It was with great excitement last month that I reviewed the first of the three custom Chocri bars that I got to create (see Gigi's Dream Lemon Bar). Chocri has been creating custom chocolate bars in Europe for years, and is now offering them in the United States.
I've said it before, but I love the idea of creating a bar that has exactly what I want in it. Visit CreateMyChocolate.com to see for yourself.
This bar was inspired by my love of Persian ice cream. Persian ice cream, if you have never had it -- and if not, you should -- is typically a base that is flavored with rosewater and saffron. (A few places where I have eaten it were either cutting costs or catering to unadventurous American customers, and they used vanilla ice cream as the base and added the rose and saffron on top of that.) There are almost always pistachios added. I have also had versions that include ginger and/or pomegranate sauce. I am not sure which of those were the most authentic version (if any) but I liked them in any event.
With this bar I used a milk chocolate base. In retrospect I probably should have used white chocolate -- and Chocri does offer white chocolate as an option. But as we all know, I pretty much hate white chocolate, so I went with milk. Also in the bar are candied rose petals, cinnamon, pistachios and candied ginger.
Just as with the last bar, I am going to rate this one based on the individual ingredients rather than the overall taste of the bar. After all, each ingredient could be great on its own, but it could be my combination that doesn't do the bar justice -- and it would be unfair to ding Chocri for my own poor choices. And if it does taste good together, well...that just makes me awesome. I guess (and modest).
The chocolate: Crocri has a really, really good milk chocolate. It's extra creamy, and you can really taste the dairy. Super smooth, fast melt.
The ginger: Soft and very sweet. If you're not into super-hot ginger, this is perfect for you. If you are into super-hot ginger...errrrm...well, maybe just eat a lot of it. It does taste good.
The pistachios: The bar uses whole pistachios! Not halves, not little pieces, but whole entire nuts. And they are crunchy and salty and delicious!
The rose petals: Super crunchy from the sugaring. The texture is nice. I didn't really notice a strong rose flavor, but they are pretty (they are a really vivid pink) and the sugar was good.
The cinnamon: Large dark sprinkles lay just on top of the chocolate. It adds a tiny bit of extra warmth and spices up the chocolate.
Once again, my compliments to the folks at Chocri for having a perfect sense of proportion. Everything was pretty equally balanced perfectly. And all of the ingredients were fantastic. (OK so the rose petals didn't really taste like rose -- but they did look good, and they were covered in sugar.) I liked the milk chocolate so much I could happily eat it plain.
While I am not rating based on the overall flavor, I have to say it was a pretty good combo. The sweetness of the milk chocolate keeps the ginger hot, but also keeps it from tasting soapy. The rose petals add color and some extra sweetness. The whole pistachios bring salt and crunch to the bar.
As much as I liked my Dream Lemon Bar, I liked this bar even more. If you would like to try it the way I put it together, it's easy: Just go to Chocri's web site and use the reorder option when making selections for your custom bar, and use this code: f9yz1e
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