Tag Archives: white chocolate

Askinosie White Chocolate and Pistachio

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There are two very specific sorts of sadness that arise out of chocolate blogging.

The first comes at the moment of finishing a truly spectacular bar of chocolate and realising that a second bar is not within reach. (And, worse, may not even exist in the same country as you do.)

The second comes when you write the review for said chocolate (oftentimes months after the eating), because it is with The Typing Of The Words and The Clicking Of The Publish that you know, deep down, the chocolate is gone.

Such is my current woe over having no more Askinosie chocolate in my life. Woe.

Askinosie White Chocolate and Pistachio

Askinosie White Chocolate and PistachiosHere’s the thing: Askinosie’s White Chocolate with Roasted and Salted Pistachios is simply great. Just so great. Great to the multiple times of a billion great. So great.

Askinosie was the first small-batch chocolate maker in the U.S.A. to make its white chocolate completely from scratch, pressing its own cocoa butter and powering the chocolate conching machine with iridescent fairy dust*.

* This last may not be entirely true. The rest is, though.

The ingredients for this chocolate are organic cane juice, cocoa butter (made in the Askinosie factory with Davao [Philippines] beans, goat’s milk powder, and organic roasted and salted pistachios.

Askinosie White Chocolate and PistachiosBecause of the quality of Askinosie’s ingredients and chocolate-making process, this white chocolate has an aroma and taste that is truly, truly chocolate-y, unlike mass-market white chocolate that taste of naught but sugar and dairy.

The aroma is like caramel and cocoa butter, but with something deeper, something almost tangy, something that calls you closer, closer. So you draw closer (of course), and you bite.

Askinosie White Chocolate and PistachiosIt’s sweet, but in a restrained way; this Askinosie White Chocolate and Pistachio bar reminds you of full-bodied ice cream with a hint of chevre. You’d never say it’s aggressively goat-y, though. It’s more like a complexity, a fullness in the flavour… and then the gloriously roasted salted near-savoury hits of pistachio swim into the maple sugar-esque, no, the muscovado-y, no, the golden syrup-almost sweetness of the white chocolate with its notes of grassiness and custard and crème brulee…

And then you stop trying to pin words on this chocolate. It’s too great, too unlike every other white chocolates you’ve had.

You just want to eat it and enjoy it.

And then cry a little bit when it’s over.

Hyperbole, me? Not at all.

Lindt Excellence 90% Cacao and Lindt Excellence White Coconut

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Do you ever have those moments when something inside your mind clicks into place, and the world suddenly makes sense in a way it didn’t before?

Maybe you’re in university, and you’ve been struggling to tie together the theories of Bourdieu, Veblen, and Baudrillard. Then, at 1am over a bowl of cereal, you unwind the knot that is cultural capital, conspicuous consumption, and hyperreality.

Maybe you’re doing a jigsaw puzzle with a friend, and one of you cries “aha!” upon finding the final missing edge piece. Maybe you like interior decorating and, in a wacky antique store, you chance across the perfect vintage tablecloth to complete your home’s look. (Can that happen? Are tablecloths that powerful?)

Or maybe you’re me and, after several afternoons every week (for months) spent waiting at a certain intersection for a streetcar, you realise with an almighty giggle of laughter that the recorded voice coming from the traffic lights is not, in fact, saying “Walk like a dog for your crossing”, but “Walk light is on for all crossings”.

But you’re still going to imagine all the ways that different breeds of dogs could prance around Dundas Square, anyway.

Lindt Excellence 90% Cacao

Lindt Excellence 90% Cacao and Lindt Excellence White CoconutThis Lindt Excellence 90% Cacao dark chocolate bar is, in my heart, exactly what it says on the package: supreme. I first reviewed this chocolate (please excuse the terrible photos) three years ago, and I love it as much now as I did then.

Lindt Excellence 90% CacaoMy tasting notes this time moved slightly beyond noting earthiness, cookies, and vanilla. I also picked up on nuttiness (walnuts in particular), a hint of vodka, and the deep true intensity of rich cocoa powder and smooth cacao butter. I love.

Lindt Excellence White Coconut

Lindt Excellence White Chocolate CoconutIn my tasting notes for this Lindt Excellence White Chocolate with Coconut Flakes bar, I jotted down the ingredients and, upon copying out the words “artificial flavour”, added in capitals letters “BETTER NOT BE THAT HORRID FAKE COCONUT ESSENCE AGAIN”. I was, of course, referring to the disappointment of the Lindt Excellence Dark Chocolate Coconut Intense.

Lindt Excellence White Chocolate CoconutThe aroma indicated a potentially nice flavour to come, as I found myself thinking of coconut buttercream frosting, strong vanilla, Kinder Surprises, and Bounty bars. The bite was a lovely blend of buttery softness and crispity-crisp coconut, and the white chocolate was strong in sweet cream dairy notes. However, Lindt unfortunately did choose to mar the natural sweet flavour of coconut by adding in an extra dose of fake coconut flavouring. Ugh. Why doesn’t Lindt trust its audience to appreciate natural flavours? Why must it destroy its coconut confections with an artificial ingredient that tastes like sunscreen?

I don’t love.

I’m going to have to cheer myself up by imagining the different struts of Cavalier King Charles Spaniels and Irish Wolfhounds now.

Chocolatepalooza: François Pralus, Gewűrzhaus, Valrhona

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It has recently come to my attention that I eat a ludicrous amount of chocolate.

That is all.

