It may have taken me over a year, but I’ve almost finished reviewing the squillion Vosges chocolates that my brother brought back for me from America. (You can find all of the previous reviews here.) In fact, after today’s review, I’ll only have the Cherry Rooibos bar left. It’s been a hard slog, I’ll tell you that.
Today’s post marks a special event in the Wayfaring Chocolate Universe, as the lovely E.Moonbeams has graciously contributed her thoughts at the bottom of the review too. Thank you E.Moonbeams!
Vosges Amalfi Bar
The Vosges Amalfi Bar is comprised of white chocolate with an impressive 36% cocoa butter, lemon zest (and lemon oil), pink peppercorns, and pretty packaging in which the peppercorns look like sequins and the lemon zest like brightly coloured streamers. Sequins and streamers, you say? Why yes, it is my birthday in eight days!
Queen of Subtlety, that’s me.
The creamy buttery colour of this chocolate was a testament to its high-quality-high-proportion cocoa butter, and the flecks of vibrant pink showed that the peppercorns were no shrinking violet. (Metaphorical violet, literal pink… s’all good.) The aroma of this bar was noticeably sweet and less like straight lemon than a Lemon Delicious Pudding, which is one of my favourite desserts of all time.
As I started to nibble the Amalfi Bar, my first thoughts were positive. The flavour was more lemon zest than lemon juice, with the almost-bitter citrus edge playing well against the muted golden syrup, custard, and clotted cream notes of the white chocolate itself.
All of a sudden, though, I found myself biting down on a whole pink peppercorn. In a split second, my thoughts shifted from “lovely lemon cocoa butter zesty custard good” to “hot spicy strong STEAK STEAK STEAK GET IT OUT OF MY CHOCOLATE GET IT OUT”.
It seems my brain equates pink peppercorns with steaks covered in creamy peppercorn sauce (which I couldn’t have eaten more than a handful of times as a child). Unfortunately, this brain connection marked the end of the line for Vosges Amalfi Bar and me.
Because of my inability to dissociate peppercorns from steak, I decided to trick E.Moonbeams into contributing her thoughts to this review. Take it away, E.Moonbeams!
Hannah told me not to overthink this: Hannah recently introduced me to chocolate. Not in a ‘very first time’ kind of way, but in a ‘chocolate ain’t chocolate’ kind of way. Before meeting Hannah I would have been quite content nibbling on some crusty white-around-the edges Easter egg, but now I feel the need to break my gleaming fair trade, dark chocolate, notes of blackberry and asphalt block in two, placing the halves atop each other ‘just so’ whilst marvelling at its textured side profile for a while.
I don’t know if that made sense.
Anyway, now Hannah places me under immense pressure when she brings chocolate into work. She says ‘E.Moonbeams, try this chocolate! It’s made of camel milk! It’s raw! It’s Russian! This is the chocolate Napoleon would have eaten if he were a bit strapped for cash…and there was nothing else going! Lemme know what you think’. So this happened yesterday with this white/pink spotty chocolate. And then she said: ‘write me some tasting notes!’ So here they are! This chocolate tastes like lemon! And pepper! You wouldn’t think it would work but it does! I couldn’t eat too much of it because I only like my chocolate white if it went that way in the process of decaying, and because it was a bit too fancy for my mouth. But it was good, and you should get some into ya.
So there you are. This chocolate doesn’t really taste like steak. And, as a bonus, you can now see why I love this E.Moonbeams lady with an inordinate amount of my heart and soul.
Thank you, I now know what to do with the abundance of lemons that our tree is about to give us – lemon pepper chicken and lemon delicious!
P.S. I know it’s probably rude to point out a typo but I like the image that a metaphorically violent pink peppercorn conjures.
P.P.S. raw, Russian, Napoleonic, camel milk chocolate – E.Moonbeams, you are amazing!
I want an abundant lemon tree! And an abundant fig tree! And an abundant maple syrup tree! And an abundant pug puppy tree!
P.S. Thank you!! Please, please always tell me of typos; I personally don’t find it rude and always want people to tell me, as I’m a fanatical editor/proof-reader myself
P.P.S. She’s not lying about half of those chocolates, but you’ll have to wait to see which ones
And yes, she is amazing.
you know what? i think i would still like this steak chocolate you speak of. I need some more vosges in my life.
