One of the leaders successfully bringing new and innovative flavor combinations to chocolate is Montezuma’s.

You may already know that I am a huge fan of dark chocolate and orange.  Chocolate and orange is so yesterday!  My new favorite is Dark chocolate with Orange and Geranium.

I think Montezuma’s co-founder Helen Pattinson sums it up when she says, “If you try only one bar from our range, I would recommend this best selling little number.”

The Dark Chocolate with Orange and Geranium has a rich, intense 73% minimum chocolate, adding citrus and floral notes in perfect harmony.  I was skeptical at first about having such a strong floral flavor, but since I enjoy other floral flavors with chocolate as lavender and chamomile, I thought I’d give it an open mind.

Thank goodness I did!

Speaking of having an open mind, there are other glorious chocolate discoveries at their website www.montezumas.co.uk. 

For the milk chocolate lover, you must try the Milk Chocolate Chilli & Lime.  It is as incredible as it is unlikely.   Just right amount of heat from the chili lingers at the back of throat after the chocolate and lime have melted away. 

No, ordinary is not part of Montezuma’s world.  Go and enjoy something extra-ordinary!

Inferior?  No.

Not as “in”?  Yes.

People that work in the chocolate world do not view milk chocolate as inferior to dark.  A good quality milk chocolate is just as complex in flavor as a good quality dark chocolate. 

One might argue that the milk chocolate enthusiast is at a disadvantage when it comes to experiencing the undiluted flavors of cacao.  Still, bringing forth layers of toffee and honey flavors from a precisely conched (cooked) milk chocolate is an art form.

It really comes down to your flavor profile preferences.

However, there is no disputing the fact that right now, at this moment in time, dark chocolate is The Chosen One.  Chocolate manufacturers and the press inundate consumers with messages that dark chocolate is not only better in flavor, but is better for us. 

From this point of view I can see how the “chocolate world” makes it look as if milk chocolate is inferior (and sends the milk chocolate lover into hiding).
 
Not too long ago, the opposite was true.  People had difficulty appreciating dark chocolate and it was also difficult to find. 

In the past plenty of my friends learned that my favorite chocolate contained 70% cacao and they screwed up their faces in disgust.  “How can you stand that bitter stuff?” they would ask me.  “That reminds me of the time I ate a piece of my mom’s baking chocolate out of desperation.  I could just gag!”

So, the pendulum swings back and forth.

In spite of trends, within the sphere of chocolatiers and artisans, there will always be respect and appreciation for great chocolate no matter the color.

Mother’s Day is celebrated on different days and different months depending on which country you live in.  In the United States, it is always celebrated on the second Sunday in May. 

We can thank Anna Jarvis for this great day.  She is the one credited for founding Mothers Day in the US.

How do you choose the perfect chocolate for Mom?

The choices are plentiful (overwhelming, really) and if you have not gone chocolate shopping in a while, you will be amazed at the variety of exotic new flavors and the gourmet quality of old classics.

Narrow down the choices by focusing on Mom’s fondness:

Floral:  try chocolate truffles made with lavender, rose or my favorite, orange and geranium!

Tea:  milk chocolate made with flavored teas and chai spices are absolutely delicious.

Fire:  chili peppers added to chocolate bring out the intensity of the chocolate and of course, give it a kick.

Savory:  don’t judge a book by its cover: chocolate with crystallized ginger, mushroom ganache or goat cheese taste better than you think.

Unique:  www.chocomize.com.  Just go there and check it out!

Posh:  opening a gift box of molded chocolates decorated with sprayed on cocoa butter designs, gold, and glitter will take her breath away.  They might look too beautiful to eat, but do it anyway.  They taste just as good as they look.

Now pair that scrumptious chocolate with a series of chocolate lessons to keep the experience lingering long after Mother’s Day and you’ve got a real winner of a gift!

“Man cannot live on chocolate alone; but woman sure can!”
-author unknown

Previously I had been told the English didn’t celebrate Valentines Day much, but that’s not what I experienced.  The chocolate shops and patisseries surrounding the church fully embraced the holiday with window displays decked out in red hearts, flower bouquets, and lots and lots of chocolate!

