Monthly Archive for August, 2009

Marcolini Unleashes His Bean-to-bar Passion

Published on August 27, 2009 in Marketing and On Chocolate & Cacao. 0 Comments Tags: Criollo, Emakina, Madagascar, Marcolini, Mexico, origin, Pierre Marcolini, Sambirano, Tabasco, Trinit, Venezuela, Video.

I’d say I’m really glad Belgium’s most exclusive chocolatier Pierre Marcolini finally as devoted his time on a truely fine collection of single origin bars. Beyond the aged myth of ‘Belgian Chocolate’, Marcolini is achieving to catch up with the real luxury chocolate scenes of France, Italy and Germany. Abroad the consumtption of luxury dark chocolate with curious consumers has been lifting since 5 years at least, and now this iconic Belgian chocolatier finally ventures into origin chocolate bars with a luscious collection. Featuring Venezuelan Criollo, cacao from the Sambirano valley in Madagsacar and the Tabasco region in Mexico, this series are wellworth exploring!

Meanwhile, Marcolini get’s the website upgrade his passion deserves. Brussels interactive agency Emakina recently launched the new www.marcolini.com and sure did a great job here. Be sure to watch the Carre² Chocolat video where the Master Chocolatier himselve talkes passionately about the various pleasures and obstacles of single origin cacao, working together with plantations, and launching this particular collection.

The London Collection feat. world’s best Amedei

Published on August 10, 2009 in On Chocolate & Cacao and Trips. 5 Comments Tags: Abinao, Amedei, Caraïbe, Caranero, Chuao, Ecuador, Grenada, Jamaica, Jivara, La Tavoletta, London, Madagsacar, Rio Caribe, Selfridges, Trinidad, Valrhona, Venezuela, Venezuelan Black.

Yesterday while I was spending the weekend in London I jumped in at the Selfridges Food department in Oxford St., where to my surprise I ran into a pile of Amedei bars! While a had planned to go for a chocolate tour listed with shops like Rococo, Hotel du Chocolat and others, I wasn’t expecting to find world’s best chocolate right here exactly! My London basket within minutes became definitely one of my most expensive ones ever, but happiness is priceless

From Amedei I bought the big black “I Cru Collection” box, containing 36 origin napolitan tasting squares from Madagascar, Trinidad, Ecuador, Grenada, Jamaica, Venezuela.I couldn’t resist buying 2 of the Porcelana bars, and buy the Porcelana napolitan box on top, were it for the beautiful packaging design along. Also the napolitan Chuao box had to be bought, though sadly Selfridges didn’t had the bar version. Getting into the ’shopping’ I eventually even was to weak to resist stocking a milk bar and white bar from the La Tavoletta series, on percentages of cacao which I had left aside since long to date And as an dessert I eventually also bought a Toscano Red, fruited bar.

From the same shelves I equally collected some long sought new Valrhona series (Caraïbe, Abinao and Jivara), with a very attractive new pack design. From the UK chocolate scene I also had the chance to collect and discover the Green & Black’s organic dark bar and get hands on the Venezuelan Black brand, aimed more at kitchen use, from which I bought the Rio Caribe and Caranero Superior.

Well, I huge pile of exquisite acquisitions to discover here, and I won’t reveal how much cash I pleasantly burnt, but the aim is to prepare a small intimate event for which one these bars certainly spawn lots of fun on our palates. I’ll post tasty reviews of the London bars soon for sure!

Pierre Hermé, Porcelana and Valrhona

Published on August 5, 2009 in On Chocolate & Cacao and Reviews. 0 Comments Tags: Amedei, Belcolade, Callebaut, Galler, La Maison du Chocolat, Pierre Hermé, Porcelana, Valrhona.

If you really get into the sources and processes of the chocolate you eat, you’ll be likely to start feeling the tension between chocolate farm, manufacturers, and ‘chocolatiers’. To me it somehow became a playfull quest to figure out wether a ‘chocolatier’ works with his own bean-to-bar process (like Amedei, Bonnat etc) or if he is ‘merely’ a ‘pralinier’ who buys source material from e.g. Callebaut or Belcolade (eg Dominique Persoone). There’s nothing wrong with the latter, except off course if they’re trying to hide too hard. Like where would La Maison Du Chocolat buy theirs? I know where Galler is buying most of theirs

The other time when I was in Paris I finally had the time to visit the small shop of Pierre Hermé at Rive Gauche, St Germain. It was at that time when I got intrigued by hunting down what chocolate these world class chocolatiers were actually using. Previous efforts trying to demistify a Callebaut, Belcolade or Chocovic in chocolatier stores got me angry faces more than once
People queueing outside the street made clear where the action was. The store was looking gorgeous: small, clean, modern with a lot of sobrely designed wood putting all of the macarons and chocolate creations right in the centre of your attention. What caught my attention really were the prices! I don’t even dare to mention some of the ganache and truffles! On the shelves I spotted some bars including a “Origine Porcelana”, priced at a fat 10€. Wow, that is what I’d start to call really expensive stuff! I’ve bought Amedei at that price knowing that it was worth it, but here it was an investment for the truth. Turning towards a employee asking what the bar was made of, to my pleasant suprise he instantly revealed it was from Valrhona. I was struck by his open attitude as if he was used to answer the question. It even made me buy the overpriced Porcelana and some other bars to check out this Valrhona creation.

I don’t know what Hermé or Valrhona did wiht the bar, but I frankly was dissappointed. Where’s the taste gone, even the pacaking was rather cheap, with a bar coming wrapped in plastic foil. I had tasted much better Valrhona from their Plantation series in 2005 and 2006, but this one didn’t even come close to Porcelana As Magritte would say: ‘This is not a chocolate bar’. Lesson learned: if you want bars, buy bars from passionate bean-to-bar manufacturers.