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Author of the Month: Sarah Jane Evans
As I read Sarah Jane Evans’ “Chocolate Unwrapped”, I was wondering which chocolate I would use to explore her suggestions on of how to taste chocolate on page 57, when I was introduced to Godiva Chocolatier’s Gold Collection.
The Belgian Chocolatier features on page 126 as the “ultimate glamorous chocolatier, with its beautifully presented chocolates. For this experiment, I have gone for gold and opted for the bigger box, for more mouth-watering recipes.
How exactly am I supposed to listen to snaps from these hand-crafted selection of dark, milk and white chocolate delights as well as a balance of pralines, ganaches, caramel and mousse chocolates…I definitely knew that I wanted to move on to the “Sniff” stage. I needed to savour the aroma like Sarah Jane says then put a piece in my mouth to enjoy the character of the piece savour it as it slowly melts in my mouth.Sarah Jane suggests that to start, there are three steps: Look, Listen, and Sniff. For “look”, the box is beautifully embossed with the Godiva logo and wrapped with dark brown ribbon. For “listen” I am supposed to open the box and break the square of a bar to hear a snap. However, the Godiva Gold Collection does not come in bars. There come in either 14-piece box with 7 individual recipes; a 24-piece box with 12 or a 34-piece box with 17 recipes. So here I am faced with 34 beautifully arranged pieces of specially created recipes of dark chocolate, hand-decorated with nuts or hand-drizzled in chocolate and looking for a snap. Each chocolate is perfectly placed in an eye-catching arrangement rather than the traditionally-uniformed rows of chocolates.
Sarah Jane says that the slow method may at first seem pretentious; but in the case of the Godiva’s Gold Collection it felt like the right thing to do. Apparently, the slow method covers six stages: Appearance 10/10 in the case of the Gold Collection, Snap – I am still struggling with this one because quite frankly I am more tempted to put a piece of the beautifully decorated chocolate in my mouth than break it. Aroma, another top marks here because of the balance of pralines, ganaches, and caramel and mousse chocolates. Texture, who am I to complain, she suggests that we look out for silky, smooth, un even, grainy, sludgy, fudgy …there as certainly a lot of textures in the 34 –piece collection and I am sure I would not have been disappointed with the 14-piece box either. Then there is Flavour, which while you are thinking about melt and texture, you are supposed to monitor the flavour in your mouth and finally, Length – how long does the flavour stay in your mouth after the chocolate has gone? I shall leave this bit to your imagination.
International travellers will be pleased to know that the Godiva Chocolatier decadent new Gold collection is exclusive to Duty Free. They are available in new beribboned boxes – a classic premium chocolate gift for yourself or someone very dear.
Sarah Jane Evans is one of the UK leading wine and food writers and founding member of the academy of chocolate. As a Master of Wine, she has particular interest in taste and flavour, enjoys sharing her expertise in wine tasting to reveal pleasures in chocolate.
The first book of its kind, Chocolate Unwrapped: Taste & Enjoy the World’s Finest Chocolate (Pavilion, £16.99) delves into the tastes, diversity and sophistication of today’s artisan chocolatier.