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We recently stopped by Marie-Hélène Gantois’ chocolate shop—Mococha—on rue Mouffetard to see what chocolate confections she is offering for the Christmas season.

Marie told us that this Christmas she has several new products for chocolate lovers.

From chocolate maker Jacques Bellanger (named Meilleur Ouvrier de France in 1982—best pastry chef and confectioner), there are three types of crunchy bars:

Buggatise – crackly, crunchy praline layered with tender caramel accentuated by fleur de sel (sea salt), coated in dark chocolate

Sybille – the same praline, accompanied by almond paste elaborated with Sicilian pistachios, coated with dark chocolate and decorated with pistachios, almonds, cranberries, walnuts, and hazelnuts

Charlotte – praline with raspberry paste coated with dark chocolate and decorated with pistachios, dried figs, cranberries, and cubes of fruit paste.

Les Barres from Jacques Bellinger
(c) Discover Paris!

The bars are 25 cm (roughly 10 inches) long and are beautifully presented in a transparent wrap bound by ribbons on each end.

Marie has also assembled three chocolate delights in a package that she calls the Mococha “Coffret Craquant.” It is comprised of chocolate-covered, grilled almonds and chocolate-covered, grilled hazelnuts from Maison Weiss, and chocolate dragées wrapped in gold paper from Maison Médicis. There are also boxes of florentines and mendiants by Maison Weiss, chocolate-covered lemon peel and ginger by Weiss, chocolate-covered orange peels by Maison Corsiglia, and marrons glacés by Maison Corsiglia.

As connoisseurs of hot chocolate, we recommend that you stop by Mococha to sample Marie’s delectable brew! Made from Venezuelan dark chocolate (72%), whole milk, crème fleurette, and sugar, it is thick, rich, and slightly fruity in flavor. A cup of this beverage and a macaron by Jacques Bellanger warm both body and spirit!

Place Setting for Hot Chocolate and a Macaron

Mococha
89, rue Mouffetard
75005 Paris
Tel : 01.47.07.13.66
Metro: Censier Daubenton
Hours : Tuesday through Sunday 11 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Monique Y. Wells is cofounder of Discover Paris!—Personalized Itineraries for Independent Travelers and a freelance writer and editor. She is the author of two books, numerous articles about Paris, the Entrée to Black Paris™ blog, and the Les Amis de Beauford Delaney blog.

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Puerto Cacao
(c) Discover Paris!

On a recent excursion into the 17th arrondissement, we stepped into Puerto Cacao, a chocolate shop that processes cocoa beans to make its own confections. (Most of the chocolate vendors that we have heretofore reviewed either create their own confections from refined chocolate or resell chocolates that have been made by somebody else.) The store is spacious and well stocked with sweets in just about every conceivable form, from dark chocolate, to milk chocolate, to white chocolate. Having been inspired by the hot chocolate of Le Cuillère Suisse (which I reported on in my blog of Wednesday, November 17), we were looking for an alternative way to make the beverage.

We were greeted by salesperson Monica Ardelean, who explained to us that she had two products that would serve for making hot chocolate. One was a powdered cocoa sold in a bag; the other was a solid block of Venezuelan chocolate. She expressed greater enthusiasm for the second product, saying that it produced a better brew. Indeed, she sold hot chocolate in her shop and invited us to taste it! We found it hearty and somewhat bitter, but not unpleasantly so.

Monica Andelean
(c) Discover Paris!

We purchased a 310-gram block of the chocolate for 5€ and took it home to try the recipe that Monica gave us. We cut 100 grams (3.5 oz) off the block and melted it in a double boiler on the stove. At the same time we heated one liter (about one quart) of milk in a saucepan. When the chocolate was melted and the milk was hot, we stirred about one-half cup of hot milk into the chocolate, along with 15 grams (about one tablespoon) of sugar and about one-quarter teaspoon of vanilla. We then blended this mixture in a blender. Monica’s recipe called for transferring the blended mixture into the saucepan of milk and stirring. However, the chocolate paste in the blender was too thick to pour, so we reversed the process, adding the milk from the saucepan into the blender. We turned on the blender and – voilà! – we had a frothy, hot chocolate beverage. (For those who try this, the milk should not be hotter than 80°C (176°F) to avoid damage to the blender.)

We found our hot chocolate to be as bitter as the beverage that we had tasted in the store. We realize that chocolate in its purest form is a bitter product, so we added another tablespoon of sugar and another quarter teaspoon of vanilla. This time, the sugar helped temper the aggressiveness of the chocolate. The beverage was hearty and filling.

Making hot chocolate in this way will try the patience of many, especially those who are accustomed to making chocolate milk from instant cocoa powder. There is the wait while the solid chocolate melts and the milk heats; then there is the task of blending the two liquids together. Finally, there are utensils and countertop to clean up afterwards. But the reward for those with forbearance will be a satisfying cup of hot chocolate made from cocoa beans from Venezuela. It is about as authentic a beverage as you can get!

