Lily O'Brien's Chocolate Cafe

So it's been a while since I've posted anything here, but I thought I'd share with you one of my new found faves. Lily O'Brien's Chocolate Cafe is located near Bryant Park and boasts an impressive collection of truffles, gift boxes and drinks.

The cafe itself is a mix of retro styling with purple and turquoise accents. I felt like I walked into a cafe that was trying really hard to be chic and seem rich and decadent, but something felt forced about the place. Maybe it was the brown walls or the swirling decor that made me feel uneasy. Maybe it was the faux crystal chandeliers or the woman painted on door to the ladies' room. But this is a chocolate CAFE after all, and maybe I am expecting too much. I tend to do that when it comes to chocolate. And I also qualify, that I am a bit jaded and believe that chocolate should speak for itself. If a place is overdecorated it makes me think that the chocolate might be lacking something.

After buying a box of truffles, their honeycomb bar and toffee bars, I sat down and ordered a small cup of their signature hot chocolate. The hot chocolate comes in different flavors depending on what kind of chocolate you want used. The chocolate is melted and served at the perfect temperature. I hate hot beverages that burn my mouth, but these, and I say these because I went back and got a second one after the first one, were perfect. The Signature Hot Chocolate, which I recommend, is warm, milky and has very subtle chocolate flavoring. The dark chocolate is a pure shot of unadulterated chocolate, rich and hard to take all at once. This is one hot chocolate that deserves to be sipped and savored.

I will say a bit about their truffles, though I find that the best thing about Lily O'Brien's is the hot chocolate. Overall, I found the chocolate used in their bars and truffles was very thick and heavy. The milk chocolate was very sugary and I found some of the chocolates lacking in flavor. My favorite pieces were the ones done in white chocolate including their Creme Brule truffle. Also I was surprised by the toffee bar which was more like a caramel bar. When I think of toffee I think crunchy. This is not to say that their chocolate is bad, quite the contrary, but if you're going to try one thing at this store make it a hot chocolate.

Lily O'Briens Chocolate Cafe is located at:
36 West 40th Street, Bryant Park, NYC 10018
http://lilyobriens.com/

Chocopeanutbutterbonanza

I love chocolate and peanut butter. I mean peanut butter usually makes anything taste better, (ok maybe it doesn't make vegetables taste better...) but I think the richness of chocolate and thick gooey peanut butter are amazing together. Recee's has always been a not so guilty pleasure of mine, and I'm glad they've found as many ways to use their peanut butter as they possibly can... but that's another post for another day.

Today I am writing about Haagen Daz ice cream and Ghiradelli's Milk Chocolate and Peanut butter bars.


So let's start with the bad news. I was disappointed with the overall bland flavor of the Ghiradelli's chocolate. The milk chocolate did nothing for me and the peanut butter couldn't make up for the lack of flavor in the chocolate. I wouldn't even call the flavors subtle; they were just uninspiring.

On the other side of the spectrum is the Haagen Daz's peanut butter and chocolate ice cream. This flavor has become one of my favorites of late. Somehow they manage to swirl in chunks of smooth peanut butter in a flavorful chocolate ice cream. The peanut butter is surprising, and I find myself searching the container for the little flecks of it, and when I'm done I always want more. The chocolate ice cream is warm and has a really strong cocoa taste. If you cant' tell already I'm a huge fan.

If you can find it in your local deli this ice cream is a must try, at least once. Your chocolate loving taste buds will thank you.

Cadbury Mini-Eggs

So Easter is right around the corner. And with Easter comes my favorite chocolate: Cadbury Mini Eggs. These things are like better M&Ms. They have a milk chocolate center with a candy shell. These are my guilty pleasures and I think I've gained about a pound eating them over the past two weeks. The milk chocolate is of decent quality and the shells are sugary and a bit chalky. They're my favorite candy this time of year, and I make sure to stock up on them for the long dry spell that happens after Easter.

Ayza Wine & Chocolate Bar

I've been wanting to go to Ayza for a while now. I walk by it every day when I volunteer at school and it looked promising, so a friend and I decided to stop there for dinner last night. Ok fine I dragged him there, but he liked it, so there!

First a disclaimer: I went in and introduced myself to the owner and said I write a blog, which could have been mistake number one, just in terms of the fact that this might have really skewed the meal in my favor. Most professional reviewers do not go in with guns blazing and demand spectacular service because that skews the results of their meal to be in favor of the restaurant. I, however, am not a professional, so I don't really think that lowers the marks of my review. It's just something to keep in mind if you want to go there (which I wholeheartedly suggest that you do!). Your experience might be very different than mine, but that's usually the case with restaurants anyhow.

The place is very trendy looking. From their website and walking by the place I somehow got the idea that the inside was much bigger. But the inside of the restaurant is taken up mostly by wine bottles, arranged stylishly above the bar, and the bar itself leaving room for a few scrunched tables and chairs. A few people who wanted to sit inside were turned away for a 30 minute wait, so I recommend trying to get there on the early side if you do want to eat indoors. The lack of seating inside is made up for by outdoor seating with heaters. I went on a rainy night and the umbrellas and heaters were enough to make the experience more than comfortable. I can imagine it would be extremely pleasant on a summer night to sit out and enjoy some wine there. The only idiosyncrasy was the loud house music. I know that when you want to draw in the young hip crowd you play "club music" but I thought the mood might be better served by low-key Latin music or maybe even Jazz.

