Today’s chocolates come to you courtesy of The Polka Dot Bride, Emma, who also instigated the Sticky Fingers vegan brownie experience of last month.
Of course, when I say “come to you”, what I really mean is that they came to me, because let’s be honest: while you might be presently reading about these chocolates*, I’m the one who got to enjoy tasting them.
And oh, the enjoyment.
Ethiquable Chocolat Noir Café Cardamome / Dark Chocolate with Coffee and Cardamom
Adding a dash of ground cardamom to my coffee as it brews has long been one of my ways of creating excitement on a dull morning (what can I say? I’m a wild child. Watch out, world!), so I was thrilled to find Ethiquable’s 68% dark chocolate with coffee and cardamom in my package from Antwerp-via-Emma. Ethiquable Chocolate is certified fairtrade and organic, with the cacao and coffee beans in this bar coming from the CEPICAFÉ and CEPROAA cooperatives in Peru.
If you can read French (hi Camille!), then you can find out more here. However, my high school French is limited to such phrases as “J’adore les chameaux”, so I’m going to step right on over to the chocolate review part of this post.
The aroma of this chocolate had strong spice notes, but I’d hesitate to proclaim that the cardamom was definitive. I do love me some spice, though, so the aroma was certainly appealing. I took a bite, and from the first crisp snap tasted vanilla, sweet caramel, and then whizzbang! cardamom! there you are!
The coffee wasn’t overpowering; in fact, it contributed more smokiness than true coffee intensity. The flavour of the Café Cardamome bar swirled with dark smoky butterscotch notes, toasted pralines, molasses, and an ebbing undercurrent of cardamom.
Loved it.
Ethiquable Chocolat Noir Badiane Sesame / Dark Chocolate with Sesame and Star Anise
Following on from the success of Ethiquable’s coffee and cardamom dark chocolate, I felt confident that its 64% dark chocolate with sesame seeds and star anise would be equally, if not more, delicious.
Unlike the aromatic ambiguity of the first chocolate, this Chocolate Noir Badiane Sesame sent forth a strong scent of star anise. The taste was equally forthcoming in intense herbal anise notes, with the crisp-fresh-crunchy interludes of sesame providing a fun respite from the rich intensity of the dark chocolate and star anise flavours.
The chocolate itself was quite sweet, with flavours of toffee, pears, and caster sugar balancing the smoky woodsy nutty incense-and-antique-store-esque seductive gorgeousness of the sesame and star anise.
Dear Emma: please come visit me in Canada soon so I can thank you for these wonderful chocolates in person. Love, Hannah.
* Unless you’re my grandma, because she’s told me many times that she doesn’t read my chocolate posts. Fair enough, I say. It’s not like I’d ever be interested in reading about, say, the mechanical intricacies of a lawn mower^.
^ My grandma doesn’t write about lawn mowers, by the by. However, she does edit dictionaries, which is awesome. No, I really mean that. She knows All The Words.
You rewarded me for catching up on my backlog of WayChoc posts with… another post! Yippeee!
I can see a cardamom bar in my future, I love it that much….. I’m just saying.
It sounds like your grandma IS the dictionary! Sounds like a fun Halloween costume, though thesaurus would be more up my alley.
Exactly! This was all for you! Well, it was for AN Emma. Not quite you-Emma, but let’s be generous and call this is a post for all Emmas everywhere. Yep.
You could be a combined dictionary and thesaurus. I had/owned/had access to a few of those.
Wow, your Grandma sounds like a trooper
All the Words.
Misty just stole and tipped out a whole jar of star anise (and sprinkled it round the house) SO I am actually smelling it as I read this – kind of perfect really (yet messy and annoying)
Aromatic, yet painful for the unsuspecting feetsies.
Great to see so much more fairtrade chocolates overseas
I’d never have thought about pairing sesame and star anise together, and in chocolate!
I hope I can get these from overseas
They look divine!
Cheers
Choc Chip Uru
Oh gosh, she knows all the words? When you read my latest post you will realise why that would fill me with more than a little fear! I come from a line of librarians (well, two) but they do concede to not knowing all linguistic intricacies.
This is distracting me, though, from the actual chocolate, which trumps the words and most certainly trumps lawnmowers. I don’t usually like coffee in chocolate but do like spices, so I’d be interested to see how I found a coffee and cardamom mix. Chocolate and sesame, well, I’m pretty certain I would love that.
Lastly (embarrassingly.long.comment), I nominated you for a Liebster Award if you ever need something else to post about (unlikely I know)
I don’t think that ever in my life have I been at dinner with my parents and grandparents and not had a rant about the devolution of our language/pronunciation/grammar come up. We love The Words in my family.
I could barely taste coffee, but perhaps if you don’t like it in the first place, you’d be more sensitive.
