Tag: decoration

Fabric Chocolates – Tasting Review

After introducing the Hungarian chocolatier Fabric Chocolates, it’s time for me to dive in and taste some of their products and give you a more detailed insight. The intricate design doesn’t end with their packaging. In fact, seeing their chocolate bar for the first time left me speechless. If you’ve ever found yourself silently staring at a chocolate bar for what seems forever then you know what I’m talking about. A smooth, glossy finish is already pleasing the eye but to see such a detailed and intricate chocolate artwork is mesmerising.

Fabric Chocolates
Collection of award-winning handmade chocolates from Fabric

I couldn’t get over the fact that despite this high level of detail there were almost no surface errors, bubbles or any other disturbing elements on either side of the chocolate bars. Knowing that Fabric bars are made in custom-designed silicone moulds, it is almost unbelievable. But then Viki explained to me during my visit that although the designs are detailed, the indentations are relatively fine, not deep, so air bubbles don’t cause her that much trouble.

But let’s start with the viewing and tasting of the bars!

Mexican Dark 66% with Smoked Salt Caramelised Almonds

As I am an amateur crocheter, Fabric’s main mould design really appeals to me. It looks like a beautiful crochet tablecloth with a mirrored motif. Fine details, curves and patterns that look like tiny flowers, waves or a fishing net. On the back side of the bar, you can see how generous they are with her toppings. Whole almonds pop out on the surface of the bar nearly on every square centimetre and salt crystals are also visible throughout.

Fabric Mexico Smoked Salt Almonds

There is a slight smokiness in the aroma with some nutty background, so that’s a good sign. The thin bar breaks with a sharp snap and melts relatively easily alternating between salty, sometimes reminiscent of crispy bacon, and bittersweet flavours. To get the most out of the toppings, I chomped on this bar, as this releases even more smoked, salty, nutty flavours. The balance of flavour notes is perfect as nothing is overpowering, not even the chocolate. This makes it all the more difficult not to eat it all in one go. The Academy of Chocolate gave Bronze for this bar in 2016.

Ecuador 80% with Candied Kumquats and Coffee Beans

Same crochet pattern as previously, but the back side of the bar has a smoother look due to the smaller pieces of toppings used. The thin bar makes it possible for the toppings to be completely covered in chocolate while still standing out visibly on the back side too. If you’ve read my post about Fabric you’ll know that this bar won a Gold at the Academy of Chocolate Awards this year, so I tried it with high expectations.

As soon as I opened the packaging, I could smell the fresh and sweet orangey aroma of the kumquat peel (tiny orange-like fruits the size of an olive) that is candied by Viki herself as this is an ingredient that is not widely available on the market. Again, the chocolate melts easily partly because it’s thin, and also this Ecuador 80% (Hoja Verde couverture) is nice and creamy. If you let the chocolate melt completely, first you’ll get the rich and earthy notes of the chocolate and a slight coffee flavour. Then you’re left with tiny kumquat pieces and some coffee grains which then dominate the aftertaste. If you decide to chomp the bar, the three main components will balance out each other, and the kumquat will really shine through (especially when you actually chew on a piece) and complete the earthy and roasted notes with a light sweetness.

Viento – Madagascan Milk 44% with Almond Oil and Caramelised Cocoa Nibs

Firstly, I stop for a moment to take a look at the packaging. Different from the crochet design, this bar seems smaller, although only by 10 grams. Keeping the beige and black colour combination, this packaging has a lovely watercolour effect in grey-blue to create a sky-like background for the flying birds that cover the front surrounding the title “Viento” (means wind or breeze in Spanish), that looks like a baroque sign. The golden ribbon is tied just on the left side so as not to disturb the picture and creates an elegant finish to the packaging. No wonder that Fabric won a Gold at the Academy of Chocolate Awards for this packaging design in 2016.

Fabric Viento Almond Nibs

When you flip the bar to open it at the back, the two side flaps look like angel wings or a triptych with the bar as the middle image. The thin rectangle has a flying bird and fluffy clouds engraved into its surface, matching the beautiful outer packaging’s theme. And even beneath the engraved motifs the surface of the bar is not smooth but it has a fine floral pattern on it, like a silk tablecloth.

