Notes on chocolate: keep your cool with iced chocs

Don’t melt in the heat, turn to an iced chocolate instead

We’re getting to that time of year where talking about chocolate, and certainly tasting it, becomes challenging. Many small-scale sellers refuse to send chocolate in the post at this time due to melting; but you shouldn’t be too annoyed since I think that shows a certain care and responsibility.

Thus it’s a good time of year to make iced chocolate, but where most people go wrong with this is to use melted chocolate, which starts to resolidify when it hits cold milk. What you really need is a good chocolate sauce. Hanbit Cho (search for him on YouTube) has a good recipe for iced chocolate which is worth trying.

Last month also saw our first Chocolate Club, which is where me and some of the world’s most influential people, aka my friends, get together to taste chocolate and talk about it. What’s so interesting is the incredible variations. Fossa’s tea-tinged chocolate is a big hit with older teens. And the M&S chocolate I mentioned last week was popular with everyone.

But there were two bars that galloped up the inside track, both by Missouri chocolate maker Askinosie. The dark chocolate and orange (£9.95/85g) blew us all away. It might be the best dark orange bar to date. The pulp and peel of organic oranges is mixed with 58% cacao from the Philippines.

Askinosie is a socially responsible brand; Shawn Askinosie (founder, ex criminal defence lawyer) and his daughter, Lawren, run a ‘chocolate university’ where local children go to visit plantations and learn about the chocolate process.

The other one to try is their dark malted milk bar, a collaboration with ice-cream brand Jeni’s (£9.95/85g).

Be warned both currently have wait-lists, but do join them.

Source: The Guardian