The Comfort of Chocolate

Chocolate climate cabinet, filled two rows deep :-) And I have more chocolate in other places, too!

Hello chocolate lovers out there!

I know many of you are looking for comfort in these scary days full of depressing news about the COVID-19 pandemic. Chocolate can offer just that, and it could work both ways. If you can afford to, please consider buying some good, fair and sustainable chocolate from a small, locally rooted supplier!

(In The Netherlands, that would be:

• • Florentinachocolates.nl in Rotterdam;
  • Chocolatl.nl in Amsterdam;
  • The Chocolate Shop in The Hague;
  • Chocoladeverkopers.nl, near Nijmegen, but mostly online; (shipping abroad as well).

Me chocolate shopping at another great chocolate shop, Kosak in Paris, France, December 2019

Look around you for the kind of supplier that make or sell chocolate out of passion for great chocolate, and are intent to provide some poor, small holder cacao farmers with a fair income, and with respect for our planet.

Since so many brick and mortar shops are temporarily closed now, this may mean you have to buy some chocolate online. Perhaps chocolate that you have never tasted before. Hmmmm… Fair and sustainable chocolate is not exactly cheap, and rightly so! So what if you order something and find you don’t like it?

My tips:

• Spread your risk, buy a nice, diverse selection! You will probably love, love, love most of it :-)
• Ask your supplier for advice! Tell them what you know and like, and they can probably recommend something that will wow you! Good chocolate sales people can offer you a great match based on your preferences for tea or coffee, etc.
• If you do get a chocolate bar you are not loving, you can quickly turn it into delicious truffles.

As you can see in the pictures in this post, I have plenty of excellent chocolate bars at hand to fulfill most types of chocolate cravings. But there is something luxurious and comforting about the smooth, melting, mouth filling texture of a soft water based truffle that a piece of chocolate just won’t provide. I intend to make sure I always have some truffles in the fridge now that we can use the comfort. Being water based, one of these smallish, dark chocolate truffles a day is not too indulgent for a healthy, balanced diet, I think.

I wrote a how to for making water ganache truffles earlier. It basically comes down to adding hot liquid to small chunks of chocolate and stir it together.

Making a tiny batch (6 – 8) of water based chocolate truffles is a very nice little activity to keep yourself occupied and satisfied when you have to stay indoors. It is also a great way of using leftover chocolate, and very easy to bend an unloved flavor to perfectly suit your preferences. Make it sweeter, make it smoother, make it boozy or spice it up!

Several examples of excellent and sustainable chocolate brands I shopped at Chocoa chocolate festival in Amsterdam, February 2020

Just experiment with the sweeteners, syrups, liquor, oils and spices you have at hand. But don’t bother with poor quality chocolate for water based ganache. Keep in mind that just because you like a chocolate, it is not necessarily good quality! And even the best chocolate in the world does not necessarily appeal to each and everyone. Any specific bar may just not be for you. But dressed up as a truffle…. who knows! :-)

I will write a follow up post about ingredients and flavor combinations that worked for me.

And just for fun, a picture and 10 second video of the marble run in my living room today!

Today’s marble run on the left, and remaining idle blocks on the right

Have fun, and take good care of yourselves!

XXX Annika