D114 R20 K47 S25 018390
THE
CHOCOLATE
TASTING CLUB
A TOUCH OF ‘GALAK’ FLAIR!
You might well have noticed Olivier Nicod’s name on Tasting Club menus over
the past couple of years – so we thought it high time we found out more about him. Olivier became one of our chocolatiers over two years ago and from the word go his chocolates have enjoyed a warm welcome in the Club. In fact this month, by happy coincidence, he not only tops the Classic monthly score chart with Zesty Toffee Pudding, but managed to come third too (see page 5 for more on that)! Milk & Cookie Diet It turns out that Olivier’s expertise with chocolate started at a very young age. As a child he exasperated his mother by drinking nothing but milk and eating nothing but ‘Galak’ biscuits – white chocolate sandwiched between two caramel biscuits. In fact, under questioning he admitted that he didn’t much care for the biscuits and just ate the white chocolate filling!
Olivier told us, “As a boy I did exist mainly on white chocolate, but as I grew up my tastes and experience of chocolate thankfully changed! But the real turning point for me came when I started working for one of the world’s most renowned chefs, Paul Bocuse. Working in his kitchen as a pastry chef taught me that using only the best quality ingredients was fundamental – and that went for chocolate too.” The Best of the Best! If you are interested in becoming a chocolatier, it’s difficult to beat the patisserie experience that Olivier gained under Paul Bocuse. A measure of his importance to the culinary world, by the way, is the Bocuse D’Or – a biennial chefs’ championship that is widely considered to be the culinary version of the Olympic games.
Caught red-handed Olivier applying the finishing touches!
Spurred on by family and friends, Olivier soon chose chocolate as his speciality and the rest is history. And speaking of history, Olivier has helped create a little of his own continued on page 3...
Dear Club Members
W
elcome to your latest edition of Club News! This month you’ll see that we’ve managed to lure one of our chocolatiers, Olivier Nicod, from out of his kitchen and onto the front page… where we find out just how he got started in chocolate and what inspires him, amongst other tasty tidbits. Also this month we take a comprehensive look at the upcoming Club developments that we’ve been thinking about lately. Or, to be more precise, the things that you have been thinking about – because, as you can imagine, we get quite a few requests and suggestions from members and on page 8 we go through the most popular to see what can and cannot be done. On page 3 there’s a sneak preview of the Music & Chocolate results, which are shaping up to be even more fascinating than we thought and there’s still time to send in yours if you haven’t already. We also announce the winner of the latest St Lucia Prize Draw and we publish a delicious recipe sent in by one of your fellow members. And finally, you’ll be happy to hear that plans for the Tasting Club Christmas Collection are coming along nicely – but we do need your help to fill up the last couple of spaces (page 11)! Until next month, happy tasting!
SNIPPETS FROM OUR STORES Staff in Birmingham spotted a frequent customer and asked who was the lucky recipient of her regular chocolate purchases? She replied that she and her mother travel to Manchester on the train every week and play ‘guess the chocolate’ to pass the time – they hide the menu and then guess the flavours. 2
Simon Thirlwell Editor
Send your letters to The Chocolate Tasting Club, Mint House, Royston SG8 5HL, or simply email me on simon@hotelchocolat.co.uk We are waiting to hear from you!
Continued from page one... when one of his chocolates featured at the inauguration of the Scottish Parliament in 2004. “I remember the chocolate vividly,” Olivier told us. “It was made with whisky (naturally!) and heather honey. It’s still one of the most memorable chocolates I’ve made, perhaps I should try it out on Tasting Club members one day?” So what influences or inspires Olivier? “When I’m thinking of new recipes the interaction with
friends and colleagues is extremely important to me, as is the opinion of my wife, Vicky, who tastes everything that I do! Past memories are also a very good source of inspiration – for example my grandmother’s fantastic tart tatin helped me create one of my favourite chocolates so far. But above all, if you’re passionate about something, as I am about chocolate, then inspiration comes quite easily.” And is there something exciting on the horizon that
Olivier is working on at the moment? “Well, there is one idea that I’m particularly excited by at the moment. As I mentioned earlier, I talk a lot to my wife Vicky about food and chocolate and recently we had the idea for a ganache with Valencia orange and a sage flower infusion. Now all we have to do is try it out!” Thank you Olivier, we’d better let you get back to your development kitchen then!
