By Charles Passy
Courtesy Frankie’s Fruit Chocolate
Frankie’s Fruit and Chocolate adds fruits in different combinations to give their circles and crisps a smart sweetness.
Valentine’s Day Chocolate: Thinking Outside the Box
When it comes to Valentine’s Day chocolate, are you ready to think beyond the box?
True, February 14 may be our national holiday to honor the cocoa bean, but the boxed assortment is not necessarily the best way to go. For starters, assortments rarely do justice to a chocolatier’s true strengths – by its very nature, the box has a kind of a jack-of-all-trades logic to it. On top of that, a box also implies a certain type of chocolate – bite-sized and filled. Chocolate comes in many forms – with many flavorings: Who’s to say a bar of chocolate or a chocolate-covered pretzel or even a chocolate perfume can’t equally fulfill a chocoholic’s deepest desires?
With that in mind, Speakeasy won’t on a search for the best in all things chocolate, from the decadent to the bizarre to the bizarrely decadent. And after lots of sampling, we’ve come up with a list of a 12 favorites – a chocolate lover’s alternative to a dozen roses. Happy Valentine’s Day!
A morning bowl of chocolate: When we think chocolate, we think after-dinner treat. But the folks behind Cream of Wheat apparently think of chocolate as another way to flavor a hot breakfast cereal (“Hot chocolate you can eat with a spoon,” says the brand). Surprisingly, it’s not as off-putting as we expected. In fact, to paraphrase an ad slogan popularized by another cereal: We like it, we really like it.
Twisted chocolate: Chocolate-covered pretzels are one thing. But what’s a Fretzel? That’s the name that art director-turned-candy maven Jill Frechtman gave her chocolate-covered pretzels – topped with not just chocolate (milk, dark or white), but also MMs, Reese’s Pieces, toffee, cookies, you name it. The result is a sweet-meets-salty treat that’s over-the-top, but thoroughly yummy at the same time.
Chocolate for those who can’t always enjoy it: If you know anyone with certain food allergies, then you know how difficult a day like Valentine’s Day can be for them. Fortunately, Dr. Lucy’s, an allergen-friendly baker, makes a heart-shaped chocolate cookie that’s gluten-free and contains no peanuts, tree nuts, milk or eggs. It also has a wonderful crunch to it – so much so that it will likely appeal to those without dietary restrictions.
Chocolate for fruit lovers: Okay, no one is pretending that combining fruit and chocolate is a good way to get one or two of those requisite five daily servings in your diet. But we have to say that Frankie’s Fruit and Chocolate a Rhode Island chocolatier, makes it a tempting thought. That’s because they add just the right fruits in the right combinations – say, coconut, pineapple and banana – to give their “circles” and “crisps” (essentially, chocolate bars in something other than bar form) a smart sweetness. Chocolate-dipped fruits – apricots, mango slices, etc. – are also on the menu.
Drunken chocolate (part 1): Moonshine may be whiskey in its most down-home form. But lately, a number of craft “moonshines” have hit the market, taking this corn-based spirit to loftier heights. So why not go a step further and make a moonshine-flavored artisan-style truffle? That’s what North Carolina distiller Troy Sons has done, creating a filled chocolate that still has a boozy taste of the mountains to it – along with such added flavorings as pink sea salt and Madagascar vanilla.
Drunken chocolate (part 2): We’ve always been a fan of Patron XO, a coffee liqueur made with the popular tequila. But now Patron has decided to take a good thing and make it…chocolaty. Patron XO Café Dark adds a hint of cocoa to the mix. It’s not the sort of tequila you’d fashion a margarita with, but it stands as a fine sip on its own. It can also serve as a grown-up topping for ice cream.
Cheesy chocolate: If moonshine wasn’t an odd enough flavoring for a truffle, what about bleu cheese? Oregon chocolatier Lillie Belle Farms has crafted such a concoction with its Smokey Blue Truffles, made with cheese by the award-winning Rogue Creamery, also from Oregon. Weird? You bet. But there’s a sweet-meets-sour thinking here that works because of a textural kinship – a dense chocolate butter cream and a rich bleu cheese are not such strange bedfellows in terms of mouth feel.
Hot (and sultry) chocolate: Hot chocolate might have a certain sinful appeal. But a hot chocolate that bears the name “Kama Sutra” is clearly venturing from PG-13 to NC-17 territory. But forget about the name: Simply put, we don’t think we’ve tasted a better hot chocolate mix than Chocolate Moderne’s Kama Sutra – an Indian-inspired blend of chocolate, cardamom, clove and coconut from a prominent New York chocolatier. Just add milk (and perhaps shut the blinds).
Bar none chocolate: Chocolate bars have also become part of the chocolate flavor revolution – we’ve tasted ones mixed with everything from bacon bits to hemp seeds to chili powder. But the Dark Chili bar from Fika, a New York chain of high-end cafes, stands in a class by itself – not so much because of the subtly spicy chili, but because of the high-quality chocolate. Put the two together and the bar exudes an intensity with every bite. Available through Whole Foods.
Chocolate scrubbing: It may resemble a rich pudding, but The Body Shop’s Chocomania Body Scrub isn’t for eating. Part of the new line of Chocomania beauty products from the popular chain, it has a revitalizing effect on the skin. Oh, and it smells very chocolaty, too.
Juniors Mints: The Perfume: We kid you not. Demeter Fragrance, a perfume maker that prides itself on crafting products with a pop-culture sensibility (how about an apple-scented Hello Kitty cologne?), has a whole line of chocolate-themed items. Not just Junior Mints, but also Hershey’s Kisses and Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups fragrances. We’re holding out for the chocolate-bleu cheese perfume, however.
A really big box of chocolates: Granted, we told you that we’re not fans of boxed chocolates. But what if it’s a really big box of chocolates? Or even better, a really big box with smaller boxes and other chocolate items in it? That’s what Zoe’s Chocolate Co., a Pennsylvania and Maryland-based chocolatier, offers with its Love in a Big Box package, which covers the full spectrum of chocolate — traditional and contemporary, bars and filled items (we love the Mediterranean-inspired chocolates). Want more love? The choolatier has a Love in a Big, Big Box package, too.
Chocolate with Bill & Sheila
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