20°N & 20°S

Modern Dwellers ~ Beat Up Truffles

When I was visiting Anchorage, Alaska last month, my new close buddies Ken and Shauna Pajak of Cafe Amsterdam sent me a box of truffles from Modern Dwellers. They arrived just as Ken arrived to hang out and visit Boston for the BeerAdvocate Extreme Beer Festival.

I wasn't able to check out their shop while visiting Anchorage, because they were closed on the one day I had for some free time in Alaska. Shauna being the amazing person that she is, shipped off some truffles to me to make sure I got a chance to try them.

I have to admit though, I am kind of disappointed. These truffles got beat the hell up in transition. I am frustrated at Modern Dwellers for this. Even if you are taking them down the street, or shipping them across the continental US, they should have been packed up better. They were tossed on a large box, and rattled around. Ones that were coated in nuts, completely lost the coating. Others were covered in soot from the other truffles.

This is what they looked like after I tried to put them back together again. Not very appetizing. But believe me when I say the box was in total shambles when I opened it. See their website with a list of truffles and what they would have looked like.

Modern Dwellers Truffles

The other issue with the way they were packed is freshness. Sitting in a cardboard box for days on end without any kind of insulation, leaves them vulnerable to getting stale and absorbing the box flavors. Not to mention absorbing all the other spices from the heavier spiced truffles in the box. All in all they are bit stale and are in no way representative of what is shown on their website.

The reason this is so aggravating is because it destroys a nice gift that my new good friends were trying to get to me. Also Modern Dwellers had some completely unique flavors. How can I give them a fair shot when they don't care enough to package their products properly?

It should be said that I am not normally this picky when someone gives me a gift. I am not ungrateful to my friend Shauna for giving me the chance to get to taste these truffles. I am just miffed that they didn't do too well in transition.

I will get over how they look because some of them still tasted good based on how they were flavored despite being beat up. But this is something Modern Dwellers should look into and take care of. Package your product better!


This is what came in my box.

Pumpkin Spice: Pumpkin pie spiced dark chocolate ganache dipped in white chocolate.

Very good! And I will be damned when I ate the truffle before I thought of taking pictures of the individual ones. But you can figure at least for this one since it was dipped in white chocolate and was the only white chocolate in the box, which one it was from the picture above.






Dazed By Hazel: Rich milk chocolate and hazelnut ganache rolled in dark chocolate and chunks of hazelnut.

Uhhhh you mean the nuts that ended up at the bottom of the box? Fail! This one tasted okay. It was soft but I had a hard time telling which one this actually was. It didn't taste too hazelnut-y.






Indian Bop: Bittersweet East Indian curry ganache hand rolled in coconut flakes and dark chocolate.

This was excellent. But I wish half of the coconut hadn't worn off. Nice curry flavor without being too over bearing. Lingers a bit, but is in no way offensive. Some people really love curry. I can tolerate it in small bits. I really liked this one a lot.

Raspberry Grove: Bittersweet raspberry and maple ganache enrobed in dark chocolate. Finished with a lavish luster.

This could have been pretty if you could still see the sparkly sheen and not the dusty coating from the other truffle coatings. This tasted interesting. The raspberry is not as dominating as I would have thought. The maple comes through quite a bit.

Purple Infusion: Smooth fragrant lavender ganache encased in layers of delightful dark chocolate. Garnished with petals of lavender.

Mine looked like it was topped with grass. It barely tasted like lavender. The chocolate was too strong for it. Maybe it was different when it was more fresh. I can only assume that's the one I was looking at because no other truffle listed is described as this.

The Berbere: Bittersweet ganache spiced with Ethiopian Berbere. Dipped in dark chocolate and garnished with a pinch of berbere.

Woo a little too spicy for me. I am wuss about spicy food and I make no bones about it. This is spicy and laden with a bit of heat. It was a little salty at first to contrast the sweet chocolate, but then the heat got the better of me. I think most people will like this one, but again it was too much for my oversensitive palate. My wuss mouth.

Mint Breezy: Fresh taste of mint infused in a bittersweet ganache. Hand rolled dark chocolate shell and lustered.

Soft, subtle mint. Tasted like spearmint. I liked this truffle. The sheen was pretty despite the condition of these truffles. The mint was soft and worked well with the dark chocolate.

Orange Drop: A delightful ganache of orange zest and Grand Marnier enrobed in dark chocolate and accented with fresh candied orange.

This will sound silly but it tastes exactly like the chocolate covered donuts from Entemann's. I loved those when I was a kid. The orange is apparent and soft, but the Grand Marnier is dull and not potent at all. This was a good truffle, but might have been better with a bit of an alcohol kick. 

Cacao Wow: Dark 72% chocolate ganache encased in dark chocolate and sprinkled wit organic cocoa nibs.

This is simple and straight forward, a rich dark chocolate truffle. Tasty and strong dark chocolate. Hardly any nib left on the top.

Blueberry Patch: Bittersweet blueberry puree ganache swimming in layers of hand rolled dark chocolate.

Not too fruity. I was hoping for big blueberry taste on this one. The dark chocolate overwhelmed. Might have been different fresh.