Music & Chocolate
Off To An Intriguing Start… With over 700 scores already received we’ve been excitedly examining the results! As you might well have guessed by now, we deliberately changed the music you were asked to listen to while tasting the chocolates. There are four different versions of the scorecard – on three versions the chocolates have been matched with music to perfectly suit the style of chocolate tasted, but on the fourth the music has been changed to be completely at odds with the style of chocolate. Of course, we’ve mixed them all up so that every taster will have a mix of both scenarios! The challenge is to see if the change of music causes a shift in taste and we’re delighted to say that early results are pointing that way. As an example, one chocolate in a powerful & heavy style was indeed scored
powerful & heavy by 60% of those listening to the right music while 21% said it was mellow & soft. Of the group listening to different music, only 49% said it was powerful & heavy with 32% saying it was mellow & soft. That’s an 11% taste shift. On another chocolate the shift is currently 20%! It’s shaping up to be an extremely interesting result – so if you haven’t sent your scores in yet, there’s still time to be part of this fascinating experiment!
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Classic
Dark
Solid
Selection - D112
Selection - K45
1. Zesty Toffee Pudding by O Nicod 8.53 (41% scored it 10/10)
1. Warming Walnut by O Coppeneur & G Bernardini 8.81
1. Orange Flower Power 7.98 (11% scored it 10/10)
O Coppeneur & G Bernardini 8.52 (36% scored it 10/10)
2. Mocharetto by M Meier 8.77
2. Caramel Milk Tasting Batons 7.97 (32% scored it 10/10)
3. Hazelnut Light by O Nicod 8.48 (30% scored it 10/10)
3. Red Rum by M Meier 8.51
3. Vintage Buttons 7.97 (11% scored it 10/10)
4. Pecan Crunch by T Web & E Desmet 8.47 (31% scored it 10/10)
4. Zesty Toffee Pudding by O Nicod 8.50 (36% scored it 10/10)
5. Mint Choc Crisp by K Kalenko 8.46
5. Mint Choc Crisp by K Kalenko 8.23 (21% scored it 10/10)
2. Warming Walnut by
(37% scored it 10/10)
6. Mocharetto by M Meier 8.45 (40% scored it 10/10) 7. Praline Plaice by E Desmet 8.36 (24% scored it 10/10)
(39% scored it 10/10) (38% scored it 10/10) (38% scored it 10/10)
6. Pecan Crunch by T Web & E Desmet 8.15 (18% scored it 10/10) 7. Ecuadorian Dark 71% Tasting Batons 8.03 (21% scored it 10/10)
8. Breton Praline by R Macfayden 8.32 (31% scored 10/10)
8. Memories of Macaroon by EJ Whalley 7.97 (8% scored it 10/10)
9. Red Rum by M Meier 8.23 (34% scored it 10/10)
9. Hazelnut Light by O Nicod 7.95 (16% scored it 10/10)
10. Caramel Milk Tasting Batons 8.21 (26% scored it 10/10)
10. Breton Praline by R Macfayden 7.91 (13% scored 10/10)
11. 43% Venezuelan Milk Tasting Batons 8.18
11. Praline Plaice by E Desmet 7.86 (12% scored it 10/10)
(20% scored it 10/10)
12. Cherry Caramel by R Macfayden 8.17 (21% scored it 10/10)
13. Memories of Macaroon by EJ Whalley 8.15 (21% scored it 10/10)
14. Ginger Spice by JC Vandenberghe 8.00 (30% scored it 10/10)
15. Barbequed Bananas by K Kalenko 7.80
12. Barbequed Bananas by K Kalenko 7.75 (16% scored it 10/10) 13. Cherry Caramel by R Macfayden 7.75 (19% scored it 10/10) 14. Ginger Spice by JC Vandenberghe 7.57 (19% scored it 10/10)
Selection - S23
4. 43% Venezuelan Milk 7.92 (24% scored it 10/10) 5. Vanilla Flower Power 7.60 (24% scored it 10/10) 6. Rhubarb & Custard 7.28 (14% scored it 10/10) 7. Spiced Latte 7.20 (22% scored it 10/10) 8. Orange Munchkins 7.19 (21% scored it 10/10) 9. Almond Brittle 5.49 (21% scored it 10/10)
Bouquet 43% Venezuelan Milk Batons – “The special Venezuelan beans sing, giving the impression of a much stronger chocolate than stated. I could get high on this alone!” Hazel Brewer, Erith. Bouquet Orange Munchkins – “Little balls of delicious, moreish fun. Totally divine. Surely Heaven must be filled with Orange Munchkins?” Laura Archer, Harrow.
