Teuscher: Napoleon Praline and Mocha Gianduja

There are some things that make me very sad. War. Poverty. Empty boxes of chocolate.

Yeah. That’s what we’ve got here now. After working through the cocoa powder-dusted truffles, fruity confections, and delicious marzipan from Teuscher, I have two truffles remaining. But one is a praline! And those can be divine. Presenting, the Napoleon Praline.

A balanced mixture of coffee and caramel aromas are present, and the milk chocolate couverture is soft and creamy.

The center has distinct nutty and coffee flavors, with the coffee flavor emerging near the end and contrasting nicely with the sweet milk chocolate couverture. There is also a crunchy character to the texture to further contrast with the soft milk chocolate couverture. The entire piece is a perfect blend of flavor and texture.

Get a piece. Or 80. Now. And then visit me.

But wait! Don’t go yet. I have one more piece to share – the mocha gianduja.

This piece also showcases a creamy milk chocolate couverture, with nutty and caramel aromas.

The interior, unsurprisingly, has a strong coffee flavor, while offering nice blend of sugar, nuts, and chocolate. The coffee is a bit artificial and overpowering at the end of the melt, and while the texture of the couverture and interior blend well, the coffee is too strong for my tastes.

It’s OK. More room for Napoleon pralines in my next box.

Have you had coffee-enhanced chocolate that tastes artificial?

Teuscher: Orange and Apricot Marzipans

Let’s be fruity some more, shall we? As in, talking about more fruity chocolate from Teuscher’s extensive offerings. But, how about something a bit more, well, accessible to most of us than amarena cherries? Such as citrus fruits. How about some orange marzipan?

Yes. How about it?

This piece has a strong dairy aroma along with a very faint and nondescript citrus aroma. The dairy is evident in the flavor of the white chocolate couverture as well, which also gives some mild vanilla notes and a very smooth texture.

The marzipan has a creamy, subtle orange flavor, that resembles a fine-tuned creamsicle. The texture is neither soft nor tough, though it is a bit softer than the white chocolate which results in a bit of couverture flaking with each bite. The piece is nice and balanced, and not too sweet, but isn’t one of my favorite pieces in Teuscher’s offerings.

Hm. Anybody up for more fruit? Or more marzipan? How about more fruit AND more marzipan?

Lucky you: here’s the apricot marzipan.

The aroma of this piece is also creamy, and also has a faint, nondescript fruity aroma.

Despite the faint aroma, the apricot flavor pate atop the marzipan, once you bite into it, is distinct and tangy, particularly near the end of the melt when a tiny bit of an alcohol flavor kicks in. The milk chocolate couverture is smooth and creamy, with a notable caramel flavor. And more importantly, the texture of the chocolate is well-matched to the soft marzipan and apricot pate, which makes it easy to slowly enjoy small bites of this well-structured chocolate that I will need more of in the near future.

Do you like orange or apricot better?

Teuscher: Milk and Dark Amarena

In addition to some beautiful new-to-me truffles covered in cocoa powder, I got even more adventurous when I picked out treats for my most recent Teuscher truffle box. There were two pieces – one milk chocolate-based and one dark chocolate-based – filled with amarena cherries, which are advertised as sweet and bitter.

The milk chocolate version, pictured above, had a faint fruity aroma; the thick shell featured standard dairy and caramel flavors. Not too interesting yet.

Oh, and then the interior came along. The cherry was very tart, and hadn’t been masked with any alcohol. The texture was firm and it was clear that real fruit was used in the construction of this piece. A well-balanced flavor made this a memorable piece that I’m likely to pick up again.

Would that balance carry over to the dark chocolate version of the amarena piece?

The chocolate itself featured a thick couverture with a slow melt, that allows the earthy and coffee flavors to linger.

Again, the interior is quite tart, and against the dark chocolate, which was less sweet than the milk, the piece winds up being a bit short on sweetness. Another strike against this piece in a head-to-head battle against the milk is the crumbling couverture resulting from the harder dark chocolate. It’s an acceptable piece, but the milk is better.

Have you ever had amarena cherries?