Most of the time I don’t buy chocolate truffles by the box and off the shelf because I don’t know how long ago those truffles were made.  I prefer a really fresh, handmade truffle at the corner shop.

But this day I could not resist the trimmings and trappings so I purchased a box of Thorntons Premium Collection of Truffles, Pralines and light Mousses in Milk, Dark, and White chocolate.

The verdict? Pretty good, and better than I expected!  I couldn’t decide if my favorite in the lineup was the dark chocolate covered raspberry truffle or the milk chocolate covered champagne mousse.  Both very different, yet both delicious.

According to Thorntons’ website, they have been in the chocolate-making business for nearly 100 years, with their first shop opened in Sheffield by Joseph William Thornton.  They go on to say they made a name for themselves by creating “a uniquely rich and chewy ‘special’ toffee.”  Later, after World War II, their product line was expanded to include European style soft-centered chocolates.

You can purchase Thorntons chocolates in stores and online.  Shipping is from the U.K.  If you’re in a different country, international shipping charges are quite high.  For example, shipping to the U.S. starts at £26.75.  That’ll be above $40 at today’s exchange rate.  So put in a big order to make it worthwhile.

That’s a really good question.  Concerns about the streaking and the lack of shine make me think about how temperatures, crystal development and the appearance of chocolate are all connected.

Properly tempered chocolate is shiny and uniform in color. When chocolate has streaks and does not shine, it indicates that at some point in the production process, the chocolate solidified without being in a properly tempered state.

I am sorry to have to get technical here, but see if you can follow this.  Cocoa butter has to solidify or form crystals within a narrow range of temperatures.  Tempering means all crystals become as identical in size and shape as possible and we can do this by controlling the temperatures.   

There are essentially 3 major stages in the making of chocolates that you have to be particularly careful to achieve the right temperature:

Stage 1 – The Starting Product

If you make your own chocolate candy center, like toffee or ganache, make sure it is absolutely at room temperature before you dip in chocolate.  If you don’t let it cool down enough, the heat will eventually push through your coating and cause it to lose its temper – either entirely or partially.  On the flip side, if you let the center get too cold, you essentially “shock” the chocolate.  This causes really BIG crystals to grow and the coating appears very dull, a flat finish.

If you mold your chocolates, use the molds at room temperature. This could be another source of unintended heat or cold introduced as the chocolate is solidifying.

Stage 2 – The Tempering Process

This is the most likely stage to produce streaking.

Agitating or stirring the chocolate during the tempering process is crucial to prevent streaking.  Imagine adding red food coloring to white frosting to make it pink.  If you stir in the coloring using only a few strokes, you will see streaks of red among the white. Continually stir and the frosting will eventually turn pink. Something similar happens when you temper chocolate without a thorough mixing.  Temperatures along the bottom and sides of the tempering pan will be several degrees different than its center.  Each temperature gradient grows different crystals at different rates.  This causes light to bounce and bend irregularly and we see alternating streaks of light and dark chocolate after it dries.

Too much stirring will cause air bubbles to form and get trapped within the coating.  Air bubbles cause crystals to form unevenly which gives the chocolate a grainy appearance on the surface.

If you use a tempering machine it may have separate milk, dark, and white chocolate settings.  If not, you’ll need to set up the temperature and mixing parameters differently for each type of chocolate that you use.  Milk chocolates temper at a lower temperature range than dark chocolates.  Milk chocolates are tricky because there are different percentages of milk in any given brand or formulation of milk chocolate coating. The higher amount of milk (milk fat), the lower the temperature.  White chocolates can be even more sensitive to temperature than milk chocolates. 

