Ghirardelli Dark & Orange

While I remain a purist and love my chocolate plain, orange chocolate is beginning to find some favour with me. And if the brand in question is a gourmet chocolate brand, orange chocolate seems particularly appealing. My first brush with Ghirardelli - Gourmet Milk - Coconut Rendezvous wasn't a great one, but one cannot help but give a reputed chocolate brand a second chance.

When the husband salvaged a few pieces from the American colleague stash and brought them home, I was more than happy to click it, eat it and review it. The Ghirardelli Dark & Orange chocolate was definitely better than their milk chocolate offering, but still did not manage to impress.

The chocolate scored again on a beautiful, rich aroma and fine, smooth texture, but fails again in the taste aspect. Instead of the usual orange-flavoured chocolate, the Ghirardelli Dark & Orange comes with a nice gooey centre filling. However, the taste of this orange filling isn't intense enough, and leaves you wanting. What I expect from orange or orange peel chocolates is a strong citrus flavour with just about enough tang that is countered and complemented by the sweetness of the chocolate. Ghirardelli failed me again on flavour, despite its impeccable quality of chocolate. Definitely not worth the almost 500 rupees you would have to shell out for a 100g bar.


RATING: 3/5

Selection Carrefour Pépites De Poire - Noir

Carrefour is a French supermarket chain, and one of the world's largest after Walmart and Tesco. It has a global presence with small and big format stores in metro and tier two cities across the world, including India. In India, there are Carrefour Cash n Carry Stores in Delhi, Jairpur, Meerut, Agra and one is to open in Bangalore soon. The company was founded in 1958, but they started manufacturing their private label of free products (produits libres) like oil, biscuits, crackers, etc. in 1976

This dark chocolate with pear 'nuggets' - Pépites s De Poire Noir - is one of the products from Carrefour's private label for foodstuff. And it came to me as a Christmas gift! For a brand this big, I was surprised I had never heard of it before. I was absolutely charmed by the package design and OMG, the smell! Few chocolates I've had have such a powerfully rich scent.

The texture is smooth and its abundant cocoa butter makes it melt in the mouth oh-so-easily. In addition to the bits of pear, the chocolate also has caramelised almond pieces, which make for a delightful combination. The bar contains 64% cocoa, which is what I like to call the 'enjoyable' range. (Anyone professing love for 90% cocoa chocolate is just a snooty liar.) The bar could have been a little less sweet, but I love it and recommend it all the same. This 100g bar costs around INR 200 and is among the better dark chocolate options around.

RATING: 3.5/5

Pure Sin Chocolates

Turns out my husband had been scouting the city for liqueur chocolates to give me for Christmas. Poor sweet chap didn't know that the new excise rules don't allow regular shops to stock  liqueur chocolates anymore. A shop has to have liquor permit to sell those, and the demand isn't high enough for chocolatiers to take that kind of trouble.

But in his quest for  liqueur chocolates, he heard of Pure Sin by Mood Swings Confectionery, a small chocolate shop based in Churchgate, Mumbai. Pure Sin Chocolates was famous for its  liqueur chocolates, which they stopped selling around two years ago because of the changed laws. But their name was recommended by several people as the go-to place for good homemade chocolates.

After being lost for a while in the lanes around SNDT college, we managed to locate the shop. A small sign hanging over the only functional shop in a line of seemingly empty ones, indicated that we were in the right place. The storefront was as low-key and once we entered the modest little space, it looked more like an office than a chocolate shop.

We were greeted by Brinda Javeri, one of the joint owners of the shop. She started the business along with her daughter, Arti, almost 20 years ago. "This is Aarti's baby; I'm just the sidekick" said Brinda. "The idea of making chocolates stemmed purely out of boredom. She was bored and said, 'Mum, let's make chocolates', and that's how it started," she elaborated. They ran the business from home for the first three years, and as it grew, they bought a shop.

Over the years, the duo have made several varieties, and their USP is that they import all their essences from the US. They also make most of their chocolates in a semi-sweet German chocolate compound. I saw boxes upon boxes with labels of their creations, and was amused by the funky names most of their chocolates have. Simple, elegant gift boxes lined the upper shelves while an attendant busily measured, packed, and doled out customer requests.

We studied their extensive menu and were spoilt for choice. We sampled some flavours and decided upon an assorted selection, because who can choose one when there are so many chocolates to be had?

Some of the more amusing chocolate names included 'Roses are Brown', 'The Big O', 'You crack me up', 'What the Fudge', 'Rock me Hazy', 'Charlee Brown', 'Baby Latte' and 'Berry got D Blues'.

