John&Kira's: Caramel, Honey, and Chocolate Bees

Five days until all the chocolate goes on sale. Are you ready? It's much, much more exciting than Valentine’s Day. Whether or not you agree with me, today, I have a review of another potential Valentine’s gift/treat to get on the cheap on February 15 - the John&Kira’s caramel and honey chocolate bees, a piece showcasing 62% cacao Valrhona chocolate, filled with a blend of Pennsylvanian honey and salted caramel, and beautifully painted with colored cocoa butter.

There is, of course, a story behind how I came upon this box of bee chocolates. Evidently, when I was at Cocova a few weeks ago with my very sneaky significant other who bought me champagne truffles behind my back (THE HORROR), he made note when I said “aren’t those cute” as I walked past a display of these.

I mean, they are, aren’t they?

Apparently, he covertly got a box of these, with the intent of saving them as a Valentine’s Day gift.

Then he handed them over to me on January 29.

Fail, dude. Complete fail. Delicious fail, but still. Fail.

Anyway, when I opened this box more than two weeks before Valentine’s Day, I found that it was even cuter than I imagined.

Bee facts await you under each piece.

Alright, so we have cute covered. How about the actual chocolate? Each piece has a complex aroma of honey, fig, and coffee, and also had an adorable little face painted on the shell.

(Enough already. Give me my &*^&!@# chocolate.)

The chocolate shell has a smooth and moderate melt with a slightly creamy texture and standard vanilla and coffee flavors, with a subtle mint note at the end.

 

And then there is the filling. Oh, the filling. It’s a liquid-type caramel, which, while thick, is still runny and leaves you with a sticky mess after one bite. The flavor is delicious – it’s buttery with a clear salty edge and a hint of honey.

Summary: adorable and delicious. But a mess.

Recchiuti: Champagne Truffles

Apparently there is some kind of holiday coming up next week…Valentine’s Day? Normally I’d be all about hating it, but some very nice chocolate comes out in recognition of it.

Even better, most of it will be deeply discounted next Wednesday. Patience, people, patience.

But, since I’m thinking of those of you who just might be in search of something to give to somebody special, I’ve gotten my hands on some Valentine’s Day special stuff in advance of the big day. Such as this specially-packaged box of Recchiuti champagne truffles.

I spied this minimalist box at Cocova a couple of weeks ago, and added it to my pile of intended purchases. The significant other saw this, and tried to say he was going to get this pretty little box for me. I said no. He protested. I gave him my best “angry synchronized swimming coach” glare and he gave up.

Then I put my pile down to look at some of the new Madre bars, looked back at the pile 10 seconds later to find that the box was gone and being purchased by somebody who was not me.

FINE.

Either way, I was up one box of truffles, so I looked inside and found some petite truffles coated with a generous portion of powdered sugar. 

Each truffle has a sugary vanilla aroma, and a thin outer shell underneath that powdered sugar, which dissolves slowly over the course of about 10 seconds, at which point you can finally taste the chocolate itself.

The chocolate has cherry notes with subtle hints of banana and coffee, and is neither sweet nor bitter – just a perfect spot between the two. 

The ganache center is thick and smooth with a slow, creamy melt. The champagne flavor only comes in at the end, and is subtle, without even a hint of a boozy bite. I’ll say they aren’t QUITE Teuscher level , but they are close, and I do like their smaller size.

I still can’t believe I got tricked like that. I know better.

Pralus Sao Tome & Principe 75% Cacao

One difficulty in sharing fine dark chocolate with others is that milk chocolate lovers fear dark chocolate after being exposed to Hershey’s Special Dark and the like. They expect something dry, over-roasted, and bitter after such experiences. But when you show them truly good dark chocolate, some of them will turn around – just like my good friends did when I took them to the tasting at Cocova last weekend.

In addition to the exposure to high quality dark chocolate, I think another key to transitioning a milk chocolate lover into a milk AND dark chocolate lover is to start with a mild bar that features traditionally pleasant flavors. In other words, nutty is probably more palatable than earthy, sweet fruit notes are probably a better bet than sour citrus, and a smooth melt is a must.

Pralus has several bars that fulfill these criteria, which is probably why my friends fawned over it last Saturday despite their general aversion to dark chocolate. One particular bar, their Sao Tome & Principe Forastero 75% cacao, has sweet flavors without an overload of added sugar.

The aroma is fruity, with banana and cherry most pronounced, and also has a faint honey and cream character mixed in. The melt is slow and just a tad waxy at the beginning, but quickly becomes buttery and rich.

The bar does have an earthy undertone at first, but a stronger nutty flavor will keep dark chocolate skeptics interested. Caramel and coffee develop later, and the chocolate finishes with delicious honey and banana flavors at the end. An exceptionally smooth melt, along with these mild flavors, will turn around even the most staunch anti-dark chocolate people out there despite the lack of added sugar, as this bar is not at all bitter.

Perhaps a gateway dark chocolate bar of sorts for milk chocolate purists.