Chocolate comes in many forms, and the more you investigate, the crazier things get. The taste you love that started, in all likelihood, with a Hersey’s Kiss can now be sated with much fancier–and much more expensive–options.
As connoisseurs well know, the fun of wines and coffees is often in exploring complex aromas and flavors. In many cases, as prices rise, manufacturers get creative with the preparation, and methods of consumption change. Whether this is decanting your wine or preparing coffee in an $11,000 machine, the way we appreciate these high-end food stuffs can become relatively unorthodox.
A few days ago I was able to take a close look at some of Vosges’s exotic chocolate offerings. I liked them so much that I bought another, the Barcelona bar, at my local Whole Foods. On the back, I had expected to see an ingredients list, and possibly health information, but I was surprised when I found instructions. Yes, how to eat chocolate!
Even to a chocolate lover, this will initially seem a bit strange, and possibly pretentious. But is it really that unreasonable? When tasting complex flavors, like a precise mixture of milk and dark chocolate, hickory smoked almonds, and grey sea salt, the chocolate and its accessories should be considered and savored, not just gobbled down. Think of it as an experience, rather than a snack.
So what do you think? Silly? Or is that how you should eat $42/lb chocolate?
Comments 9
I vote for silly! If it’s a complex chocolate, you may be more inclined to savor it in little bites and take the time to think about it, but who needs instructions for that?
And if you just want to NOM-NOM-NOM through the whole bar at once, you shouldn’t have to feel guilty about it.
Posted 17 Mar 2008 at 2:47 pm ¶I agree!!! Fine chocolate is like fine wine, just plain worth it! Vosges Chocolate has paired the best chocolate with some of the most uncommon flavors I have ever seen. The greatest selection I have found is at chathams fine chocolates
Posted 17 Mar 2008 at 3:40 pm ¶while i agree that you can snarf the whole bar down if you wanna, i also agree with those directions – especially with those vosges bars (my favorite is the naga).
if only they weren’t $7 a pop. sigh.
Posted 17 Mar 2008 at 11:23 pm ¶i think the directions are fun for people who are just beginning to realize the complexity in flavors of chocolate.
and it makes it more fun if you just want to nosh through it! (breaking rules makes everything a little more enjoyable!)
Posted 20 Mar 2008 at 6:37 pm ¶How funny a friend and I were going through a gift basket of chocolate and we saw the directions as we were plowing through the chocolate bars. We paused. Read them and kept on eating.
I loved the curry flavor and was mildly impressed by the tea flavor.
Posted 21 Mar 2008 at 11:28 pm ¶I’m not sure if it’s silly or not, as most of my experience with chocolate has been with the under-3-dollars variety, but this did remind me a little bit of an interview that I heard on NPR awhile back: http://marketplace.publicradio.org/segments/working/chloe.html
This French lady is a professional chocolate taster. I could seriously listen to her talk about her job ALL DAY LONG. It makes me consider moving into a more scrumptious career.
Posted 22 Mar 2008 at 2:20 am ¶I love Vosges chocolate! The instructions are entertaining in my book…we often read them out loud for a good laugh!
Posted 22 Mar 2008 at 9:20 am ¶Life is too short to eat bad chocolate…So, if you have to rub and sniff in order to not be dissappointed.. so be it.
Posted 23 Mar 2008 at 11:00 am ¶I love savoring great chocolate! I thought that the mention of the different textures and sounds of dark, milk, and white chocolate was interesting — something I’d noticed in the past but never really thought much about.
Posted 14 Apr 2008 at 9:58 pm ¶Trackbacks & Pingbacks 1
[...] our food packaging by now, but Gena over at Big City, Little Kitchen (I can relate to that title) wins with this one: A few days ago I was able to take a close look at some of Vosges’s exotic chocolate offerings. [...]
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