Ahhhh, chocolate! So delightful and delicious! Have you noticed how all the big chocolate makers are now dabbling in special reserve and single origin chocolate? Mon dieu! I have no complaints about this. I am not a chocolate connoisseur, but I do like me some chocolate. And I think I may have confessed this before, but here is my dark secret: I prefer milk chocolate to dark chocolate. There you have it. I am trashy and unsophisticated, in case you didn’t know. Anyway, lucky for me this chocolate craze has resulted in the proliferation of a new breed of milk chocolate: dark milk chocolate with high cacao content. As Rachael Ray would say, “Yumm-o!”
Now, I had my first taste of really good dark milk chocolate a couple years ago when I bought a Slitti Lattenero Bar. I think I got the 45% or the 51%, I can’t remember. It was smooth and flavorful and super, you know, yumm-o. I’ve been hankering for more Slitti ever since. Well, enter The Meadow, a florist cum fancy salt shop cum wine shop cum chocolate shop right here in good ol’ Portland! They had one Slitti Lattenero bar, the 70%er. Woohoo! I also found a very intriguing bar by Vosges. I noticed it because I recognized the logo on it and thought it was super weird, since the logo was for Bobbi Brown, the cosmetics company. What the? It’s called the Beauty Bar, and it is a dark milk chocolate with matcha in it. As embarrassing as it was to buy something called the Bobbi Brown Beauty Bar, I just HAD TO, and I’m glad I did.
The Beauty Bar is really quite delicious. The chocolate is smooth and melts in your mouth nicely, and the matcha is not overpowering; instead, it enhances the flavor of the chocolate. This one is a winner in my book! The Slitti, on the other hand, well, I ate one small piece, and my head felt like it was going to explode. Instant migraine trigger. My head ached so much I even had to take drugs and pass out on the couch. So, I’ve been scared to try it again. Maybe I’ll feel brave enough one of these days (or else I’ll just downgrade to a lower cacao content!).
A couple weeks ago
Melissa and I checked out another new chocolate place in town:
Cacao. They carry a lot of different bars and truffles and also serve drinking chocolate. They didn’t have the Slitti bars, so I decided to try the Michel Cluizel dark milk chocolate. I’ve had the Cluizel dark chocolate before and found it to be excellent, so I figured the milk chocolate must be really good.
Boy, was I wrong. Stick to dark chocolate, Michel! This milk chocolate bar was not pleasing to me. I found it to be a bit on the waxy side, which is a big no-no, and the fruity tones were way too strong. I keep trying it, though, thinking that I must be wrong, but each time it’s just yuck.
And last but not least, some amazing chocolate that
Jun/Tricoquelicot gave me:
Royce Chocolate. She told me to keep the box refrigerated, so I carefully hand carried it back to the US and stuck it in the fridge.
They call it ganache chocolate, and ohmygod they aren’t kidding. These little squares melt in your mouth and explode with flavor. Thank you, Jun!
And that concludes chocolate Sunday for December 3!
