Chocolate
Chocolate is a hugely important part of my life, obviously because of what I do, but it’s also attached to a lot of memories. I was brought up to appreciate food; its origins, flavour and that quantity doesn’t always mean quality.
One of my earliest Easter memories is sitting on my parents bed unwrapping a cello wrapped chocolate hen, the hen was pretty huge and there was no way I was going to manage to eat the whole thing in one go (although I’m sure I would have loved to have tried). I loved how all the features of the hen appeared in the chocolate J
Chocolate really awakes all the senses, aesthetically it’s enticing, and the smell is sweet, rich and immediately awakens the taste buds before you’ve even tasted it. Chocolate like a fine wine or coffee can have many layers in its flavour. Sometimes very fruity, sometimes with nutty tones or a creamy sweet flavour.
Like most foods I find people will have completely different outlooks and it can be really had to say what is right from wrong. Chocolate once a treat has become a huge commodity with people just picking up a bar and not caring where the cocoa is sourced, how the chocolate is made and what it contains. Your bog standard bar is a mixture of vegetable fat, vanilla, sugars and quite frankly only a little bit of chocolate. All my customers complain that they never feel satisfied when they eat a standard bar of chocolate they just crave more, however when they eat a chocolate with a high cocoa content and not jam packed with fats and vanilla they instantly feel satisfied, they love the complexity of the flavour and how they don’t crave chocolate. They simple don’t crave the chocolate in the same way because of the higher quantity of cocoa in the chocolates.
A fresh handmade chocolate has a depth of flavour and a far superior texture compared to a mass produced chocolate.
Tags: Chocolate, cocoa, handmade chocolates, handmade turffles, quality chocolate, taste