An interview with the lovely Paul Wayne Gregory of Paul Wayne Gregory Chocolates about his chocolate and his passion for pastry.

I originally found this chain as the Australia Ice Cream and Chocolate shops in Amsterdam.  Here in Berlin they are Bandy Brooks with ice cream and a range of chocolates.  These aren’t the best chocolates in the world and really I had to invent an extra category for them as they aren’t great but they are better than just OK.  I tried a bunch of them and these are my thoughts.

Raspberry – sweet dark chocolate with a raspberry jelly and white chocolate ganache filling. It’s OK but it is also huge and enough on its own.

Milk chocolate ganache covered in dark chocolate – the surprise here is that there are crispie bits. Very sweet which typifies this range of chocolates.

Bittersweet Ganache – this bittersweet is slightly harsh, as though they are trying to make up for all the sweetness of the rest of the line by making the bittersweet chocolate excessively bitter.

Bittersweet love – orange jelly with sweet milk chocolate ganache but the ganache is grainy and overly sweet.  It’s a bit much for me.

Green Tea – when taken in small doses, it is OK but more than s tiny bite is so extremely sweet it is a bit too much for me.

Coffee – bitter intense coffee this is probably the best of the lot.  The extreme coffee flavour overwhelms the flavour of the chocolate and isn’t as sweet as the other ones so it makes it the best chocolate of the lot.

A for effort but there is a long way to go.

While in the famous Fassbender & Rausch shop, I picked up some of the Kleines Konfekt miniature dessert chocolates.  With a solid chocolate base and whipped chocolate body in a plastic cover, they were too cute to ignore.  I chose Latte Macchiato and Chocolate Praline versions of these chocolate delights.

Petit Petit Chocolate Praline – this chocolate delight seems to be topped with real cocoa bean with a sweet chocolate top to the chocolate base.  It’s a bit like a cross between a lush dessert and a naked chocolate.  In fact naked chocolate is the best way to describe it.  There is a slight hint of alcohol flavour to it and it is pleasant and as these are not too expensive they are a delightful party gift.  As this one was quite sweet perhaps one each would be enough.

Petit Petit Latte Macchiato – this is mainly white chocolate and so far too sweet to me but with the most lovely coffee flavour.  Oh if only this had been done in regular chocolate my husband and I would be in heaven.  The coffee flavour though is spoiled for me by the extreme sweetness of the white chocolate.  Despite a layer of milk chocolate, it tasted like sugar candy.  I’m sure for many people who love white chocolate this would be utter heaven.

They don’t travel though as mine got squished and my chocolate one was hard to free from the plastic.  I ended up licking the plastic (so I did enjoy it) and it really made the chocolate one feel like a naked chocolate to me.  I’d love to try others though and next time I am in erlin I fully intend to go back to Fassbinder & Rasusch.

This interview with Artisan du Chocolat‘s Gerard Coleman was taken in March 2010 at the Southbank Chocolate Festival which happens regularly twice a year.

I visited this shop as one of the few places advertised as having chocolates.  Language is always a difficulty and the gentleman there behind the counter did his best to help.  When asked he said that the chocolates at Icexoc were handmade by the owner.  I suspected otherwise but purchased what I was led to believe was a milk chocolate and a green tea chocolate.

The chocolate are in fact from the renamed Australia company I discovered in Amsterdam.  This chain in Berlin is called Bandy Brooks and these chocolates were from this chain.  If you are in the area and want a lovely ice cream this is for sure the place to go.  If you’d like some Bandy Brooks chocolates surrounded by steel and glass buildings reaching to the sky, this is the place to go.

The chocolates were made with a lower quality chocolate and they are excessively sweet but I’m sure they will appeal to some folk.  Sitting here with a chocolate and a milkshake watching the world move is delicious.

The chocolate is sweet and unsofisticated.  The chocolates themselves are large and with the sweet flavour of the chocolate it is difficult to finish more than one.  This is not because, as with a high quality chocolate, you feel satisfied.  It is because it is too much sugar.

These chocolates still have a way to go but they are better than candy

Everyone who knows me knows I love Soma chocolate and hate their awful customer service. Any shop where someone walks away while I fish for a business card or forces a woman whose water has broken to either wait her turn in line or abandon her purchases instead of letting her pay and go to hospital has awful customer service.

Problem with the shop is Soma also has fantastic chocolate.  It’s as though they know they have great chocolate and so think they can treat customers like crap because they’ll always get them back – or they’ll survive on the tourist trade.

The Dark Fire bar with its chilli was surprising.  Unlike other chocolates with chilli, this warmth isn’t the chilli of dried flakes added to chocolate and hammering your taste buds suddenly before catching in your throat.  This is a gentle warmth that delicately surrounds the mouth and comes away cleam, without a dried powdery flavour hanging in the mouth.

The Black Science Madagascar 70% (batch M11) was delicious.  Letting a square melt in your mouth was a delicious experience that surrounded your tongue in a balanced experience of fruit and bean and delicious flavour.  Unlike some single origin chocolates that tend to activate only a single area of the mouth and result in a somewhat flat flavour, this is delicious.

