregon Blue cheese made by Rogue Creamery, a neighbor of Lillie Belle Farms. This is a delicious and fascinating truffle. The first sensation is the tang of the cheese, then the smokiness plays off of the almond while the milk chocolate brings it all together for a delightful, balanced finish. I've always been enthralled by the combination of chocolate and cheese, and this truffle is a real winner.
Rogue Creamery has won multiple awards for their Smoked Oregon Blue Cheese. Jeff told me that one day sometime this past year, some folks from Rogue came over to Lillie Belle and asked him if he could somehow incorporate the cheese into something chocolate. Between their tastebuds and his, it took him around 20 trials to find the exact recipe to balance the flavors and make it work as well as it does. Some of the changes to the first run of the recipe include incorporating milk chocolate (instead of only dark) and finding that almonds make for a better outer layer than hazelnuts, which were too overpowering. (Rogue Creamery ages their Smoked Oregon Blue under hazelnut shells, hence the original choice.) The Smokey Blue Truffle became officially available about a month ago.
Jeff also mentioned that the truffles go fabulously well with a good Pinot.
Last Saturday, I attended the San Francisco International Chocolate Salon. There were around 35 exhibitors - mostly chocolatiers and chocolate-makers as well as a few wineries. This is the first major West Coast chocolate show in around two decades, and I was thrilled that it was happening the weekend I was there. Here are a few highlights of what I tasted:
Amano Madagascar Single Origin 70%: Amano is a young Vermont-based artisan pure chocolate company. Their bars are made in small batches using traditional machinery. The 70% Madagascar bar has a lovely rounded cacao flavor with notes of raisins and plums that continue to open as it melts.
Couture Chocolates: Couture Chocolates is an artisan chocolatier featuring designer chocolate confections made by founder Ginger Elizabeth. I tried their Vanilla Bean-Infused Caramel from their Caramel Collection.
Saratoga Chocolates: Saratoga offers a lovely selection of handmade truffles and confections. I really liked their Key Lime Pie truffle that featured a key lime filling + a tiny graham cracker crust encased in milk chocolate.
Coco Delice: Coco Delice features French-style truffles made by hand. I really liked their cognac truffle - handrolled, not too sweet, big on the cognac, double-dipped in chocolate and then rolled in cocoa.
The Tea Room: The Tea Room is all about enjoying fine tea and chocolate. Their product line includes both imported fine teas and chocolate truffles handmade in-house by their chocolatier team in Napa. They have some interesting tea-infused chocolates using ingredients such as chamomile, Earl Grey, and jasmine tea. I tried a classic 72% truffle - it had a nice, slightly fruity ganache blended with cacao nibs, all coated with cocoa.
Grand Avenue Chocolate: I found Grand Avenue's dark chocolate Cabernet truffle interesting. The most powerful flavor that came through was not so much red wine but more in the range of dried figs.
Coco Luxe: Coco Luxe is a California-based chocolatier that produces a very cute line of chocolate truffles and confections with really fun flavors such as banana split, dreamy orange, and pb bite. I tried their malted milk truffle, which started out somewhat on the savory side and then moved quickly to taste just like a malted milkshake (go figure). A bit sweet for me, but satisfying and fun to try.
Today I gave my friend Eric two Michel Cluizel milk chocolates to taste. The chocolates are very similar in their levels of cacao (45% and 47%) but have different bean origins. Michel Cluizel's 1er Cru bars are each made from single estate beans from a different plantation, and the Grand Lait is blended out of several different origin beans for taste. Here is what Eric had to say:
Michel Cluizel Grand Lait 45% Harder to the bite. Once it melts it gives that slight cooling sensation, and feels smoother to the tongue than the other. Taste in general chocolaty.Michel Cluizel 1er Cru de Plantation Maralumi 47%
Very slightly darker in color.
Does not have that cooling sensation.
Taste-wise, it's different from the other in having a slight tart, fruity
quality.Both are pretty good.
Michel Cluizel's lines make for very interesting chocolate tastings. Single estate bars go a couple steps past straight up single origin bars in that the cacao beans are not only from a single country, but from a limited area with the specific soil, conditions, and the unique growing style of a single cacao plantation. Cluizel is really into creating ways to understand the nuances of different cacao beans. In addition to the 1er Cru de Plantation tasting box, Cluizel also has a Les Nuanciers tasting box series, with a "High Cacao Contents box", a "Pure Origins of the World" box, and another called "Once Upon a Bean."
I just read in the Boston Business Journal that Temper Chocolates will be closing for good on July 29, 2007.
Owner Caroline Yeh has been sourcing some of the best truffles and most innovative chocolate confections available throughout the country since April of 2005. It will be sad to see Temper go!
A couple posts ago, I talked about the vastly unexplored combination of chocolate and aged tequila. So anyway, the lovely gourmet who alerted me to this interesting pairing idea also mentioned a local restaurant called Tres Agaves that has an astonishing roster of fine tequilas on their menu.
I found myself there a couple days later testing out a flight of three aged tequilas that, according to tequila enthusiast/managing partner Eric Rubin, are particularly conducive to chocolate pairing:
1800 Anejo: Spicy with notes of vanilla and orange peel. This one would appeal to many different palettes, I think. It set the tone for the rest of the flight.
Don Fulano Anejo: This was my favorite of the flight. Incredibly light, refreshing, and aromatic. Notes of vanilla and ripe tropical fruits.
Don Julio 1942: My other favorite. This one is almost like a dessert tequila (who knew there was such a thing?), incredibly smooth, silky texture, sweet and delicious with aromas of toasted coconut and flavors of apple and flowers.
June 2007 is the previous archive.
August 2007 is the next archive.
