Vosges Marzipan Bar, Green Tea Bar, and Hot Chocolate

I stopped by the Vosges shop in Soho recently, and they are really just a solid company.

So the matcha green tea bar with spirulina was not the biggest hit.  I mean, it was ok.  But Roh-Kaolade did it better.  Still, it was interesting.

The marzipan bar was really excellent.  The marzipan was fresher and gooey-er than the Rittersport version.  The only downside was that it had a stronger taste, so that -- despite have a higher chocolate-to-marzipan quantity ratio than the Rittersport -- it did not have a substantially higher chocolate-to-marzipan taste ratio.

It should also be noted that Vosges makes excellent hot chocolate.  It is not thick like City Bakery's.  It is for drinking.  It is a drink.  That is ok.  It is delicious.  It tastes like chocolate.

Bottom Line: Vosges is great, because they do simple things really well but also have really wacky ideas that are usually worth a try.

Dominique Ansel Chocolate Thing

I am consistently disappointed with Dominique Ansel.

It's not that his stuff is bad... it's just that it's not GREAT, and it's not chocolatey enough!  This was supposed to be super rich.  I expected it to be gooey on the inside.  Disappointment.

Bottom Line: Disappointment.  As I may have mentioned.

Dominique Ansel Bakery Frozen S'more

Most people at this point are aware of Soho hotspot Dominique Ansel Bakery as the creator of the cronut.



What you may not know is that Dominiqe Ansel is also, as of late, the creator of the frozen s'more. Now, we here at Chocolate NYC are big s'more fans, and we are also big fans of frozen desserts, so obviously I needed to check this out.

When I got to Dominique Ansel this afternoon, there was a fair line, but nothing like the line that I've heard gathers there prior to opening every morning as people desperately wait three hours for a cronut.

I did not see "frozen s'more" listed on the menu, so maybe it is some secret thing and I was ordering "off-menu," which sounds cool. Or maybe I just didn't read the board carefully enough.

Nonetheless, I got my frozen s'more. It cost more than $7. Right away, this put me on edge. I understand that a frozen s'more is a unique innovation, unavailable anywhere else, and therefore Dominique Ansel can capitalize on having a frozen s'more monopoly - but really? Seven dollars? This felt like a trick.

For the first few bites, this just seemed to be a giant marshmallow that had been browned with an electric lighter. It was not frozen. It was an excellent, artisanal marshmallow, to be sure, but still just a normal roasted marshmallow.



I ate a little further and eventually came to the frozen bit. This was buried inside the marshmallow, encased on all sides, which seems challenging for a pastry chef to manage. Is it seven dollars worth of challenging? Eh.



The frozen bit inside was some ice cream (I think vanilla?) and some delicious chocolate crunchy things. There weren't that many of the chocolate crunchy things, though. There was an extremely high marshmallow-to-frozen/chocolate stuff ratio, to the point where I even threw away some marshmallow at the end.

Guys, it was okay. It was in no way $7 worth of impressive.

I think the lesson we have now learned twice is that s'mores are perfect with grocery store graham crackers, jet-puffed marshmallows, and a bar of Hershey's. Every time someone tries to complicate that, I just get disappointed.

BOTTOM LINE: I still love the idea of a frozen s'more and want to see it perfected. This version is, at best, a first step down that road.

Olive's hot chocolate

Olive's is a charming little sandwich store and bakeshop in Soho. It's a small storefront without seating, but they generally have delightful lunch options for takeaway.

I saw a cute, old-fashioned wood sign hanging on the wall that said "hot chocolate," and I was intrigued. Then I saw the listing on the menu for "French hot chocolate," and that sealed the deal. I love French hot chocolate! Maybe I like Italian and Belgian hot chocolates slightly better? But French is really top-notch. David recently got back from Paris, by the way, and soon will have words for you about the wonders of French hot chocolates.

Anyway, I ordered a French hot chocolate from Olive's. Massive disappointment. It was very frothy, which is in a way a nice change from all the hot chocolates I drink that are basically bars of melted chocolate. But it was very not chocolatey. And it was presented to me at a lukewarm temperature. So it was neither particular "hot" nor particularly "chocolate." Really it tasted like slightly warmed frothed milk with a lot of sugar in it.