Stage 3 – The Cooling Process

This is the most likely stage to produce dull looking product with no shine.  The ideal temperature for cooling chocolate is between 65 and 68 F.  The relative humidity should be 50% or less.  I use a fan on a medium setting pointed right at my chocolates.  The fan will lift the humidity out of the air surrounding them.  Make sure the cooling tray is elevated off the counter top enough to let air circulate underneath and take away excess heat from the bottoms.  A refrigerator hovers around 40 F and a freezer around 30 F – these temps are too low to encourage a nice shine. Rooms that heat up during the summer spell disaster for chocolate.  Anything over 78 F is too warm and makes the chocolate soft and slightly sticky.

One obvious sign that the cooling process was unsuccessful is the formation of bloom.  Bloom is a gray dusty film that covers the surface of chocolate.  It can happen within hours, or days, after tempering and cooling.

To summarize, this particular tempering problem description appears to be a temperature issue at one of more stages of the process.

What is Jaffa Cake?

The Jaffa Cake is a British favorite.  The cake is a three layered treat about the size of a cookie.  It is made with a bottom layer of sponge cake, a middle layer of orange flavored jelly, and a top layer of rich milk chocolate coating.

I am a fan of orange and chocolate pairings so it is easy to fall in love with Jaffa Cakes.

There are many different brands of Jaffa Cakes.  Tonight I am enjoying Cadbury brand.  I expected the coating to stand out since Cadbury IS chocolate around here!  I am not disappointed.

At first, the chocolate has a low impact and the orange completely dominates in flavor.  By the time everything blends and mixes in my mouth, the two flavors of orange and chocolate are balanced out and provide a nice combination.  The finish is lingering with a milky aftertaste from the chocolate.  The sponge cake is simply a flavor delivery mechanism and rather neutral in the whole experience.

Oh so Good!

The Jaffa Cake was introduced in 1927 by McVitie and Price and named after the Jaffa Orange.  The Jaffa Orange, originally grown in the Jaffa region of Palestine, before Isreal became a state, is similar to Valencia oranges in taste, only sweeter.

Finding Jaffa Cakes in the states may not be as easy as finding it here in the UK, but it can be done.  Once, I came across a box at my local US Aldi store.

Go ahead and give Jaffa Cakes a try!  Finding them is worth the effort.

The organic, 73% super dark chocolate bar reads “this bar is not for the faint of heart.”   The Swiss milk says “incomparable flavor!”

Hmmm. Sounds like challenges I can’t ignore!

In order to collect as much data as possible, I took the bars to the office and shared the tasting experience with my work mates. 

In a unanimous outcome, 4 out of 4 agreed that the organic dark was DELICIOUS.  I tasted a good percentage of Ecuadorian in the formula and since that is one my favorite flavor profiles I gave the thumbs up as well.  This chocolate starts out with strong roasted cocoa and fruity notes and finishes with a small bitter kick.  It leaves a lasting impression of overall smoothness and well-balanced character.

3 out of 4 voted the milk chocolate was GOOD but on the edge of being too intensely milky and creamy.  It should taste milky and creamy because it has 23% milk solids.  This is almost double the amount of milk that would be required to call it milk chocolate in the United States. 

One person did not favor the lingering milky aftertaste stating that it left her with “unpleasant milk breath.” 

I would have appreciated more toffee-like notes instead of milky notes.  The longer a milk chocolate is cooked and mixed (a process called “conched”) the more caramel or toffee flavor comes out. 

We enjoyed both chocolate bars but the 73% dark won the day.  I guess we are not faint of heart afterall!

How do anti-oxidants help us?   “Anti”-oxidants counteract the negative effects of oxidation on our bodies.  Oxidation damages cells and tissues.  What is oxidation, you ask?

Here’s a simple example that you’re familiar with.  Think of a slice of apple turning brown shortly after you cut it.  This is discoloring demonstrates the damage that oxidation causes on the cells of the apple.  If instead of leaving the slice out in the open air, you dip immediately in some lemon juice, the brown oxidative damage slows w-a-y down.  In this case the lemon juice is the antioxidant.

Our bodies are naturally good at fighting oxidation but it becomes more difficult as we grow older.  Eating foods high in antioxidants can give our aging bodies a boost.  Research has shown that red and purple colored fruits and vegetables are rich in antioxidants, but chocolate and cocoa are among the highest in antioxidant power!

