Zany concoctions to tempt diehard chocoholics
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VALENTINE’S Day is all about love, flowers and, of course, chocolates. The popular candy tops the list of holiday gift purchases.
Chocolate doesn’t really need a holiday to maintain its popularity. It’s estimated that 1 billion people a day eat chocolate in some form, creating a global industry valued at about US$100 billion a year.
Though it may be the bane of dieters, chocolate in its purer forms is said to be beneficial to health. Good news for chocoholics!
The name comes from the cacao tree, whose Latin name Theobroma cacao means “food of the gods.” It was first consumed as a beverage called xocoatl in Aztec, a very bitter drink with no sugar added.
The Aztecs treasured the native plant, using cacao beans to brew drinks and wines, and even as a form of currency.
By 17th century, the popularity of chocolate as a drink spread throughout Europe, amid claims that it was beneficial to health. In 1847, Joseph Fry discovered he could make a moldable chocolate paste by adding melted cocoa butter into powdered cocoa, creating the modern chocolate bar.
Chocolate has become a big global big business, satisfying human craving in a myriad of forms — from bitter dark chocolate, white chocolate and mellow milk chocolate to the liqueur-filled candies and praline truffles. It’s also used in cakes, cookies and ice cream.
Chocolate factories around the world have no end of imagination, finding ever-new ways to entice and delight chocolate lovers. Let’s look at some of the quirkier innovations.
Chocolate shooter
The chocolate shooter was created by Belgian chocolatier Dominique Persoone, providing chocolate lovers a way to appreciate the commodity by sniffing.
The chocolate shooter is basically a small catapult, loading with pulverized chocolate and positioned under the nostrils. A hit release and snort, much like a nose spray. Herbs and spices like mint, cinnamon, nutmeg and even paprika can be mixed in with the powder.
This strange chocolate experience doesn’t come cheap. A chocolate shooter box containing a sniff device and two packs of cacao in raspberry and ginger flavors costs 45 euros (US$48), with refills priced at 12 euros per two packs.
A self-proclaimed “shock-o-latier,” Persoone also crafts odd-flavored chocolate truffles.
A creation called Havana is a truffle made of ganache perfumed with a distillate of cigar leaves, providing a sensation similar to smoking a cigar. Cebolla is an almond praline with crispy fried onions, Bollywood is white chocolate ganache flavored with saffron and mild curry, and Asian Confetti is a combination of rice vinegar and soy sauce infused with caramel, sesame seeds, praline, sansho pepper and popping candy.
Bloody treat
Bacon, too, has become a favorite partner of chocolate, combining salty with sweet. David Briggs, an American chocolatier, took that one step further, experimenting with pig’s blood.
His inspiration was drawn from blood sausage.
Briggs added pig’s blood to dark Ecuadoran chocolate, along with cinnamon and smoked Spanish paprika.
This pig’s blood chocolate is made in limited edition — sold only for Halloween and Valentine’s Day.
Adding blood into sweet treats actually has a longer history. In Naples, sanguinaccio dolce is a sweet blood pudding, traditionally prepared for the carnival. It’s made by mixing pig’s blood with chocolate, milk, pine nuts, raisins and sugar. The taste is sweet, salty and slightly metallic.
This odd concoction has a macabre sense. It was featured in two episodes of the TV series “Hannibal” in 2015 as one of the title character’s favorite desserts.
Briggs also crafts less “scary” chocolates and truffle bars, like a foie gras chocolate bar (US$10), a bacon caramel bar (US$9), and salt and pepper bar flavored with Sichuan peppercorns (US$6).
Chocolate potato and chocolate sausage
In Russia, the chocolate potato is popular. It’s a truffle shaped like a potato but made with crackers, sweetened condensed milk, butter and cocoa. Pine nuts are sometimes added as potato eyes.
There’s also a chocolate sausage, a cracker-filled truffle in tube form and served in sliced pieces just like common sausages.
Camel milk chocolate
In Dubai, chocolate company Al Nassma is the first and only company to use camel’s milk in chocolate, replacing cow’s milk.
The milk is low in fat and lactose. The taste of camel milk chocolate is not particularly distinctive from standard chocolate.
Al Nassma camel milk chocolate comes in both traditional bar form and in a camel shape. It’s sold at specialty shops in United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Oman and Japan, and it can be ordered online worldwide.
Chocolate red wine
Wine is often paired with chocolate, like reds with fine dark chocolates and sherry with smooth milk chocolates.
The Chocolate Shop infuses a dark red with dark chocolate, describing the result as “inviting aromas of black cherry and dark chocolate to entwine and surround the palate with hints of cocoa powder.”
The chocolate has a 12.5 percent alcohol content and is sold for US$15 on amazon.com.
Another brand, ChocolatRouge, sells chocolate flavored red wine
Chocolate red wine can be made at home by reducing the red wine by half in a saucepan, then pouring it into a chocolate and milk mixture, and blending the mixture with more milk. The red wine hot chocolate beverage is best served hot on cold days.
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