At first we got some bread and what I like to call "top-chef olives." On one season during "restaurant wars" one team forgot to give their guests a place to put the pits of their olives. My friend and I tried figuring out where we should spit our pits out ("maybe over the fence?" he suggested). That was really the only major thing that surprised me service-wise through the night.

The meal itself was a huge success. We ordered a few appetizers which were very yummy, including some very spicy dumplings, but the highlight was the meat and cheese plate. I discovered recently at my own chocolate tasting how well a combination of flavorful meats and cheeses goes with sweet chocolate and wine. It balances everything out. At Ayza, you can choose between a variety of cheeses and meats to make your platter. I recommend getting the manchego (sheep's cheese) and sopressatta (like salami). They also added guava paste which was sweet, chewy and thick a perfect combination to the meat and cheese. I know that on Top Chef they give chefs crap for putting things on a plate without a coherent theme, but in this case I wanted a little sour, sweet and salty and this dish really came through for me.

Finally, and you know you've been waiting for it, desert!


I forced my friend into splitting some truffles and wine with me. One of the options on the menu is to choose from a variety of Jaques Torres truffles and then choose two flutes of wine from the sweet wines menu. All I can say is DO THIS!! Just do it. You might want cake, or still be hungry, but this is what I came here for and it did not disappoint. (And also even with the disclaimer I'm not sure what they could have done to rig this one. It seems like this would be similar for all the people who go there).

We got Muscado and Maury with Cappuccino Port Wine and Hazelnut truffles. I was happy to discover that even though, or maybe because, the Port Wine truffle had a slightly alcoholic aftertaste, it went very well with the red Maury wine. The Muscado they had was like drinking a fragrant bouquet of flowers (I told my friend it was like drinking perfume, but perhaps this gives the wrong impression). The hazelnut truffle was a little dry and I was surprised when the shell of the cappuchino truffle colapsed in my mouth, but the chocolate was so good with the wine I can overlook some of the technical stuff. And even though I love to hate Jaques Torres, somehow eating their truffles slightly chilled on a cold rainy night with a glass of wine among friends, made them lovely.

Zaf, the owner was incredibly nice and helpful. He was nice enough to split the bill with us, which was a little pricey but totally worth it. And if you're lucky, who knows, he might split the bill with you too. The waitress mentioned that he "does that all the time"

Check out their website for location information, hours and menus.

The Lindt 99% Cocoa Bar

(this blog is courtesy of my good friend Mike. I turned him onto the wild world of gourmet chocolate a while ago and apparently he's still enjoying the ride. He told me about his experience with Lindt chocolate so I asked him to share. Hopefully he'll continue to blog here, but his main blog is called Mike's First Real Blog. It's a really fun read, so check it out)

Hi, my name's Mike, and I was asked to guest blog here by the lovely Chocolette on my experience with the holy grail of supermarket chocolate, the creme de la creme of casual chocolate, the Lindt 99% Cocoa Bar! As you may recall, Chocolette blogged earlier about her experience with trying flavored Lindt bars. Well, I've never tried their flavored chocolate, but I've always been a big fan of their plain chocolate; I love the taste, the texture, and the sheer amount of it that you get (the sizable quantity along with very solid quality makes Lindt bars a very solid casual chocolate purchase; you get a lot of bang for your buck).

I've always purchased Lindt bars in supermarkets while shopping for regular groceries, and the purest I had seen in the past was 85% chocolate. However, the other day I was in a hoity toity grocery store (World Market, to be precise), and for whatever reason they had a huge variety of chocolate. And sitting on a shelf, gleaming in the sunlight reflected by the big open windows behind it, was a truly glorious sight.








Once I snapped out of my trance, I immediately picked it up, and drove home quickly, eager to try the ultimate Lindt bar. Needless to say, I was not disappointed.

I knew this was something special the minute I opened the packaging. Instead of the standard metal wrapping, there was a gold metal lid of sorts, and it had a warning (translated into three languages, no less)! The warning included the following text:

Excellence 99% Cocoa is a unique chocolate that reveals all the strength and richness of cocoa beans. To fully appreciate its flavor and texture, we recommend that you progressively develop your palate through our range of high cocoa content chocolate bars, starting with Excellence 70% cocoa, then 85% and finally 99% Cocoa.

Thankfully, I had undergone the Lindt Rite of Passage and had become accustomed to the 85% level. I was ready. This was what my years of eating Lindt bars had prepared me for. It was time to have the Ultimate Lindt Experience. I opened the lid, and noticed that the square divisions were tiny compared to other Lindt bars, and that the chocolate looked MUCH darker. I broke off a piece, and popped it into my mouth.

