Chocolate heaven (Valrhona Chocolate)

Member Name: caro

Product:	Valrhona Chocolate
Date:	12/03/01 (403 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Flavour

Disadvantages: Price

Valrhona has a reputation as one of the world’s best chocolates. It has been made in Tain-L’Hermitage, a town in the Rhone Valley, France, since 1925 although for many years it was sold only to confectioners and other chocolate manufacturers. However, since 1986 Valrhona have also produced their chocolate for retail sale.

The standard chocolates, available in bars, are Lacte (milk chocolate), Noir (plain chocolate) and Noir Amer (bitter-sweet plain chocolate, with higher cocoa content than the Noir).

Valrhona also makes, and is perhaps best-known for, its range of “Grand Cru” chocolates. The use of wine terminology is not accidental: they believe that fine chocolate should be appreciated in the same way as fine wines, and carry this further in their tasting recommendations. You are advised to look at the chocolate, smell it, break it, take a bite, then appreciate its bouquet and notice how long it lasts.

The Grand Cru chocolates are made from beans selected and purchased directly from their growers, rather than through brokers. Each chocolate is made using beans from a single region (though not a single grower). They come in four varieties: Jivara (40% cocoa), a milk chocolate; Caraibe (66% cocoa), a semisweet dark chocolate; Manjari (64% cocoa), a dark chocolate; and my personal favourite Guanaja (70% cocoa), a bitter dark chocolate.

They are available in three different forms: bars of chocolate, individually-wrapped squares, or perles (small “pearls”). All are attractively packaged, with the squares my personal favourite. They come in a tin, which is really practical as well as a nice alternative to the more usual box, and the individual squares are a better size as this is not really a chocolate you are likely to want (or afford!) to eat a bar at a time.

The pearls also come in a tin: this time, a small round one designed to dispense just a few pearls at a time. The
packaging is again lovely, and the idea of small pearls of chocolate is a nice one. However, each ‘pearl’ has a coating (presumably to prevent them melting and sticking together), and although it is flavourless I found that it also stopped me fully tasting the chocolate itself. I would therefore not buy these again.

Turning to the chocolate itself, it is wonderful. As soon as you unwrap it, you notice the lovely aromas. The flavours are smooth and intense, and last a long time in your mouth. My favourite Guanaja is bitter, but in a delicious rather than harsh way. The texture of Valrhona chocolates is very different from ordinary brands such as Cadbury’s: it is harder, and feels different in your mouth; it does not melt to nothing in the same way.

Valrhona is expensive: the Grand Cru chocolates cost about £2.20 for a bar, £2.50 for a tin of perles, and £4.50 for a tin of squares. However, its quality makes it worthwhile for an occasional treat, and it is not a chocolate you would eat in any quantity at one time (unlike I do with Cadburys!).

You can also buy Valrhona chocolates at Selfridges and Fortnum & Mason. They have some delicious and unusual centres such as pear, cinammon and tea, as well as truffles and more standard centres. Again, these are not cheap, but they are comparable to other brands such as Godiva and Neuhaus.

In summary, Valrhona chocolate is a lovely treat which I have found to be worth the extra cost. However, I would not recommend the perles.

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