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Weird Flavors and Inclusions in Chocolate
Inquiring chocolate minds want to know.
I will start things off by saying that I think the Austrians are among the most adventurous when it comes to flavors in chocolate.
I used to think it was the Spanish when I was tasting the work of Enric Rovira (chocolate covered corn-nuts, pretty good actually) and Oriol Balaguer (the saffron truffles were definitely an acquired taste, and it was a lot of fun to give someone his pop-rocks chocolate without telling them what it was ...).
Lately, however, I think the prize has to go to Zotter. I took a look at a bar with an asparagus or artichoke and something or other filling and decided instead (whatever possessed me I do not know) to try the mustard and coffee bar. It wasn't nearly as bad as it sounds, thought it is not something I would buy for myself (I got mine at Fog City News in SF) ever again.
There is another Austrian company I have heard of that is making camel's milk chocolate for sale in the middle east. I would definitely try it (at least once) just to know how it tasted different from cow's milk.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Virginia Sybert on -
Oh! chocolate in Seattle turned me on to goat cheese truffles with crushed pink peppercorns on top. easy to make, don't keep very long and definitely a distinctive taste. I love them!
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Permalink Reply by Heather Bergman on -
Hi Virginia, do you mind explaining these delicious sounding goat cheese truffles in more detail? Do you substitute goat cheese for butter in the ganache? Or enrobe little balls of straight goat cheese? I want to start playing with the combination as I was just informed that I have a schinus molle tree (pink peppercorn) growing in my garden, sure enough i tasted the little berries and they were the freshest pepper taste you can imagine!
h
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Permalink Reply by Howard & Hanna Frederick on -
Hi everyone: A fascinating discussion because I have been working on new flavours for sometime. My training is not actually as a chocolate chef, I'm actually a PhD food chemist. Currently I am producing about forty flavours for high-end clients in Australia and New Zealand (although I'm a Hungarian-American). In the past I've not only done all the alcoholic flavours (see beer chocolates at right) but also deer velvet and venison salami chocolates. Plus we have our line of aphrodisiac chocolates for men and women using rain forest herbs from Southeast Asia. The numbers of men enjoying Tomcat Alley™ certainly swelled to epic proportions! My Pocket Venus™ truffles revive a flagging female libido too. They are best served as a matching set. Just now I got lots of attention for my garlic truffles and kangaroo salami truffles, which are actually an hors d'oeuvre. I'm brewing up now something that I can only reveal now as an "Operatic Chocolate". Kind regards, Hanna Frederick, Mamor Chocolates and High Tea Szalon, Melbourne, Australia
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Permalink Reply by Edward J on
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Nothing exotic as blood and cherries, I'm afraid.
mango and jalepeno (white choc ganache) is about as off the wall as I get.
Chai spice is another -butter ganache with typical chai spices
Nanaimo bar is another, a typical Canadian treat, but mine are mini sized--graham crust base, coconut custard top, enrobed in bitter 70%
Strawberry and black pepper work well--again, a white choc. ganache
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Permalink Reply by Tupaemanaia Steve Brown on
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Thanks to Howard and Hanna (www.mamorchocolates.com) and Andrew Donnelly in Melbourne Australia, we produced a Kava flavoured 70% dark chocolate (KokoKava) made from SAMOAN GOLD trinitario cocoa beans grown here in Samoa, now available from www.kokosamoainternational.com in Sydney. We had five islands represented, Tokelau, Routuma, Kiribati, FIJI and Samoa, all sitting around a bowl of grog (kava) and these kava fanatics just loved the Cocoa Samoa Limited KokoKava 50gm bar...with 250mg of Vanuatu kava ... we now want www.c-spot.com to review our KokoKava chocolate bar. X-citing times. Steve stevebrownsamoa@gmail.com
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Permalink Reply by Joanna Craig on
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Sun dried tomato chocolate sounds nice actually :)
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Permalink Reply by karla Montenegro on
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try this wonderful italian recipe: tortellini di cioccolato alla ricotta con porri e paprika..... very good !!!
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Permalink Reply by Dave W on
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I tried making horseradish mustard pralines last weekend - it needs a little more work.,
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Permalink Reply by nena creasy on
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I have made chocolate covered gummy bears along with gummy worm bars...pretty good..different and fun! my favorite right now is caramel coconut!
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Permalink Reply by Hector Gray on
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In a distant tribe in the Philippines, they add dog poop to cocoa mixture. They believe that the spirits of the gods of domestic animals taught ancient people that animal remains from friendly creatures possess healing wonders.
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Permalink Reply by Keith Ayoob on -
OK, please tell me they dry it out and compost it first. Please. Of course, if it's composted and dried out, and they only add a tiny bit, it may be relatively harmless (although I still wouldn't recommend eating it). I know that when people speak of eating "alternative protein sources" such as termites, roaches, etc. these are often dried and ground into a course meal texture, so you really don't recognize the original ingredient. I'm adventurous, but poop is where I'd really draw the line, even if it's been autoclaved.
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Permalink Reply by Hector Gray on
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I have never been there nor did I witness their process, I just heard it from a blogger who especialize on these native delicacies. I was flummoxed when I first heard it.
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