After Cadbury’s Toffee Crunch and its sweet assault on my palate (not as fun as it sounds), I needed something darker. Something with vim. Something with pep. Something with pepper, maybe?
Bovetti Dark Chocolate with Espelette Peppers
Comprised of four pristinely-embossed squares in a rectangle of come-hither dark chocolate, this French bar was studded with espelette peppers on its underside. I loved the design aesthetic of this bar, with its nigh-on-sparkly (in the non-Twilight sense) pepper flakes shining against a backdrop of glossy chocolate. Add in an extremely crisp snap indicative of good tempering and a deeply chocolatey aroma tinged with spice notes, and you’re looking at a hypothetically-Hannah-approved edible creation.
What was interesting about this chocolate was its initial lack of… anything. For a second I thought I was tasting a repeat of the Carmel Valley chocolate, yet before my disappointment could take hold, the flavour came. And lo! It was delicious. First came a slight dusky flavour, then a transition into cinnamon with hints of tropical fruit, and then the final subtle intertwining of brown sugar and clotted cream. And throughout all of this, there was something playing in the background, nudging itself into prominence: the espelette peppers.
Much more akin to the fruity heat of pink peppercorns than the spicy heat of chilli, the espelette pepper flakes in this Bovetti chocolate teased out the dusky notes of the chocolate whilst also countering the bar’s sweetness. I was also impressed by the length of the chocolate – while there was little in the way of flavour when first placed in the mouth, the bar’s rich chocolate flavour ultimately lasted long after the chocolate itself had melted away.
Plus, it’s pretty. Guess I better see how the other four Bovetti flavours in my stash compare, hmm?
oh wow, what an interesting combo!
I love the fruity subtleness of piment d’espelette. I also love when heat sneaks up on you instead of assaulting you from the get-go. Hooray! You say this is French, hmmm? Where did you find it?
I don’t know if I can continue reading your blog. All I want to do is eat chocolate after!!! LOVE IT!!!
haha
How delightful! I am a big fan of dark choc that has a little spoice
How do you feel about bacon IN chocolate? Just wondering.
You are so poetic when describing chocolate, by the way!
Oooh sounds like it was worth the brief wait for the flavour. So it’s a winner? Thank god, I wasn’t sure if you could take another assault on your tastebuds!
Sounds good to me!
Oh how I envy you your stash
This one looks particularly lovely and it makes for very difficult reading when I’m hungry for dinner (Love Chunks is rustling up a moroccan chicken dish as we type)
Simply Life: It definitely was that!
Camille: I actually bought mine in New York, but this is the (English) website, which might have info somewhere about stockists: http://www.bovetti.com/EN I also just checked the packaging, and it says the chocolates are made in Terrasson, wherever that is?!
Monique: That’s precisely why you MUST keep reading! Everyone needs more chocolate in their life
Lisa: Do I detect a Kath & Kim reference there? It’s noice, it’s different, it’s un-ewe-sual…
TheHungryScholar: If that’s a subtle reference to Vosges’ Mo’s Bacon Bar…. honey, been there, done that! (Multiple times, in fact.) The first time I had it I quite enjoyed it for the smokiness, and I get the novelty value, but the second and third times I bought it, I decided I prefer the salt and smoke flavours without the bacon notes…. (i.e. give me the Barcelona bar instead anyday
)
Lorraine: Definitely a winner! And awww, it’s nice to know you’re barracking for pleasantness in my chocolate endeavours! That’s two of us!
Melissa: Teehee, and it tasted good to me!
Kath: The thing you needn’t envy is how I’ll probably need therapy once it runs out… Oooh, Moroccan Chicken! Cumin and coriander and lemon, oh my?
Ooh…I do love pink peppercorns (it’s that Nigella’s influence, I never would have heard of them otherwise) you’re making me want to go look up all her recipes using them. Thus, this chocolate sounds really good.
wow that sounds like delayed gratification of an unusual sort – I love the look of the peppers on the bottom and it sounds like it has the sort of gentle bite that I appreciate
Laura: Certainly anything that leads to thoughts of Nigella must be a good thing
I think the only time I’ve cooked with pink peppercorns was in a chicken with pink peppercorn sauce dish. Or maybe they were green peppercorns… it was so long ago, I can’t remember!
Johanna: A gentle bite is the perfect way to describe the peppers here! Perhaps you should give chocolate reviewing a go
I’m not familiar with espelette peppers, but I do like heat, and the chocolate sounds good!
Ah thank goodness for Amber. I thought I was the only person in the world who had not heard of espelette peppers (wiki tells me they’re a chili grown in the French commune of Espelette. There you go. And it only scores a 4000 on the Scoville scale so can’t be considered hot.
Amber: I wasn’t either – I’d heard of them, but never tasted them. The heat was definitely pleasant though!
Louise: *gasp* You just returned from Paris and still didn’t know what espelettes were?