Notes on chocolate: a reluctant tip for Valentine’s Day
A few readers have been writing to say that some of the chocolate I’ve recommended is out of stock – sorry about that, but craft/small-scale produce is like that. I’m afraid further disappointment may ensue this week with me mentioning Luisa Abram’s chocolate. Abram is a Brazilian-based chocolate-maker who works with micro-lot, wild-grown cocoa from the Amazon rainforest. I wrote about her a few years ago, concentrating on the dark milks. But this time, rooting round for something to make my chocolate-chestnut pancakes with, I found some of her 70/80% chocolate – and it’s all superb.
Stocks come and go, this isn’t mass-scale produced chocolate. A little understanding and patience is needed
This is where things get frustrating, because stocks come and go; like I say, this isn’t mass-scale produced chocolate. A little understanding and patience is needed. But you can always keep track of stock on the Cocoa Runners website. My favourite, the 81% Purus River – so good it almost did taste like a dark milk – is not currently available, but should be later in the year.
We are a smidge away from one of my least favourite days of the year: Valentine’s Day. I’m not a fan of chocolate-giving just because it’s commercially prescribed… But! Islands Chocolate (whose massive 2kg bag of 55% dark milk chocolate buttons I absolutely covet, but can never seem to justify) has a choconut spread (£8.95), which is jam-packed with hazelnuts, and being repackaged for this time of year with the message ‘Spread the love’. I like that as it’s universal, non-committal and, of course, the actual product is delicious.
