Ducd’O chocolates now in India!

“Ducd’O targets sophisticated chocolate consumers that are aware of the superior Belgium chocolate taste”

Mumbai: International Belgium chocolate brand Ducd’O is now available across India. Post announcing the signing of a distribution & marketing contract for the Indian market with Cosmo Fine Foods, Ducd’O has now opened its doors to the Indian market. Cosmo fine foods will distribute and market the Duc d’O brand in the Indian market.

Ducd'O Chocolaterie have been Belgium’s main producers and exporters since the past 25 year and now want to explore an opportunity to tap the growing premium luxury chocolate market in India with an unique offering of flaked truffles, mini pralines and pralines. Ducd’O currently has the truffles, pralines, mini pralines and liquor crates in the current range available under the brand.

Ducd’O ranges from Rs 525/- to 995/- depending on the choice of the assortment the customer would wish to choose from. Ducd’O is available in all modern retail stores across all main cities in India. It is also available at the Travel retail stores across all major airports in India.

About Duc d’O
Duc d’O Group is an internationally oriented, premium quality producer and marketer of consumer chocolate products. Duc d’O group is structured around 3 business units Branding, OTC and Gift. Duc d’O is the main brand in the branding department.

The Duc d’O brand targets chocolate lovers worldwide and is currently distributed in 60 countries. The Duc d’O assortment is built around premium quality flaked truffles, pralines and liquor pralines. Check out www.ducdo.com  or their Facebook page for more information.

Ritter Sport Mini Bunte Vielfalt

Once you've tasted this popular German brand of chocolate, it is impossible to not keep going back to it. My first two 'encounters' with Ritter Sport were memorable with Marzipan scoring 3 and Whole Hazelnuts scoring 3.5 and I couldn't wait to taste the many other flavours the brand makes. This assorted pack called Bunte Vielfalt, which is 'colourful variety' in German was the perfect option.

The pack offers seven of their 25+ varieties and includes Fine Milk Chocolate, Butter Biscuit, Hazelnuts, Yogurt, Cornflakes, Praline and Marzipan and may I say they're all fantastic. What I like about is the brand is the complete lack of fuss and focus on quality. Their simple packaging design in bright colours and robust flavours underlines this.

Of the seven, I found the Yogurt flavoured chocolate the best with the slightly sour filling complementing the sweet milk chocolate oh-so-brilliantly. The next in line was the Butter Biscuit. Might I use Amul's line to describe this one? The biscuit was 'utterly butterly delicious'. Cornflakes came a close third with its perfect crunchiness. The Praline, Hazelnut, Marzipan, and Fine Milk chocolates fared similarly with no real surprises. However, the chocolate quality was ace for them all.

The 150g pack with nine pieces costs just INR 325, and is imported by Dugar Overseas. It is easily available at all fancy supermarkets and is a great buy.

RATING: 3.5/5

The Chocolate Room - truffles, pralines and dark chocolate

I went to The Chocolate Room, Ghatkopar the week before last, and I'm pretty sure I haven't yet burned off the calories I ingested there. At that mad excessive chocolaty session, I had had so many chocolate things that I had no space for these boxed lovelies. I needed a little break to come back to another The Chocolate Room experience, albeit at home this time. Franchise owner, Kapil Agarwal, had insisted that I try their truffles & pralines and plain dark chocolate and I finally got around to having them over the last couple of days.

I absolutely fell in love with the design of the box of the truffles & pralines. With its delightful colours, it would make for such a mood-lifting gift. A box contains nine pieces of assorted truffles and pralines with a variety of ingredients like hazelnut paste, orange powder, strawberry powder, orange oil, roasted coffee powder and lemon powder apart from the usual components.   

I was impressed by what I read on the box, but not so much by what was inside it. Firstly, all nine chocolates tasted the same to me. Yes, I eventually tasted all of them to see if any one was different from the other, but they all seemed to have a mixed kind of flavour in dark chocolate - most acutely coffee and orange. Either these were not assorted, or I had lost all sense of gustatory distinction. Then, the filling part of these so-called pralines and truffles was indiscernible from the body of the chocolate. I tried them straight out of the fridge and then at room temperature, but it all seemed like a mass all the same. 

All the pralines/truffles had some almonds in it, but that made little difference to the overall quality of the chocolate. Moreover, these have no cocoa butter in them, but vegetable fat. This not only renders the chocolate not-so-smooth but also leaves a weird aftertaste and coating on the roof of one's mouth. All in all, a rather disappointing experience for a box of chocolates that represents an international brand and costs INR 224. The Chocosopher does not recommend these.

RATING: 2/5

This plain dark chocolate bar, however, was the winner. Unpretentious in its name and packaging, it offered me a smooth taste experience - courtesy the cocoa butter in it, unlike the truffles and pralines. I was also enamoured enough by the unusual blue foil inside to take a picture of it and put it here. :)

The chocolate bar itself is plain-looking with no branding or etching on it. With 56% cocoa mass, it just makes the dark chocolate cut, is smooth and very pleasing to taste with vanilla undertones. While it tastes great, it is not exceptional and forking out INR 55 may feel like a little too much for people who can get pretty much the same quality from dark chocolates from home-grown brands at lower prices. Oddly enough, both chocolate boxes have no net weight information and The Chocolate Room India might want to consider doing something about it. 

RATING: 3.5/5

All said and done, The Chocolate Room, Ghatkopar is not somewhere you go to buy chocolates, but  to enjoy their vast and wonderful range of desserts, shakes, coffees and beverages.

You can check out their Facebook page for more information or follow them on Twitter.