The chocolates are reasonably priced and we brought home a pack of 250g for INR 351. We tasted nearly all flavours but some we really enjoyed included 'Almond Mud Pie', 'Hello Sunshine', 'Burnt Sugar Cups' and 'Baby Brown'. The mint chocolate called 'The Dark Mint Rises' wasn't a particular hit, but then, I have never understood the mint chocolate concept.

Overall, the chocolates are good, but not memorable. However, they will appeal to whoever likes homemade stuff. Definitely worth a try.

RATING: 3/5

Pure Sin Chocolates
G-5, Pil Court, 111 M. Karve Road, Behind Bangkok Airways,
Churchgate, Mumbai - 400020
Ph: 022-22000267/8, email: info@puresinchocolates.com
Website: www.puresinchocolates.com

Heidi Dark Espresso

There's a reason why Swiss chocolates are considered among the best in the world. Brands like Heidi uphold the legacy of quality and variety and delight consumers year after year. However, the Swiss brand has changed hands recently, and was formally taken over by the Romanian company, Kex Confectionery SA in April 2013. One can only hope that Heidi retains the reputation it has built over the years.  And going by this chocolate bar, nothing has changed.

I was fairly impressed the first time I ate and reviewed a bar of Heidi chocolate. It was a Heidi Grand 'Or Milk chocolate with Almond Florentine and I remember being amazed at the innovative combination. So when a friend gifted me another one from the house of Heidi, I was like this ---->  :D

The Heidi Dark Espresso is one delightful coffee-chocolate and I know because I've tried quite a few of those. I think I am partial to caffeine's kick as far as flavoured chocolates go. On opening, the bar smells rich with the distinctive aroma of coffee. The slim bar snaps cleanly and easily into convenient sized squares. The rosette inscribed chocolate pieces melt beautifully in the mouth, releasing dense cocoa and coffee flavours. My only grouse against this are the tiny coffee nibs in the chocolate... not too fond of them. But for those who love a little texture in their chocolate, the Heidi Dark Espresso will be a delight.

This 100gm bar will cost you approx. INR 200 and it will be well worth it. It'll also make for a good last minute Christmas present if you haven't bought anything yet!

RATING: 4/5

Theana's Little Den

Take a little gander through Facebook and you come across scores of chocolatiers. Their pages are colourful places where they are either sharing pictures of their latest creations, taking orders, sharing recipes or simply their love for chocolate. This growing community is passionate and is trying in its own little way to add to this sweet industry. I came across one such, called Theana's Little Den, and was charmed by its cute logo and earnestness.

Theana's Little Den is a home-based chocolatier, who believe in 'creativity, uniqueness and surprises'. They offer a wide range of chocolate bouquets and make customised chocolates and cakes. I think the alphabet chocolate squares are particularly cute and will make great gifts for little ones. Also, look at the diaper cake, will ya? :D

Their other offerings include chocolate-dipped marshmallows, muffin bouquets, cupcake bouquets, wafer/chocolate/food bouquets, cold-drink can cakes and all kinds of assorted chocolates. What's more? This all-in-one chocolatier also makes Indian sweets like kaju katlis, barfis, and gulabjamuns!

This Mumbai-based chocolatier can be reached on theanaslittleden@gmail.com or 022-23812766/ 9820149913

Cadbury Dairy Milk Silk Orange Peel

I am spoilt I am. With every exotic foreign chocolate I sample, Indian chocolates seem to slide a notch lower  on my scale. Not that all foreign brands and makes are good, but Cadbury India's (Mondelez International) mediocrity gets more and more manifest. Disgusted by their innocent (read messy) eating ad pitch, I had kept away from this product for a long time (which adult eats chocolate like that? Ew.). But I decided to give it a shot to see what the big deal was all about.

Cadbury Dairy Milk (or CDM as they like to call themselves on the website) decided to launch Silk as a premium product above their insanely popular repertoire. In fact, popular is an understatement, because no other chocolate brand in India offers any real competition to them.

What makes Silk premium are its shape, texture (apparently), packaging and price. I like the little paper note that is wrapped over the trademark gold foil, that enumerates Silk's finer points. I agree about the dome-shaped squares fitting snugly in one's mouth. But the chocolate DOES NOT melt in it. Even at room temperature, the chocolate does not dissolve in the mouth. Unless, of course, I try my Silk in Mumbai's sweltering summer. To me, the whole 'creamy, silky' chocolate business seems like a sham.

