[Sca-cooks] OOP: Vosges Haut-Chocolat, again

[Lilinah]

This has absolutely nothing to do with historical cooking, except 
that of the early 21st C.

As most on this list probably recall, i like dark chocolate, and i 
like spicy food. Besides the infamous - and now truly improved - 
Tofurkey, I've reported on various ice creams and chocolate bars, 
including one containing bits of real bacon - Mo's Bacon Bar, another 
of Vosges's exotic bars that is good - but i wanted more bacon :-)

So i could not resist temptation when i saw yet another intriguing 
Vosges Haut-Chocolat "exotic candy bar" (says so on the package), The 
Black Pearl Bar: dark chocolate with black sesame seeds, ginger, + 
wasabi.

Anyway, i forked over the big bucks - these Vosges babies cost in the 
vicinity of 7 smackeronis! - and waited in eager anticipation until i 
got home to savor the flavors.

A bit o' background: Vosges is based in Chicago
http://www.vosgeschocolate.com/
They have shown up on lists of the best ice cream in the US: they got 
a nod for their Red Fire Ice Cream: dark chocolate ice cream with 
Mexican ancho & chipotle chillies, Ceylon cinnamon, but i think the 
flavors are not well balanced. I'm fonder of their Naga Ice Cream, 
custard ice cream with yellow Indian curry and coconut (mmm-mmm-mmm) 
and their Pandan Ice Cream,  dark chocolate flavored with pandan - a 
leaf used in South East Asia the way we use vanilla, but it tastes 
nothing like it. I haven't yet tried their 4th flavor, Wattleseed Ice 
Cream, dark chocolate with Australian wattleseed + roasted macadamia 
nuts, but probably will this summer...

Anyway, back home, I finally sat down, opened the light cardboard 
wrapper with the sophisticated graphics, used a scissors to snip open 
the silver-coated plastic encasing the precious product. Vosges 
protects their precious chocolate bars well. Among their OTHER 
flavors are:
- Barcelona: deep milk chocolate with hickory smoked almonds + Fleur 
de Sel grey sea salt
- Calindia: Venezuelan dark chocolate with cardamom, organic walnuts 
+ dried plums
- Creole: Sao Thome bittersweet chocolate with espresso, cocoa nibs, 
+ New Orleans chicory
- Gianduja: deep milk chocolate with almonds + caramelized hazelnut paste
- Goji: deep milk chocolate with Tibetan goji berries + pink Himalayan salt
- Macha: deep milk chocolate with Japanese macha green tea
- Mo's Bacon Bar: deep milk chocolate with Applewood smoked bacon + 
Alderwood smoked salt
- Naga: deep milk chocolate with sweet Indian curry + coconut
- Oaxaca: Tanzanian bittersweet chocolate with Oaxacan guajillo & 
pasilla chillies
- d'Oliva: Venezuelan white chocolate  with Kalamata olives
- Red Fire: dark chocolate with Mexican ancho & chipotle chillies + 
Ceylon cinnamon
- Woolloomooloo: deep milk chocolate with roasted & salted macadamia 
nuts, coconut, + hemp seeds

Now, i'm not trying to push this stuff - there are LOTS of unusual 
chocolate bars out there (Dagoba Organic Chocolates, for example - 
Star Wars fans will recognize the name), and Vosges is not 
necessarily my favorite, but i wanted to give some idea of what 
they're up to... I've only tried maybe 4 out of their 12 flavors (i 
haven't noticed the olive flavored white chocolate bar in my local 
market). And while i think Hershey's is vile, Vosges "milk chocolate" 
is REAL chocolate (41%) with milk in it (it's good!) - it has flavor, 
depth, and good mouth feel. Unlike a chemist's compound of fats, 
sugars, and dairy product with a little chocolate somewhere in the 
factory when they made it... Hershey's seems greasy and waxy and not 
terribly chocolatey to me, but i guess it defines "chocolate" for 
millions of Americans. Sigh. What a shame.

Anyway, back to the Black Pearl: I broke off a modest chunk of this 
dark, very firm, 55% cocoa mass bar, and placed it on my tongue. Good 
chocolate, but not much else... Maybe there was more savory goodness 
concentrated elsewhere in the bar, i thought. I broke off another 
piece. Not much difference.

Ho-hum. A tragic waste. The dark chocolate is good, and i 
occasionally noticed black sesame seeds - I love the earthy flavor of 
black sesame seeds: the lavender-grey colored black sesame seed 
gelato from local gelateria Naia - which includes a dash of dark 
roasted sesame oil - is one of my favorites! But i could barely taste 
the ginger or wasabi in this Vosges bar. There's the occasional and 
very mild hint of one or the other, but in my opinion, not enough of 
either, and not enough black sesame seeds for my taste. I don't think 
i've burned out my taste buds or olfactory nerve. It was just too 
"subtle" for me, and i never think of wasabi as subtle - i've bought 
wasabi-coated peas, mayonnaise with wasabi, mustard with wasabi... in 
restaurants i've had wasabi mashed potatoes (a marriage made in 
Paradise!), not to mention the usual with sushi.

So, to conclude: The quality of this bar is high, but for those 
looking for a tongue tingling thrill, the Black Pearl bar just 
doesn't deliver. My recommendation? Save your shekels.

Yours in disappointed gastronomy,
-- 
Urtatim (that's err-tah-TEEM)
the persona formerly known as Anahita

My LibraryThing
http://www.librarything.com/catalog/lilinah

P.S.:
my spell checker suggested "genitalia" for the unknown word 
"gelateria". Good thing i don't have it set to correct automatically!