BOTTOM LINE: I have missed you, warm weather. And I have missed your beverages.
Showing posts with label chocolate bar. Show all posts
Showing posts with label chocolate bar. Show all posts
Thursday, April 24, 2014
Chocolate Bar iced hot chocolate
Earlier this week, the temperature rose to 70 degrees for a brief but glorious afternoon (before it started raining). That meant it was at last time for my go-to summertime beverage: the Chocolate Bar's iced hot chocolate.
BOTTOM LINE: I have missed you, warm weather. And I have missed your beverages.
BOTTOM LINE: I have missed you, warm weather. And I have missed your beverages.
Sunday, April 14, 2013
Verdigris Tea and Chocolate Bar in Hudson, New York
We have been fans of Verdigris Tea and Chocolate Bar in Hudson, New York, ever since a friend of the blog gave us a delicious Christopher Norman bar from there, many months ago.
Recently, I made my own trip to the Chocolate Bar to see it for myself. Here's what I found:
Baked goods!
A program where you can sign up and get chocolate shipped to you every month! Genius. If anyone is wondering what to get me and David for our birthdays (which are, by the way, both going on this month), now you know. We'd like a chocolate subscription.
Bon-bons!
A massive assortment of delicious bars and candies from nearby chocolatiers, including some of our favorites from New York City itself. Verdigris has done an excellent job selecting which chocolates to carry, and I know because I've tasted many of these at the annual Chocolate Show.
The hot chocolate list was the most exciting part for me. You know I almost always go in for a good Mexican hot chocolate. But then I saw the words "Angelina on the Hudson," and I felt my heart begin to pound.
You may recall that David went to Angelina a couple months ago. It's in Paris and it has the most amazing hot chocolate in possibly the world. Even David thought so, and he is hard to impress. I have been to Angelina only once, years ago, and I have never stopped craving it's hot chocolate since then.
So when I saw "Angelina on the Hudson" listed on the Chocolate Bar's drinks menu, naturally I was curious. And hopeful.
"Why is that drink called 'Angelina'?" I asked the woman at the counter.
"I don't know," she said. "I guess that's just its name."
I raised my eyebrows at her.
"Do you want me to ask the owner?" she offered.
Yes. Obviously I do.
The owner came out from the back. She was a woman who obviously knew her chocolate very well, a quality that I greatly respect in people. "It's named Angelina after this place in Paris..." she began.
That was all I needed to hear.
The Angelina on the Hudson hot chocolate was very good. Very rich and sugary. It was probably not as good as the real Angelina hot chocolate-- hard for me to say, because it's been years since I was at the real Angelina.
Regardless, I love that there's a chocolatier in New York that's trying to emulate my favorite hot chocolate in Paris. You can't find everything in New York. But if you're willing to try, you can come pretty darn close.
BOTTOM LINE: If you are within a twenty-mile radius of Verdigris Tea and Chocolate Bar, you would be a fool not to go. Maybe even a thirty-mile radius.
Recently, I made my own trip to the Chocolate Bar to see it for myself. Here's what I found:
Baked goods!
A program where you can sign up and get chocolate shipped to you every month! Genius. If anyone is wondering what to get me and David for our birthdays (which are, by the way, both going on this month), now you know. We'd like a chocolate subscription.
Bon-bons!
A massive assortment of delicious bars and candies from nearby chocolatiers, including some of our favorites from New York City itself. Verdigris has done an excellent job selecting which chocolates to carry, and I know because I've tasted many of these at the annual Chocolate Show.
The hot chocolate list was the most exciting part for me. You know I almost always go in for a good Mexican hot chocolate. But then I saw the words "Angelina on the Hudson," and I felt my heart begin to pound.
You may recall that David went to Angelina a couple months ago. It's in Paris and it has the most amazing hot chocolate in possibly the world. Even David thought so, and he is hard to impress. I have been to Angelina only once, years ago, and I have never stopped craving it's hot chocolate since then.
So when I saw "Angelina on the Hudson" listed on the Chocolate Bar's drinks menu, naturally I was curious. And hopeful.
"Why is that drink called 'Angelina'?" I asked the woman at the counter.
"I don't know," she said. "I guess that's just its name."
I raised my eyebrows at her.
"Do you want me to ask the owner?" she offered.
Yes. Obviously I do.