Researchers measure the effectiveness of foods containing antioxidants.  Here is a handy chart of the top five foods packing a punch.

* Note that numbers will vary based on sample and other factors, but generally the order remains the same.

By the way, milk chocolate comes in a little lower, with an ORAC score of 6,740.

Some studies suggest that we should eat between 3,000 to 5,000 ORAC units a day, while the average person only takes in about 1,200 ORAC units per day.

You know what that means, don’t you?  EAT MORE CHOCOLATE.  You don’t have to tell me twice!

You might think, “there’s nothing confusing about chocolate — you buy it, you eat it!“  The reality is, the chocolate world has its own lingo, with terms and definitions that apply to the tasting of chocolate, the baking and cooking of chocolate, and the making of chocolate confections. 

To help you keep it all straight, here is a list of some common chocolate vocabulary along with their definitions…

Cocoa bean (or nib):
The cocoa bean is the seed from the pod, or fruit, of the chocolate tree — Theobroma cacao.  The cocoa bean has a shell surrounding it.  When it is removed, the nib, or the center, is revealed.  The nib is typically roasted and then crushed into chocolate liquor.

Baking chocolate (or chocolate liquor):
Baking chocolate is made from finely ground and roasted cocoa beans.  There is no sugar in baking chocolate.

Cocoa butter:
The fat present in cocoa beans is called cocoa butter.  The term “butter” does not mean that cocoa butter is a dairy product.

Cocoa powder:
Cocoa powder comes from removing the cocoa butter from the nib and then grinding the remaining solids into a powder.  The terms cocoa and cocoa powder can be used interchangeably.

Bittersweet (or semi-sweet) chocolate:
Bittersweet chocolate must contain at least 35% chocolate liquor and only cocoa butter as a fat, according to U.S. Standards of Identity.  Both bittersweet and semi-sweet chocolate terms can be used interchangeably.

Milk chocolate:
The most commonly consumed form of chocolate is milk chocolate.  Milk chocolate must contain a minimum of 10% chocolate liquor and at least 12% milk solids.  Milk fat and cocoa butter are the only fats that can be used.

White chocolate:
White chocolate is a blend of cocoa butter, milk, and sugar.  There are no chocolate solids present, which is why it lacks the typical brown color of chocolate.  U.S. regulations requires white chocolate to contain at least 20% (by weight) cocoa butter and at least 14% total milk solids.

Dutch processed chocolate:
This process darkens the color of the chocolate and releases a milder chocolate flavor.  The chocolate liquor or cocoa solids are treated with an alkaline solution.  The terms “dutched” or “alkalized” are listed on the ingredient statement for products sold in the U.S.

Chocolate flavored coating (or confectionary coating):
Chocolate that is made using a blend of vegetable fats either in addition to or other than cocoa butter.  Chocolate flavored coatings are similar in color to “real” chocolate coatings but taste very different and usually do not need to be tempered.  These coatings that contain vegetable fats cannot legally be called “chocolate” in the US.

I recently tried their Milk Chocolate Whole Cashews and I must say I enjoyed them very much!  My chocolate preference is dark, but I do enjoy a milk once in a while.  The reason I enjoyed this particular milk chocolate and cashew combination is the way the milk chocolate pulls out the bold, buttery, and salty flavor notes from the nuts and enhances them.

The aftertaste is a lingering buttery note which I prefer over a lingering “milky” note that so many other chocolate-covered nuts offer.

It is rare that I enjoy a chocolate-coated tree nut.  I have been disappointed too many times – not because of the chocolate, but because of the nuts.  I am blessed and cursed with the gift of “super-taster.”  In the flavor sensory world that means I am extremely sensitive to flavors in general, but most particularly to “off” flavors.  Even the tinniest hint of oxidation, or rancidity, makes me scrunch my nose in disgust.

I was not disappointed this time.

In fact, I have to be careful not to eat the entire bag in one sitting.  Darn.

Another reason I like this product is that when I share them at work, I am instantly popular among my co-workers.  Today I am reaping the rewards of a good treat.