Margarita Zing: Bittersweet ganache of fresh lime zest and tequila cloaked in dark chocolate and topped with Hawaiian pink sea salt.

No sea salt left on this truffle, but it tastes salty on the coating. Light lime and tequila taste, but worked surprisingly well with the dark chocolate. Would have been fantastic fresh.

Pistachio Passion: Lemon zest white ganache enrobed in dark chocolate shell topped with salted pistachios.

No pistachios left on top of this truffle, but very tasty center. The lemon zest is delicious and holds up well against the dark chocolate. The salted pistachios are deeply missed for this truffle.

I cannot express enough my disappointment with how shoddy Modern Dwellers packed their lovely truffles. These would have been fantastic if they were fresh. These are creative and wonder flavors for truffles, but since they were stale from lack of proper packaging, they failed miserably in their representation of what is deemed an awesome chocolate shop in Anchorage, Alaska.

To my friend Shauna Pajak,

I thank you for making sure these were sent to me. You went out of your way to make sure I got them, and I am personally grateful to you for that. I just hope my brutal honestly in writing about these doesn't upset you personally. They should have packaged these up better. But your kindness in thinking of me is more important than the outcome of these truffles.

L.A. Burdick's Hot Chocolate At Home

If you have ever had the fabulously rich hot chocolate from L.A. Burdick's, then you already know how decadent and rich it is. That's why I asked for it for Valentine's Day. Yes I know. You are supposed to be surprised with gifts, but when you are reviewing and working with chocolate, it's best to plan what you want versus running into the same things over and over again.

Today was the day to try their hot chocolate at home to see if I could recreate that insanely rich cup of hot chocolate at home. I think I succeeded. It even came complete with it's own mini mug whisk. Cute!

L.A. Burdick's Dark Hot Chocolate

Ingredients: cocoa beans, cocoa butter, sugar, vanilla beans, and soy lecithin.

Milk

Directions: Put 4 - 6 tbls of chocolate in a cup and pour in 6 to 8 oz of scalding milk continuously whisking.


 





No steaming hot mug of anything is complete with out my giraffe mug.













So thick and rich! Those sensitive to caffeine may want to think twice about this kind of hot chocolate. Those thinking about dieting might want to drink this in the morning time because you will be so full after one cup and won't have room for anything else. Probably even through lunch time. I am kidding of course, but not really.

You can add as little or as much chocolate as you want. I recommend what the recipe calls for. I went with the 6 tbls just to insure it was as rich as what they make at their cafes.

This is so good I am going to give it a grade. I don't have a grading scale for flavored chocolates, truffles, or hot chocolates so this will be a subjective grade that I think it deserves.

It gets an A- for almost being too fabulously rich. I don't think that's such a bad thing.

score
A-

Patric Chocolate ~ Madagascar 67%

For at least year, I have been talking to Alan McClure of Patric Chocolate located in Columbia, Mo., through Twitter. I found him in the beginning days of wanting to start this blog. That was back in May of 2009. I didn't have much to talk about when it came to this blog because I didn't really begin to upload my previous reviews of 2009 until Jan of 2010. "Hey, I am a blogger with no content yet, but I want to know more about your product."

Once I began to get the ball rolling, I became reacquainted with Alan and Patric Chocolate. As he tells it, he kept running across my site as I began uploading the reviews and and he kept asking, "Who is this person? I think I have talked to them before."

I had a similar experience in finding his brand. Twitter searches of chocolate, Google searches of bean-to-bar producers, his name repeatedly came up. So I started to follow him. I watched all the tweets come in for new releases.

Very envious and jealous that I wasn't one of the recipients of these special release bars, I began writing about everything I have had or was getting my hands on. Eventually our paths crossed again and this time I was fortunate to be on the receiving end of a sample collection from him. Most generous of him.

How lucky am I to have this life?

Alan sent me his whole line from drinking chocolate, cocoa nibs, to a collection of his bars. All of his bars using Madagascar beans, which currently happen to be my favorite region. Plus his newer release of Rio Caribe, from Venezuela.

I am trying to come up with the best way to use those nibs. I hope I can find a worthy enough recipe. He does have a recipe for cookies using his nibs. I will make sure I blog that adventure when the time comes.

Look for two newer bars to hit the market soon. All Alan will say about it, is that one is a refined version of a classic in his profile, and the other one will be an entirely new origin. I can't wait. They better end up on my door step.

                         [Image via Scrumptious Street]

I just spoke with Alan today for about an hour and a half about various matters including his love for Madagascar beans, beer, which brewers are using his cocoa beans, and how he can venture into the beer world with his cocoa nibs, and what he thinks of 20°N & 20°S.

When I asked Alan, about how he came to use mostly Madagascar beans, he described it like finding music worth buying. Talking about how you hear pop music and you nod your head to it, but the music you really want to buy blows you away. It was sort of like this when he found the flavor profiles of Madagascar beans.

He and I both agree, that while there are very different regions with different experiences and flavor profiles, Madagascar beans tend to be the most interesting. At least for the time being. You never know what is going to come around the corner and wow you. Be it a new hybrid, or an old classic.

