About the Foodie
Any foodie worth their salt will tell you that Valrhona is the finest chocolate money can buy, recognised as one of the top chocolates in the world. But what makes it such exquisite chocolate? Well, for starters, they use the best possible cocoa beans – fifteen different types from twelve different countries. In fact, there’s a Valrhona sourcer who travels across the world to find these premium beans: perpetual cocoa beans, that will retain their flavour and complexity for years to come. Valrhona’s passion is to select and blend these perpetual cocoa beans into a variety of different chocolates that offer a wide palette of taste sensations. There are aromatic subtleties to this chocolate… You’ll simply have to taste it to know what that means.
Wild Peacock Website, South African distributors of Valrhona
About the Food
Chocolate has been called ‘liquid gold’ and ‘food of the Gods’, by everyone from the ancient Aztecs to modern-day women. This might seem like something of an exaggeration if you’ve been eating boring slabs of chocolate. But treat yourself to a square of Valrhona and the descriptions ring very true.
Let’s start with the Jivara slab, because one would expect the milk chocolate to be the least interesting. One would be wrong. With 40% cacao, it’s really chocolatey, but balanced by a beautifully creamy vanilla and malt finish. The aromatic cocoa beans produce an exceptionally smooth and deep milk chocolate.
Then there’s Manjari. 64% cocoa and pure cocoa butter, Manjari liberates acidulous notes of red fruits and nuts reminiscent of the original Trinitario cocoa beans from Madagascar. How does it taste? Fresh, tangy, robust. Not at all bitter, unexpectedly fruity. In other words: delicious.
And then we have Guanaja. 70% cocoa, bittersweet and elegant, this is Valrhona’s second darkest chocolate in the range. Its aromatic range of warm notes and roasted almond and hazelnut flavours combine beautifully with the slight bitterness to form a balanced finish. Simply superb.
Of course, you don’t only get these three chocolates, but an Initiation Grands Crus that includes six dark chocolate squares, each one just as heavenly as the last. Who said chocolate wasn’t the food of the Gods?
— Bridget McNulty
Is there anything more delicious than writing about food? Bridget McNulty thinks not. She started her career in writing as features writer for Real Simple magazine, and has added online editor for Fresh Living magazine and editor of Sweet Life diabetes lifestyle magazine to that list. Somehow, she’s managed to combine food and cooking into each of these jobs, as well as the wide range of freelance writing she does for magazines, blogs and newspapers in between.
Her first novel, Strange Nervous Laughter, featured green food and cupcakes (not together, that would be odd). Although her passions include travel, health and wellness, her one true love remains food. She is quite giddy with delight to be reviewing gourmet goodies for 5ounces.
Sweet Life magazine – www.sweetlifemag.co.za
Travelstart weekly column - http://www.travelstart.com/street/author/bridget-mcnulty/
