A few weeks ago I was interviewed for an article with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel newspaper. That article appeared in the print version yesterday and online the day before.
There’s some great information about tasting chocolate as well as pairing chocolate and wine. Click this link for the full chocolate and wine article.
At the time of the interview they also captured some video as I gave a 2-minute chocolate tasting. Watch it below.
In the video I talk briefly about tasting a milk chocolate and then a dark chocolate.
It’s tough to get all the details about chocolate tasting in just a couple minutes. That’s one reason to enjoy a comprehensive chocolate education at Chocolate University Online. The first 10 lessons are all about tasting chocolate.
I found a great article from the California Milk Advisory Board (CMAB) offering guidelines for chocolate and cheese pairings.
With all my pairings, I consider matching flavor profiles from the chocolate’s perspective…
Since dark chocolates offer a complex set of flavors, it makes sense that the best matches would be complex, aged cheeses.
And, since milk chocolates are sweet, and have many dairy flavor components, it is recommended you choose buttery, soft cheeses for the best pairing results.
Here are some more detailed recommended pairings from the article:
Pair 80% or higher dark chocolate with Blue cheese
Enjoy chocolate caramels with a beer-washed cheese
Savor dark chocolates and chili peppers with aged Gouda
Combine dark chocolates and almonds with aged Jack
Going against the aged rule-of-thumb, experiment with 60% – 70% dark chocolate and fresh cream cheese
Try milk chocolates with Ricotta or Brie
and, finally…
You can unite dark chocolates and dried fruits with Asiago or Fontina
I admit that I haven’t tried all these combinations, but I’ll have fun crossing them off my to-do list!
Often “store brand” food items are thought of an economical and perhaps an inferior version of its name brand counterpart. While many times I think that ends up being true, I’m still open to give unknowns a try, especially if it costs me less. I do get disappointed but sometimes I also get surprised.
I plan on writing a flavor review of different store brand chocolate bars; some available only in the US and some available only overseas, each Monday for as many Mondays as I have chocolates. On this journey I know we’ll discover the good and the bad but either way we’ll have fun and eat chocolate. Isn’t that the meaning of life anyway?
Today I have a Roundy’s milk chocolate bar that looks an awful lot like a Hershey’s bar. Same brown wrapper, same size and same shape. Will it taste the same?
The sweetness level is similar, in other words, very sweet. The biggest difference is that the milky notes are definitely not the same as Hershey and in my opinion, much more pleasant. The chocolaty notes actually come through for a moment before the combination of sweet and milk take over. One more thing, the Roundy’s chocolate is smoother than the Hershey bar.
For a store brand low cost milk chocolate bar I rate the Roundy’s Milk Chocolate bar better tasting as well as an improvement over the basic Hershey Milk Chocolate. But, it is still very sweet, very cheap, and very unsatisfying for a hard core chocolate lover.
Next Monday, I’ll take a look at another low cost milk chocolate bar, this one with a British store brand label.
Have you ever discovered you were out of an ingredient? Of course that always seems to happen right in the middle of making something!
When the recipe calls for chocolate, cocoa powder, or unsweetened baking chocolate, using the correct substitution can mean your crisis is avoided. And no emergency trip to the grocery store!
Here is a list of worthy substitutions when working with certain chocolate ingredients in a recipe:
Recipe Calls For
Substitute
1 oz. Bittersweet or Semi-Sweet Chocolate
½ oz. unsweetened baking chocolate
+ 1 tbsp white sugar
OMG! Home of the Famous Chocolate covered Potato Chip, “Chippers”. That’s what Carol Widman’s Candy Company proudly boasts. And I completely agree!
Carol Widman’s Candy Company is located in Fargo, North Dakota. They’ve been making quality chocolates for four generations. I’m not sure when they started making chocolate covered potato chips, but they have perfected them. They come covered in milk chocolate, semi-sweet chocolate, peanut butter, and white almond.
It really doesn’t matter which coating you choose, so pick your favorite. No matter what, the Chippers are down right addicting.
I can’t stop eating my milk chocolate chippers. Good thing I can still type while my mouth is full or this blog post would never get published.
The chocolate is smooth and creamy, with soft caramel and nutty notes. The potato chips are crispy, salty, and extremely fresh tasting. According to the company’s website, www.carolwidmanscandyco.com, they use Red River Valley Potato Chips, made from a locally grown red potato known for its excellent robust flavor.
I am a little nervous about sharing my enthusiasm for this incredible chocolate gem. What if they run out?
Or, perhaps worse yet, what if my family finds out I ate them all and accidentally forgot to share?
Although I prefer dark chocolate, I do enjoy a good Swiss milk chocolate from time to time. My son turned me on to Villars Chocolat au Lait Suisse when he brought a bar home from Switzerland.
This Swiss milk chocolate has bold toffee notes coming through a light, slightly nutty, chocolate flavor with a smooth and creamy texture. Even more delightful is the milk chocolate version with added hazelnuts.
Now my local grocery store carries the Villars brand chocolate bars for $2.99. At 200 g, this is a larger size than your average chocolate bar. That’s a nice bonus.
Villars was founded by Mr. William Kaiser in 1901. He was the first to invent chocolate bars filled with liqueur.
