4 posts tagged “chocolate”
I was taking the metro back from the town hall to the office after spending far too long waiting to only be handed a form and told to come back another day. As I left the station next to the office a woman's voice thanked all the metro travelers for not going by car and polluting the atmosphere. Apparently yesterday was a special pollution day in Brussels. It may have had something to do with the temperature being significantly below freezing but I'm not sure.
In any case, the word "pollution" resonated with me and made me think about New Tree's Tranquility bar.
What can I say about it? The chocolate is good. In fact I'd go so far as to say it's very good. It's smooth and creamy. It melts well but isn't overly sugary. If it were left unsullied it would be an exceptionally good milk chocolate bar. But it is sullied. It is polluted. In fact - it has been desecrated.
I'm sure the lavender used in this bar is very high quality and comes from the finest organic lavender bushes. But it still tastes like pot pourri smells and is a fragrance I associate with clothes that have been left in storage for too long. It does not work well with chocolate and it didn't help me relax although it did remind me of a time when I was about five and spent 10 minutes locked in a friend's wardrobe.
This was certainly new and interesting but I doubt many people will be buying a second bar and so it is unlikely to be on the shelves for long. The other bar in their Relaxing range probably will stay, though. Who can say "no" to the bitter orange and crisped rice of their Serenity bar?
Brussels is a city with a fantastic selection of cheese, beer and chocolate. For some strange reason I've not drunk much beer here since arriving, but I have eaten a fair bit of cheese and now some really new and interesting chocolate.
When I bought lunch, today, I also bought a bar of New Tree's Pink Pepper chocolate. It's certainly the sort of savoury delicacy that goes well with an uninspiring sandwich. The bar contains 100g (~3½ oz.) of chocolate, is 73% cocoa solids and contains guarana extract as well as the pink pepper. As you can see, the squares of chocolate are small and this makes sense: this bar isn't for scoffing but to wake up your mouth with an interesting combination of flavours.
And the flavours are interesting. The pepper is lively, savoury and very well balanced with the chocolate: neither overwhelming nor a damp squib. Of course, I should own up here. I love pepper. Really. I love pepper and use it faster than almost anyone else I know. The pepper doesn't alter the texture of the chocolate and it melts well, carrying both flavours and leaving them for you to enjoy for several minutes after swallowing.
If you don't like pepper you won't like this bar. But if you do like pepper - even if you don't use several ounces a month like me - then you'll like this bar.
I flew from AMS to LAX yesterday and because I wanted to bring a pair of decent shoes with me (rather than my slip on air travel shoes) I decided to check a bag into the hold. Seeing as I was checking luggage I decided to put the chocolate gifts I brought with me in a tupperware box like this.
The chocolate didn't completely fill the container and some of it is quite delicate. I was prepared for the possibility of the Flake-like chocolate from Puccini Bomboni ending up as delicious, crumbly dust. But it didn't. Despite falling down two baggage belts it arrived completely intact.
That's pretty good - especially as it was Easter Sunday and they were probably low on staff.
Arthur C Clarke wrote a pretty dire book called Rendezvous with Rama. Normally his books are dire because he has great ideas and poor characters and storytelling. This one was poor on all three counts. However, if he'd visited Uruguay he might have found a completely different kind of Rama and written a completely different book.
I quite like chocolate. I'm not a fanatic and I rarely go out of my way for chocolate, but I appreciate its chemical payload and try it out from time to time. I don't think I can claim membership to Amsterdam's chapter of the Chocolate Consumers Circle, though. However, if I find some good chocolate, like the Brazilian Kopenhagen, I make a donation. Unfortunately, I'm not sure they'll be able to get the benefit of my latest find.
Cadbury's Flake is often regarded as an excellent combination of flavour and texture. Cadbury's bill it as the "crumbliest, flakiest chocolate" and say that it "tastes like chocolate never tasted before". Unfortunately, because it's Cadbury's it has a bit more sugar, milk and margarine in it than I would like. And here is where my latest find comes in.
Rama is very similar to Flake, but it is made from dark chocolate and different dimensions. I believe that they are the main differences. But what differences. This chocolate is superior to Cadbury's Flake. It is a little bit more crisp and the flavour is more satisfying. However, it keeps the crumbliness and the joy of trying to eat it without making a mess.
Yes. This is excellent chocolate and I bought five to donate to the CCC. I just wonder how I'll manage to get them home, via Panama and LA, without them turning into chocolate dust...
Updated...
...to show the travel boxes.
