Aromatherapy chocolate

By: Catherine Sleep - 15 August 2006 11:18

In an effort to capture imagination and market share, modern confectioners are turning to innovative ingredients one wouldn’t normally expect to find in a chocolate bar. Sometimes it works, sometimes not.

Devon company Feeding Your Imagination has used recipes developed by Masterchef of Great Britain Paul Da Costa Greaves, and several of the ingredients are indeed somewhat ‘cheffy’. It’s not everyday you taste chocolate with geranium rose, or bergamot, or black pepper and grapefruit, is it?

If you’re going to use gutsy ingredients like this you need a delicate hand, though. I tried the milk chocolate with chilli, sweet orange and nutmeg, and was relieved to find that the chilli was included in just the right quantity. I recently had a chocolate and chilli tart made by my favourite neighbourhood produce store, Bill’s, but the chilli was so hot it blew my head off, whereas the FYI chocolate just gives a pleasing afterglow. Which is quite appropriate, given that the bar is called Sensual.

The only disappointment is that the range does not include any dark chocolate, just milk and white. I guess it’s a personal preference, but I find a good dark chocolate has the edge over most milk chocolate and complements robust ingredients nicely. Oh, and at £3.95 per 100g bar it 's not cheap. But it's organic, it's innovative, it's beautifully presented and I'd rather eat this quality of chocolate now and again than lower grade stuff on a daily basis.

Feeding Your Imagination

Comments on this blog post

This chocolate is nothing compared to the Schoc Chocolates made in New Zealand. Murray Langham and Roger Simpson have been making and experimenting with chocolate and flavours for four years. 52 different tablet flavours in both dark and milk chocolate. They use all natural ingredients and essential oils. Strawberry and black pepper, lime chilli, sea salt, rose, frankincense, myrrh and gold, lemongrass, geranium and many more.

julia