Pepper and Salt Fine Chocolate Collection Announced

Posted by Maddalena Delli Nov 14, 2008

In January 2009, Demarquette Fine Chocolates (based in Chelsea, London), will be launching a unique limited edition collection of 6 freshly hand-made ganache chocolates flavoured with speciality peppers and salts. World-famous salts and peppers are infused in British cream which is blended and enrobed with the world's highest quality chocolate from highly acclaimed Valrhona.

I'm not sure how I feel about this... Mind you, pepper sounds fine! I love all sorts of spiced chocolate, my favorite being nutmeg. And by the way, have you ever tried freshly ground pepper in your espresso coffee? It's a bang on a grey winter afternoon!

But, uhm... SALT?!?! Salty chocolate??? I mean, I'm equipped with a well trained set of adventurous taste buds and I'm an avid liquorice eater, but hard as I try, I've never grown to acquire the taste for salty liquorice. Will salty chocolate prove to be any different? I'll have to give it a try I guess...

However, here is the full list of flavored chocolates in the forthcoming Demarquette collection:

• Hawaiian Black Volcano salt - Known for its detoxifying effects from activated charcoal, the salt is evaporated with purified black lava rock which adds minerals.

• Australian Pink Salt Flakes - Harvested from an Australian river fed by water coming from the snowy Australian mountains, these delicate pink salt flakes add extraordinary zest to the flavour.

• Fleur de Sel - Often regarded as the world's finest salt with an extraordinary texture. The "Salt Flower" blossoms on the surface of French salt ponds where only the top layer of delicate crystals is hand-harvested.

• Szechuan Pepper - native to the Szechwan province of China, it is not actually of the pepper family, but the dried berry of a tree of the rue family. The flavour is mildly peppery with hints of citrus.

• Brazilian Pink Pepper - Another delicate but piquant spice which is not related to pepper. These small, pink, berry-like fruits from a tropical Brazilian tree have a mild, aromatic, sweet flavour with a subtle sharpness.

• Tasmanian Bush Pepper - Peppery leaves and fruits of the Tasmanian wild pepper bush complement the chocolate with a woody pepper zing, rich berry and a hint of green tea.

Well, if nothing else, there's a fine lesson in specialty salt and pepper varieties for my foodie readers!