The owner came out from the back. She was a woman who obviously knew her chocolate very well, a quality that I greatly respect in people. "It's named Angelina after this place in Paris..." she began.
That was all I needed to hear.
The Angelina on the Hudson hot chocolate was very good. Very rich and sugary. It was probably not as good as the real Angelina hot chocolate-- hard for me to say, because it's been years since I was at the real Angelina.
Regardless, I love that there's a chocolatier in New York that's trying to emulate my favorite hot chocolate in Paris. You can't find everything in New York. But if you're willing to try, you can come pretty darn close.
BOTTOM LINE: If you are within a twenty-mile radius of Verdigris Tea and Chocolate Bar, you would be a fool not to go. Maybe even a thirty-mile radius.
Friday, March 22, 2013
Returning Home
Washington, D.C.
From Chapel Hill, we drove up to Washington, DC. This is another tale about the value of friendship: I did not have time to procure any chocolate for myself, but my friend Mick came through in the clutch (again) and delivered three chocolate bars (of which I selected two to keep)! They were both from Salazon Chocolate Co.
The first was "sea salt and coffee," which does not sound like something I would like, but I found myself shocked to be enjoying it thoroughly! It's easily the best coffee-infused chocolate bar I've ever had, though in all fairness this is a low bar. The other bar was pure sea salt. And I mean that (almost literally). It is honestly one of the saltiest things I've ever tasted. Like, it's saltier than just eating table salt. Which is something I've been known to do. But my personal problems aside, this bar is for the intense salt fan, who does not stop at pouring bottles of Morton's down his or her throat.
Home
I finally returned home, accompanied by the tiniest baby. Waiting for me at home, to my near-chagrin, were boxes of chocolate. My real estate agent, with whom I have not spoken since getting my apartment over 6 years earlier, had sent me a box of Richart bonbons.
Hot off that stunninig success, I was quite excited. Alas, even the "pure" chocolate pieces were not rich enough, and the flavors were uninteresting. It came with a sheet of pure chocolate, which was a little waxy. Perhaps Richart in the US is very different from the Richart in France.
That said, I also had waiting a box of Chocolate Bar bonbons, which knocked Richart right out of the park. They were excellent.
They were not quite at the level of, say, Stephan Dumon, and they were about a half-step behind the offerings at the Chocolate Door, but they were still really excellent -- closer to the near-perfect Dumon bonbons than to the box of Richart I'd just sampled. This is our third time reviewing Chocolate Bar, and we've had consistently great experiences.
But honestly, that was just the beginning. There was also a milk chocolate bar, from Anne Taintor, which was almost indistinguishable from the one I bought at the Belgian tourist shop -- same ingredients, with the same cacao content.
The US bar had a slightly creamier texture, but they were so similar that it would be impossible to pick a favorite between them.
I also received a Fairytale-brand brownie.
Actually, two of them. They were surprisingly excellent, not just for prepackaged brownies, but for any brownie. They were fudgey, fun, and delicious.
Lastly, my friend Ellie brought over her amazing chocolate cake and her dad's literally professional chocolate mousse. Wow.
Seriously, guys. Friends: I recommend them.
Chocolate Tasting:
Finally, I had a chance to sit down with Leila and my friend Austin and do a tasting of a few of the chocolates I'd saved from Europe.
First, we went over the five bars from Del Ray in Antwerp. This was an interesting experience, because first we ate them in decreasing percentages, but then i did a blind taste test to pick favorites. I never believed that the order was too important, but boy was I wrong. When you do a blind taste test, switching back and forth among the different percentages until you settle on an ordered list of favorites, it becomes very clear that the sweetest will win. If you eat a piece of chocolate and follow it up with a higher percentage piece, it just won't taste as good. While my initial list was probably 66% Carribean, 72% Venezuelan, 54.5% Blend, 70% Sao Tome, 85% Ecuador, my blind taste test list was 66% Carribean, 54.5% Blend, 70% Sao Tome, 85% Ecuador. Basically, the 72% Venezuela bar really suffered for its higher percentage. That said, the lower percentage bars here were truly excellent. When I tried the blend, I was shocked at how uncandy-like it was given how sweet it was.
Leila and Austin did not agree with me, but they didn't like any of the bars as much as I did. Their order was the same -- Venezuela, Sao Tome, Ecuador, Carribean, Blend. They did not appreciate the sweetness of the lower percentage bars. That said, we all generally agreed that the Sao Tome was just sort of a more bland version of the Venezuela
We made a spreadsheet of our comments:
Spoilers.