Heidi xo
The closest I can suggest (and, perhaps, one day give you) is Vosges Mo’s Bacon Bar. Bacon is almost steak, right?
I’ve never had steak so wouldn’t be able to comment on the peppercorn-steak relationship. I have heard it’s very good.
But I have memories of putting lemon-pepper seasoning on my sunny-side up eggs during breakfast as a kid so maybe that’s where this would transport me to…
I can see why you like the lady – she is joyous
Personally I can live without steak, but *shrugs* some people love it!
I was always a tabasco-on-my-eggs kind of girl. And oh yes, E.Moonbeams makes my days much brighter!
Ew pink peppercorns? No way. Lemon zest + white chocolate= good, steak-bad bad bad.
I like E.Moonbeams!
I like her too. Just a little
You didn’t even edit it! What a gem you are! Thanks for giving me some airtime on your fabuloso blog, and thank you, lovely patrons of Hannah’s blog for your kind comments. See you next week dear heart! X
If I am a gem, then you are an entire bejewelled necklace, my darling one! Thank you for allowing me to showcase your incredibleness on my blog
xoxo
P.S. I know it makes me a bad person, but I’m so glad you’re being forced to stay longer.
This is a tough thing to write but I’ve found, in recent years, that I do like white chocolate, especially when it has ingredients, cocoa content and quality like this one. Want!
Not tough at all! I actually prefer good quality white chocolate to normal milk chocolate, and hold no truck with people who snobbishly say it isn’t chocolate (unless it uses veg oil instead of cocao butter. Then I agree).
Beautiful review, times two – I think you need to make E. Moonbeams a regular contributor (in addition to yourself, of course, not instead of). I don’t like white chocolate as a rule, but I was enjoying the sound of this until the steak appeared. Not what I look for in my chocolate
Bahaha, had an image of you forcing me to hand over my admin password to E.Moonbeams for a second there. I’d love to get her to contribute more often. Let’s see if we can twist her arm
Ooh I’ve got a new name for you (meant in the nicest way of course)… Chocolate Evangelist!
I’ll take that. Puuuuuuu-rayse chocolate!
I can see why you are so very fond of E.Moonbeams. She is an awesome lady indeed! I don’t eat much white chocolate, but this would be interesting to try.
The most awesome of the awesomes
I’m so glad you all agree!
what a great team effort – your pink peppercorns = steak was slightly disturbing because I never had pepper steak but had a friend with a love of all things spicy who used to tell me how eye wateringly hot it was! But I am sure it wouldn’t remind me of steak and other than your comparison to lemon delicious pud which I hate – I thought it sounded very interesting and it was good to get some affirmation of this from E Moonbeams as well as hearing that she writes so well she really needs her own blog
Oops, I never found pepper steak hot! I’ve got a pretty high tolerance for spice and heat though
Oh Johanna, how can anyone hate lemon delicious pudding? Probably in much the same way I hate anything orange-flavoured, actually 
I was going to say ‘how can anyone hate orange flavored chocolate,’ but you beat me to it:)
Never let it be said I’m not fully aware of my own special brand of crazy
I really wish they’d left out the peppercorns. They make the bar look pretty, but it ruins the delightful lemon-white chocolate balance. Instead, they should make it pretty with grapefruit zest.
Maybe I should go work for Vosges.
Me too! We’d both be able to lay down some smack and fix up the flavours that work only in theory, not in taste.
Hmm, yeah it’s hard for me to imagine what the white peppercorns taste like mixed in a base of cocoa butter…..and lemon zest……but i am thoroughly intrigued and would totally try it out!!
So, you’ll be popping by sometime this weekend to try a few squares at my place?
Are you really allowed to keep chocolate sitting around for a year???
Who’s gonna stop me?
Its so true that some of our eating experiences growing up can influence how we see an ingredient when put in a different context. Good thy EMoonbeam lady did not make the correlation too, pink peppercorn saved!!