The first thing that happened was that my eyes involuntarily shot open from the intensity, and my jaw dropped slightly. My senses were a bit overwhelmed at first; this was by far the most intense chocolate taste I had ever experienced. It was bitter at first, but the taste acclimated quickly to a pleasant but very strong and unrelenting chocolate flavor. I followed the instructions and let it melt in my mouth, which took some time. Once it had melted, I was pleasantly surprised to discover that the aftertaste was roughly the equivalent of having just drank a very good, strong cup of coffee. In fact, the aftertaste was so good I didn't really want another bite of the chocolate for a while.

I've been enjoying the chocolate for the past several days, and give it my highest recommendation. You will almost certainly have to go out of your way to find it (like a specialty chocolate store), but if you're a chocolate fan, you can't pass this up.

One note of warning: whether psychosomatic or not, the chocolate has kept me up at night from the amount of natural caffeine in it (for some silly reason, I've been eating the chocolate late at night). I know chocolate doesn't have a lot of caffeine in general, but this is so concentrated I have a feeling the impact of the caffeine is more dramatic.

Well, thanks a bunch for reading, and thank you to Chocolette for the invite to contribute to the blog. Until next time... :)

A Trip to the Vere factory!

So I finally got around to going to one of the Vere Chocolate's Factory Days. After walking through the wholesale district and nearly getting lost, I came to the building where Vere is located. You might mistake it for an office building or wholesale storefront, but when you take the elevator upstairs to the factory you are greeted by lime green walls and pictures of chocolate dust. The store feels very upscale and the factory itself is very clean and shiny.





I buzzed the doorbell, maybe too impatiently and I a woman came out from the back of the factory. It turned out to be the head chef, Erika Erskine. She's in charge of designing recipes for the chocolates, and I have to bow down to her because this chocolate is incredible. And all of this is after going into this being very skeptical about "healthy chocolate." But they brought me around to their way of thinking because their chocolate tastes so good. We ended up talking shop about chocolate. She was so nice and walked me through their free samples. She also gave me a bunch of free things to take with me, like little bars of their chocolates and a set of mint & nibs brownies. I really recommend going to one of their Factory Days and trying out what they have.



Some things I learned about their chocolates:

-They only use dark chocolate only because of the high sugar content of milk chocolate. The true benefits of chocolate comes from chocolate with high cocoa content (Ie 70% and above)

-They use arriba beans from Ecuador. Their organic bars are made in Ecuador and brought here. The rest of the chocolates are made in their factory.

-They have a series of chocolates that are "diabetic friendly." Unlike other "sugar free" chocolates, they don't use sugar alcohols and other sweeteners that can be unhealthy for you

The most important thing, though is that their chocolate tastes great. I went home and ate chocolate all night, making notes of course. Granted you're supposed to taste chocolate in the morning when your palate is fresh, but I couldn't wait.

Some notes from my tasting.
-My favorite bar of chocolate was their mint and nibs bar. The mint tasted cool and popped out at you like a peppermint candy. Unlike other mint chocolates the mint doesn't get lost in the dark chocolate.
-Each caramel in the purist box kept getting better. My favorites were the lavender and rose caramels. The flavors are not overpowering and blend very well with the caramels. These give Vosges' caramels a run for the money.
-The crispy coconut clusters I got reminded me of the chocolate covered cornflakes from Jaques Torres, only what they should taste like. I only wish they were a little smaller and not so crumbly.

Vere chocolate ranks up there on my new favorite chocolates list. I really like their clean polished image and delicious dark chocolates. I secretly wish they'd make a milk chocolate version of their caramel box, but hey I'll take what I can get.

Their factory is located at 12 W. 27th street (6th floor). Factory days are M-Th 12pm-5pm and Fri 12-6pm.

A look at things to come (Vere chocolate)

I'm always looking for something new when it comes to chocolate. Vere chocolate actually came up in one of those little google advertisements that are tailored to your emails. Well of course I get tons of email about chocolate, so every now and then something shows up that I actually want to click.

Anyhow Vere chocolate (pronounced "very") advertises itself as "chocolate with benefits." They tout the health and mental benefits of chocolate. From what I know you have to eat a mountain of chocolate to get the health effects of chocolate (since the antioxidant content isn't that high), but hey if they can prove me wrong more power to them. And certainly chocolate makes me feel good when I'm down, but whether that just comes from the satisfaction of something tasty and emotional eating (which I have been known to do), or if it comes from the chocolate itself is something I'm not sure of.

At its worst, the whole campaign seems like another marketing ploy: Ooh chocolate is good for me, so I can eat a lot of it. They do warn that since chocolate is high fat it should be eaten "as part of a balanced diet" or something like that. I'm just not so sure I want chocolate, which has always been a succinctly guilty pleasure for me, up there on a health food pedestal even if there are great things in it.

They also make low sugar/no sugar candies which I am interested in trying. Clearly they are trying to bring health conscious people into the world of gourmet chocolate. And I can't fault them for trying. They also have gorgeous looking chocolate. I haven't tasted any yet, but hopefully that will soon be amended.

In any case I am making plans to go to their chocolate factory. Either tomorrow or Friday. They have a factory right here in Midtown and I was thinking of stopping by for a tasting and to ask a few questions. If all goes well I may find another favorite chocolate.

Their website can be found here.