His beans from Madagascar in the Sambirano Valley, come from a family owned farm. It was split off from a larger plantation. The beans originally came from Java, but little is known about the exact origins of how chocolate came to be in Madagascar. Some have noted that it was the French who brought the beans to Madagascar.

Alan is reluctant to talk about specific bean varietals. With 12 known genetic families and many, many hybrids around, he takes the safe route in not specifically identifying a varietal. Without genetic testing, there is no way to know for sure. The original beans arriving in Madagascar were Criollo probably from Mexico or Venezuela. But later imports added more of a genetic variation. This is general information collected from the back of the Patric Chocolate bar.

Alan has a good blog where he talks more extensively about the myth of the Criollo bean. I have this highlighted on my side bar about chocolate information.

Something Alan and I have in common aside from many tattoos, is beer. As he begins to sell his nibs to brewers, he is beginning to make the same comparisons as I have with craft beer and craft chocolate making. It's all about the care and effort put into your product. Drinking craft beer and understanding how it is made, has made me understand my palate better. It's helped me to taste and understand chocolate better. All the same nuances of smelling and tasting apply. We are one in this community of making craft artisanal products. It takes time to branch out and get your name out there. And it takes advocates such as myself to push brands we like and care about into the forefront of our taste experiences.

This begins my journey with Patric Chocolate. Well technically my journey began by tasting amazingly delicious truffles made with his Madagascar cocoa. But this begins my journey with his bean-to-bar creations.

Patric Chocolate Madagascar 67% (Sambirano Valley)

Type: Bittersweet 67%

Bean Varietal: Hybrid

Ingredients: Cocoa beans, sugar, cocoa butter (3.75% by weight of coco butter added. Cocoa butter is made with the same Madagascar beans.)

Sample Size: 50g or 1.75oz

Lot #: 101835

Appearance: Simple molding with a monogrammed P. Shiny and smooth, a little lighter in color than the usual deep rich browns.

Score: 94

Snap: Excellent crisp snap sound. Clean break lines.

Score: 97

Aroma: Big almonds upon first opening, hints of mint and tobacco like a minty snuff tin. Mild tar and rubber notes, roasted cocoa.

Score: 95

Taste: Sweet at first, then tart citrus, acidic, bold flavors, big vodka taste and cedar notes, roasted cocoa, and black cherries.

Score: 96

Texture: Smooth and creamy. Fast melt.

Score: 94

There is a lot going on here. The flavors are so big and robust. Big, sharp citrus, wood, and vodka. I still to this day do not know what causes that characteristic, but it is all over this bar. It finishes with a little bitterness, black cherries, and classic roasted cocoa flavors.

I love this bar for it's big characteristics. One of the few bars with a score this high was the Rogue Madagascar Sambirano 70%. That bar had the same big vodka esters but was a lot softer on the edges. I loved it for the soft edges. But I love this Patric bar for the bolder flavors. It's so bright and kicks you in the face with flavor. This bar has all the classic hallmarks of the region the beans are grown in. 

Two American small-batch producers of chocolate have rocked my world by way of bean-to-bar. This completely reminds me of American craft beer. All the classic beer making countries have their traditions and history, but it's the Americans coming in with these small craft creations and are completely stealing the show. Stealing the spotlight, the thunder, and all other analogies you can think of.

Final Score: 95.2

score
A

Cocomaya ~ 70% Guanaja

As part of the British Chocolate Invasion, I received a delicate, long bar from Cocomaya in London. I called the store to find out which exact bar it was. I just had their bar but no listing on the bar as to which type. They were very friendly when I called to gather a bit of information.

Without having visited to shop myself, I can only give a little bit of a description of the place from I have found online. They are fairly new on the block having started in 2008. They have already moved and expanded to open a bakery as well.

They won a Silver medal from the Academy Of Chocolate in 2009 for Best Ganache filled chocolate – flavoured or plain for their Pomegranate.

You will have to forgive the images of this bar. It arrived to me shiny and beautiful, but my finger prints on the bar make for a not-so-great appearance. It was snapped in 3 places as well from transport from London to Boston. Not to be blamed on my friend who brought it. It is a rather long and delicate bar of chocolate.

 

South American cocoa beans, Guanaja is a small island off the coast of Honduras.

Cocomaya 70% Guanaja Bar

Type: Bittersweet 70%

Bean Varietal: Unknown

Ingredients: Unknown. I emailed them for information. I will update this post if they decide to get back to me.

Sample size: 12in. bar

Appearance: Shiny, smooth, simple molding. Tiny flecks of sparkles on the underside of the chocolate. Deep, rich, dark brown color.

Score: 93

Snap: Good, clean snap. Clean break lines.

Score: 94

Aroma: Big nutty aroma of almonds, roasted cocoa, cinnamon, mild tobacco notes.

Score: 96

Taste: Nutty almond taste, very sweet for such a high cocoa percentage, vanilla, no acidity, a little green tasting like fresh tobacco, roasted cocoa notes. Not much else is coming through.

Score: 85

Texture: Soft and smooth, fast melt time.