If possible, avoid going in to the shop or if you do, expect to be treated like something the staff scrapped off their shoe.  Much as I loathe to admit it, the chocolate is really good.  Since their site is flash it’ll be impossible to order online so you’re stuck with the shop.  Forget it – order yourself some Askinosie chocolate instead.

This lovely egg comes with a keepsake egg cup and spoon which makes it a lasting gift.

Lovers of Paul A Young’s sea salted caramels must think Christmas has come early with the release of the rather large sea salt caramel egg. Larger than a Cadbury’s crème egg, it is also slightly larger than a traditional breakfast egg but not by much.

The egg comes in an egg cup with a lovely egg spoon to scoop out all that lovely sea salt caramel. The chocolate used is a delight. Delicious and lots of it, the chocolate encases the rather extremely generous filling. Hungry as I was, and celebrating a few milestones in my life as I was, I still could not finish the whole egg. No bad thing, a bit of cling film and I can report it was as nummy later as when fresh.

This is any chocolate lover’s dream and must have. Forget that cheap chocolate, forget boxes of Easter crème eggs, forget fancy silly overpriced bunnies, get the chocolate lover in your life this egg. They’ll love you for it. I love the person who sent me mine lots and lots now – YUM!

Under a threatening sky the London Chocolate Festival launched the weekend before Easter with what seemed to be more stalls than the previous event. With chocolate makers (a chocolatier is a very special thing and I do not feel qualified to bestow such a qualification) from all around the UK gathering together in one place, it was every chocolate lovers dream.

I was lucky enough to be invited to the launch event where we learned about Valhrona and how all their chocolate is made in a single factory in a small village in France in the Rhone valley and has been there since 1922 despite selling into 65 countries and using 3,000 tonnes of chocolate.  While that sounds like a lot it is apparently around only 10% of the annual production of chocolate.  They walked us through three chocolates in a sampler pack they provided which was lovely and taught everyone how to taste chocolate. I’m sure my fellow foodies were very familiar with trying it in this way.

We then learned about the brain and chocolate and how the brain reacts to the scent and taste of chocolate and got to taste the predecessor of Nutella. We were then treated to Damian Allsop chocolates which were divine.  A delicious jasmine tea infusion and a delightful coffee and passion fruit chocolate, all dairy-free.  He apparently has a new shape for his chocolates as well.

The chocolate show itself was delightful and thank goodness everyone was there!  I couldn’t find Paul A Young but I did find Paul Wayne Gregory who let me retry the sea salt caramel among others, William Curley whose chocolates I love love love, Rococco who do innovative things with chocolate but I have fallen a little out of love with lately and Outsider Tart who have the most lush baked goods ever,

The festival is easy to get to – Just pop to Waterloo station and exit through the Southbank exit.  Now, under the railway bridge and across the square and you’ll see some marquees set up and you’ll be there!  This festival is HUGELY popular rain or shine despite being outdoors and it is well worth the trip.

So stop reading and get out there fast!  The Chocollate festival continues on Saturday March 27th and Sunday March 28th.

The pink champagne truffle from Hotel Chocolat has to be one of the most alcoholic champagne truffles I have ever had.  It almost rivals the Prestat champagne truffles in alcoholness.  When I opened it, it didn’t quite have that scent of alcohol that can leap up and greet you.  I was, I must admit, a tiny bit disappointed by the cardboard box but that was only the casing for the delights within.

The shell is lighter and softer than the Prestat truffle and the filling certainly packs a kick.  I was a little sad that my box had three crushed ones but that meant that I simply had to eat them all up

They are nice and for someone looking for a special gift, it is a fair fight between Prestat and Hotel Chocolat. I have to admit that the box for the Prestat truffles is my favourite with its lovely purple box.

Ever had one of those moments when you find chocolate you didn’t realise you had? Well, I found this lovely little box of chocs from Hotel Chocolat and although they were past their best before date I thought I’d try them anyway.  I mean, what’s the worst that could happen?

I tried the cinnamon praline first.  I’m not a huge fan of praline as it is often gritty and the strong nutty flavour overwhelms the flavour of anything else.  WOW… I’m a cinnamon fan as readers will know and this was like a warm Christmas choccy in my mouth.  Brilliant.  A bit of a nutmeg topping and I think we’ve got Christmas in a choc.

Caramel crunch wasn’t quite as dramatic but was still OK.  Both chocolates were sweet but I found the caramel crunch a bit over my sweet tolerance level regrettably.

The sea salted caramel was OK but again the sweetness of the chocolate detracted from the overall experience for me.  Perhaps it was just my mood but it was just too much sweet for me.

Saving the best for last I had the Marc de Champagne star. It was lovely and age had not dimmed it though it too was quite sweet.  It was probably just me but I did feel the white chocolate was quite over sweet.

I’m very sure that a lot of people would love a selection like this.  It may be sweet to me but I’m sure other people more familiar with popular brands of chocolate will love these.