Flowers have long been a staple of international cuisines. Consider dried lavender blossoms in herbes de Provence or Iranian rice pudding scented with rose water. But recently, floral concoctions and aromatic blossoms have moved out of the kitchen and behind the bar, where they are deployed as much for their delicate flavors as their visual appeal.
— From How to Sip a Flower Garden at the New York Times, with thanks to Marietta for the link!
It's spring, that time of year when many women (and men? is this universal?) start knocking off the sweets in a last-ditch effort to lose a few pounds before swimsuit season officially begins. Or so I'm told. Happily, no such impulse has come over me as of yet. Here are seven dark chocolate bars, listed in order of my preference from outstanding right on down through disgusting, along with the usual random perfume recommendations because this is a PERFUME blog.
Starting out with awesome! eat three!, we've got the Calindia bar by Vosges (cardamom, organic walnuts, dried plums dark chocolate, see image above). This doesn't have quite the same rush of cardamom as Dolfin's Noir Cardamome, but it's still a generously spiced bar…
Man cannot live on perfume alone; every so often, we must talk about chocolate instead. Continuing with the same theme as my last dark chocolate with “stuff” added post, here are a few of the chocolates I’ve tried recently, and once again, I’ve sprinkled in a few perfume recommendations in a vain attempt to keep things on topic.
First, let me just say: OMG, OMG, POCKET COFFEE!!1!!1! Where have these been all my life? I had never even heard of them until Kevin sent me a generous handful. Pocket Coffees are bite-sized chocolate cubes lined with caramelized sugar and filled with sweetened espresso. They’re made by the Italian company Ferrero, and they’re apparently only sold during cooler months (no Pocket Coffee for you in August, sorry). They seem to be marketed for the caffeine jolt as much as anything else…
We try to stay on topic around here. I did blather on about teas recently (see red & green, oolong post still to come), and today I'm going to blather on about yet another of my favorite addictions: chocolate. Dark chocolate, to be more precise, and dark chocolate with “stuff” added, to be even more precise. I like plain dark chocolate, but I like flavored dark chocolate even better. To keep this vaguely related to perfume, I've included a few “what to wear while you eat” recommendations.
One of my favorite brands for flavored dark chocolate is the Belgian company Dolfin. They've a wonderful selection. I recently sent March over at Perfume Posse some little Dolfin squares, including their Noir Cumin. March commented that “while we can’t decide whether we really like the cumin bar, it is strangely addictive”, and that is entirely true…
Warning: this post is about food. If all you care about is perfume, come back tomorrow, when we'll almost certainly be talking about perfume again.
I think I've mentioned before that I like chocolate. I do. Very much. I've explored a few chocolate perfumes, but relatively few perfumed chocolates. Dagoba makes a lovely dark chocolate bar with lavender and blueberries, and perhaps that qualifies? But the Chocolat Parfumé line at Desire in Sunlight might be the closest I've come to blending my two biggest addictions…