Translucent Chocolates

  • Posted by Editor
  • June 25, 2007

Posted by Andrew Barrow on Sugar Savvy.

Translucent ChocolatesDon’t get me started on American chocolate!It just isn’t the same as anything we get over here in the UK. I’m sure they have some decent stuff (that box of Sears Candy that I received as a gift several years ago a case in point) but these Translucent Chocolates just don’t taste of chocolate. The almond inside is fine, lovely and crunchy. Other reviewers seem more impressed - see Sara’s take on a mix she received and Joanna’s green colored sunflower seeds

Perhaps someone can enlighten me on the differences between chocolate on either side of the Atlantic. Is there a chemical difference? A differing manufacturing difference that effects taste and texture? Universally it seems that us Brits detest American chocolate!

I have to say presentation-wise I would have gone for all ‘egg shell’ rather than the mix of pastel shaded and egg-shell if I was making a box; perhaps though another cultural difference. Makes for good foodporn though.

Translucent Chocolates has a mighty fine website.



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June 25th, 2007
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Comment Number:
1
Written by:
brian w
Posted on:
June 25, 2007 at 3:49 pm

Well, I’m not too familiar with UK chocolate, but I do agree that most US chocolate is nothing to get too excited about. Thanks to Nestle and Hersheys the american chocolate palate is more about sugar than cocoa.
There are a handful of chocolatiers here that do a nice job though, don’t know about availability across the Atlantic. Three I can reccommend are: Scharfenberger, Dagoba (now owned by Hersheys, so we’ll see where that goes), and Green & Black

Comment Number:
2
Written by:
Kitchen Chick
Posted on:
June 27, 2007 at 2:25 am

Hi there. I have to say, those eggs are very pretty. I like the turquoise and pale green.

There are good chocolates from America, though they are hard to come by. Scharffen Berger is perhaps the best known high quality American chocolate. Unforunately, they were bought by Hersey, which I’ve heard has started changing the forumlas and ingredients (to be cheaper, no doubt, while still selling the chocolate at its Artisanal prices). I’d like to try Amano’s chocolate. American chocolate snobs :-) still look out of country for the best chocolates, like el rey, valrhona, and michel cluizel, and claudio corallo.
There certainly are “chemical differences”. To start, the beans have different flavors depending on where they’re grown. Also, the ingredients used to process chocolate will affect the flavor. This website claims that the use of “chocolate crumb” in the ingredients is what gives British milk chocolate its distinctive flavor. http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/bsc/idt/2003/00000056/00000003/art00003

Comment Number:
3
Written by:
Andrew
Posted on:
June 27, 2007 at 3:24 pm

I’m not a great fan of the UK milk chocolate having really developed a love of the dark stuff over the last few years (since becoming a food blogger really)!