Chocolate Funk - Gourmet Chocolates

Gourmet Chocolates

Gourmet chocolates start with choice ingredients

Chocolatieres who create gourmet chocolates add only the freshest and highest quality ingredients available. Using Grade A butter, heavy cream, and select cocoa beans in the production of their confections produces results that are unparalleled. Standard candy producers whose products we find much more readily use additives and artificial flavors to expand their products shelf- life. It is quite easy, therefore, to distinguish fine, gourmet chocolates from those of lesser quality.

The truth is in the taste, aroma, and texture

Gourmet chocolates are admittedly more expensive than other chocolate, but that is only because so much more cost goes into their production. But, when you have an intense chocolate craving (as so many of us often times do) it can easily be satisfied by only one or two gourmet chocolates. Here's how gourmet chocolates delight the senses:

First, consider the taste. Chocolates that have been freshly made have intense yet refined flavors accentuated by subtle textures. Their outside coating, or couverture, is frequently formed in a sleek, semi-hard shape that should snap when bitten into. The inside, or filling, of the chocolate should compliment both the flavor and texture of the couverture.

Now, on to the look of the chocolates. Fine chocolates have a consistent color and their satiny sheen should be natural looking and free of air bubbles. The very best gourmet chocolates also show a high degree of craftsmanship in their shape and designs.

Lastly, they should also delight your sense of smell. The enjoyment of fine chocolate starts as soon as the box is opened. They do not give off an intense, sticky-sweet smell that is inherent in the products that use additives and artificial flavors, but rather the aroma should be more natural and deep.

The cost that goes into gourmet chocolates is well worth the pleasure one experiences when consuming them!