Some of my favourite chocolate in Toronto is Stubbe chocolate. I absolutely love their blood orange chocolate truffles and I love their chocolate so much I bought it as favours for my younger sister’s wedding. No higher praise is possible.  I was lucky enough to visit the Stubbe chocolate shop in Toronto during a recent trip home and not only sampled some chocolates but also interviewed Daniel Stubbe, a sixth generation chocolate maker.

This lovely nutty brownie bite drenched in chocolate is absolute bliss.

The chocolate I chose was a lovely dark chocolate covering a lighter but still dense chocolate inside which was chock full of whole hazelnuts. Each bite was utter bliss. The dark chocolate was slightly bitter covering a sweeter brownie. The sweeter brownie was not too sweet.

The brownie I chose was a bite size and while it seems small, it had huge flavour. This was delicious and just the perfect size.

And I ate the whole thing before taking any pictures

Welcome to Mostly About Chocolate – the blog that is mostly about chocolate. This very special post is to tell you about a competition we have.

Have you got plans for June 16th in the evening? Cancel them and put your name in the hat to win one of four tickets for a fantastic free event!

On June 16th Artisan du Chocolat and Macallan Whisky will be pairing chocolate and whisky with the ultimate aim of creating a brand new chocolate to be sold through Artisan du Chocolat.

At 7pm the fun kicks off with a Bellini with cocoa pulp which Gerrard Coleman of Artisan du Chocolat finds works well to open the palette. There will be some short talks about what we are about to do and then the pairings will commence and be moderated by both Artisan du Chocolat and Macallan. We will be sampling Macallan 15, 12 Select Oak and Whisky Makers and pairing it with chocolate from Artisan du Chocolat.

At the end of the evening we may even get to taste the finished truffle and all winners will get a lovely goodie bag.

To be in with a chance to win, just leave a comment on any of the blog posts here, tweet “I’d like to join @MostlyAboutChoc at the whisky and chocolate pairing http://bit.ly/c0zkYs” or become a fan of the Mostly About Chocolate Facebook page and you’ll be in with a chance to win!

One of the problems with gluten free baked goods is no problem here. While other gluten free brownies taste slightly funny, this brownie has the same buttery delicious chocolatey goodness that the original brownies have. While the brownies are slightly thinner than the regular brownies, and a bit less solid, just eat then over a napkin and enjoy.

I’ve enjoyed this lovely brownie and eaten the whole thing because I can. For people who are intolerant to gluten, this seems ideal and really inspired me to go and see if I could simply substitute cocoa powder for wheat flower. Yummy!

After trying the brownie with raspberries, I had to try the regular one. I think it was the butteryness that caught me first. The rich chocolate flavour is the next thing that drew me in. This was again a light fluffy brownie with a delicious flavour. Not too big but light and fluffy in a handy individual serving I think the only think I regretted was that it wasn’t heat sealed.

This brownie is the perfect size for one. You can reseal the pack and it isn’t too sweet. This is a beautifully delicious well balanced brownie with a rich, deeply dark chocolate flavour with a lovely flavour.

This dark chocolate is a bit flat, without the complexities of other dark chocolates and is slightly bitter but the raspberries are sour making this an interesting bar.

I think dark chocolate lovers of Green & Black’s or Divine will absolutely love this bar.  Now, I did end up with seeds stuck between my teeth so I can confirm that there are chunks of real raspberry.  The chunks of raspberry are small and well dispersed through the bar.  They are in a single layer and not all the way through the bar so you can see all the chunks.

These bits of REAL raspberry spread through the bar are delightful though I wish there were even more.  I think this is the perfect dark chocolate combination and I can say that quite a few pieces were nibbled before this review was ever a thought

Whoops… seems I ate it all before taking a photo!   THANKS to the lovely people at Divine who gave me a photo to add to the blog!