(20% scored it 10/10)
Brickbat Memories of Macaroon – “This was my least favourite in this box – no macaroon memories for me, just too sweet.” Lynn Rawlings, Cleckheaton. 4
One Under
The Eight! Classic tasters this month demonstrated remarkable restraint by coming in not one over the eight, but one under! Zesty Toffee Pudding squeaked through for a narrow win
ONE LOOK at the Classic Selection scores this month and you’ll quickly see that only one chocolate scored less than eight. Barbequed Bananas was the odd one out, perhaps we can put that down to the fact that it probably wasn’t the best barbeque weather…
Bouquet Zesty Toffee Pudding – “Wow – orange, then the booze, then a nice toffee finish, this is a winner.” Hilary More, Woodford Green. At the other end of the chart, however, the scoring was some of the tightest we’ve ever seen for a Classic Selection – and for those of you with a head for figures, the spread of points amongst the top six was only 1%. Which just goes to show how important your scores are. The winning chocolate, albeit by a hair’s breadth, was Zesty Toffee Pudding created by our very own Olivier Nicod. So congratulations must go to him, especially as by fortunate coincidence he also features on our front page this month! Meanwhile, Dark Selection tasters delivered a very different verdict this month with Warming Walnut and Mocharetto scooping first and second places and Olivier’s Zesty Toffee being relegated to fourth position. Although the average scores were lower than those of Classic tasters, it is interesting to note that the top two scored significantly higher than the winning Classic chocolates.
The Solid Chocolate scores this month were also remarkably close with only 0.01 of a point separating the top three! But there has to be a winner and it was Orange Flower Power that came up smelling of roses, so to speak. Was it the visual appeal of our summer daisy that made the all-important difference? It was no Van Gough, but experience tells us that a striking look as well as an appealing name can do wonders. As can the winning blend of milk chocolate and essential oil of orange of course!
Bouquet Breton Praline – “Oooh, I’m anybody’s for a crispy praline!” Lynn Eaton, Doncaster. For the most notable Solid Chocolate story, however, we must look at the other end of the score chart, where we find Almond Brittle… 5.49 is the lowest score that Solid Chocolate tasters have ever awarded. And judging from the numerous comments, it’s clear that there was far too much brittle and not enough chocolate. Needless to say this has been brought to the attention of all concerned!
Brickbat Almond Brittle – “Terrible, I like brittle but this almost pulled my teeth out. Stick to the chocolate making.” Nicola O’Toole, Nuneaton.