Teehee, thanks! I’ve generally stopped doing awards as (not meaning to sound vain!) they tend to go around and around and around, but I truly truly appreciate that you thought of me! I always feel so honoured to be mentioned
And, as you say, I’m so behind in posting!
P.S. Long comments are golden. x
I think I’d love to listen to those conversations, even if I was terrified to open my mouth
Lordy be, I have no idea what “J’adore les chameaux” means! I’d better look it up! And grandma probably plays a mean game of Scrabble no?
It means I love camels. Best Year Nine presentation EVER.
Yep. We’re definitely Scrabble players, and she definitely had no mercy on me, even as a kid
What happened to Ou est la plume de am tante? That’s where many of us stop our French! However, if you want to brush up your French, besides say walking some Canadian streets, go see The intouchables.
You’ll have to talk to Ms Mya about that one.
Yaaaasy! I am glad these were a success….I got very nervous purchasing chocolate for such an esteemed connoisseur
P.S – I told Scott you were living in Canada, to which he responded “hahaha….Hannada!”
Bahahahaha!!! THAT JUST MADE MY DAY, nay, my life. I LOVE SCOTT!
The flavours could not have been more perfect. I was so, so thrilled to see something truly innovative, rather than just bah-humbug-boring salt and chilli!
Emma, I truly cranky that Hannah is in Canada and not here … Not because I Desiree her sparkling company of course but because I want to try some of that chocolate which, if I’m lucky sometimes happened when she was in town. They sound gorgeous.
You truly cranky and you Desiree? Methinks someone got tricked by the autocorrect…
Also, should I admit to you that I ate these back in Australia? I’m sure I gave you some. I really thought I did.
Note to self … never reply to blogs on the iPad OR proofread your reply before you hit send!
I’m sure you didn’t … I don’t recollect but then again, I’m getting old!
Hmm. This was during my frantic EAT ALL THE CHOCOLATE MULTIPLE CHOCOLATES A DAY FOUR BLOCKS IN ONE DAY phase just before leaving, so I can’t be definitive either way. I’m getting old too!
wow, your grandma is cool. I want to know all the words. She’s, yeah, pretty much the coolest!! I find your chocolate posts difficult, I’ll be honest. Because they always leave me wishing I had more exotic chocolates on hand. Entirely my fault, this I know.
Heidi xo
Well, yes. It is your fault for not spending $200 on chocolate while you travel to bring home with you, as I always do
Teehee!
Love your face.
ha ha – I often wish to have a taste – just a wee one and it would go round all your readers – or at least scratch and sniff screen! I always enjoy your tasting notes even if I don’t like coffee nor taste the chocolate but I quite fancy that star anise chocolate
Aw, thank you Johanna! I wish scratch and sniff could work too, though I remember that, as a kid, all the scratch and sniff things I had smelled terrible.
You really do have such a way with words, and chocolate. <3
Just not, apparently, with emails. I’m sorry! I’m desperately trying to catch up on my emails, but every one is so long and there are so many to push through! I think of you so often – you must know this. I’m sure you know this. xo
Don’t worry, at all, ever! We both know how it is, and besides, the anticipation makes the email all the more wonderful when it does finally arrive.
Thank you darling! Thank you for understanding xoxo
Real chocolate looks so good. I’m not sure about cardamon though. It’s a spice I like in really tiny, subtle quantities. I can’t believe your grandmother edits dictionaries. What a challenge that would be xx
Oh, I adore it. I go through phases of putting a good six or so hefty shakes into my oatmeal or into warmed almond milk at night. But I remember hating it as a kid!
And, actually, I’d love that job! But I love words and editing, so it’s right up my alley
Your grandmother edits dictionaries?? That is actually really cool! I used to read dictionaries for fun when I was a kid.
I still sometimes flick through them. Awesome learning times! And comes in handy for crosswords
No, I don’t read them but I do check to see what you are writing about this time! And you know why I don’t read them, Hannah – they are just too tantalising for someone with a chocolate intolerance.
PS I don’t know All the Words but I also check new ones I come across, e.g at our Jane Austen meeting today the word ‘scopophilia’ came up. Fascinating! Not something many people would associate with our Jane.
Teehee! I did wonder if you’d see this! Hopefully you’ve also seen all the people in the comments saying that you are amazing. Because you are
P.S. I’m going to look “scopophilia” up now… but I’m a little scared about it.
I love your French banter! I still remember my first learned-by-heart dialogues: ‘Michel! Anne! Vous regardez la television?’ And to think a French publisher asked me out for drinks last month on the strength of my Sydney-acquired parlez-vous!!
J’aime les chameaux.
Darnit, I’ve yet to be asked out by anyone on account of my French language strength! Clearly my accent is all off