Chocolate + Heat + Fruit = Love
My partner seeks strangeness in every meal. For example, once he ordered a whole fish which was served elegantly erect and staring at him. He ate the fish – and finished with the eyeballs – because he wondered how they’d taste. So in preparation for Valentine’s Day (the ultimate chocolate holiday) I went searching for crazy chocolate flavors.
In the past we’d enjoyed unconventional
chocolate combinations like the amazing Dagoba Lime Bar with macadamia nuts and the
Dagoba Mint Bar with rosemary (too fragrant for me, but he liked it). He loved the combination of chocolate and spice in the Vosges Red Fire Exotic Candy Bar -- it sparked with Mexican ancho and chipotle chilies and a hint of Ceylon
cinnamon. So when I found the Hachez Strawberry Pepper Bar at our local import shop I brought it home to taste.
Most of the bars we’d tasted in the past only offered one dominant flavor in addition to the chocolate, and if there was a third it was an essence shadowed by the others. When we tasted the Hachez Strawberry Pepper Bar all three flavors distinctly held their own – crazy! Like Willy Wonka's gum that delivered the tastes of a three-course meal, the distinct flavors of silky smooth dark chocolate, zingy fresh strawberries (must be dehydrated strawberry to get that natural flavor – not the syrupy cough-medicine strawberry flavor), and sparky green pepper alternated on my tounge. A fan of spicy flavor, my partner couldn’t help himself. He ate most of it before I returned for a second snap of the bar.
For the perfect Valentine’s Day gift (I’m hoping) I’ve gathered him an assortment of fruit-spice-chocolate bars:
- Hachez Mango and Chili Bar – Dark Chocolate (77% cacao) with mango and red chili
- Vosges Naga Exotic Candy Bar – Milk chocolate (41% cacao), sweet Indian curry and nutty coconut
- Vosges Black Pearl Exotic Candy Bar – Dark chocolate (55% cacao), ginger, black sesame seeds, and wasabi
- Kshocolate White Chocolate with Lemon and Pepper Bar – White chocolate, real lemon, and crushed peppercorns
- Lindt Creation Cherry Chili Chocolate Bar - Dark chocolate (70% cacao) with rich dark chocolate mousse and cherry chili filling
I’m hoping we discover more perfectly balanced fruity and spicy chocolate bars. I’ll report back with the taste test. And if you have another amazing chocolate bar I should try, please add a comment.
--Martha Snodgrass
cybele on February 03, 2009 at 01:34 PM
For some real excitement in the mouth check out Chuao's Firecracker bar. Chili spice plus pop rocks in dark chocolate. (Still a little too spicy for me.) No fruit, but the pop rocks have a slight tangy flavor to them.
Stainer makes a Cioccolato Bianco Peperoncino e Vaniglia Bourbon (white chocolate with peppers and vanilla).
Frey also has a huge array of bars, including a few chili ones and a cinnamon & blood orange (a different kind of spice and fruit blend).