Tag: salt

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Castronovo White Chocolate With Lemon

Castronovo White Chocolate With Lemon Still Life Photo

Whenever I would run across online summaries of the best white chocolates, I could almost count on finding Castronovo White Chocolate With Lemon on everyone’s short list.

After all, it made it to the TOP of the judge’s lists at the 2017 International Chocolate Awards (in the Americas / White Chocolate category).

Castronovo White Chocolate with Lemon International Chocolate Gold Award Winner

Being a decent-sized fan of white chocolate and a BIG fan of lemon chocolate, this bar made it to the top of my rather exclusive list of bars-to-get-in-2019, so much so that whole orders were rearranged or delayed based on where it was and was not in stock. The reviews were so good I ordered TWO. (One disappeared somewhere along the long route to me….all I’m going to say is, whoever swiped it has *excellent* taste…but thankfully the other made it.)

Finally a Castronovo White Chocolate with Lemon was MINE and the first order of business was opening it upon arrival and taking a big huge bite and…

Ha.

Part of how I share my chocolate is in the form of pictures, so into the photography queue it went. Supposedly at the top of the queue. But strange things kept happening to the queue. One Saturday I had full intentions of photographing my Castronovo but then I had lugged in a rock that didn’t quite match (but went with some other wrappers beautifully), and had purchased some mint (that wouldn’t keep) for my Boho bar, and something new was blooming that wouldn’t match either (and one must pounce on new blooms before they wither; new photoprops don’t pop up every day!)…and so my Castronovo waited patiently while I waited not so patiently to try it.

Finally the day came.   The wrapper wasn’t even completely off before the mouth-watering scent of sweet lemon made my nose start doing a happy dance.   Ok.  Fine.  Maybe more than my nose was doing a happy dance. Shiny flecks of yellow lemon salt decorated the back of the bar; as I don’t recall seeing any in the front, it seems to me the salt must have been sprinkled on the back instead of being incorporated throughout. It was all I could do to snap this:

Castronovo White Chocolate With Lemon Unwrapped Yellows Still Life Photo

…before breaking off a section and popping it into my mouth and:

Sheer bliss. Sweet and tangy and lemon-y and custard-y with a bite of lemon salt here and there.

When you all said Castronovo White Chocolate With Lemon was THE BEST, YOU WEREN’T KIDDING.

Comments Off on That Licorice One From Iceland

That Licorice One From Iceland

I broke a rule. I’m not feeling too awful about it at the moment since it is (was?) a self-imposed rule, and a rather silly one at that. It went something like this: Only ever buy one bar from each chocolate company, and then move on to another chocolate company (the point being to try chocolate from as many different companies as possible). (This rule mainly applied to imported craft chocolate and did not extend to local favorites such as Franceschi, Chocolates Paria, etc. etc.)

Omnom Lakkris Licorice Icelandic Chocolate

The problem with the rule is that too many chocolate makers make such intriguing flavors that oftentimes I can’t help but want to try more than one.  However,  “the rule” pretty much kept me in check until last winter, when this licorice* lover caved and purchased the Omnom Lakkris + Sea Salt bar, despite already having had the now-discontinued Omnom Dark milk + Burned Sugar bar. (That’s not all. There was also a 2nd Charmschool and a 2nd Fruition involved, but that’s a story for another day…)

The clever wrapper revealed a caramel-color bar sectioned off into odd shapes of various sizes. Biting into one of those shapes revealed a wonder; a creamy, caramel-y, tangy, licorice-y perfection with just a taste of saltiness.

Resisting the temptation to eat the whole bar in one sitting, I saved some samples.   Slowly, after weeks of Saturday photography sessions, there were enough samples to make up little tasting trays to deliver to friends.  Next step: waiting for feedback.  Especially of interest to me was feedback from the the white chocolate lovers
and the licorice lovers. It didn’t take long for the reports to come in.

Omnom Lakkris Licorice Chocolate Unwrapped

“That licorice one from Iceland was AMAZING.” Yeah no kidding.
“That white chocolate, the one with the licorice…it was AWESOME.” Agreed.
“Did you get that here?!” Uh, no. Sorry. I’d love to say I brought back from my latest trip to Reykjavik,
the truth is I’ve never been to Reykjavik and probably never will go to Reykjavik. Going to Reykjavik is called traveling and I don’t seem to do much or any of that…unless you count my taste buds getting to travel the world thanks to chocolate.

It’s been months since we tried this bar but it is certainly not forgotten. “That licorice one from Iceland” (which is obviously much easier to remember than “Omnom Lakkris“) comes up in conversation now and then, always with a rather starry gaze of fond remembrance.

Even the resident Mr. “I don’t eat white chocolate because it isn’t chocolate” ate two pieces and probably
would have eaten a third if he’d had the option. (Sadly he didn’t; the resident craft chocolate dictator (me!) dictated that some must be saved for those who really appreciate white chocolate even when it doesn’t have licorice or come from such an exotic locale.)

As for the self-imposed rule, so far I’ve remained impervious to getting a third bar from Omnom.
Of course that may have something to do with not being able to ship in chocolate for nine months out of the year.
I have it on good authority from friends that the Coffee Omnom bar is also amazing….

Alaina Cursive Signature

 

 

*There’s licorice and there’s LICORICE. If you ask me, hard waxy stuff isn’t licorice. On the other hand, the
soft, chewy, almost melt-in-your-mouth stuff made by Panda? Now that’s LICORICE.

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Valor Chocolate – My Ship Came In

In January, somebody asked if they could bring me anything from their travels to various islands via cruise ship.

T-shirts or trinkets never even crossed my mind; my immediate reply was, “No, thanks.  What I want would melt!”

Undaunted, they said they’d see what they could do.   A week or two later, I found myself the recipient of a delightful selection of (non-melted!) chocolates, including a rather fantastic assortment of Valor Chocolate (Chocolates Valor) from Spain:

Valor_Chocolate_Banner

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