CHOCOLATES

Rococo Chocolates was founded in 1983 by Chantal Coady, who has written three books about chocolate. Rococo Chocolates has three shops in London. She and Rococo were awarded a special price for “Changing the way people think about chocolate” by Academy of Chocolate in 2008. In 2007 Rococo and Grenada Chocolate Company started a joint venture in Grenada to produce fair traded ethical chocolate. Now, Rococo’s organic products contain beans from this production.

Rococo Chocolates produces a number of different chocolate gift boxes, chocolate bars, gift bags, confectionaries, and sugar free products. We decided to try some of their Artisan Bars which are made with their special blends of organic chocolate: dark 65%, milk, or white chocolate, and are available with 22 flavors. We decided to try the Orange & Geranium, Basil & Lime, Lavender, and Cranberry & Nutmeg bars; the tree first ones are made with dark chocolate (65%), the latter one with white chocolate.

All bars have delicate spiced flavor and smell, we especially enjoyed the flavored dark chocolates. The lavender bar was unexpected; the delicious fragrance reminded me of perfume. These dark chocolates are absolutely recommede for those who like bittersweet chocolate and would like something different than normal, unflavored chocolate bars.

Editor’s Rating:

Type: Specialty chocolate bars.

Flavor:

Hal Chocolate brands, Chocolate tasting, Chocolatieres, Specialty chocolates grenada, uk

Venezuelan Black is a unsweetened chocolate containing 100% cacao solids. It s made with top quality cacao beans from Venezuela, and roasted, conched and packed in England. It is sold in 180 gram solid chocolate bars. The owner, Willie Harcourt-Cooze, is the only small cacao grower-producer in the UK. He has been farming cacao for more than a decade at the Hacienda El Tesoro, his beautiful farm in Venezuela. For more information about the chocolate farm and his production of chocolate, see Report on Channel 4.

We have tried the “Rio Caribe Superior”, and it is the best 100% cacao chocolate bar we have ever tested! The flavor is rich, fruity like citrus, and the taste is rich, fruity and bitter. After melting some chocolate and mixing with powdered sugar the flavor is similar to the best Venezuelan bittersweet chocolate bars, except that the fruity notes are citrus-like, while other Venezuelan chocolates may have more raisin-like fruity notes.

We will use the Venezual Black chocolate for chocolate recipes that need lots of high-quality chocolate, like chocolate mousse, chocolate souffle, flourless chocolate cakes, and rich chocolate cake recipes.

The price is fairly high, however, when comparing with the price for Amedei Chuao you must remember that the Venezuelan Black does not contain any sugar, so a high price per weight is therefore acceptable.

Please note that this chocolate can also be purchased online on www.venezuelan-black.co.uk.

Editor’s rating:
Type: Unsweetened chocolate.
Flavor:

Hal Chocolate brands, Chocolate tasting, Specialty chocolates uk, venezuela