Saturday, October 15, 2011

The chocolate of fairytales

When my parents returned from their travels, allowing us to cease house sitting and return to our usual residence, they returned with chocolate.

Quite exciting chocolate.

White Rabbit Chocolate from Yorkshire, England, to be precise.

This chocolate, for me:


And this chocolate, for Mr Bite:

I didn't get to photographing this before some of it was consumed!


I liked mine better. He liked his better. We were both happy.

The White Rabbit Chocolate Company is named for the carving of the Pilgrim Rabbit in Beverley, East Yorkshire, which is said to have inspired Lewis Carroll's White Rabbit in Alice in Wonderland.

Their chocolate seems suited to Alice in Wonderland.

The Harem Dream bar with Moroccan style spices consists of 70% cocoa dark chocolate with dried apricots, pumpkin seeds, rose fragments, and a 'spice mix' that includes black pepper.  The other spices aren't explicitly listed, but I think I detected faint chilli, or perhaps paprika, with some possible cinnamon or nutmeg.

The dried apricots, pumpkin seeds and rose fragments are what you see on the top of the 55g block, and aren't embedded within the chocolate itself. The spice mix, on the other hand, very much is.



It's subtle at first. The scent of the bar lets you know that something exciting is coming, but it's not immediately clear what or how strong that something is. On the first taste, the flavour is all chocolate. Deep and dark, but not bitter. Then it tingles just a little. The pepper comes through. Other spices follow.



My only point of comparison when trying to imagine the taste, before actually tasting it, was Lindt Excellence Dark Chocolate with Chilli (which is one of my favourite Lindt flavours). But it's not at all the same. Both are good, but where Lindt is smooth and sweet with a clear chilli hit, this is deep and dark with a more mellow and peppery spice mix.

Suffice to say, it was very good. Very, very good.

The Yorkshire honeycomb block was a milk variety, with 37% cocoa. The honeycomb bits were reportedly chewy, and were scattered throughout the block rather than forming a constant filling or lining up in squares. The ingredient list also cited golden syrup.



To my amazement but slight dismay (because I am not in England, and definitely not in Yorkshire) Googling revealed that there are several other flavours I would quite like to try.

The Nutty Gorilla Dark Chocolate, for example, which includes "dark chocolate with pecans, dates, walnuts and cocoa nibs".


Or just about any of the blocks featured in this image:



For now, though, I am happy to stick with my Moroccan Style Spice combination. I think it sums up so much of what can be wonderful about chocolate - the potential for fun, play, and even fairytale-esque flavours.

--

Bonus question: Are you a camera expert, or have you bought a camera recently? I am looking at upgrading my very basic Sony point and shoot and would be grateful for any advice! My current shortlist has settled on interchangeable lens cameras, and the Sony Nex-C3 in particular, but I would love to hear if anyone has experience with the interchangeable lens options.

16 comments:

  1. Those all look awesome.. gourmet chocolate is the best!

    ReplyDelete
  2. *wriggles around with excitement* Oh, that Harem Dream sounds truly the stuff of dreams! (I couldn't resist :P ) I really hope people help you out with camera advice; I've needed a new one since April and have been simply been borrowing my dad's because these kind of technological decisions freak me out :(

    ReplyDelete
  3. The chocolate looks fantastic - but I couldn't decide which flavour because they all look so good - probably your parents' problem too! I too wish I could help with camera questions - I use canon powershot and sometimes thing that something fancier would be great but like Hannah I have trouble making such decisions. Will be interested to hear what you decide

    ReplyDelete
  4. You lucky girl, you! Not only are those some of the prettiest chocolates I've ever seen.. the combinations sound great!

    ReplyDelete
  5. That chocolate looks amazing! I wish I was a camera expert...but sadly the flash on my camera is broken so I use my iPhone to take pictures :/

    ReplyDelete
  6. Now that is seriously exciting chocolate. Your one especially. Almost makes me want to revisit tempering chocolate just to try and make some like that...almost.
    No advice with the camera sorry. One day I will be a big girl and get switchy lens'.

    ReplyDelete
  7. oh my - what a wonderfully colourful chocolate bar!
    I have a canon DSLR that I LOve :)

    ReplyDelete
  8. I know! I only wish I could justify buying it more often.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Hehehe...I did think of you when tasting this :P

    I remember your camera breaking but hadn't realised you hadn't replaced it. Mind you, if my Dad had a spare one I probably would borrow that too! I'll let you know what I decide on.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Yes, my Mum did say the decision was quite challenging! She did very well.

    I have found the range of cameras to be quite overwhelming - I can understand why people might just opt out of having to choose! I think mine must be on its last legs though, so I will force myself to stick with it and come up with something. Still not 100% sure yet though...

    ReplyDelete
  11. I was pretty impressed with the gift, that is for sure :) And they are gorgeous to look at (almost, but not quite, too good to break and eat!).

    ReplyDelete
  12. Goodness, your phone does well! I don't have one so didn't realise the camera feature was so good.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Ooh, have you previously tempered chocolate? I will be searching your blog to find out if so :) How exciting, although from your comment I suspect it may not be worth the mess and effort!

    ReplyDelete
  14. Ahh, I think I would love one too. Sadly, I think too big for me! I suspect I'd be put off carrying it on holidays and things? Also, possibly a little pricey for me :P

    ReplyDelete
  15. I'm not sure if it will encourage you or put you off :-/ http://cityhippyfarmgirl.com/2010/10/18/once-upon-a-time-in-chocolate%C2%A0land…/
    I think it's definitely worth the effort, just not my effort at this stage of the game.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Thanks so much - I just let a comment on your post. It does look worth the effort, but it sounds like I'll need a clear stretch of time. Maybe over Christmas :)

    ReplyDelete

I genuinely appreciate all comments and the time taken to post them. Occasionally, I may need to restrict commenting to registered users in order to halt large volumes of spam. If that happens, I will lift the restriction within a week.

Want other ways to interact? Bite-sized thoughts is on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/bitesizedthoughts) and Twitter (https://twitter.com/bitesizethought).