Score: 94

Excellent smelling chocolate, but overall it was very sweet. Too sweet for such a high cocoa percentage. Left a cloying aftertaste from the high sugar content.

I liked the packaging as it was simple. The molding was simple and pretty with the sparkles on the underside of the bar. Very pretty over all, but too sweet to eat the entire bar.

Final Score: 92.4

score
B+

Chocri ~ Meine Shokolade Part 2

A little while ago, I found out about a create your own custom chocolate bar company called Chocri through Twitter. They began to follow me and I followed them. I eventually ordered some of my own custom creations.

They were delivered and they looked beautiful!

A few things I should note right off the bat, The order was promised by Jan. 21st. I didn't get it until the 25th. Granted, there was a weekend there, but still they send you emails of when your chocolate was made and guarantee you a timely delivery.

The only other bad thing I want to mention is that one of my bars was messed up. The Health Bar is the name of my creation and it was requested to be made with dark chocolate and even the label it was sent with said dark chocolate. It came as white chocolate. I don't like white chocolate all that much and since white chocolate is completely unhealthy, it defeats the purpose of the bar. Simple mistake I am sure, but for am $11 to $14 dollar bar of chocolate, it's very frustrating.

A small, petty detail of The Health Bar is that it also had a huge chunk of walnut on it. This is really a petty detail for me to point out, but if you happen to be allergic to nuts, then you should be careful that your custom bars might be contaminated with other ingredients you did not request. Again, I must stress that that is a petty detail to call out, but in the case of being fair and honest it must be noted.

Chocolate Ingredients:

Milk chocolate:

Sugar 50.5 % ; Cocoa mass 32.5 % ; Cocoa butter 16.5 % ; Emulsifier: soya lecithin ; Natural vanilla flavouring.

White chocolate:

Cane sugar*** 45.0 % ; Cocoa butter *** 30.0 % ; Whole milk powder *** 24.5 % ; Emulsifier: soya lecithin

*** : from organic farming in accordance to EU regulation

With the Dark chocolate, we have a special case since we mix some chocolate with less cocoa content to it, and since that such a custom mixture no one ever actually calculated the percentages other than the cocoa content (64%). Here's the dark chocolate that we use as a base:

Cocoa mass *** 61.0 % ; Cane sugar*** 26.5 % ; Cocoa mass *** 8.0 % ; Cocoa butter *** 4.0 % ; Emulsifier: soya lecithin

*** : from organic farming in accordance to EU regulation CERTISYS BE-BIO-01
*** : from organic farming in accordance to regulation USDA National Organic Program certified by CERTISYS SPRL/BVBA 

Let's get to it shall we.

First up:

Old World: Dark Chocolate (64%) with Anise, Rosemary, Sea Salt, Date Bits, and Fig Bits.

 

I was trying to gather all of the toppings that they offered that were considered old world. Anise, figs, dates, sea salt, and rosemary. They just sounded old world and sounded like they would taste good together on dark chocolate.

The dark chocolate was very tasty. The rosemary was the most flavorful, and the fig and date bits added a nice chewy texture. I barely noticed any sea salt, I think they may have forgotten it or it was barely coated with it. I think the sea salt would have added the right contrast. Overall though, it was a pretty tasty bar.

Strawberry Basil Martini: Dark Chocolate (64%) with Strawberry, Ground Chili, Basil, and Organic Mint Leaves.

 

I created this bar because Boston has been known for the Strawberry-Basil Martini. While I was in San Francisco for a food festival, a company that jars peppers, displayed their products with a Strawberry basil martini that contained muddled red peppers and garnished with a pepperocini. I decided to try and recreate that with this bar of chocolate.

This bar was messy! It looked beautiful though. Lovely red colors with hints of green from the mint. Tart strawberry bits, and dark chocolate dominate the flavors on the bar. A little bit of spicy heat on the finish as well as bit of cooling mint from the dried mint leaves. Rather dull though for the amount of ingredients in it. Still, I didn't mind eating this one either. 

Banana Nut: Milk Chocolate with Banana Chips, Cinnamon, and Walnuts.

 

This one is almost self explanatory. I was trying to make banana nut muffins or loaf bread into a chocolate bar. I wanted to try their milk chocolate as well and thought this would be the right combination for milk chocolate.

This was very tasty! Creamy and soft milk chocolate, huge chunks of walnuts bigger than anything I have ever seen before. The cinnamon added the perfect touch. The bananas added a nice crunchy texture. I liked this bar the most. It was so good.

Health Bar: Dark Chocolate (64%) with Blueberries, Cranberries, Organic Flax Seeds, Goji Berries, and mymuesli - Organic Muesli.

As I mentioned earlier, huge disappointment that this bar came in white chocolate when the ingredients called for it to be on dark chocolate. The intention for this bar was to include everything super healthy in their profile and make a super bar. White chocolate being all fat, completely nulls and voids the premise for this bar.

The white chocolate completely ruined the taste of this bar as well. I am not a big fan of white chocolate. The creamy taste of the white chocolate completely clashed with almost all of the ingredients added to this bar. I did not like this bar and was not able to finish the sample bites I snapped off.

