The 5 Stages of Dessert

Denial
I haven't eaten too much; of course I can eat dessert.

Anger
Why was the main so big? How could anyone possibly have dessert after that?!

Bargaining
If I go for a long walk after, then I'll be able to have dessert.

Depression
There's no way I could eat dessert.

Acceptance
I may never be able to move again...

Well, after a bit of a chocolate holiday we're back to the taste testing.

L'Artisan du Chocolate makes these stunning little salted caramels



They look like chocolate pearls and taste divine. The pink and black pepper is a lovely combination, but I'm not sure the lemongrass really works as it seems to overpower the chocolate slightly. Still, if you're after a surprise taste in the middle of your chocolate the lemongrass will do that for you. Overall the salted caramels rate as some of the best chocolate I've ever tasted.

If you are lucky enough to live nearby you can pop in and get a small mixed box, otherwise you will be forced to buy a box of single flavour salted caramels or succumb to temptation and buy a much larger box. Which would be such a shame, wouldn't it? All that luscious caramel melting slowly in your mouth... Go on. You know you want to.

Speaking of temptation, next time I order from them I'll want to try some of their chocolate pearls, designed to look like they come fresh from the South Seas complete with that pearly gleam. Can't wait to try them!

Thyme for a new review

NewTree are a Belgian chocolate company claiming to have, in their own words,

"devised in 2001 a new approach to chocolate: the alliance between gastronomy and health."

Yes. Well it would have to be their own words as I don't think I could come up with anything quite so ballsy. The term they carefully avoided there was 'nutraceutical' and NewTree are far from the first to come up with the idea. But perhaps they weren't aware of that. Let's give them the benefit of the doubt and assume they didn't have internet access in Belgium in 2001.

According to the American Nutraceutical Association,

"The term "nutraceutical" was coined from "nutrition" and "pharmaceutical" in 1989 by Stephen DeFelice, MD, founder and chairman of the Foundation for Innovation in Medicine (FIM), Cranford, NJ. According to DeFelice, 'A nutraceutical is any substance that is a food or a part of a food and provides medical or health benefits, including the prevention and treatment of disease."

Meaning as a science "the alliance between gastronomy and health' has been studied in earnest since at least 1989. But it actually goes back a lot further than that. There was this Greek guy, name of Hippocrates, who said "Let food be your medicine and medicine be your food." He was a bit ahead of New Tree. He came up with the idea around 2400 years ago.

Anyway. Leaving aside my quibbling with their marketing people (who should all be fired), let's have a look at one of their chocolate offerings.

Thyme is from NewTree's Alpha range, designed around the 'health-giving' properties of Omega 3. Supposedly Omega 3 helps protect us from everything from heart disease to antisocial behaviour in teenagers. That's quite a reputation to live up to. The Omega 3 in NewTree's Alpha Thym comes from 'golden roasted flax seeds', which is lucky really. As adventurous as I am with chocolate I'm not sure I'm up to eating salmon-flavoured bars.

This block of chocolate also contains 'fragrant thyme'. Except that it doesn't. If you read the list of ingredients it actually only contains 'natural thyme flavouring'. Hmmm? Is natural thyme flavouring as 'healthful' as the real thing? I suspect not.

For reasons unexplained it also contains puffed rice.

No. I can't figure that one out either.

So how does this all-singing, all-dancing, healthier-than-thou chocolate taste?

The chocolate and thyme combination is a little unusual but certainly not unpleasant. I don't think it really blended well though, and I was left with the impression of chocolate and thyme, not thyme chocolate. One taste slightly after the other.

The chocolate itself is not very sweet which is the way I prefer it. Despite there being no diary in this tablet the texture was quite creamy which I attribute to the soy lecithin. The texture was slightly spoiled for me by the flax seeds being present rather than being ground into the chocolate, however this was minor issue. But those rice puffs really got in the way of a good chocolate sensation. I just cannot understand what they are doing there.

Overall I'd rate this chocolate as 'Meh'. Not great, but not terrible either. Did it improve my 'heart, mind, and overall mood'? The jury is still out on that one. Although this post may contain a few clues.

Daisee.


P.S.
NewTree? Get rid of the cheesy new age music on your home page. And I'm serious about your marketing squad.

Raspberry flavoured water-based chocolates

They were a little dry. This might be more due to the fact that I waited over a week to taste after buying, than to any inherent quality of the chocolate.

The raspberry flavouring was very interesting. It was in lumps throughout the chocolate. Also, if you look closely, you may be able to determine that bubble wrap was used for the mould.

According to the stall operator at the chocolate festival, they do not subsequently lick clean, or so much as burst, the bubble wrap. And they think they know how to have fun!?

Like Water For Chocolate

No, not the book of the same name, but Damian Allsop's delicious CH2OCOLATES.

Damian was demonstrating his techniques for making dairy-free chocolate mousse at the Southbank Center Chocolate Festival a few weeks ago. I just missed out on tasting some as the queue for samples was so long after the workshop finished that they ran out of spoons, but I couldn't resist buying a box of the water ganache.