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SHARE YOUR RECIPES… and you could win THREE tasting boxes! All of us here in the Tasting Club have at least one thing in common – a love of exciting chocolate. And if you’re anything like us, your love of chocolate goes beyond tasting it, which is exactly why we’d love to know what you get up to in your kitchen… Sheila White from Maidenhead did just that and sent us her recipe for Ginger Bombs, which caused quite a stir when we made them here at Tasting Club HQ! Sheila says, “It’s dead easy and all the ingredients can be bought well in advance and kept in the store cupboard.” We say – they were extremely more-ish with a lovely ginger tang! There’s a knack to getting them perfect, so we’d recommend a practice run to eat at home before serving them at a dinner party. So if you’ve perfected an innovative recipe involving chocolate, be it sweet or savoury, and you’d like to share it, then we’d love to hear about it. And for every recipe we print right here in Club News you will receive your next THREE tasting boxes free, as a thank you! Please include full ingredients listings and preparation instructions so that we can all try your recipe out – then send it to: Email: simon@hotelchocolat.co.uk Post: Tasting Club Recipes, Mint House, Royston SG8 5HL
Ingredients 1 tin lychees 1 jar stem ginger in syrup 100 g of good quality dark chocolate Instructions Cover a baking tray in cling film and cool in the fridge Drain the lychees thoroughly and pat dry Drain 4 or 5 pieces of stem ginger and chop up Stuff the lychees with the stem ginger Melt the chocolate Individually dunk the stuffed lychees in the melted chocolate and then place them on the cling film covered cold baking tray - I dunk them using 2 forks When all the lychees have been dunked then cool them in the fridge until set Once set they easily peel off the cling film and can be arranged on a plate If you place the chocolate covered lychees directly on to a plate they stick to it and are very difficult to remove!
Practice makes perfect - we might have a little more practising to do! 6
Keep On Trucking! You might remember that a couple of months ago we offered
you the chance to be involved with this year’s big project for Ghana. We’re aiming to buy a small truck so that our partners in Ghana (Bob, Steven and Isaac) can get around safely and deliver seedlings and equipment to very difficult to reach areas. There’s still plenty of time to get involved! To buy and maintain a small truck will cost approximately £15,000, half of which we can guarantee right now. So if you’d like to be involved in the funding of the other half, we’d love to have your help! HOW TO MAKE A DONATION In order that all monies go directly to the appeal itself, we’ve set up a dedicated bank account in the name of the Ghana Cocoa Farmers’ Fund. And to keep things simple and to minimise bank charges, the fund can only accept donations by cheque or postal order made payable to the fund itself – we cannot accept any payments made to the Club. Please make cheques & postal orders payable to: Ghana Cocoa Farmers’ Fund And send to: Cocoa Farmers, The Chocolate Tasting Club, Royston, SG8 5HL We realise that these are uncertain economic times, so any donation large or small will
Not having the right vehicle, especially in the rainy season, makes many journeys treacherous – and calls for a lot of pushing
be gratefully received, although to minimise administration costs we request a minimum donation of £5 – thank you for your help!
Guten Tag!
Traditionally speaking, the big chocolate making countries of Europe have been Switzerland, Belgium, France and Germany – although we like to think that we’re doing our bit to put Britain on the map too! Well, now we’re planning to take that a step further by launching The Chocolate Tasting Club in Germany! The details are still being finalised, but we’re hoping to bring you more news next month. 7
Oh Why Can’t I…? As a Tasting Club, we’re naturally delighted that thousands of
members not only score chocolates every month, but also take time to comment on them too. That interaction is at the heart of our Club and it extends beyond commenting on chocolates to include requests, letters, opinions, recipes… It helps us to keep abreast of what members want and we love hearing from you. Of course, some requests are beyond us, but others are extremely helpful and within our sphere of influence. The new-look slimmer box, for example, all started with a member telling us that his tasting box didn’t fit through his letterbox. You might also have noticed that the chocolates and menu are now numbered to help identify which is which – another brilliant suggestion from our members.