Pretty: White Chocolate with Strawberry, Papaya Cubes, Flower Mix, Silver Pearls, and Macadamia Nuts.

I created this bar for aesthetics. I wanted something pretty to look at. I think I may have over done it a bit. The bar also came broken. But that wasn't a big deal to me as I was trying to figure out how to snap a chunk off that had the huge macadamia nut on it.

The size of the macadamia nuts were outrageous. I have never seen them that big before. Same as the walnuts on the Banana Nut bar. I think this bar would have looked better if they were smaller, but I am not going to complain that they were too big. I thought flowers and papaya cubes, and silver pearls would be gorgeous together, but it ended up being a bit too much. I still think the bar was pretty overall, but it would have been nicer if it was tweaked a bit.

The flavors were very nice on this bar. The strawberries, white chocolate, and macadamia nuts dominated the flavors, the papaya rounded out the finish. These are the kinds of flavors made for white chocolate. Even though I am not a major fan, there is still a time and a place for white chocolate. These are the kinds of ingredients for white chocolate. Crunchy texture with soft white chocolate made it balanced. Lovely flavors.

I think the idea behind these bars is a cool concept. Custom made chocolate bars from Europe delivered right to your door. These do make for a great gift idea. Anyone who is a chocolate lover will appreciate this concept.

However, they are a bit expensive and had some issues in execution. The ruined Health bar was a major fail all the across the board simply because it was meant to be dark chocolate and not white chocolate. It upset all of the other flavors. Some of the spices and flavors were not as robust as I would have hoped as noted with the Strawberry Basil Martini. Just some things to keep in mind when creating your own bars. 

Overall it is worth the risk. And I like the people behind this company. They have a donation area when ordering your bars that you can chose to donate to to help support the regions they get their chocolate beans from. This is something I can totally support. They are a young company with young people working the helms. Their customer service is fantastic too. They stayed in good contact with me to give me the ingredients, followed up with me when my bars were running late, and have stayed in contact via Twitter.

I like this company and I wish them success.

Aroa Fine Chocolate ~ Boston

Aroa Fine Chocolate
1651 Washington St.
Boston, Ma. 02118
617-425-4988

At the last minute I was emailed by a good friend Veronique Le Melle, of the Boston Center For the Arts, about a chocolate tasting happening at Aroa Fine Chocolates in the South End of Boston. I just told Veronique, over the weekend about my new hobby which is 20°N & 20°S. Come Monday there was an invite for this open house. I was so grateful to have been able to go. Wait until you see the post below to find out why I was so grateful.

Another friend of mine Robert Aguilera, my old boss from Formaggio Kitchen, had been telling me for just over a year to come over to Aroa Fine to meet the owners and the chocolatiers to get a good feel for their concept. Finally, I was able to make this happen.

Aroa organized an open house with champagne and beers with a small tour of their facility too see their machinery and tempering equipment. Anything you wanted to taste was available including truffles, pastries, chocolate dipped strawberries, and teas.

They also have tastings in their shop every Tuesday with chocolate history and sampling for only $10. Look for future beer and chocolate pairings with BeerAdvocate and Aroa Fine.

Aroa works exclusively with El Rey chocolate. El Rey is one of the bean-to-bar producers of chocolate in Venezuela working with some of the great bean regions of Venezuela. Why they chose Venezuelan chocolate.

Fair Trade via Wikipedia:

El Rey offers consumers gourmet chocolate made from fairly traded cacao beans direct from small and large-scale growers in Venezuela. El Rey has managed to eliminate all kinds of middlemen, otherwise known as “coyotes”, who pay lowest possible price to growers by establishing Aprocao a democratically run cooperative that pays above market price for its cacao beans. Their trading partners are small growers and large who deal directly with Aprocao without intermediaries. Through Aprocao El Rey teaches growers how to manage the soil in a sustainable agricultural system promoting natural cycles without chemical pesticides or fertilizers and how to ferment each cacao harvest to earn the best price.

Tim Brown is the Executive Pastry Chef hailing from Cape Town, South Africa.

Bio Via Aroa Fine website:

From South Africa to England to the United States: Tim Brown’s journey from bed boy to Executive Pastry Chef at Aroa Fine Chocolate

Most professional chefs begin learning about food at home, watching their mothers and grandmothers preparing family meals, but Tim Brown’s journey to the professional kitchen began in the misery of boot camp in the South African Army.

“It was hotter than hell,” he recalls, “and I was facing the prospect of a year of required service in the army or another military division. All I could think about was how on earth I might get out of there! Near the end of boot camp, all the sections of the military held what can only be described as a glorified career day. You name it, they were there: navy seals, the air force, paratroopers, all of them putting on their best show to attract people coming out of boot camp.

“I was sitting next to a guy from Cape Town, where I’m from, trying to figure out which of these divisions would make a year go by the fastest, when he told me about his brother, who had landed in an army kitchen and had a great time: all the food he could eat and all the milk he could drink. This intrigued me. Since food is like a currency in the army, I also had to assume that this fellow was never wanting for smokes or biltong (what Americans call jerky).