E.Moonbeams always saves the day, no matter the context
White chocolate and lemon zest is a BIG yes for sure but peppercorn? I guess it looks rather picky and although I have nver had steak, I can’t seem to wrap my head round it!
Thanks for guesting E.Moonbeams! She is awesome
Cheers
CHoc CHip Uru
I’m so glad you liked hearing her piece! I’ll have to try and get her to write here more often
I love white chocolate so much I’ve been known to eat it until I’m literally sick. I think the lemon zest would work really well but like you, I’m not sure about the pink peppercorns. I know you can buy chocolate with chilli but I’ve not seen peppercorns before. Maybe they’d work better in a really dark, bitter chocolate.
I eat ‘most everything sweet until I’m sick
I’ve tried a few different chocolates (even quite dark ones) with peppercorns and must admit that my heart still lies with chilli for the spice option. Something about the flavour of pink peppercorns just doesn’t sit well with me, I think!
Hello Hannah,
Being the undisputed expect of awesome chocolate, where should I go to purchase the best dark chocolate in Melbourne? My usual mix of Raw Earth and Green’s isn’t keeping me interested anymore
Sad times, I know.
Oh Sophie, I’m all a-flutter because I don’t want to lose my chocolate crown, and yet as I don’t live in Melbourne I don’t know much about its chocolate stockists! I know that the food hall of David Jones has Valhrona for an exorbitant amount of money (my favourite is the Guanaja, followed by Caraibe), and I’ve stumbled across some interesting blocks in various gourmet/health stores, but I unfortunately don’t know names clearly. I’ll see if my brother can remember where he’s found some of the nice bars he’s bought for me in Melbourne
Oh dear, I did not mean to put you under undue stress! I will check out the food hall for now while I wait for an update
Teehee, not stress, more just annoyance at myself for not knowing the chocolate hotspots in every city
I clearly need to do more purely-chocolate-focused travel…
Sounds like something I’d somehow like to try. Wild! I saw some adventurous chocolate in the supermercato last night and thought of you!
That makes my heart so very, very happy. There is nothing greater than invading someone’s brain when chocolate appears in the line of sight
Wow, that was an amazing amount of chocolate your brother bought back for you! Not too sure about pink peppercorns, either!
He is a very, very generous fellow indeed
Yes, without the peppercorns this chocolate would have been lovely! Sadface.
Wow these chocolates seriously look cute! I love the drawings on them, sort of reminds me of Tim Burton…for some odd reason. That’s a LOT of peppercorns though, not something I like too much
I find your blog and you to be most lovely so I have awarded you the One Lovely Blog award my friend
Much deserved!
Check it out here: http://gobakeyourself.wordpress.com/2012/05/20/rich-berry-cherry-chocolate-cheesecake-a-guest-post/
Congrats!
Choc Chip Uru
Oh golly, thank you so much! What a lovely honour
Yeah E.Moonbeams! Love your work. And I know the feeling entirely, whenever I see particularly good chocolate, I think of Hannah.
Hannah – does this mean your birthday is on the 25th or the 26th? Because I…can’t…count so good.
Squee! Your comment makes me dance around! (Actually, it was No Rain coming on iTunes that made me dance around, but *then* I read this and continued dancing for a moment. So it is true, after all.)
I quit Maths at the end of year 11, so I also can’t count so good. But, in the spirit of being a good answerererer, the 26th
Ah, this is where my bike streamers and ribbons have gone. They’ve paraded across the water to help you celebrate your birthday!
Another strike against Vosges, I suppose. And hopefully, E.Moonbeams, a strike against bloomed chocolate? Please?
What kind and thoughtful ribbons!
There really aren’t very many middling Vosges chocolates, are there? They seem to be either fantastic, or truly bleurgh/apathy-creating.
Hah, more chocolate reviews from E.Moonbeams, please! (Not that I don’t love your rambly ramblings too.)
Don’t worry, I get sick of my rambly ramblings too. I’ll definitely be encouraging E.Moonbeams to make herself known here more often
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I don’t know about this one. It’s not quite the bacon (unestimably gross), but I can see where the peppercorn steak idea came from.
There are far, far better Vosges bars to go for. I want the Habana one again; I’ve only ever had it once…
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