SNIPPETS FROM OUR STORES A lovely German lady popped into the Leeds store to pick up a few items and then went on to excuse herself in advance as she tucked into her Caramellow Slab while paying – “I just couldn’t wait any longer…”
The most common requests from members can be gathered together under various headings, so we thought we’d let you know where we are with the most popular. 8
NO ALCOHOL An alcohol-free selection is by far the most frequent request and, although the Solid Chocolate Selection has satisfied many members, others would like a selection containing alcoholfree filled chocolates too. If you’re one of them, then you’ll be happy to hear that plans are afoot. In fact, we’d love to hear what you think before we go any further, so from 14th August you can let us know exactly what you’d like in an online survey at: www.chocs.co.uk/changes SMALLER BOXES Yes, believe it or not some members would actually like to receive fewer chocolates! Joking aside, we do realise that there are circumstances in which a smaller box of chocolates is more appropriate, which is why we’re planning to do just that. It will be a mini version of the Classic monthly box, available on a one-off basis and made up of chocolates created by our British chocolatiers. Watch this space for more information on that. NO NUTS! Although not a hugely popular request, there is a
small number of members who would prefer a selection that was completely nut-free. For those of us who love nuts with chocolate and agree that they were made to be together, this is an alarming A lady in the Southampton store squealed with thought! And the problem is just that delight when she discovered the Old Fossil Tablet. – nuts and chocolate do make great Her son loves fossils but she wasn’t sure if he would partners, which is why an enormous keep it in his collection or whether temptation range of recipes contain both. So, would get the better of him! although it would be possible to create a nut-free selection, it would be impossible to sustain the creativity of diabetic foods are a sham and The Chocolate such a selection for any length of time. This then Tasting Club completely supports the view of is one request that we just can’t consider – although Diabetes UK. Please go to www.hotelchocolat. you’ll be sure to find something without nuts to co.uk/diabetic for the full explanation. nibble on at Hotel Chocolat. MORE INFORMATION PRINTED ON BOXES OF A SINGLE CHOCOLATE PACKAGING Every month there are numerous comments about This is one with postmen in mind – members’ chocolates along the lines of – I could eat a whole suggestions include such things as, ‘Fits box of these! And yet more members write in to through letterbox’… the good news is that request whole boxes of their latest favourite. Soon we will soon have the machinery to print such you might be able to do just that! Our plan is to messages as well as ad hoc advice tailored to the have a special making of the most popular winning current weather conditions. chocolates and make them available to members by advance order. We’ll keep you informed! MILK & WHITE SELECTIONS ONLY Thanks to feedback from members, the emphasis MORE FIRM CENTRES of the Classic Selection has already shifted The firmer-centred chocolates in our selections towards milk and white chocolate, but to ban dark do have a loyal following who often ask for them completely seemed a bit draconian, so we asked to be better represented. Of course, the monthly the expert – Angus told us, “Whenever dark is selections are all about balance, but Angus did used in the Classic Selection, it is often just a thin think there was a case to look at the number outer shell or for decoration. It is very rare to we feature. And if you’d like nothing but firm find a through and through dark chocolate – we centres, then you’ll be interested in the plans for always strive for balance of taste and sometimes a the Solid Selection – so be sure to let us know sweeter centre needs a crisp dark shell to set it off. what you think in our online survey (see No Similarly, a sweet white shell might work best with Alcohol above). a dark praline centre…”
SNIPPETS FROM OUR STORES
DIABETIC SELECTION Advice for those suffering from diabetes has changed fairly dramatically over the years so we are asked less and less for diabetic chocolate. But to answer the question very briefly, we do not make diabetic chocolate and never will – so-called
So there you have it from the horse’s mouth. We do hope we’ve managed to answer the majority of requests and rest assured that if we can do something, we will. So if there’s anything on your mind, don’t hesitate to let us know – although somehow I hardly think I need to say that! 9
DISCOVER the
Wonderful World of
chocs.co.uk If you haven’t ventured
onto The Chocolate Tasting Club website lately, then there’s a whole world of exciting things for you to discover! If you’re a first time user, then simply click ‘register’ on the homepage and follow the instructions. And if you have already registered then just log in and click away! Scoring – more and more members are discovering the joy of scoring their monthly selections online. It’s quick, it’s easy and you can leave as many comments as you like!
nearest and dearest will too. Which is why a gift subscription to the Tasting Club is often the perfect gift for them – and you can find full details online.