BOTTOM LINE: Neither the best hot chocolate you can find in Soho, nor the best food you can find at Olive's. Stick to their sandwiches and baked goods.

Vosges Peppermint Candy Cane Bar

The peppermint blitz continues!  Vosges makes "Haut Chocolat."  It's even the subtitle to their name.  And it's very true.  But how will a haut chocolatier fare when trying to make not just a peppermint bar, but a candy cane bar?

I will answer that question myself, because that is my job.  The answer is, "Very well."  The question was for dramatic effect.  Did you feel the drama?  I know I did.

So they literally use crushed candy canes.  As many of you know, candy canes are peppermint-flavored candy.  Which, in America, means they usually don't actually have any peppermint in them, or any mint at all. They are mostly corn syrup with some artificial flavoring.  Don't complain.  If you want to complain, buy a regular peppermint bar.  This is America.

But, as I stated, Vosges is haut chocolat.  They are not going to make a plain, artificial candy cane flavored bar and send you packing.  It's a Peppermint Candy Cane Bar, and so there is actual peppermint oil in here too.  Don't worry: the natural and artificial peppermints play nice together, and the candy canes add the perfect crunch.

My only real question is: If you cover candy in high quality chocolate, is it still candy?

Bottom Line: I know that you should buy and eat this.  I just don't know whether it is candy.

Ciao Bella

There are a lot of tiers of ice cream/gelato, at least in terms of pretentiousness.  Ciao Bella is not at the top tier, probably because it is not sufficiently "artisanal."  It is a chain.  And it is sold (*gasp*) at grocery stores

But if you stop by the convenient Ciao Bella counter in the Grand Central Dining Concourse, there is really no way to distinguish its beautiful offerings from those of the more artisanal gelaterias.  And tastewise, I think Ciao Bella holds its own with just about anything, easily outpacing any other store-bought offerings.

My favorite item at Ciao Bella is the dark chocolate sorbet.  You need to be a sorbet person.  Many aren't.  But the real advantage is that it's just so much more chocolatey than gelato or ice cream, because those necessarily uses dairy.

On my most recent trip, I was thirsty, so I decided to mix it up and got an iced green tea float with the chocolate sorbet.  I made an amateur mistake, though, in getting the medium rather than the small.  They put in the same one scoop of sorbet with extra green tea, diluting the chocolatiness.  However, by the time I got to the more chocolatey bottom, the drink was absolutely hitting the spot.

My friend got a cup of cookies and cream and mocha gelatos.  Neither is really my style for obvious reasons, but both involved chocolate and were good versions of what they are.

Bottom Line: Easily the best stuff you can buy in a store and conveniently located in Grand Central

Ground Support Cafe Hot Chocolate

There is nothing particularly special to say about Ground Support's hot chocolate. It is fine. If you're on West Broadway and you want a chocolate drink, you won't regret it, but you certainly don't need to seek it out.

Really I am including this hot chocolate to make a point. That point is as follows:

Hot chocolate is better when drunk out of a ceramic mug. Period. You can take the exact same hot chocolate and put it in a paper cup, and it will not taste as good.

I don't know exactly why. But I know this is true.

BOTTOM LINE: Pro tip: when given the choice, always drink your hot chocolate out of a non-disposable mug.

Francois Payard Bakery's Chocolate Financier

One of my life goal is to work my way through every pastry offered at Francois Payard, because everything I've tried there so far has been fantastic. For example, this chocolate financier:

A photograph doesn't do it justice, clearly. Or at least not a photograph taken by me.

This thing was chewy and lightly chocolatey, with a few chocolate chips on the bottom to hammer it home. I don't think I'd ever had a financier before, and I don't know exactly what to compare it to. Sort of brownie texture, but less heavy, perhaps?

The Payard chocolate financier comes in an assorted box:

I'm sure these are all very good, but I did not eat the rest of them, because they are not chocolate.

BOTTOM LINE: Francois Payard is an excellent French bakery. Highly recommended.