310-gram Block of Venezuelan Chocolate

Melted Venezuelan Chocolate

Hot Venezuelan Chocolate
(c) Discover Paris!

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Thomas Brannstrom
International Excellence Award
Salon du Chocolat 2009
(c) Discover Paris!

We met Thomas Brannstrom at his stand Mälarchocolaterie at the Salon du Chocolat. He and his wife, Elaine Chan, produce handmade chocolates at their facility in Vasteras, Sweden. A photo of them together appears on their Web site.

Brannstrom expressed great enthusiasm not only about his line of chocolates, but also about every aspect of the business, from the packaging of his product to the designing and construction of the Mälar exhibition stand at the salon. He proudly pointed out that the beautiful boxes in which the chocolates are sold are created from the fiber of a renewable wood that grows in the forests of Sweden. He was so keen about explaining the minimal environmental impact of his operation that we were hard pressed to turn his attention back to what we were most interested in—chocolate!

We purchased the smallest box and selected an assortment of nine chocolates to place in it. Each variety is exquisitely designed, and many have unusual flavors. I did not realize until later that Mälar produces a number of exotic flavors, including horseradish. I would like to have tried that!

Here is a list of the chocolates that we did taste:

Wolfberry (goji berry) – The wolfberry is cultivated in China. It is a tiny red fruit, and one can see it on top of two of the chocolates in the photograph (below). I was unable to taste the berry in the chocolate, but my partner could. She said that it was reminiscent of cranberry, but not as intense. We both found the chocolate ganache quite flavorful.

Citron Tequila Salt – Lemon-flavored chocolate ganache with a salted top. We could not taste the tequila, but found the chocolate sublime. A cute idea to match lemon, tequila, and salt with chocolate!

Single Malt Whisky – A mild taste of whisky in rich, dark chocolate with an aftertaste of peat.

Port Melon – We were not sure that we tasted melon in this, but we found the chocolate ganache to be as good as they get!

Apple Calvados (apple brandy) – Intensely smooth, unctuous, refined chocolate. My partner tasted a hint of Calvados in the ganache, but I could not.

In retrospect, we realize that we tasted the chocolates in the wrong order, and that the essence of the more subtly flavored varieties was probably masked by the more assertive flavors of others.

Although we could not always identify the flavors for which these chocolates are named, we agree with Mälarchocolaterie’s claim that its chocolates are a “Swedish chocolate luxury.”

Elaine Chan at the Mälarchocolaterie Stand
(c) Discover Paris!

Mälar Chocolates
(c) Discover Paris!

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La Cuillère Suisse
Chocolate on a Stick
(c) Discover Paris!

One of the stands that we visited at the recent Salon du Chocolat was La Cuillère Suisse. Founded by two women, Barbara Delsaux and Valériane Tinguely, the company specializes in one form of chocolate, and one form only. It is a hardened sphere of chocolate, roughly 1 1/2″ in diameter, mounted on a stick like a lollipop. The idea is to dip the chocolate ball into a cup of hot milk and stir. Then — voilà — you have a cup of hot chocolate!

The chocolate for the Cuillère Suisse is produced by Durig Chocolatier of Lausanne, Switzerland.

We took two cuillères home with us to test them out. We each poured 7 oz of hot milk into a cup, dipped the chocolate into the milk, and stirred. Sure enough, the chocolate began to dissolve into the milk. At one point, as the chocolate melted, we tasted it straight from the lollipop. It was wonderfully sweet, dark, and rich. However, when we finished stirring and tasted the beverage, we found the flavor disappointingly weak. We think that a maximum of 4 oz of milk is required for a rich, thick serving of hot chocolate.

Priced at four Swiss francs a pop (pun intended!), the Cuillère Suisse is an expensive treat. I believe that one would do better to buy a jar of chocolate shavings from any shop that sells chocolate in this form. A couple of heaping tablespoons in a cup of hot milk will make an entirely satisfactory rich, hot chocolate without the gimmickry of a wooden swizzle stick stuck into a chocolate ball.

Perhaps the Cuillère Suisse founders realized that in order to sell what is, in my mind, an expensive, impractical product, they needed to launch a campaign to sex up its image…literally! At their stand they distributed postcard-sized photographs of a stark-naked black woman in various erotic and sexually suggestive poses. One image displays what appears to be a rivulet of melted chocolate trickling down her spine. At the same time, she is gripping her buttocks and holding a Cuillère Suisse.

Sexing Up the Hot Chocolate
(c) Discover Paris!

More than Mere Nudity
Photograph courtesy of La Cuillère Suisse

I think that most of the images on these postcards are inappropriate for promoting what is, after all, just a beverage. Also, the fact that yet another chocolate company is using a naked, black woman to advertise its product is irksome. (Suchard, for example, often uses naked, black women to lend an “exotic” aura to its chocolate.) Moreover, the use of this model in these immodest poses suggests to me that La Cuillière Suisse has advanced beyond the portrayal of erotic nudity into pornographic nudity to promote its product.

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