“I got up, headed over to the Catering Corp presentation, and was immediately hooked. Here was my easy way out of having to run around the bush playing soldier. I had no idea it would provide me a career that would bring me to America and Aroa Fine Chocolate.

“After boot camp, I was sent to Catering College for three months of training. It was even easier than I had expected: the food was great, there were hardly any drills, and there was no rifle to clean every night. What’s more, we could sneak over the fence at night and party until dawn.

“After some basic food and sanitation courses, to my amazement and delight I was shipped back to Cape Town rather than to some remote army post, and I landed in the Officers Mess under Sergeant Major Samuels. I didn’t realize it then, but this was the defining moment of my career, because Sergeant Major Samuels was more like a general manager of a fine hotel than an army officer. He was driven to provide the best possible service and food to resident officers and visitors, and he took me under his wing.

“That doesn’t mean I was led directly to a stove. I started out as a bed boy, making beds and polishing boots, hoping for tips from officers. When my duties were finished but my shift wasn’t over, I usually landed in the kitchen, where I would lend a hand as needed. Soon enough, Sergeant Major Samuels decided to move me into the kitchen full-time.

“In the beginning, I really did not like the actual cooking as much as the theater of the lunch or dinner rush: Waiters coming into the kitchen needing this, needing that. Chefs yelling for stewards to clean up. It was unbelievable. From where I was standing, in front of the toaster, I was getting a ‘high.’ Actually, a chef told me that the correct word for this feeling was ‘rush.’ I figured he should know, because he was a recovering addict!

“By the end of the year, Sergeant Major Samuels asked me if I wanted to stay, but I was determined to show off my new skills to every hotel and restaurant in town. He kindly arranged a job for me at a local seafood restaurant. I had never seen anything like it: volumes and volumes of food going out of the kitchen, lunch and dinner. On my first shift I must have prepared 200 pounds of French fries. That was all I was responsible for. Go downstairs and order the potatoes. Bring them up. Blanche them. Get them over to the service line thirty minutes before the start of the meal period. Listen to the chef calling out the orders. Have the fries in the right place at the right time. And don’t forget to make sure the fryer is on and the oil is hot, a lesson I learned the hard way.

“Slinging fish and chips was fun, but I knew that I needed a degree or some sort of certificate, so I took an apprenticeship at a winery outside of Cape Town. I spent the next three years been yelled at, making regular trips to the doctor for cuts, some deep and some not so deep, and learning. At the end of my apprenticeship I wanted to leave South Africa, because I thought that the food was old and boring. The culinary scene has changed vastly in the decade since I left, and now there are countless chefs with great reputations and great restaurants.

“So I moved to England to see what I could see. It was a great step for me. I saw a lot of different foods in one place. I bounced from job to job trying to experience as much as possible. My work visa was only valid for two years and time was running out rather quickly, so I decided to apply for work in English-speaking countries: Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and the United States. The Emerson Inn and Spa in upstate New York was the first to offer me work and assistance obtaining a visa, and that’s how I came to America.”

In addition to helping open Emerson, Tim has trained at the Culinary Institute of America in Poughkeepsie, New York, and at the Valrhona School of Chocolate in Hermitage, France. Prior to joining Aroa, he was the Executive Pastry Chef at the acclaimed Wheatleigh Hotel in the Berkshires and the Turnberry Isle Resort and Club in Miami, Florida.

Aroa Fine Chocolate is thrilled to have Tim Brown running its kitchen, where he is using his broad array of skills and experiences to craft El Rey Venezuelan chocolate into the finest pastries, truffles, candies, and other confections in the Boston area.

Let's get to the chocolate and pastries. Click on any picture to expand. Trust me you will want to for these pictures.

At first glance:

Hot chocolate collections.




Welcoming assortments: Hand painted chocolate lollipops in the shapes of shamrocks and lobsters, chocolate dipped strawberries, and some left over Valentine's day heart lollipops.

 

 

Whoopie pies, chocolate dipped Madeleines, and lime salt caramels.





Lovely pastries.




These were probably my favorite of the night. Pate de Fruit's made with Guava, Cassis (black currents), and Passion Fruit. They were so soft and not overly chewy. They went fabulously with the free-flowing champagne. Also pictured is their chocolate dipped dried apricots.







Production line and tempering machines. Dark, white, and milk.

Melanie, the gracious pastry chef and tour guide though their various truffles.

Truffle tastings: Mexican and Vanilla, Stout (made with Guinness).






Bourbon (Jim Beam) and Port Wine.







Various Truffles.









Macaroons.





And as a parting gift, Melanie had given me a taste of their Earl Grey and Peanut-butter and Jelly truffle. In the gift bag included more information about Aroa Fine along with a Rio Caribe 60% semisweet bar, El Rey tasting kit, and another small box of truffles.









This was an amazing little open house. The folks at Aroa Fine Chocolate are very generous, informative, nice, and thrilled to have the opportunity to talk to new people about their products. Everything I tasted, I loved. I highly recommend this place. I just wish I new about it before the BeerAdvocate Extreme Beer Festival last weekend. I would have sent festival attendees and brewers in droves over to this place.

