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Chocolate Tasting with Hotel Chocolat
Thank you to all who attended and glad you resisted eating the chocolates beforehand! Amy was our chocolate guide; she is also a trained chocolatier with Hotel Chocolat. She suggested cutting the chocolates in half as they were very rich and you could get a sugar high!
All the recipes are favourites from their fan base. Even the boxes have a lovely texture and minute logos of the island of St Lucia cover them. St Lucia is where they have their own cocoa estate, about 150 acres.
We started with the Dizzy Praline. The look of the chocolate was shiny, this is due to tempering. It was a nut ganache praline with 70% chocolate. This is quite high compared to a familiar red wrapped brand we buy which only contains 36%. It tastes rich because of the high percentage of cocoa. The dark chocolates do not contain any dairy.
The Supermilk we tried next was Going Nuts. Supermilk contains 65% cocoa compared to a familiar purple wrap bar that contains 20%.
Amy went through the process of growing cocoa and producing chocolates. It can take 100 hours to mellow! Cocoa butter is a by-product, a bit like avocado fat. To save on wastage the shells are used to make tea, gin, beer, vodka, ice cream and body scrub (like coffee grinds). They use natural refined ingredients, like coconut blossom nectar rather than sugar. She told us about tempering and that it is mainly machines now.
Tried a few more chocolates. The Champagne one has real champagne, whereas the Mark de Champagne you can buy elsewhere doesn’t contain any! There mojito truffle is very strong. TIP: If you see cracked chocolates, they have the most alcohol.
Thoroughly enjoyed the experience and well worth the price. My favourites were Going Nuts and Raspberry Smoothie (Amy said to try the blackcurrant one too).
Written by Debbie Jones, Exebay Comms Officer