Anyways, we also taste-tested three different mint-flavored bars. I didn't like any of them. But we all agreed that the Zaabar bar was the best, followed by the Dolfin bar, and the 1888 bar wasn't even in the running. We all hated the 1888 bar. Leila noted that it tastes like the Dentist. The Dolfin was definitely the most complex flavor wise. I was dubious of the overly-natural taste in the Zaabar bar, but Austin and Leila loved it.
We also tried the two "original recipe" bars from the Choco-Story Museum. Both were stone ground, which Leila cannot tolerate and Austin thought was weird. The Aztec bar was more finely ground than the Spanish. But flavor-wise, we all agreed that the Spanish combination of flavors was vastly superior.
Whichever peppers and spices they put in there were definitely a historical improvement. I actually enjoyed it, despite the spice, which I never would have expected.
Lastly, we reviewed my top two truffles from Europe.
We agreed that the Mary truffle tasted like fudge, and childhood. I preferred it slightly, but Leila and Austin agreed that Chapon had created pretty much the Platonic Ideal of the truffle. Hard to dispute.
Bottom Line: I lead a very difficult life.
From Chapel Hill, we drove up to Washington, DC. This is another tale about the value of friendship: I did not have time to procure any chocolate for myself, but my friend Mick came through in the clutch (again) and delivered three chocolate bars (of which I selected two to keep)! They were both from Salazon Chocolate Co.
The first was "sea salt and coffee," which does not sound like something I would like, but I found myself shocked to be enjoying it thoroughly! It's easily the best coffee-infused chocolate bar I've ever had, though in all fairness this is a low bar. The other bar was pure sea salt. And I mean that (almost literally). It is honestly one of the saltiest things I've ever tasted. Like, it's saltier than just eating table salt. Which is something I've been known to do. But my personal problems aside, this bar is for the intense salt fan, who does not stop at pouring bottles of Morton's down his or her throat.
Home
I finally returned home, accompanied by the tiniest baby. Waiting for me at home, to my near-chagrin, were boxes of chocolate. My real estate agent, with whom I have not spoken since getting my apartment over 6 years earlier, had sent me a box of Richart bonbons.
Hot off that stunninig success, I was quite excited. Alas, even the "pure" chocolate pieces were not rich enough, and the flavors were uninteresting. It came with a sheet of pure chocolate, which was a little waxy. Perhaps Richart in the US is very different from the Richart in France.
That said, I also had waiting a box of Chocolate Bar bonbons, which knocked Richart right out of the park. They were excellent.
They were not quite at the level of, say, Stephan Dumon, and they were about a half-step behind the offerings at the Chocolate Door, but they were still really excellent -- closer to the near-perfect Dumon bonbons than to the box of Richart I'd just sampled. This is our third time reviewing Chocolate Bar, and we've had consistently great experiences.
But honestly, that was just the beginning. There was also a milk chocolate bar, from Anne Taintor, which was almost indistinguishable from the one I bought at the Belgian tourist shop -- same ingredients, with the same cacao content.
The US bar had a slightly creamier texture, but they were so similar that it would be impossible to pick a favorite between them.
I also received a Fairytale-brand brownie.
Actually, two of them. They were surprisingly excellent, not just for prepackaged brownies, but for any brownie. They were fudgey, fun, and delicious.
Lastly, my friend Ellie brought over her amazing chocolate cake and her dad's literally professional chocolate mousse. Wow.
Seriously, guys. Friends: I recommend them.
Chocolate Tasting:
Finally, I had a chance to sit down with Leila and my friend Austin and do a tasting of a few of the chocolates I'd saved from Europe.
First, we went over the five bars from Del Ray in Antwerp. This was an interesting experience, because first we ate them in decreasing percentages, but then i did a blind taste test to pick favorites. I never believed that the order was too important, but boy was I wrong. When you do a blind taste test, switching back and forth among the different percentages until you settle on an ordered list of favorites, it becomes very clear that the sweetest will win. If you eat a piece of chocolate and follow it up with a higher percentage piece, it just won't taste as good. While my initial list was probably 66% Carribean, 72% Venezuelan, 54.5% Blend, 70% Sao Tome, 85% Ecuador, my blind taste test list was 66% Carribean, 54.5% Blend, 70% Sao Tome, 85% Ecuador. Basically, the 72% Venezuela bar really suffered for its higher percentage. That said, the lower percentage bars here were truly excellent. When I tried the blend, I was shocked at how uncandy-like it was given how sweet it was.