Damian claims to have discovered that using diary products in ganache alters the flavour. He therefore worked long and hard to find a way to create ganaches using water rather than the traditional cream.

The results are a stunning set of flavours. I didn't feel the 'Olive Oil' chocolate combination really worked, but was pleasantly surprised by the 'Basil Leaf' ganache, which might work well at the end of a meal for those who prefer their sweets less sweet.

Of the rest, it goes without saying the raspberry was my favourite, but we all know I'm biased there. The 'Peanut Crunch' and 'Salty Liquorice' were moreish, but the biggest surprise for me was the 'Pear Aniseed'. I hate aniseed. I really do. Never did like it even as a child, so I was expecting to be spitting it out and tried it with a great deal of caution. But here, the combination of pear, aniseed and chocolate was lovely and the aniseed was not in the least overpowering, so much so that I've decided to throw caution to the wind from here on in and try more aniseed flavoured items in future.

So there you go. If you give Mr Allsop's water ganache a try, in addition to having a pleasant chocolate experience he might even change your mind about flavours that had long since fallen out of your favour.

From the chocolate festival

I was waiting to post about the strawberry until I'd tried the violet, and now I'm glad I did. The strawberry was a little too sweet (although much better than strawberry often is) but the chocolate was a little dry. But the violet - superb. The chocolate was much more moist, and the violet centre was unbelievably good.

Fashionably dark

Co Couture.

How could I not try these with a name like that?

I bought a small box of the dark chocolate gold collection. Each chocolate was a little larger than I prefer, which is minor quibble. The dark chocolate coating was very dark, just what I like in my chocolates, but had a slightly waxy feel to it. That could be that I left them too long before trying. Clearly I will have to buy some more, just to measure against the baseline...

I was most impressed with the sort of caramelly-fudge filling. Not too sweet, and with a great texture.

Sadly, their website is currently an advert only, although they state they are working on a webstore. Best bet is to contact them via their website to find your local stockist.

If only they'd given me chocolate before math in high school!

According to a report in Confectionary News,

"researchers at the UK's Northumbria university found the high level of cocoa flavanols anchored in chocolate improved cognitive performance in arithmatic tests. "

“Foods containing high levels of cocoa flavanols, found in chocolate, have been shown to increase cerebral blood flow, and...."

blah, blah, blah, some other stuff,

said Crystal Haskell at the Brain, Performance and Nutrition Research centre at Northumbria university,

Obviously my deficiency in flavanols explains why I am drinking so much cocoa these days.

I was particularly delighted by this paragraph:

Commenting on the findings Professor David Kennedy from Northumbria university added: “The results presented in the symposium show that medicinal herbal extracts and plant-derived chemical compounds from common foodstuffs can also improve cognitive performance and mood.”

They're just figuring this out now?

Flavanol-rich chocolate drink helps maths performance

Betraying my geek heritage

I so want some of these:

If anyone wishes to donate to my chocolate fund they can be purchased at Hotel Chocolat.

Zero-calorie chocolate inhaler

When I first read about Le Whiff I assumed it was an April Fool's joke. I'm still not entirely convinced it isn't.

But this blog is all about combining chocolate and geekery, and what could be more appropriate than a chocolate inhaler? So I shall dutifully report it, and you can all fall about laughing when it turns out my first instincts were correct.

If not, we can sit back and marvel for a moment that we live in an age where such things are possible.

Check back here later to find out if my redness of face is from embarrassment or from chocolate-induced hyperventilation.

Raspberry, Strawberry or Violet Creams

Artistry In Cocoa were at the Southbank Centre. Their chocolates were so popular they ran out of the raspberry creams.

However they were still making up samples and sales bags for customers so they suggested we come back in 20 minutes, by which time their violet creams should be set enough to try. This caused my fellow chocolateer to nearly swoon - she is apparently quite fond of violet creams.

When we returned, they not only had the violet creams available, but also a strawberry variety, and they had managed to hunt down the last remaining two raspberry creams which I instantly nabbed. We both left satisfied with our purchases.

All three flavours were slightly sweet but deliciously traditional.

Chocolate @ The Southbank Centre

The Southbank Centre in London held its first 'Festival of Chocolate' last weekend.

We went, we wandered, we sat down and pondered. Then we went round again and bought ourselves chocolates.

The sun shone down which ordinarily would have been extremely welcome in London, but on this occasion was clearly causing problems for those exhibiting their wares - chocolate and warm sun don't mix well.

The only slight let down was the small number of exhibitors. I'm hopeful the festival will be repeated next year, with more chocolatiers showcasing their talents, and perhaps one or two temperature controlled display cases in which to place chocolate sculptures.

Black Magic Hazelnut Praline

A little oily, but very tasty. Warning: this may be biased as I am a sucker for praline.

In Loving Memory

of the Grapefruit & Ginger Canape I had from Hotel Chocolat, and never managed to find again. We'll always have Surbiton!