A few days ago, I hosted the first chocolate tasting session for my college, it was Valentine's Day afterall. Any excuse for me to get away with spending £200 on chocolate bars was good enough. A good range of dark and milk chocolate was covered, and although I have always been a dark chocolate girl, I think to some level, I was somewhat converted to a milk chocolate enthusiast at the end of the tasting! Call it the art of the chocolatiers!
(The chocolate bars sitting on my chocolate-case before the tasting).
I went for a selection of 4 dark bars (ranging from 64% to 75% cocoa) and 4 milk bars (32% to 47% cocoa), before I introduced the bonbons and truffles! The bonbons, in particular, were made by Paul Wayne Gregory, the chocolatier that made chocolates for the Queen's 80th birthday. He stayed up to 3am to make the bonbons for us, before taking a step further by hand-delivering them to us (a train ride from London to Cambridge). I call that dedication!
Dark bars
Pralus- Cuba, 75 % cocoa, single origin bar
Michel Cluizel- Los Ancones, 67 % cocoa, single estate bar
Amedei- Chuao, 70 % cocoa, single estate bar
Valrhona- Ampamakia, vintage 2008, 64 % cocoa, single estate bar
Milk bars
Amedei- Toscano Brown, 32 % cocoa, milk chocolate bar
Valrhona- Cao Grande, 39 % cocoa, organic milk bar
Valrhona- Jivara, 40 % cocoa, milk chocolate bar
Michel Cluizel- Maralumi Lait, 47 % cocoa, single estate milk bar
It was tremendously difficult to savour the chocolate and talk at the same time, plus, if you are a chocolate-enthusiast like I am, you'll know what I mean when I say that I look a little too attractive when I savour chocolate :p
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