This creamy delicious almost molasses-y milk chocolate is almost too rich to take!  At £4 for 50g it is one of the most expensive bars I have ever bought so it is a good thing it is too rich to eat more than a single piece at a time.

If anything will teach you to slow down and enjoy a deliciously gorgeous piece of chocolate, this certainly will.  This creamy milk chocolate won’t allow you to rush it – it will demand you to slow down and enjoy it slowly.

The flavour of the chocolate is subtle – so subtle that it is almost lost to the flavour of the dark sugar and creamy milk.  These flavours are so strong as to almost overtake all chocolate flavour.  When it hits the chocolate is delightful and light, with none of the bitterness some other chocolate can have.  These beans have not been over fermented at all.

This bar is a delight and while I might love Askinosie an awful lot, this bar is arguing with my taste buds for supremacy.

This 65% dark chocolate bar from Rococo tastes nice and balanced but with a bitter darker edge.  There is a hint of something almost floral under the flavour of the chocolate but it was a very delicate flavour.

The chocolate bar with its bee pattern was also fun and as it was thin, it was quick to melt in the mouth.  I think this bar is likely for someone trying it out.  It is small and a taster bar but you might end up wanting more.

I bought this chocolate bar some time ago and finally got around to trying it out.

The flavour is delicate and pleasant and not at all too earthy or leathery.  It was slightly flat in my mouth but it was still a smooth, delicious taste.

This is definitely a blended bar and that comes through in the interplay of flavours in the mouth.  The smooth, creamy taste is almost too creamy for a dark chocolate bar as though it is trying to compensate for something or balance out the darkness.

This is probably the kind of dark bar someone who enjoys milk chocolate might like.  It would be a smooth and easier introduction, without the sometimes sour, drying flavour some dark chocolate has.

Marmite. It’s not the first thing you think of pairing 64% Madagascar dark chocolate with. I can taste the Marmite still lingering on my palette like a single note sounded like a clarion call in the morning.

Marmite and chocolate is something only Paul A Young could do and do it he has. Not just any Marmite mind you – this is a think layer of unadulterated Marmite XO – an extra mature variety of Marmite that was launched following research and development.

No joke. Marmite XO. It’s like Twiglets on steroids. And it’s in my chocolate. Not just any chocolate – this is a bar of choc with a thin layer of the Marmite stuff from Paul A Young who I want to adopt me so I can work for dad and eat chocolate every day

Paul Young, one of the UK’s best chocolatiers, is well known for his cutting edge creativity. Love it or Hate it, Paul’s Marmite truffle is one of his best selling and most written about creations inspiring Paul to create a bar using the new Marmite – Marmite XO.

I don’t know what inspired him – perhaps he is among the legions of Marmite lovers. I was on the fence liking Twiglets on occasion – just not a ton at once. Marmite is not something I counted myself as actively disliking.  I was happily on the fence.  This chocolate bar pushed me over the edge though. BLEURGH!

It was the saltyness that hit first, then the sensation of eating a liquid Bovril spread on chocolate. I thought chewing the chocolate would help mingle the saltiness with the chocolate but this just made things worse.  It was like taking lovely chocolate and ruining it by spreading a thin layer of this Marmite XO in between the two slices of chocolate.  I love chocolate, and I love Paul’s chocolate but even for me this was a step too far.

The Marmite XO is spread in a thin layer as the filling of this chocolate bar.  It is thin, unadulterated Marlite XO and it is just enough to give you a heavy hit without it being overwhelming.  Unless you don’t like Marmite which I have only just realised includes me.

YUCK!

Are you a lover or a hater? Go to the Camden Passage shop today, try the new bar free of charge and twieet about whether you love it or hate it. And if you love it they’ll be offering you this exclusive Marmite XO bar for £3.50 instead of £4.50 on the day.

Date: Saturday 22nd May 2010
Address: 33 Camden Passage, Islington, N1 8EA
Opening Times: 11am-6pm

If you drop by mine today I’ll be giving the rest of this bar a new home too! *bleck*