Leila and Austin did not agree with me, but they didn't like any of the bars as much as I did. Their order was the same -- Venezuela, Sao Tome, Ecuador, Carribean, Blend. They did not appreciate the sweetness of the lower percentage bars. That said, we all generally agreed that the Sao Tome was just sort of a more bland version of the Venezuela
We made a spreadsheet of our comments:
Spoilers.
Anyways, we also taste-tested three different mint-flavored bars. I didn't like any of them. But we all agreed that the Zaabar bar was the best, followed by the Dolfin bar, and the 1888 bar wasn't even in the running. We all hated the 1888 bar. Leila noted that it tastes like the Dentist. The Dolfin was definitely the most complex flavor wise. I was dubious of the overly-natural taste in the Zaabar bar, but Austin and Leila loved it.
We also tried the two "original recipe" bars from the Choco-Story Museum. Both were stone ground, which Leila cannot tolerate and Austin thought was weird. The Aztec bar was more finely ground than the Spanish. But flavor-wise, we all agreed that the Spanish combination of flavors was vastly superior.
Whichever peppers and spices they put in there were definitely a historical improvement. I actually enjoyed it, despite the spice, which I never would have expected.
Lastly, we reviewed my top two truffles from Europe.
We agreed that the Mary truffle tasted like fudge, and childhood. I preferred it slightly, but Leila and Austin agreed that Chapon had created pretty much the Platonic Ideal of the truffle. Hard to dispute.
Bottom Line: I lead a very difficult life.
Thursday, January 31, 2013
Updates from Chocolate Bar
Chocolate Bar in the West Village was the very first chocolate shop we wrote about on this blog, way back in ye olden days of September. And today we're going back there because... they have a new beverage!
You remember how much we love the Chocolate Bar iced hot chocolate in the summertime. Well, their new beverage is a spicy hot chocolate, and it is awesome. It has such a wonderful mixture of spices in it, and it's unique and so warming. The spice comes through very clearly, and the chocolate does too-- this is a hard balance to strike, as usually more spiciness means less chocolatiness.
BOTTOM LINE: Chocolate Bar now has perfect beverages for summer and winter. It's no wonder I keep going back... like way more often than I should... like, I find excuses to walk up Hudson Street when really I have no reason to be there.
You remember how much we love the Chocolate Bar iced hot chocolate in the summertime. Well, their new beverage is a spicy hot chocolate, and it is awesome. It has such a wonderful mixture of spices in it, and it's unique and so warming. The spice comes through very clearly, and the chocolate does too-- this is a hard balance to strike, as usually more spiciness means less chocolatiness.
BOTTOM LINE: Chocolate Bar now has perfect beverages for summer and winter. It's no wonder I keep going back... like way more often than I should... like, I find excuses to walk up Hudson Street when really I have no reason to be there.
Sunday, September 23, 2012
Chocolate Bar
We also tried a bittersweet Stencil bar, which was enjoyable, though over-sweetened for our tastes. The sweetness masked too much of the chocolate's intensity, we thought. Said David, "A good bar, if you're a person who's not serious about dark chocolate."
This, obviously, does not describe us.
And we tried Chocolate Bar's 65% cacao truffle, which was pretty on the outside and gooey on the inside. It was nothing to write home about and you don't need to go seeking it out, but certainly if you find yourself in possession of one, you should eat it.
We had a bite of the double chocolate ice cream, which seemed very promising, but it was decided by one of us (hint: not David) that ice cream in addition to an iced hot chocolate might be excessive.
Finally, we bought a Scooter Bar: "flourless chocolate cake with homemade marshmallow and caramel enrobed in dark chocolate." Seriously. The Scooter Bar is currently sitting on my desk, unopened. Due to my extreme self-restraint. Soon I will open it and report back. Stay tuned.
BOTTOM LINE: If you're feeling hot and sweaty, get an iced hot chocolate here and your sweat will evaporate. Or, at the very least, you won't notice it anymore, because you will be too focused on how to suck everything you can out of your cup.
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