I’m not feeling terrible creative today, so don’t expect any funny business. And levity isn’t the feeling you get from these chocolates anyway, right? They look terribly serious to me.
Camille Bloch is a swiss chocolatier, in the business since 1929, with a newish line of Mousse chocolates: creamy and “airy” chocolate domes. The taste and feel of Swiss chocolate is unmistakable – but is this a mousse or more of a ganache? The package looks old school … but are these chocolates for us folks with a more modern sensibility?
Gaga over gummis? Lovin the licorice? Sweet on sours? You still can’t deny that the chocolate above looks awesome. Who doesn’t want to try that? I sure did. And candygurette did. And the downstairs neighbors did. And so we did.
We tried a gamut: the “Mousse Chocolat Lait” – or milk choco, the “Mousse Lait Extra” – or extra light milk choco, the “Mousse Chocolat Noir” – or dark choco; and “Ragusa Noir” – dark choco (not mousse though) with praline and whole hazelnuts.
Confused? Maybe I can clear things up:
The mousse’s all were big half circles filled with…wait for it…mousse!…I guess… (more on that in a sec). And the Ragusa looked like a chocolate bar but the praline filling was like a ganache. It doesn’t look creamy inside does it, but it was. See?
Overall – as you’d expect from a Swiss chocolatier around for over 80 years – these are all good, pretty refined, and something I’d expect a Swiss gramma to buy for $4.50 a pop to put in the Easter basket.
Strangely, I liked the extra light milk chocolate the most. I felt like in that one, the mousse was actually mousse-y and not just creamy. There’s a difference. Mousse is really light. The extra milk chocolates had that Swiss refined taste I like with a real lightness inside. When people tell you they looooove Swiss chocolate, I think this is the kind of bar they’re thinking about.
The regular milk chocolate was pretty regular and the mousse was more cream. Perhaps the bars needed to be fresher? We waited a few weeks before eating after we received them. Still good but nothing to write more about.
The dark chocolate – which I expected to like the most – missed for me. I mean, they were fine…but when I go down the dark corridor, I want some mystique. I want some depth. I felt like this was simply “darker than milk chocolate!” chocolate. And call me a modernist, but get some salt up in there. There’s a reason there are so many dark chocolates with salt on the market now: they’re Good, and they bring out the great flavors in the darker caCAOs.
The Ragusa was ok too. I liked the fact that I didn’t know how ganache-y the inside would be until I bit in. Not mousse-y; think butter cream. It was surprising. But honestly, I couldn’t really taste the Hazelnuts…but really, who can? I mean, we all know the overall hazelnut flavor, but do actual hazelnuts realllllllly taste like that? I kinda don’t think so. It’s like watermelon flavor – we all know the candy watermelon taste, but it’s not really what actual watermelon tastes like.
One important note is that these things are filling. One piece of each of the 4 bars was way more than enough for me at one sitting. And I imagine that’s the point here: a piece of decadence to suck on, and then move on.
You like Europe? You talk about returning to the motherland? You like old looking packaging? These are for you. Nothing new or spectacular here; what you expect from Swiss chocolates. You can find all over the web. Looks like mainly in packages of 12 for anywhere between 45 and 60 $US. Here’s a “Buy” search link to help you out.
I actually liked all of them. The mousse bubbles are delicious and filling, so as Matty said, one is sufficient, and that from someone who could eat the entire batch at one sitting. I liked the Ragusa bar with the filling and found it was way better tasting at room temperature than right out of the fridge. The only problem with this plan is that others can see it on the counter slowly coming up to room temperature and the temptation is just too much!
I liked the dark mousse bar, but I can only eat it in limited quantity. I was impressed by the fluffiness of the mousse, though.
Good point. VERY good point. Huge miss on my part.
This review and the Ragusa bar itself both fail for me for not calling themselves the “Carmine” Ragusa or even better, The Big Ragu.