So, I’m sitting here at my favorite lounge drinking Tanqueray 10 and eating a brownie the size of my skull, reminiscing about childhood (must be the heady combo of booze and baked goods) and thinking about my love affair with chocolate.
Just like there is a vast difference between lovin’ and good lovin’, there is also a vast difference between chocolate and good chocolate and –not unlike the aforementioned good lovin’– it is readily available on the open market from the talented and enterprising French…if you’ve got the cash.
Case in point: this beyond delicious “luxury box” of French chocolates. My friends, this is the cocoa buttery equivalent of being trapped on a desert island with the entire heterosexual contingency of the Oxford AND Cambridge rowing teams (and really, two guys on a desert island ought to be plenty for anybody) and an endless supply of hypoallergenic baby oil.
The holiday pack from Zchocolat is possibly the most luxe take on the traditional box-o-chocolates I’ve ever had the good fortune to stumble across.
Check out their chocolate list here but beware…you’ll probably need a cigarette afterwards, or at least a shower.
I know this sounds totally dumb, but if you get that, I’d like “first dibs”(as we used to say in my youth) on the box. I have an obsession with little wooden boxes used to package things and have several in my collection. I think this would be worth having simply from the “stick my nose into it and take a deep whiff of pure chocolat smell” aspect.
I’d be more than happy to let you have every single one of the chocolates in the box. Really. I am a complete Philostine when it comes to chocolate. Really expensive wonderful chocolate is totally wasted on me – the cheaper, the more paraffined it is, the better I like it. Sorry. I am a worthless chit, I realize, and have no “cooth”, but there it is. I also do not like dark chocolate. My taste in chocolate was frozen in time when I was about 5 years old and all I could get was either Hersheys bars or Aerobars when my relations used to to come visit from the UK.
But the box is a totally different story. It will be our little secret – I will never tell anyone. Trust me.
Comment by Toby Wollin — December 4, 2007 @ 4:58 pm
No, not a cig or a shower…smelling salts.
I was expecting expensive, but not $6.60 a truffle…
Wow.
Comment by Lisa Laree — December 4, 2007 @ 5:08 pm
I like the way you said “chocolate” and “good chocolate” because as we all know, there is no such thing as bad chocolate: there is the chocolate you eat in emergencies and there’s nothing around but a 7-11 and a vending machine and then there’s the great stuff you eat when you can get it.
Comment by class-factotum — December 4, 2007 @ 5:54 pm
If I may suggest, go to this web site and order a dozen or so of the best truffles in the US of A (LA Times said so!) Asheville’s Chocolate Fetish. A guaranteed chocolate “O” in each bite along with some sultry moaning noises… http://www.chocolatefetish.com
Comment by Jennie — December 4, 2007 @ 8:47 pm
If you want to try some amazing chocolate that has some similar flavor combinations but aren’t quite as pricey, you should check out Gearhart’s Fine Chocolates: http://www.gearhartschocolates.com/boxed.html
I can never decide if my favorite is the Taj (bittersweet chocolate ganache, infused with candied ginger, cardamom, and rose, dipped in dark chocolate) or the Maya (rich, bittersweet chocolate ganache flavored with cinnamon, Ancho chilli, and orange, dusted with cocoa).
Comment by Lunakitsch — December 4, 2007 @ 9:32 pm
OK, to throw my hat in the ring: best truffles in the universe, right here, at reasonable prices. Go to Bittersweet Truffles. http://www.blackhoundny.com/chocolates.cfm
More fun to go pick out flavors at the shop, of course, WHICH YOU CAN DO WHEN YOU COME TO NEW YORK.
Comment by Violet — December 5, 2007 @ 12:09 am
On a related chocolate thought, I would like to mention Choctal, a marvelous chocolate ice cream line that Mr. Henry has mentioned over at Manolo’s Food Blog. It is truly wonderful and I think qualifies as “really good chocolate” despite being ice cream. Mmmm.
Comment by Eilish — December 5, 2007 @ 1:34 am
Good chocolate… mmmm… I’m a big fan of Richart, which I always try to pick up when I’m in San Francisco. Heaven.
Comment by Rubiatonta — December 5, 2007 @ 3:50 pm
I should mention that you can get their chocolates online, too. But there’s something about those Richart boutiques that just can’t compare with a web page.
Comment by Rubiatonta — December 5, 2007 @ 3:51 pm