Weird Flavors and Inclusions in Chocolate

2 questions:

1) Where can you find the Artisan's buffalo milk chocolate and

2) When pairing cheese and chocolate (OK, maybe a stupid question, but I really don't know this) do you taste them together or separate, and if the latter, which goes first?

Have you tried Artisan's buffalo milk chocolate yet? It's very creamy and sweet. At the 92Y event last weekend, we paired Pralus' Barre Infernale Lait with a 3-year-old gouda. It was amazing!

Yes, biltong is very "South African" we all love it and I am surprised at my fellow South Africans reluctance to try it.

I googled "biltong" and found it was a type of cured meat. This kind of makes sense that it would be good, as the whole salty-sweet thing is very popular now (salted caramel with chocolate, bacon bits on chocolate, etc.).

Hi, I know it is late in the discussion, but I though I should say we made chocolate covered "biltong" that turned out divine, but very few people were actually willing to try it although it is a fairly common combination in South Africa. Then for a beer fest I made a good old Castle Larger beer truffle on the basis of a water truffle with no cream etc. just the beer and it is so popular I have to make it all the time.

Hmm...I'll be in SF this coming weekend and I'll look for the Zotter. The weirdest flavor for me was truffles in ganache. I think it was Oriol Balaguer but I got it in that shop on Park Ave and about 58th street about a year ago. It was vile. Expensive and vile, and I'm pretty adventurous. I did like the olive oil/gray salt thing by Xocolatl (sp?) and I didn't expect to. This stuff is really getting expensive when you open it all up and there's basically a single portion (~50 gm or so) inside. When it's great I don't mind at all. When it isn't (as with the truffle chocolate) it bites.
updated by @keith-ayoob: 06/21/15 03:19:52

I once tried a Passion fruit puree truffle by Paul A Young for which he won a taste award. It was absolutely amazing. The flavour was precise and exciting.

I have also come across Zotter who makes the most unheard of flavours although I have personally not tasted his collection. In one of his chocolates he has incorporated beetroot as a flavour. I read somewhere that he once wanted to make blood flavoured chocolates, but didn't end up going through with it.

John -

I was lucky enough to sit in on a lecture/discussion/demonstration on the technology behind foodpairings.com in 2010. It's been VERY useful to me. I recommend it to everyone who's interested in the subject.

:: Clay

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@DiscoverChoc

I used www.foodpairing.com extensively to reserch food combinations.Does anyone else in the group use this? Their sibling site, albeit not as extensive flavour wise,is www.foodpairing.be if you want to give it a go.

John:

Thanks for sharing. Done with restraint, I think that this would make a lovely combination. I can see how a real fruity olive oil would add complexity to this.

:: Clay

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@DiscoverChoc

Clay

I have used goat's cheese and black truffle in a chocolate truffle that's made using extra virgil oilive oil. real smooth nice taste...

I once was served (did not order) a warm chocolate cake made with tapenada. Since it was on the table, I had to try it: one of the worst things I have ever tasted, ruined an otherwise great meal. I could not get the metallic taste of the black olives out of my mouth for weeks. Seriously, I just don't get it sometimes. I have a friend making chocolates with corn-nuts, olive oil, etc., all pretty nice as he is really good at balancing flavors. I did the saffron thing as well when we ate at Batali's place in NY years ago. The dessert was nice, but the best part of the meal was listening to Hendrix and Led Zep on the PA. They were playing albums all the way through...outstanding.

are mint and cumin in milk or coriander and grapefruit in milk strange enough? This are just a few of my flavour combinations.. want to try them?

In Italy I had some truffles that I won't forget. It has been a while ... I think it was in 2008 and Somewhere around Tuscany we had gotten a chocolate called Tobacco ... upon cutting it, there was actual smoke coming out of it. We honestly couldn't believe it and were just looking at each other thinking "Did I just see that or was it an illusion!" ...

Another confection from the same place was the Tequila ... and it contained an actual worm inside. It was hard to miss, as it was hard to cut through ... we both couldn't make ourselves eat it

Edit: I will have to find the picture of that one ... I just saw it on my screensaver the other day. It is too bad we couldn't capture the smoke from the other confection though.

My experience happened on accident. I love cheese, and chocolate, but at a cafe, I had a sandwich and a slice of chocolate cake,.......there was a slice of swiss cheese that happened to get the chocolate on it....I was in heaven....swiss cheese dipped in the chocolate frosting sold me.......i would live on that if i could....it would kill me though.

The strangest chocolate combination I had was in Belgium,Bitter ganache, with distillate
Of Havana leaves. andAlmond pralin with crispfried onion intersting combo not for every one.

Yikes, sorry but I am a purest, I dont like the strange savory or sour ingredients being put in chocolate. I had a chef present to me some sort of Lettuce wrapped truffle at the world pastry championship one time, and I could not believe how bad it was, and this was a top chef. Experementing is fine, but nothing better that fresh and traditional chocolate flavors, no cheese please for me.

I tried a duck confit truffleat the Chocolopolis Serious Chocolate contest yesterday -- very unusual, but lovely presentation (with flecks of gold), and would work as an appetizer served with cheese and fruit.

Bacon and chocolate....its that chocolate line visingo..??

It in grocery stores...it was quite good....

You should carry Vosges Mo's Bacon Bar or go more serious with Roni-Sue's whole bacon slice covered chocolate.

From Sweden , with alo(v)e

"Aloe Vera and Chocolate tasting

Welcome to savor the world's most wholesome fruit, in combination with the world's most wholesome vegetable!

