|
|
|
Cherchez les Chocolats! Chocoholic?
Then this will either be heaven or hell to read, depending on where you are in your recovery program. At Tastings Gourmet Market in Annapolis, Stacey Zier, proprietess, rubs a piece of chocolate into her hands and sniffs.
We are puzzled. (Chocolate is for eating, devouring. But sniffing?) What
she's demonstrating, however, is a test. Not of restraint, but of quality. A fine chocolate will melt at body temperature.
A fine chocolate will releases its own aroma as distinctive as a wine. With its own sense of "terroir" or place.
Ms. Zier was undertaking the creation of desserts and confections far beyond our mortal brains —
the kind you will experience when you decide to throw in the towel on your 401K and spend the last of it on the meal of your
life. More importantly for us, she also spent time at the Michel Cluizel
"factory" in Normandy, and brought back a world of information about chocolates, confections and bon bons.
About Michel Cluizel and Fine Chocolates In Chocolate: A Bittersweet Saga of Dark and Light, Mort Rosenblum writes of Michel Cluizel and his family's factory in Normandy in the chapter entitled "The French Masters." Rosenblum callis him "a mix between an artisan and industrialist." As a cocaofevier, Cluizel takes chocolate from bean to bonbons. In the tasting box available at Tastings, you can explore the five individual Grand Cru estates. In Venezuela, Papua, New Guinea, Santo Domingo, Madagascar and Sao Tome. All for the lovely price of $12.50.
What would you like in your chocolate? Beyond the fruit notes, snap and sheen of judging a great chocolate, your personal taste will really come down to
"how much cacao?" Most choco-ssieurs gravitate toward dark chocolate, with its higher percentage of cacao —
and lower sugar or other additives such as cacao butter. The little bars in the tasting box range from 64 to 67% cacao. Cluizel also makes a milk chocolate, the Grand Lait bar, which is 45% cacao. Mini-grammes, made for baking, (or just
eating, for that matter), are 72% cacao.You can also choose from chocolate or chocolate/coffee mini-pastilles.They're
$10 for 8 ounces.
A little box of heaven: Michel
Cluizel makes hundreds of kinds of bonbons —or chocolates, as we say here. Tastings has dozens for boxing up. The Cluizel
company (and family) prides itself of these confections. Stacey was given a tour through the plant in Normandy, and she speaks
of it like a tour through the inner sanctums of the Vatican. The double
conch system for tempering and smoothing the chocolate. The handmade molds and the handpainted chocolates. The quality of
the additional ingredients. Cherries aged in Kirsch. The melt-in-your-mouth candied orange peel. Hazelnuts and almond for
the praline.
Tastings has perhaps two dozen of Cluizel's chocolates. From Romantine, a milk ganache with strawberry filling to Palet Passion, with passionfruit filling. The Palet à
la feuille d'argent (silver leaf) and Cacaoforte, a 99% cacao chocolate. Mirabella, ganache with mirabelle marmelade.
And Champignon Caramel, a mushroom-shaped concoction. Some boxes are assembled. But you can put together your own, of course. Be warned. They are not inexpensive. But they are fabulous. At $72/lb.,
a 1/4 box of eight pieces will be around $20. For some of the best chocolate in your life. And can you buy just one? Yes. I mean, yes, it's literally
possible. Psychologically, it's hard to imagine how. I'm not sure anyone's ever tried.
1410 Forest Drive Annapolis,
MD 21401 410-263-1324 Mon-Fri 10am-7pm Sat 10 - 6 Sunday 10 to 5 |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