And that's not the only let down. The orange peel flavour is mild and there are almonds in it for no apparent reason. What I expect from a flavoured chocolate is an intense enough scent and taste; a lovely tang in case of orange peel. But the flavour in this is diluted and the nuts don't help. A 65 g bar costs INR 50, which I don't mind too much, but anything seems like a waste when I am given a sweet milk chocolate. All I'm going to say is that I have felt the Silk lately, and what an underwhelming experience it was.


RATING: 2/5

Lindt Excellence Dark - A Touch of Sea Salt

When I started this blog, I liked Lindt the best. Seven months and nearly a 100 posts later, I still like Lindt the best. What I love about Lindt, as a brand, is their inventiveness with flavours and willingness to push the boundaries. Sure, there are other brands out there that experiment with flavours, but few do it as successfully as Lindt. The last brand I was really impressed by was Elizabeth Shaw, which equalled Lindt's standards of excellence. But brands like Elizabeth Shaw are difficult to find in India, and Lindt has to be the go-to brand when one is seeking truly fine chocolates in India.

Because Lindt is so easy to get in local Indian markets, one can get the most recent flavours released in the international market. I spotted a pack of Lindt Dark chocolate - with A Touch of Sea Salt not long ago and was most fascinated. Yes, chocolates with salted caramel have been around for a while, but I've not seen any other brand with this kind of flavour. A pack was duly bought and brought home. Between reviews, I had to keep this pack in the fridge for a little while, which resulted in a fat bloom (the whitish layer you see on the bar in the pictures), much to my disappointment. Even after I left it out for a while, the lovely dark colour did not return.

But given that the chocolate has only 47% cocoa solids, one shouldn't perhaps expect too dark a colour. But because fat or sugar bloom does not affect the taste of the chocolate, I didn't fret too much. The chocolate has a beautiful rich aroma, although the chocolate is not as rich as its higher cocoa ratio cousins. Left on the tongue, the chocolate melts beautifully, releasing its semi-sweetness and eventually a salty flavour from the salt crystals embedded within.

It's hard to explain how salt and sugar complement each other so nicely, and you had best experience it yourself. That said, I wouldn't rate it as highly as a Lindt Dark Chilli Chocolate or a Lindt Dark Wasabi Chocolate bar. Priced at INR 235 for a 100 g bar, it isn't all that expensive and if good quality dark chocolate is what you want, Lindt is your best bet.

RATING: 3.75/5

Elizabeth Shaw Blackberry & Ginger Dark Chocolate

Trust me, even chocolate tasting and reviewing can seem tiresome sometimes, especially if bad chocolates keep coming your way. I've had quite a bad run in the last few weeks and I needed something of Elizabeth Shaw's level to restore my faith in the greatness of chocolate.

The brand has a (slightly convoluted) legacy of nearly 100 years, started by one Elizabeth around the 1930s. The chocolate lover and maker christened her brand Elizabeth Shaw combining her name and her husband's old employer (a chocolate manufacturer). In 1968, her company was sold to a famous Bristol factory that had opened in 1881. The company has changed many hands over the last century, and its 105-year old factory was shut and the facility moved to mainland Europe in 2006. It is currently owned by a Nowegian company called Imagine Capital.

I saw these beauties (this, and an Almond & Pear dark chocolate bar by the same brand) at Food Fantasy, a specialty foods store in Chembur, Mumbai and HAD to pick them up.The sophisticated card paper-like packaging material and classy design were unmissable. I especially like the satin ribbon embossing on the upper left of the pack. Pretty, no? And who could say nay to the very unusual flavour combination of blackberry and ginger?

Wrapped in silver foil, these aromatic dark chocolate (57% min.) bars are rich all the way. See their lovely, glossy finish? That's one way to determine the smoothness of a chocolate bar even without tasting it. They also smell absolutely gorgeous, and you can tell what will go into your mouth next will be of superior quality.

The chocolate itself is one of the richest I've tasted in a while. It is intense and so flavourful that even one square satisfies your taste buds. There are very tiny candied bits of blackberry almost indiscernible ginger granules that come together in a harmonious flavour. The melt-in-you-mouth chocolate derives sweetness from the blackberry and there is a warm aftertaste from the ginger. The taste lingers in your mouth long after you've eaten the chocolate. It is smooth as smooth can be, given ingredients like cocoa butter and butter fat. In short, it's BLOODY LOVELY, and worth the INR 300 you pay for a 100 g pack! Chocosophy highly recommends it not only for its quality but also for its support of responsible cocoa farming. Elizabeth Shaw sources its cocoa from the Quality Cocoa for a Better Life program.


