Vosges Haut Chocolate exotic truffles
“…And it *melts*, God forgive me, it melts ever so slowly on your tongue, and tortures you with pleasure.”—Ivette Marceau, Chocolat
I am Toulouse LeTrek, the COOL Travel Cat, epicurean, sommelier, and gourmet of all things wonderful. I adore chocolate. However, for someone who loves chocolate as much as I do, I indulge in very little of it. You won’t see me in the 7-Eleven or Walgreens buying an over-the-counter candy bar like Kit Kat (edible Kat? How disgusting!) or Cadbury’s Caramilk Bar. You might call me a chocolate snob. I’d prefer to call myself a chocolate gourmet.
I treat chocolate like I treat coffee (that’s right, you won’t see me buying coffee at the local gas station or helping myself to free coffee at the bank or Tim Horton’s—sorry TH coffee fans; though their donuts are another matter). Chocolate—like coffee—is meant to be celebrated. Chocolate is a sensual gift: to be anticipated with delight, joyfully embraced, slowly inhaled and caressed with your tongue.
Vosges Haut Chocolat's Red Fire Bar
When I’m not adventuring in Switzerland, loitering at Sprüngli on Bahnhofstrasse or Café Schober on Napfgasse in Altstadt Zurich, or in Europe generally—in other words, when I am in North America—I continually find myself on a quest in the most unlikely places for something beyond the norm; something exotic. Something surprising.
I discovered such a gem at the Wine Store on funky Bardstown Road in Louisville Kentucky. There, on the front counter, along with other enticing wine accoutrements, sat a display of fine chocolate bars by Vosges Haut Chocolat. There was hope for good chocolate!
Vosges Mountain Range in France
Vosges is the name of a mountain range in northeast France parallel to the Rhine River with rounded summits. But it’s also the name founder Kristina Markoff gave to her new chocolaterie that she opened in Chicago in 1998.
My gaze swept the bold selection of Vosges chocolate bars whose exotic names triggered reveries of world travel and adventure; names like Black Pearl, Red Fire, Oaxaca, Blood Orange Caramel, Goji, and Woolloomooloo. I let my gaze finally rest on the Marzipan Bar, made with Sicilian almond marzipan, amaretto and dark chocolate (62% cacao and at least 38% cacao solids). Marzipan is made by grinding sweet and bitter almonds with sugar to create a dense paste. Germans create a pig-figurine in the New Year to give them good luck and Italians often sculpt the paste into fruit shapes. Marzipan—good marzipan that is moist and smooth and not overly sweet—is an “Old World” confection that breathes out a complex and elegant sensual experience of aroma, taste and texture.
Toulouse with his prize: Vosges Marzipan and Rex Hill
Curious about a North American’s version of a confectionary dominated by Europeans, I bought a bar along with a Rex Hill Pinot Noir and took it home to enjoy. I have to admit I was delightfully surprised: this chocolate bar was every bit as good as its foreign counterparts including Niederegger Lubeck Marzipan Classic, Schluckwerder Chocolate Covered Marzipan Loaves, Mozart-Wurtel Schocolade mit Marzipan, and the Anthon Berg marzipan line. I felt my whiskers tremble at the complex fusion of almond, amaretto, and buttery smooth cacoa. The moist almond paste and amaretto enveloped in smooth dark chocolate sang an elegant symphony of flavors in my mouth. My nose twitched with pleasure and my little pink tongue licked my lips, gathering every last bit of heaven. I couldn’t help it. I thought: Oh, now I must go try Mo’s Dark Chocolate Bacon Bar, made with applewood bacon and alderwood smoked salt plus 62% dark chocolate! It is apparently the rage with chocolate lovers in North America, besotted with Vosges. Expect the unexpected with Vosges.
Owner/Chocolatier Katrina Markoff
If you live in Chicago you are indeed fortunate! Vosges Haut Chocolat set up shop in Chicago, with stores located on 520 North Michigan Avenue, 951 West Armitage Avenue and 2211 N Elston Ave # 203, and O’Hare Airport. Chicagoans can simply walk into a Vosges and drool over the shelves of exotic truffles (e.g., with exotic fillings of the essence of violets, curry, paprika, ginger and wasabi, coconut, Kirsch and star anise), drinking chocolates, soft bacon caramel, and flying chocolate pig. Vosges have since put stores in New York and Las Vegas.
Owner/Chocolatier Katrina Markoff takes her chocolate seriously. So seriously that on every chocolate bar, she prescribes a full-bodied sensual recipe on how to fully enjoy an exotic it. Her recipe on the marzipan bar went like this:
See: there should be a glossy shine to the chocolate bar indicating a tight bond between the cocoa butter and the cocoa mass.
Smell: rub your thumb on the chocolate bar’s surface to help release the fruity, cacao laden aromas. Inhale deeply.
Taste: place a small piece of chocolate on your tongue and press it to the roof of your mouth. Within thirty seconds the chocolate square will melt, releasing a bouquet of candied almond and vanilla amongst the finish of dark chocolate.