Teuscher: Dark Champagne and Naga Truffles

I’m sad to report that I’m all out of Teuscher bars to write about. For now, of course, since I’ll always go and scope out what they have to offer when I’m near a shop, which will be soon.

But I’m happy to report that I got something else from Teuscher during a trip to Chicago earlier this year (not, of course, the recent “let’s sit in a dark room all day and talk about technical standards related to nuclear power plants” debacle).

Yes. Truffles. And my selection, obviously, included one of their signature truffles – the champagne truffle. This time, however, I went with the dark champagne truffle for variety.

The truffle has an earthy cocoa aroma, and the thin dark chocolate shell has a strong coffee flavor with red fruit undertones. The dusting of cocoa powder on the exterior gives a much more intense and earthy quality than the powdered sugar that Teuscher uses on the exterior of their traditional champagne truffles.

The interior is much sweeter, topped with a fluffy, creamy champagne cream. The champagne taste is noticeable but not overwhelming, and is extremely smooth with a very slow melt. The emphasis of this truffle is the chocolate rather than the champagne, and this may become my go-to champagne truffle in front of the traditional Teuscher champagne truffle.

Another dark chocolate truffle dusted in cocoa powder awaited evaluation: The nama truffle, a simple uncovered ganache with a distinct earthy aroma, likely due to the dusting of intense cocoa powder.

The interior ganache is thick and smooth, with a fairly slow melt and a texture that is best described as buttery. Notes of cherry compliment a dairy flavor that seems to feature a very subtle mint flavor. I could gobble these by the handful, but alas, DC still lacks a Teuscher storefront.

Do you like truffles dusted in cocoa powder?

Teuscher: Mandarin Chocolate

All of the other Teuscher bars I reviewed this go-around – even the coffee-enhanced bar from yesterday – were of the dark variety. Any milk-based bars on the horizon?

Well, sort of. This Mandarin Chocolate bar has a milk chocolate exterior, but a dark chocolate interior.

The bar features a strong aroma of both orange and tangerine, and a clementine-like flavor emerges almost immediately.

There are also some faint caramel and nutty notes from the chocolate, but they are hard to tease out. While the citrus flavor isn’t overwhelming, it comes to the forefront and the chocolate falls to the background. Though the texture of the chocolate is smooth, and both the interior dark chocolate and exterior dark chocolate feature a slow melt, a chocolate bar ought to taste like chocolate – not citrus and cocoa butter.

I’d still eat it again. I like cocoa butter and citrus.

Orange and chocolate: Good or Bad? (Hollie says good. Hannah says bad. The rest of you need to leave a message after the tone.)

Teuscher: Coffee Chocolate

Having overdone it with intense plain chocolate from Teuscher, I needed something that would be easier on me. One of their flavored bars. Could I take one with a dark chocolate base? I could only find out by sampling their Coffee Chocolate bar.

Unsurprisingly, the bar has a strong coffee aroma.

You’re welcome for the earth-shattering insights.

The bar contains what seem to be microscopic coffee-infused sugar crystals. As these are small and water soluble, it’s more like an added component to the chocolate than a grainy effect. The texture of the chocolate itself is buttery, and the added sugar balances out the coffee so that this bar isn’t very bitter. The only drawback is that the coffee flavor, though tempered by the added sugar, is sufficiently strong such that no other chocolate flavors are evident. It’s good, though, for a coffee chocolate – not too bitter while conveying a strong coffee flavor.

Who make your favorite coffee-centered chocolate?

Teuscher: 88% Cacao Bar

Teuscher’s dark chocolate line includes several bars with fairly high cacao content, and while I declined to sample the 99% cacao bar, I did pick up an 88% cacao bar to evaluate.

The aroma hinted at something intense, with earthy and woody aromas and a hint of smokiness.

The taste was exceptionally earthy and bitter, though some nutty flavors emerged near the middle to temper that intensity. The flavor sticks for a while given the slow melt of the bar, which is dry at first but turns buttery later. Though the bar is flavorful with only minor texture imperfections, it’s too intense for my lame tastebuds.

I had to give the rest away to somebody who loves super-intense dark chocolate.

At least it found a good home.

Have you ever given away chocolate that was too intense for you?