Here’s part 2 of my review of some?French Broad Chocolates purchased at A Southern Season. On Monday, I reviewed the vanilla bourbon and mole negro. Today, we’ll cover the fig and port and the sorghum caramel.
Fig and port was?“55% cacao Hawaiian dark chocolate, coconut cream, a puree of local figs from an old man?s back yard, and port, coated in 91% extra-dark chocolate and rolled in toasted almonds.”
This truffle had a sticky ganache with a thin chocolate shell that was then rolled in almond bits. Those almonds brought some nuttiness, which was nice, but also some astringency, which was less nice. They didn’t taste toasted to me; I think they’d gone a bit stale in A Southern Season’s chocolate case.
The ganache, on the other hand, was great. It had a lightly jammy scent and tasted of a sweet, figgy fruitiness that became noticeable brighter as the chocolate melted.
There was a lightly sweet grapey boozy note to the finish. Like the vanilla bourbon, it captured all of the alcoholic flavor of the port without any of the burn. I enjoyed the ganache to this one, but the less-than-fresh almonds were a bust.
The sorghum molasses was the only molded truffle that I purchased. Its milk chocolate shell melted thickly with dairy caramel notes to reveal a prettily oozy, thick liquid caramel center.
The texture of that caramel was gorgeous, a velvety smooth pool that lay on my tongue and melted into my taste buds without any sticky chewiness. It started off sugary sweet with buttery, scorched notes.
Then, the flavor took on maple syrup’s amber edge. Finally, it finished with a flash of fruitiness and just the right slight bitterness. The chocolate was maybe a tad too sweet, but I forgave it because man, that caramel was divine!
The fig and port gets an O because of the almond detraction. Without those nuts, it would’ve earned an OM.
I suspect that had I purchased them at French Broad Chocolates’ actual store, they’d be fresher and tastier. Who knows how long they’d been hanging out at A Southern Season?
The sorghum molasses gets an OMG. It haunts my dreams, and I’d happily spring for another one when my wallet has recovered enough to return to A Southern Season.
“from an old mans backyard” I’m all about being a locavore when it’s genuine, but sometimes the promotion aspect is a tad transparent
these do sound great though, and I would hapiily give them a shot.
Hey there,
Thanks so much for taking the time to review our chocolates! We love it when dedicated foodies check out our wares. =)
A couple notes: The price is definitely not reflective of our pricing here at our store and on-line. We do not wholesale our chocolates to many locations, because the nature of our hand-made and carefully sourced product means we cannot offer re-sellers a typical discount price. This generally means that we do not make a large profit off of wholesaling, and neither do our wholesale clients. A Southern Season sets its retail price after considering the additional cost to ship our chocolates to Chapel Hill, and to meet their own unique margins. I can definitely understand discomfort with the pricing, but hopefully this explains the discrepancy.
Additionally, we feel that freshness is probably a factor in your enjoyment this go-round. Our products are definitely perishable, and while we are carefully monitoring our wholesale clients to ensure that nothing is sold post-date, the fresher the better!
Great note on the almond-toasting quotient of the Fig & Port truffle. We agree that the roast has been light, and will be modifying our process to incorporate this feedback. Humidity fluctuations in their candy case and freshness may have contributed.
As regards the Mole Negro truffle: the coarsely ground spices are intentional, though we understand that it may not please everyone. We choose to make a true mole paste by hand, and include that in the ganache as opposed to infusing and straining the cream. Much like our Oaxaca and Xocolatl sipping chocolates, available in-store, we choose to go ‘old school’ for these recipes to give our customers the most authentic experience possible.
All that said, we’d love to send you some fresh samples to try. We’re confident that many of your concerns would be allayed by trying our truffles and caramels at the level of freshness we have in our store.
If you would be interested in trying some additional truffles, my email is included in the form. If you’d kindly send me your shipping address, they will be en-route shortly!
Best,
Logan Ayliffe
French Broad Chocolates