Mo's Bacon Chocolate Bar
Katrina personally chooses every rare spice, flower and premium chocolate flown into their Chicago kitchen and utilizes the original methods of French confectionery artistry, which she learned during her training at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris. Vosges chocolates have exotic influences of an “East meets West” theme. Their mission is to create a luxury chocolate experience rooted in a sensory journey of bringing about awareness to indigenous cultures through the exploration of spices, herbs, roots, flowers, fruits, nuts, chocolate and the obscure. Written on each 100% recycled chocolate bar wrapper is a unique story behind the exotic and often surprising mixture of spices and flavors that showcases an indigenous culture or people.
Seeing that we are fast approaching Valentine’s Day, here’s my suggestion: if there is a place in your town that sells Vosges Haut Chocolat, buy this cocaine of chocolates and offer a piece of this ambrosia to a loved one, even if it’s yourself. Your loved one will love you for it. And if that’s you, well, you’re going to love yourself all the more!
I recently sent my good friend Pigcat in Toronto a Vosges Haut Chocolat Marzipan Bar for Valentine’s Day, along with some gourmet coffee. I await her rapt response. Apparently, you cannot get Vosges chocolate in Toronto, to the great lament of many Torontonians. Perhaps someone should tell Katrina to open a store there…
The Search for the Best Chocolate in the World…
Fleur de Sel caramel chocolate
Some professed chocolate experts adamantly insist that any search for the best chocolate in the world start with France. What makes France so important? They have a point: as with all things relating to food, the French government strictly legislates the production of chocolate. Regulations prohibit the use of any vegetable or animal fat in French chocolate and only pure cocoa butter is authorized. French chocolates must also contain at least 43% cocoa liquor, and a minimum of 26% pure cocoa butter. Most French chocolates now contain well above the government’s minimum of cocoa liquor. The best French chocolates boast up to 80% of dark rich cocoa liquor. And, since cocoa liquor gives chocolate its rich taste, it’s not surprising that French chocolates remain some of the best in the world. Names such as Valhrona, RICHART, Maison du Chocolat, Pascal Chaffet and Michel Cluizel come to mind.
Because the flavor and nuances of chocolate also depend on the quality and origin of the cocoa beans used to make it, it makes sense to see who uses the best chocolate beans. The best chocolates beans come from Venezuela, Brazil, the Ivory Coast, Madagascar, Central America and the Caribbean. Two of the top chocolatiers (e.g., France’s Valhona and Tuscany’s Amedei, both of which have won Gold Medals by the Academy of Chocolate in London in various categories for Best Chocolate in the World) use cacao beans from a small town in Venezuela called Chuao.
Why Chocolate is Good for You…
Mayan chief protecting his pot of hot chocolate
Besides the sheer pleasure chocolate gives us, it’s also good for your health—if eaten in moderation (like all good things in life). Some researchers found that chocolate, eaten in moderation, can also lower blood pressure. Cocoa or dark chocolate can help your circulatory system. Chocolate may prevent coughs, act as an antidiarhoeal and anticancer agent.
Chocolate may also stimulate brain activity. A study reported by the BBC showed that melting chocolate in your mouth increases brain activity and heart rate more intensely than a passionate kiss, and the effect also lasts four times as long. Cocoa solids contain alkaloids like theobromine and phenethylamine, which have physiological effects on the body. These have been linked to seratonin levels in the brain.
Too much chocolate can lead to obesity. And, because chocolate absorbs lead from the environment during production, some types of chocolate—if eaten in great quantities— may contribute to mild lead poisoning—as well as obesity. Well, the solution to that is a no-brainer, folks.
Ok… some of you might be wondering how a cat like me could enjoy chocolate when it’s been proven that theobromine in chocolate is toxic to dogs and cats, who can’t metabolize it. But, I’m no ordinary cat! I’m Toulouse, the COOL Travel Cat. I’m stuffed with wonder, coolness and fluffiness. Meow!
Happy Valentine’s Day!
Ness and Pigcat clutch their prize
p.s. It’s Valentine’s Day today and I wanted to share what the Vosges chocolate I sent did to my dear friend Pigcat and her Auntie Ness! LOL! You can see some of Ness, Jenni and Pigcat’s reactions in the comments section too.
“Unfolding the foil, I was captivated into an aroma of dense, rich sultry chocolate. It took my imagination to a far off place: the rain had just fallen, the grinding of the cocoa bean, the warmth of the resting sun, while the sound of the ocean was like a quiet heartbeat.
Ness in haut chocolat extasy
“As the senses of smell and taste came together, the flavor began to reveal all the characteristics of something rich. Dancing notes of almond, exquisite with notes of soft sugar resting nicely but not overpowering. I had to close my eyes and both taste and sense came together. I have never tasted something so refined, unless it was of course a wine that has been perfectly aged with great care.
Absolute perfection and highly addictive.”
p.p.s. BACON + CHOCOLATE??? The next day, I just had to try Vosges’ provokative Dark Bacon Bar… Not sure whether I’d like this admittedly strange combination of salty, savory and sweet, I did precisely as Katrina suggested: I closed my eyes, inhaled deeply, putting myself in the present moment. I rubbed my paw over the chocolate bar, releasing the aroma of smoked Applewood bacon flirting with Alderwood smoked salt and seductive dark chocolate. I snapped off a tiny piece, put in my mouth and let the “lust of salt and sweet” coat my little pink tongue. Yes, it was wonderful. A surprise. Katrina admits that she’d started experimenting with chocolate and bacon at the tender age of six. The wisdom of children, eh?… :-3
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