As I opened the packaging, I could already smell strong marzipan notes coming from the almond oil. The thin milk chocolate breaks with a soft snap revealing caramelised cocoa nibs throughout the bar. I decided to chomp the first piece to see how the chocolate and nibs act together. At the start, sweet vanilla and marzipan chocolate dominate the scene, but as I start to chew on a few pieces of roasted, caramelised nibs, the flavour becomes contrasted by roasted, nutty, sometimes even a tiny bit over-roasted (bacon-like) notes. The aftertaste is predominantly roasted, especially if you finish with munching on the nibs. This chocolate won a Bronze at the 2016 Academy of Chocolate Awards.

Cuban Dark 75% with Tonka Beans and Raspberry Balsamic Vinegar

The packaging stands out from the usual range as this is the result of a cooperation with a Hungarian wine maker (Egri Borvár Tóth Ferenc Wine Cellar), thus the name and drawing on the front showing grapes and grape leaves as a wreath. The Fabric-style comes with the ribbon and gemstone that decorates the front and of course the bar itself. This depicts the picture from the packaging engraved into chocolate. It’s so hard to break it up (not literally!) destroying this artwork.

Fabric Tonka Balsamic

The smell of this bar is astonishing. Sweet fruity and spicy aromas hit my nose straight away. I love tonka beans and their warmth resembling a perfect cinnamon-nutmeg-vanilla mix, but there’s more here. I wouldn’t be able to tell just from the smell that it’s raspberry balsamic vinegar (perhaps because I haven’t tried it on its own yet), but it’s a pleasant sweet fruity smell.

No visible toppings here obviously, so I just let the chocolate melt on my tongue. The tonka bean’s taste comes first and stays central throughout, here and there the flavour becomes sweeter or a bit more acidic, but never unpleasant, creating a beautiful pairing of spice and fruit vinegar with the chocolate from Cuba (Pralus couverture).

As an interesting comparison, Viki also gave me a few tasting squares of the same chocolate paired with tonka beans and date vinegar. This combination won a bronze at the Academy of Chocolate Awards this year as well. Same spicy notes in the aroma, but this one is less sweet, the chocolate is rich, earthy with coffee notes that get stronger in the aftertaste. The tonka is less dominant. The acidity of the vinegar is more noticeable at the back sides of the tongue but it’s still pleasant. Amazing, how different the end result becomes by only changing one ingredient.

Lenka Milk 35%

As you could see from the tonka flavoured bar already, Fabric is open for creative projects with other companies. While the tonka bar was specially created to suit the wines of the maker, in the case of this bar, the visual representation was seemingly more important.

Fabric Lenka Milk

Lenka is a little girl who gets bullied in school for being a bit crummy and has no friends, so starts playing on her own drawing on the pavement until a little boy notices her… The short story is all about empathy, friendship and diversity. Viki really liked the story and was happy to create a Lenka bar for the book. It’s a plain milk chocolate couverture, so there’s not much to talk about the flavour itself, but the design is amazing on its own. Using the book’s own illustration about the crummy red haired, big round-eyed girl, Viki made Lenka’s portrait in chocolate so well that I actually prefer it to the drawing.

Lemon and Cinnamon Pecans

This beautiful round tin is the previous packaging for Viki’s award-winning dragée, pecans enrobed in lemon and cinnamon white chocolate. She was working on her new design when I visited her, and by now, it’s available in a square box, mimicking the packaging of her crochet-style bars to fit more into the whole collection.

Fabric Pecan Dragee

The content is the same though. It’s like opening a jewellery box. Brown tissue paper discreetly covers the nuts, you have to open these delicate layers to discover this highly addictive delicacy. We all know, nuts and chocolate are a match made in heaven. You can’t really go wrong with this combination. But to create something that is unique, both pleasing the eyes and the taste buds, is all the more challenging. Viki decided to use her lemon-cinnamon white chocolate, a flavour inspired by the Spanish dessert, crema catalana, and pair it with whole pecan nuts. It smells divine.