I had a good time as well, talking to David Goldstein of Boston Chocolate Tours. He usually starts his tours of the South End with Aroa Fine.

What a great evening with chocolate and new friends in the industry.

Elbow and Kakao Truffles Made With Patric 70% Madagascar Cacao

70% Madagascar cacao from Patric Chocolate made in to truffles and bon bon's by Kakao Chocolates and Christopher Elbow, specially released for Valentine's Day.

I ordered these right away when Alan McClure of Patric Tweeted that there were a few orders left. Alan had previously sent me his whole profile of bars and drinking chocolate (reviews still to come), and knowing that these truffles were made with Madagascar beans, I jumped all over it. I have been a major fan of Madagascar beans lately.




I must say, I was rather disappointed with the condition of the Elbow chocolates. They arrived at my apt. last week. I opened them and that was the condition they came in as pictured above. I am usually less critical of chocolate appearance, but in this case, what a disappointment. They lost their luster, were not shiny, blotchy, sunken in a little bit, and some of them were cracked. And it wasn't just one box of the Elbow. I bought two of each from Elbow and Kakao. Both boxes of Elbow looked like that.






The packaging though for Elbow was fantastic. For the Kakao truffles, it was a little basic in plastic wrap with little to protect the truffles. Interesting that they held up better than the Elbow truffles.

The Kakao truffles smelled like wood and citrus. So much citrus the nose was astringent. The Elbow bon bons smelled more buttery. Softer and more delicate cocoa notes with hints of wood and citrus as well.

The Kakao truffles were soft in texture, tangy with big citrus flavors, slight hints of wood, a bright cherry finish. Lingering spiciness.

Excellent!

The Elbow bon bon's were very soft. Soft texture and taste. Tastes like rich roasted cocoa, wood, cherries, and creamy butter, slightly tangy but not astringent. Very delicate and nuanced.

Excellent again!

Next time Patric, Elbow, or Kakao announce the release of these special truffles and bon bons, make sure you order yours right away. Hopefully they will come in better condition than mine came in, but if it's the taste that is all that matters, then you will be blown away by these rich and decadent offerings. Once again Madagascar beans proving to be my favorite.

Update: I just received an email from Alan McClure of Patric Chocolates with amazing customer service offering to refund me my money for the state of the Elbow truffles. I refused of course because these truffles were simply amazing. I ate them and was happy to have had them. But it was worth noting the level of customer service Patric Chocolates will go to to make sure their customers are happy.

British Chocolate Invasion

 

A few weeks ago, I contacted a good friend of mine named Angelo, who lives in London, to "pretty please, with sprinkles on top" bring me back a collection of chocolate from some of the shops in London. He was coming out to visit Boston for our BeerAdvocate Extreme Beer Festival. I figured it would be a great way to save myself individual ordering and shipping costs.

Well, he certainly completed the mission and now I really don't know what to do with myself. I already have about 25 bars of chocolate in a queue up for review. I can't say my life is hard. I won't allow anyone to pity me. No, don't. Do not feel bad for me.

Long chocolate Bar from CocoMaya.

 

Chocolate stiring cubes and chocolate bars from Melt.

 

Melange Chocolate flavored chocolate strips. Not even bars, but rather delicate, thin straps of chocolate.

 

Paul A. Young chocolate bars.

 


Willie's World Class Cacao chocolate bars.

 

William Curley chocolate bars.

Demarquette chocolate bars.


 

 
 



Montezuma's Organic chocolate bars.

Rococo chocolate bars.

A single bar from The Grenada Chocolate Company.

Theobroma Cacao Single Origin buttons.

And this is going in the garbage because this household supports Tottenham Hotspur!

 

Thank you Angelo, for spending a lot of pounds to keep me busy for a while! 20°N & 20°S fans thank you too!

Camille Bloch ~ Three Flavors

 

The other half of my Swiss chocolate collection brought back to me from my husband after a stop over in Geneva. The first two reviews were of Villars, another large named, good reputation Swiss chocolate company.

I don't have a grade scale set up for flavored chocolates like this. Each one will get a grade based on what I think it should get. 

From the Karger Gazette:

From Bern to Courtelary: on the winding road to success

Camille Bloch, the firm’s founder, moved his small enterprise into an empty paper factory in Courtelary in 1935. He had become a chocolate manufacturer in 1929 when, after selling chocolate for Tobler, he bought up machinery from A.W. Lindt in Bern, who were closing down. But rents in Bern were high, and so, with his son Rolf – the future director – in the back seat, he drove up into the countryside looking for new premises. His choice also fell on Courtelary because the Swiss watch industry, which is largely based in the canton Jura, had been strongly hit by the Depression, and many of the region’s inhabitants were out of work. A chocolate factory was a welcome, if not quite usual, source of employment.
In 1935, the firm had a turnover of about CHF 0.5 million. Seventy-five years later, the annual turnover is CHF 50 million (USD 40 million). The company today employs 150 people and annually produces 2700 tonnes of chocolate.

Read more about Camile Bloch from the Karger Gazette here.

Chocolat Mousse Noir 60%

Swiss dark chocolate with a chocolate mousse filling.

100g or 3.5oz.