Both aloe vera and chocolate are known for their fantastic health benefits. During this tasting you will experience just what a combination of these can create, both for taste, and for your wellbeing. The tasting guide lectures on the pairing of aloe and chocolate for health, along with how YOU can become a connoisseur of chocolate. You will learn the difference between good and bad production of both chocolate and aloe. All the while we'll be testing both chocolate samples and aloe vera pralines of high quality. In between bites of chocolate, we'll enjoy fruity aloe vera drinks."

They are one of our best selling brownies! Let me know if you want some.

we make it and sell it wholesale.....get in touch

Hello everyone, new to TheChocolateLife.com, but seemed like a pretty interesting site so decided to join

- We have gotten a few requests for chocolate covered bacon. We thought that was pretty strange, but we looked it up and there are places that do make it. I also noted that it was something featured on "Jersey Shore" so I am sure that is also why we gotten recent requests for it. Especially being in NJ.

I have a customer who roasts garlic for their fine food store. They asked me to do a chocolate with the garlic. I was not sure how it would turn out or whether the taste would be disagreeable but actually since roasted garlic is very sweet, it is nice in a dark chocolate ganache. i decorated with a bit of grains of paradise which was nice with the garlic.

i had a truffle with real black truffle in it once mmmm it was very odd
updated by @laura-marion: 09/10/15 02:37:00

The two most bizarre ingredients: tobacco and Habanero chile. Chocolate with tobacco essence smelled like horse manure. Chocolate with habanero oil was so hot it made my nose run. Both were custom-ordered.

1. Chocolate covered squid in asia

2. Bacon fat, solidified and enrobed in chocolate, in Georgia (the republic of, not the state)

Pepper and smoked salmon truffle. The pepper was nice but the fish, not so much.

I might be late to reply, but I have made in the past 3 years beer stout, smoked NZ venison salami (something for non-pork eaters) and deer velvet chocolates. Only the salami has a strong taste. half of tasters spit it out, 1/3rd loved it - including myself. My green tea-wasabi has been a hit with Asian customers. As it was said: the balance is the secret. On the more traditional side, a prune based plum Slivovitz is causing taste waves where I live now: Australia. I still like traditional taste, but the press loves crazy selection!

We make Jalapeno brownies, cinnamon and chilli brownies, and orange brownies. Some like them, some don't eat that flavor at all. The best selling one though is the orange brownie. Funny, I made up the jalapeno ones about two months ago and just saw it shown on TV lately. Great minds and all, I guess.

No, not weird at all. You have to try that blue cheese on a fig from a 'Sultane' (aka Sultana, Grosse de Juliet, Noir de Juliet, and Dark Sultane)fig tree. Not all figs are alike - as it is with all ag products, the cultivar can make all the difference in the world!

From a sea of chocolate

http://on.fb.me/eEr4nK

I saw the just published article from Travel & Leisure, they've got about a dozen "strange" flavors listed, many of which have been mentioned already in this thread.

The most intriguing sounding new one was the kimchi covered chocolate...

btw, I recently tried and reviewed the Al Nassma camel milk chocolates, interesting...

btw2, Clay is quoted a lot in this article, which was written by Jessica Su of the Su Good Sweets blog.

I tasted the camel's milk chocolate at the New York Chocolate Show and liked it so much that I bought quite a few bars to give as gifts to friends. To me, it was just a good piece of milk chocolate and enjoyable. The sellers were German from Dubai.

I don't disagree. (I have a jar of his foietella on my desk right now, actually.)

The owner of a small chocolate shop in Zrich made a big mistake giwing me some truffs with olive ganache as a bonus to my purchase. I would had bought quite a fiew when gived the opportunit to try - what a great harmony with chocolate.Our local chocolate company was experimenting at the beginning - I was pleasantly suprised by garlic fillig. They still offer truffels with cheese (seemingly blue), but I guess they don't care about matching a lot and "just ecotic" might be interesting just one time. Beer fillig wasn't bad, though, but probably it was too much or too little exotic...I am quite curious to try sprikled chocolates by Bachhalm (Austria). He uses rose, hepatica and lilac petals etc (as well as ginger and haselnuts or grapa infused grapes) pairing them with a chocolate cuvee . Maybe not really weird but quite promissing.Maroon filling for truffels isn't very common as well - and it makes a great taste!

I agree that Xocolatl's Pig's blood ganache is weird - but I have tried it and it works. It took me a while to screw up the courage to taste it but I trust David, he is good. And the blood/chocolate connection is not so far fetched, really, if you think about it.I love the sound of all of those Jamaican chocolates. YUM.

Pig's blood ganache from Xocolatl de David .

These all sound quite fabulous!


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www.thechocolatedoctor.ca

I make three unusual combinations regularly and a fourth I will only repeat on request because it is so complex and filling - may as well describe that one first - it's a 70% cacao Jamaican chocolate (floral at first, nutty at finish) molded cube filled with sorrel chutney that has vinegar, garlic, sorrel, raspberries and I forget what else. Two of the others also have the same chocolate shell ingredients but one is filled with lime pepper jelly, straight out of the jar by Busha Browne to promote another Jamaican product. The other is my own recipe, a chocolate barrel shape with a rum soaked raisin (Jamaican rum of course) swimming in curried sweetened condensed milk. The last one is a ball of 60% ganache rolled in a mix of crushed blue corn chips, chipotle pepper and roasted Jamaican cocoa nibs. I love those.

hello all,I think the most adventurous I have been is some dark chocolate, soft truffle with chili powder in it----just a local company. The other one I have tried is dark chocolate with green macha in it, not bad either.I have never tried the Austrian ones, where can one buy them outside of Austria and what brand do you suggest?for all your fave sweets and more... candy