I don’t know how widespread this chocolate is being distributed in the U.S. but it is worth watching for. Please visit their website, www.chocolat-villars.com, to see all the Villars products and learn more about the Swiss tradition of chocolate making.
An allergy to cacao is possible but rare. It would be more likely that someone has an allergy to one of the ingredients in chocolate or experiences a food intolerance, which is not really an allergy at all.
Only 1 – 2% of American adults and 5 – 8% of children have a true, immunological food allergy. Among those, 90% are allergic to the “big 8”; milk, eggs, peanuts, tree nuts, soy, wheat, fish, or shellfish.
Dairy allergies are pretty common, and although not all chocolate is milk chocolate, the dark chocolate could be processed on a line that also processes milk.
Peanuts and tree nuts are often added to chocolates. And even chocolates without nut ingredients can be manufactured in a facility that processes peanuts and tree nuts, leaving them potentially contaminated.
Wheat and/or gluten allergies or celiac disease sufferers may find that some chocolates with fillings sometimes use flour or wheat starch as a binder. Occasionally crisped rice can contain barley malt.
If you have a soy or corn allergy, keep in mind that the lecithin used in chocolate is soy based and that many candy bars are layered with nougats and caramels sweetened by corn syrup products.
With any of those allergies covered above you can probably still find chocolates that are suitable for your enjoyment. Of course, anyone who is truly allergic to cocoa should eliminate all chocolate and cocoa in their diet.
Arko is a German company specializing in premium coffee and fine chocolates.
When Arko began 60 years ago, customer satisfaction was at the center of their thoughts and actions. That habit continues to the present.
According to the Arko website, they are the brand for discerning connoisseurs.
Wondering how I got my hands on their chocolate? Once again, I was given a gift from a fellow chocolate lover/world traveler. Oh yes, my friends know what I like!
This particular Arko indulgence is called Marc De Champagne schokolade. This bar is a rich milk chocolate with a layer of 2.9% marc de champagne ganache. The cocoa content is 35%.
Sweet honey and creamy milk flavors are the first to appear followed by the unique flavor notes of the marc de champagne. Soft cocoa notes linger after the finish.
Incidentally, Marc de champagne is a colorless brandy that is produced by distilling the grape skins which are left from the pressing process in the first stages of Champagne production.
Arko has many retail stores throughout Germany, Austria, and the Czech Republic. They offer handmade truffles, pralines, fresh baked goods, and high-quality coffee too.
Next time you are busy taking in the sights around Germany, stop in an Arko store and have a treat. No, have two treats, one for you and one for me!
Novi chocolate is an Italian made chocolate from the province of Piedmont.
My in-laws recently traveled abroad and brought back a Novi milk chocolate bar for me.
This chocolate, called Novi Al Latte Classico, is an extra fine milk chocolate with a cacao content of 30%.
The label was in Italian but through the modern wonders of online translators, I found out what it said: “For over a century, we select the best cocoa beans, a true gift of nature. The precious beans reach our factory where they are roasted with advanced technology, while respecting tradition. We control of all stages of production, from raw material to finished product, and this ensures the uniqueness and goodness of Novi fine milk chocolate.”
This milk chocolate is smooth and velvety while it melts in your mouth. It is very creamy, and the soft, cooked milky flavors blend well with the stronger chocolaty and nutty notes from the cacao.
I really do enjoy tasting a variety of chocolates. Every aspect of chocolate production, including where it is made, adds a statement, subtle or grand, to the final flavor.
It’s Q&A time. Here is another question from a subscriber:
“Once chocolate has been melted, how long is it good for once it has been molded (again)?”
Chocolate is a very versatile and tolerant product to work with, the nuances of tempering aside. Chocolate can be melted, tempered and molded, re-melted, re-tempered and re-molded, again and again.
The shelf life of chocolate depends on whether it is milk or dark and whether or not it has inclusions like nuts, coconut, or dried fruit.
Dark chocolate lasts the longest before oxidizing, or going rancid. Cocoa butter is a very stable fat and once chocolate is crystallized, or tempered, it can resist bloom – fat migration – fairly well.
A good temper and a consistent environment during storage are two of the more important steps to making dark chocolate last a long time. Typically, the shelf life of dark chocolate is nine to twelve months (I have seen it last longer). In fact, age will actually enhance the flavor of chocolate, although it will be subtle.
If some bloom is present on the surface of the chocolate, melt the chocolate, temper it and mold again and it will be fine. Bloom is that grayish or whitish coating that can form on the surface of chocolate. It does not destroy the flavor of the chocolate, but the appearance is not appealing.
Milk chocolate has a shelf life range of six months to nine months. The main reason milk chocolate has a shorter timeline is that the milk fat (butter oil) part of the milk oxidizes or goes rancid faster than cocoa butter. The higher the milk content in chocolate, the shorter the life span.
Adding nuts to chocolate will decrease the shelf life in terms of bloom and rancidity. Nut oils migrate quickly to the surface of the chocolate causing bloom, and the oils behave similarly to milk fat in that they oxidize faster.
This Swiss milk chocolate has bold toffee notes coming through a light, slightly nutty, chocolate flavor with a smooth and creamy texture. Even more delightful is the milk chocolate version with added hazelnuts.
My in-laws recently traveled abroad and brought back a Novi milk chocolate bar for me.