RATING 5/5

Frey Dark Lemon & Pepper

I remember being SUPER EXCITED when I spotted this one at The Cocoa Trees and thinking 'Wow! But lemon and pepper are ingredients of soup. DAFAQ does anyone put them into chocolate!?' Even though I was less than impressed with my first Frey, I was willing to give the brand another go just for coming up with a flavour so innovative.And I'm so glad I did.The best-selling Swiss brand has more than salvaged its reputation.

The Frey Dark Lemon & Pepper chocolate is one of the most exciting chocolate products I've recently tasted. And it comes close to my Lindt Wasabi and Chilli chocolate experinces.

The dark chocolate contains lemon granules, black pepper and 55% cocoa among other things making for an exquisite combination. The primary taste is that of lemon, an unmistakable tang, that comes from thickly interspersed granules/crystals of lemon. These crystals are crunchy and release the lemony taste in bursts as you take the first bites of the chocolate. The chocolate itself is smooth, dark and with the right amount of sweetness. The taste of pepper is not evident in the beginning, but strikes in the end. The mild and pleasant burn of pepper can be felt in the throat after the chocolate has been swallowed. This tangy-sweet-pungent sequence makes for a brilliant taste experience.

One of the companies that import and market Frey products in India is Cosmo Fine Foods from Chennai. This 100 g pack cost me INR 225 and I'm so going to repeat this manner of shameless indulgence. You should too.

RATING: 4/5

Mars' Bounty Coconut Milk Chocolate

Another famous offering from the Mars' stables, Bounty is a coconut-filled milk chocolate. Available in single & double bar packs and miniatures, it is sold internationally by Mars Inc.  

The typical rounded bars have a sweet and moist (thanks to the high glucose syrup content) coconut filling within some more sweet milk chocolate. Mars had apparently tried to register the rounded shape of the bars, but were not allowed a trademark by the European Union. The chocolate will be preferred either by coconut buffs or anything-sweet-goes folks. I belong to the former category. Snickers and Mars Bars are perhaps more popular of the three Mars products available easily in India.

There is apparently a dark chocolate version of Bounty too, but I've never seen it here. As always, I'd love to try it out, given my preference for dark chocolates.

Interestingly, Bounty is not marketed in the US, because Hershey's has a very similar product called Mounds. The shape of the bars, the packaging and the filling are almost identical to Bounty. This, I'd like to try too.

Bounty has, in the past, released some limited edition flavoured versions too, like Cherry and Mango, but did not enjoy much success. I guess people prefer their coconut to taste like coconut.

I wonder if Mars will ever introduce any flavoured variations in India. If nothing, they ought to bring at least the dark chocolate variant of Bounty. Priced at INR 50 for 57 g in a double bar pack, these are quite popular; at least, going by their presence in supermarket shelves.

RATING: 3/5

Pure Temptation Choco Blast

As a chocoholic and mother to a 3-y-o, I'm constantly on the lookout for new chocolate products. I recently came across these little chocolate cones in a supermarket and was heartened to see that they are from an indigenous brand. Usually, these fancy-schmancy goodies are from China or other South East Asian countries. Pure Temptation is an Indian brand based in Gujarat, founded by entrepreneur Harsha Gandhi. For retail, the brand makes a chocolate spread called Choco Spread and these chocolate cones called Choco Blast apart from other industrial chocolate products like sauces, pastes syrups and jellies.

Choco Blast is a small waffle cone filled with chocolate, fashioned after packaged ice cream cones. The paper wrapping and card circle on the card top make them resemble ice cream and keep the product intact. The 2-inch cones are filled with gooey chocolate, all the way to the bottom, making them quite a mouthful. The flavours are rather pronounced; the orange chocolate is rather orange-y, for instance. The Roasted Almond flavour has pieces of roasted nut in it and is one of my favourites. The texture of the cone is crispy, and the taste of the chocolate is quite satisfactory. By satisfactory, I mean not too sweet. Excessively sweet confections is the cardinal sin of all Indian chocolate makers.

Chocoblast is available in different chocolate variations like plain, orange, mint, coffee and roasted almond. Apparently, a white chocolate cone is also to be launched soon. The cones cost INR 12 apiece, but are also available in 10 or 15-piece boxes of one or assorted flavours. The price of the product may not be as much for the chocolate as for the innovation, but it is worth it. I certainly hope more Indian companies come up with innovative products like this.

RATING: 3.5/5