Saturday 17 March 2007

Chocoholics dream

I met up with some of my GOL friends at the train station and we headed off. There were some 20 stands, each of them offering free tastings of some of their produce. There were some spectacular looking eggs for easter, sculptures of chocolate and some local specialities "paves". There were some people making chocolates, so we could taste a crisp wafer dipped in chocolate warm from the pot. There were fountains of chocolate, and little cups of fresh fruit with chocolate fondue.

I had given myself a pretty generous budget, and bought this array of goodies....


So... what did I buy and why?

I didn't get to taste this one, but I thought it looked rather interesting and has layers of apricot with dark chocolate. Artisan: Wenger


This chocolate is made by a local chocolate making school "Ecole du Chocolat Prangins". I liked the slightly plummy tone to the chocolate, and its chunky artisanal look.


There were a few places selling "Paves" - I am not sure what exactly Pave translates as, but I think it might be something like "tablet". In general they seem to have the similarity of being quite buttery in texture and coated in cocoa. I chose these in particular, because they seemed to be almost crisp to the bite. Artisan: Jean Claude Hochstrasser.

I couldn't resist these slim chocolates; dark (70%) with red peppercorns. Artisan: Nicolas Noz


The simple elegance of the packaging of these chocolates made them irresistable. But horror of horrors, my bottle of orange juice leaked and ruined the card packaging. But the elegant tablets remain untouched. Artisan: Nicolas Noz


The other thing of interest about these chocolates is their provenance. These are made from wild cocoa from Bolivia. I dont know what the difference will be, but look forward to finding out!




I also just HAD to buy this strip of 70% cocoa chocolate, with crushed cocoa nibs. Not too sweet with a delightful crunch. Artisan: M A Cartier for "O'Saveurs"


Last but not least - something very interesting indeed - cocoa mustard. There were two kinds for sale, one which had orange and one just cocoa. I preferred the plain cocoa one as I thought that the orange overpowered the cocoa. Artisan: Celine Ammann (made using organic mustard honey, oranges and vinegar)


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