François Pralus Brésil Forastero 75% Dark Chocolate

Francois Pralus Bresil Forastero 75%

Prior to enveloping my soul in this bar of François Pralus Brésil Forastero 75% dark chocolate, my only Pralus experience had been tasting its 100% and finding it palatable and delicious in a way no other 100% chocolate before or since has been. So you can imagine my excitement upon being given the above bar by my chocolate-habit-supporting American friend, Carolyn.

Pralus is one of the big guns in the serious/fancypants/exquisite chocolate world and, judging by this Bresil Forastero bar, deservedly so. The aroma showcased raspberries, crème brulee, walnut praline, bread and butter chocolate pudding, croissants… it sounds ridiculous, I know, but can we compromise and call it deliciously ridiculous?

Francois Pralus Bresil Forastero 75%

I took a bite, and found the chocolate to be thick and rich, like chest-warming whiskey sliding down my throat. This Brésil Forastero 75% is definitely a woodsy bar, but there’s also espresso and hot chocolate mingling with a bitter walnut edge. One small square is immensely satisfying, yet at the same time it’s impossible to not want more.

I noted tobacco and pain au chocolat, molten brownies, smoke, raspberries, a bonfire, and the overwhelming sense that this is real chocolate, that this is what chocolate should be like. In fact, in my tasting notes, I wrote “Cadbury isn’t even chocolate; comparing Cadbury to this Pralus heaven is like comparing a scuttling beetle to a magical incandescent unicorn”.

The end.

Gewűrzhaus Lemon Pepper White Chocolate

Gewűrzhaus Lemon Pepper White Chocolate

The last time I reviewed Gewűrzhaus chocolate, a great many Melbourne folk expressed surprise that Gewűrzhaus made chocolate. Look! Further proof! And proof courtesy of the ever delightful Bryan and Jo (whom you likely know as fatboo and fakegf). Thank you Bryan and Jo!

From the outset, I liked that this Gewűrzhaus Lemon Pepper White Chocolate used not just any ol’ lemon flavouring but Australian Native Lemon Pepper spices. Made me feel like I should be putting on my cork hat and dunking damper in some billy tea.

Gewűrzhaus Lemon Pepper White Chocolate

The mottled (almost-green) yellow colour of the chocolate was fascinating, and clearly due to a generous dose of spices. The aroma sent a shock through me, as I swear it made me think of cheddar cheese. It wasn’t bad, exactly, just surprising.

Thankfully, the flavour wasn’t cheese-like. My tasting notes were as follows: quite sweet, ice cream, honey, texture-texture! something faint and savoury in the background, almost hot but not quite, ZING LEMON ZING! lemon myrtle? Tasmanian pepperberry? something bitter, slightly, at the back of my throat, pannacotta with black pepper, very interesting.

The end.

Valrhona Caraïbe 66% Grand Cru

Valrhona Caraïbe

With Valrhona, it’s tempting to simply write “silky rich unctuous flowing complex delicious yes yes”. However, this Caraïbe 66% Grand Cru dark chocolate deserves to have its loveliness expressed more eloquently. The aroma was fruity and tangy, with lemon, currant, and lime zest all at play. The melt was intensely silky and velvety, with the overall sensation being of eating something wonderfully, ridiculously rich. Deep caramel, butterscotch, almonds, halvah, sesame snaps, and gooey brownies with hot fudge sauce all came to mind as I happily savoured Valrhona’s Caraïbe 66% Grand Cru.

The end.

Chocolatepalooza: The Haiku Edition

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Over lunch with the brilliant and marvellous Gena last week in Washington, D.C., I found myself accepting the challenge to write my next chocolate review post in haiku.

What can I say? I’m always up for wordplay.

This one’s for you, Gena.

Coco Handmade Organic Pink Peppercorn & Nutmeg Dark Chocolate

Coco Handmade Pink Peppercorn and Nutmeg Dark Chocolategift from Spay Lady
pink peppercorn and nutmeg
incense aroma

take a bite and sense
hot fudge walnut lingering
pepper like deep earth

Coco Handmade Pink Peppercorn and Nutmeg Dark Chocolatenutmeg’s quiet warmth
is hidden in the darkness
needs intensity.

Coco Organic Rose & Black Pepper Chocolate

Coco Chocolate Organic Rose & Black Pepper Chocolatehide-and-seek once played
this second block from Lorraine
seemed a rose trophy

like Turkish Delight
and crisp dark sweet floral truth
tastes not once of soap

Coco Chocolate Organic Rose & Black Pepper Chocolatesmooth muscovado
pepper hits a tingling throat
queenly chocolate.

Chocolate Stella Organic By Nature White Chocolate with Cacao Nibs

Chocolate Stella Organic By Nature White Chocolate with Cacao Nibsthis one from my mum
cocoa butter like thick cream
whipped with vanilla

Chocolate Stella Organic By Nature White Chocolate with Cacao Nibspacked with cacao nibs
their woodsy bitter crunching
balances the sweet.

Theo Organic Gingerbread Spice Milk Chocolate

Theo Organic Gingerbread Spice Milk Chocolateginger cinnamon
nutmeg clove and cardamom
pervade Theo’s bar

Theo Organic Gingerbread Spice Milk Chocolatescent like pain d’epice
sugar sweet and sweet sugar
chai not gingerbread.

Vosges Amalfi Bar

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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

Vosges Amalfi BarThe 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.

Vosges Amalfi BarThe 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.

Vosges Amalfi BarAll 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!

E.Moonbeams with Vosges Amalfi Chocolate

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.