Ingredients: Cocoa mass, sugar, hazelnuts, vegetable fat, cocoa butter, almonds, soya flour, whole milk powder, low fat cocoa powder (2%), melted butter, skimmed milk powder, soy lecithin, vanilla, vanillin.

Shiny, soft chocolate pod squares filled with what is supposed to be a soft mousse filling. Instead it was dried up and powdery. It as a milky taste at first but the dark chocolate is rich, sweet, and lingers on the palate. Very European with the milky quality. 

The mousse filling has hazelnuts and almonds listed in the ingredients, but is no overwhelming in flavor. A beginning pop of hazelnuts, but the dark chocolate quickly covers it.

I like the dark chocolate, even if it is milky and sweeter then what I am used to, but the mousse filling was a real let down being completely dried out. Perhaps if I had this right from the factory it might be a different story. But who knows how long it takes to get powdery. It had an expiration date set for August, 2010. Maybe it leaves the factory that way.

score
D

Cognac Noir 60%

Swiss dark chocolate with cognac filling. 

100g or 3.5oz

Ingredients: Cocoa mass, sugar, glucose syrup, Cognac (10%), cocoa butter, dextrose, water, soy lecithin, vanilla, vanillin. 

 

The filling was disappointing. It tasted fantastic with rich chocolate and cognac flavors, a little ester-y heat from the cognac too. But the filling was weak as all of the pods were warped and poorly filled up.

The chocolate also has a very generic quality to it. Not as milky or creamy as the Mousse Noir, but this chocolate doesn't have the milk powders in the ingredients. Even if they had to use syrup to help sustain the liquor center, there should have been enough to have an ample filling. None of the pods were full. Again it makes me wonder, what were these like right from the production line?

score
D+

Ragusa Noir 60%

Dark Chocolate confectionery with truffle filling and whole hazelnuts.

100g or 3.5oz

Ingredients: Sugar, hazelnuts, cocoa mass, vegetable fat, whole milk powder, low fat cocoa powder, soya flour, cocoa butter, melted butter, soy lecithin, vanilla, vanillin.

Via their website:

Ragusa is the undisputed leader product from the house of Camille Bloch. A bar of the finest chocolate with praline filling and whole hazelnuts. Originally born from an emergency situation – the admixture of hazelnuts came about because of the shortage of raw materials in Switzerland during the Second World War – Ragusa is our supreme, classic product.

People just love Ragusa NOIR. With its unmistakable taste. And with its strong flavour of cocoa (60%) – Ragusa NOIR is manufactured according to the original recipe but contains 20% more cocoa beans than the classic Ragusa.

 

 

This is much better than the previous tasted chocolates. It's a kind of gianduja filling, or a hazelnut filling and it has a nice flavor. The filling would be bland without the hazelnuts. However, the actual hazelnuts are skimpy and sparse. They are more for decorating the sides than they are for actual texture in the chocolate.

The texture is soft and creamy and melts fabulously in your mouth. The texture and hazelnuts really save this from being dismal.

score
C+

One disappointment I have, is all the crap that gets put into mass produced chocolate. Unfortunately Camille Bloch is no different. Powdered milks, and vanilla flavorings. At least as far as these three go, they don't have added chemical emulsifiers aside from soy lecithin. Soy Lecithin runs the risk of being genetically modified, and some people may be allergic, but over all it is a harmless emulsifier.

It has fancy box packaging, but the product itself just doesn't do this company any favors. It would be interesting with the sort of history Camille Bloch, has to taste the old recipes before any chemical additives were invented.

I have to say that over all, these were not very good chocolates. Poor quality with the fillings, mass produced, generic tastes on the chocolate. Such a shame for a company with a long standing history and reputation. This is chocolate you would send to someone who doesn't know any better about chocolate.

Bear Chocolate RRRAWWWRRRRR

While at Grizzly's Gifts gift shop in Anchorage, Alaska, I found these two bars of chocolate. They looked cute and I decided to take them home with me.

These aren't the best chocolates for review. I am going to tag them with one general grade that I think they deserve but I am not going to give them the full treatment. They are just fun chocolate from a gift shop that have awesome packaging.

 

The Grizzly Bar

Milk Chocolate, 3oz or 85g

Ingredients: sugar, cocoa mass, cocoa butter, whole milk powder, soya lecithin and Polyglycerol Polyricinoleate (emulsifiers), vanillin (artificial flavor.)

Big nose of hazelnuts and cream. Creamy and smooth texture, fast melt time, rich, milky taste. A little waxy tasting on the finish.

score
C-

The Black Bar

Dark Chocolate, 3oz or 85g

Ingredients: Sugar, cocoa mass, cocoa butter, cocoa mass, processed with alkali, soya lecithin, salt, vanilla extract.

Soft nose, little bit of tobacco,creamy and milky, nutty. Same nutty taste, sweet, cocoa, no bitterness or astringency. Just a fairly generic bar of dark chocolate. Kid stuff because it's so sweet, but I kind of liked the sweetness.

score
C-

Generic gift shop chocolate. Nothing to write home about, but then again I didn't buy these for the chocolate. I bought them for the packaging.