Vosges Chocolate

You are in for a treat this week!

This weeks taste is the Black Salt Caramel Exotic candy bar by Vosges Chocolate.

Wow.

What a mouthful of a title, but I am not sure that the title does this bar justice. My husband promptly deemed this one his favorite so far, and rightly so.

Vosges chocolate was started by Katrina Markoff, an innovation expert. She has trained all over the world, most notably at the culinary school, Le Cordon Bleu in Paris, France. She has also trained in other cuisines including Italy, Thailand, Korea, Vietnam, Singapore and others. One of the values of Vosges is to “inspire model and innovation, taking risks and pushing the boundaries of chocolate conventions”. They truly do this and looking at their line up of chocolate, I am anxious to try more.

Okay, I could probably write a few pages on Vosges, such a fascinating company and product- but let’s get down to why you are all reading this post. Let’s talk about the chocolate!

Taste Notes:

Smell: Before snapping the bar the main aroma is that of a sweetly bitter chocolate. Once you snap the bar the aroma of the caramel is more apparent. After snapping the bar- the smell of caramel is more apparent.

Appearance: I know this is not part of the bar- but the actual wrapper gets an A+ in my book. It is silver with a purple design on it (sorry not pictured). The bar itself is medium dark with a dull gloss (but this could be because it melted a bit on the way home from the store) in appearance. The pictures on the bar appear to have a bit more gloss to them.

Snap: The snap is softer, but mostly due to the caramel center

Texture: This bar is smooth, all smooth. The smoothness makes the mixing of flavors in my mouth quite enjoyable. The salt does not affect the smoothness of the bar.

Taste: This is the first time that I have seen taste notes written similar to how I write them. Instructions tell you to place a square of chocolate on your tongue and let it melt- do this. The first taste is the sweet bitterness of chocolate followed by the caramel once it starts to melt and then the slight hint of salt. The salt in this bar is not overpowering at all. The 3 flavors then mix in your mouth for a delightful tasting experience… the dark chocolate with a touch of caramel and salt. The chocolate seems to have a bit of hickory type scent in it, possibly due to the salt? I looked up black salt and it is actually mixed with volcanic ash which adds to the unique flavor.

Have I convinced you? I hope so. I definitely hope to be sampling more of Vosges chocolate in the future.

Enjoy!