Manage Your Membership – you can make changes to your deliveries, make a payment, order our exclusive special editions or refer your chocolateloving friends to us and receive £10 off your next box – but hurry this offer closes at the end of September.
Customer Services – here you can find the answers to many of the most frequently asked questions or our contact details if you need to give us a buzz.
My Details – this is where you can update and amend your personal details, like changing a delivery address for example. Club News – you can even view an interactive version of the current Club News! Gift Subscriptions – the chances are that if you love chocolate, then quite a few of your 10
Members’ Only Area – yes, you can even gain access to the highly secretive Members’ Only Area, where you’ll find all the latest exclusive offers with up to 50% off, just for you. Shop – and finally, if you’re looking for the perfect gift or a little something for yourself, you can always click through to the Hotel Chocolat online store and put your members’ 5% discount to good use!
SNIPPETS FROM OUR STORES In York staff welcomed a lady of a certain age into the store. She explained that usually she has to send her son to get her favourite box of chocolates, Milk Oblivion. However, her son had bought her a scooter to get around – her very first outing was to Hotel Chocolat and she warned that they would see a lot more of her!
Who’ll Be Your CHOC IDOL This Christmas? Yes, you may think it is way
too early to be thinking of Christmas… However, you will be pleased to hear we’ve been busy thinking about the recipes for the Tasting Club’s Christmas Collection. And, following the popularity of our Members’ Choice entries for last year’s collection, there’ll be a space left open this Christmas for you to fill.
So why not have your say in this year’s Christmas Collection and take part in the Members’ Choice from 24th August? Just go to www.chocs.co.uk/xmassurvey and help us fill the final space! 11
This month’s Prize Draw winners
Classic Selection prize draw
winner is Mrs M Downing of Northampton who wins a Summer Goody Bag. Next month’s prize is a White & Light Sleekster Selection – a dreamy collection devoted to the creamy flavours of white and milk chocolate.
Dark Selection prize draw winner is Mrs B Wood of Borehamwood who wins a Serious Dark Fix. Next month’s prize is the Extreme Collection – including four of our most intriguing and adventurous Purist dark chocolates.
ST LUCIA PRIZE DRAW WINNER ANNOUNCED! We’re delighted to announce that the Tasting Club Summer Prize Draw winner, who’ll be off on an all expenses paid holiday to St Lucia, is a very happy Mrs Denise Musk from Yorkshire. Denise is a very keen knitter and has had several books on machine knitting published – to very favourable reviews! Thankfully there’ll be no need for knitwear in St Lucia, so Denise will be able to have a very relaxing break. Winner update – back in February we announced the Winter Prize Draw Winner was retired midwife Valerie Stowart. Valerie has chosen to go to St Lucia in April 2010 to coincide with a significant anniversary – so we’ll just have to wait a bit longer for the holiday snaps!
Solid Chocolate prize draw
winner is Mrs A Dyer of Banbury who wins Toffee & Fudge. Next month’s prize is the Best Sellers Collection – a gorgeous, hand picked selection of our most sought after mini slabs. Mrs Musk and husband bound for St Lucia
Don’t forget - you can score by post or onlineDark at www.chocs.co.uk Write to us at: The Chocolate Tasting Club, Mint House, Royston, SG8 5HL Email: simon@hotelchocolat.co.uk or via our website: www.chocs.co.uk Club News: Editor: Simon Thirlwell; Contributors: Simon Thirlwell, Lynn Cunningham, Terry Waters; Design: Katherine Kannegieter © The Chocolate Tasting Club Limited 2009