Orange and cinnamon are frequently used together to create a warm, cosy feeling bringing back memories of winter and Christmas time. Here, lemon is used as a twist, and it creates a fresher flavour, more like a summer dessert or ice cream flavour. Biting a pecan in half reveals that the spicy chocolate layer is infinitely thin around the nut, which makes it possible to create a perfect balance between the ingredients. The warmth of the cinnamon works really well with the soft nuttiness of the pecans rounded out by the zingy lemon. Can I just have one more? Oh wait, it’s all gone… This should come with a warning 😊

Conclusion

Fabric really is a tiny chocolate manufacture full of creativity and brave innovation when it comes to flavour combinations. Art, design and textures have a very important role from the first step until the last so the customer gets a product that is both pleasant to look at and also memorable when tasted. Perfect gift idea, or something to treat yourself to. Although the flavour combinations are unique and maybe sound weird sometimes, I think that they are so balanced and well-thought that they can easily become crowd-pleasers. I want to thank Viki for making time for me to visit her and talk about her company and her chocolates and I can’t wait to try her bean-to-bar chocolates in the future too.

Which Fabric bar would YOU like to try?

 

 


Disclaimer: I received these chocolates from Viki (Fabric) as a gift during my visit to her atelier but not as an exchange for a good review. My review is 100% my true personal opinion about the products (whether I bought them myself or received as a gift). This is not a paid advertisement for the company. 

Fabric Chocolates – Where haute couture meets fine flavours

The first time I saw Fabric bars I was meeting a friend in a small coffee shop and wine bar in Budapest where they were also selling some handmade chocolates. Straight away I was mesmerised by the intricate packaging and couldn’t resist to buy one to try: it was their now multiple award-winning Mexican 66% dark with cocoa nib tuile. I know. It is as delicious as it sounds. More on this later. Then in 2015, I briefly met Viki, the chocolatier and founder of Fabric, at the London Chocolate Show, where she was awarded for her chocolate creations. No wonder I wanted to visit her as I was planning my Chocolate Eurotrip this year! I was really happy when we arranged the visit, and Viki was so friendly and welcoming. Her workshop is in one of Budapest’s suburban areas. Located in the underground of a block of flats, her place is kept cool throughout the year; this is quite useful in the hot summer days like the one when I visited her.

Fabric collection
Everything handmade from start to finish, including the little black gem glued one-by-one onto the packaging (photo credit: Fabric Csokoládé)

Her workshop is separated into two main areas: chocolate production and packaging/storage. After a quick look around, we sat down at a big round table in the latter area where she was packaging her bars and putting on the chocolate award labels on the front. Behind her, I could see all her awards nicely displayed on the wall. As we were chatting about her career, her chocolates and her plans, I could taste the chocolates she generously prepared for my visit.

How it all came to be

Behind Fabric you can find a lively and very approachable lady, Viki, who invents and creates all the products and packaging for her award-winning chocolate business. She has an artistic background, studying packaging design and later working for a TV channel on kids’ programmes. How is this all ending up in a chocolate making business? She was filming at a chocolate workshop and became seduced by the world of chocolate. Suddenly, all what she was studying and working for became useful tools for starting her own business. Even though this all happened at a time when “artisan and handmade chocolates” were popping up everywhere in Hungary, she still carried on learning about her new profession, and took two entire years to finalise her first product line and packaging. By that time, many of those trendy handmade chocolate businesses were already long forgotten. Her hard work then paid off, as two years after launching her chocolates in September 2012, she already received awards at both the International Chocolate Awards and at the Academy of Chocolate Awards in 2015.

awards
Viki with some of her awards in 2015 (photo credit: Fabric Csokoládé)

Haute Couture Chocolates

At the very beginning Viki and her husband (also working in television, and helping her with the business-related tasks and R&D of course!) wanted to create a unique product that stands out from the crowd not just in its flavour but also in its design. Their idea about using different textured fabrics to create their chocolate moulds gave birth to their company, Fabric. The name reflects the connection between textures, art, and chocolate flavours. Even though this name seemed an unlucky choice for distribution in Germany for example (Fabrik means factory in German), the quality of their products proved this wrong and now the largest part of their international trade goes to Germany.

German display
(photo credit: Fabric Csokoládé)

Unlike many other chocolatiers in Hungary, praising and working with the “finest Belgian chocolate” (mostly Callebaut), Fabric is constantly looking for unique flavours to use in their bars, so they turned early on to single origin chocolates made by smaller chocolate makers such as Menakao, Pralus, Michel Cluizel and more recently Hoja Verde (exclusively in Hungary). This can be very challenging in the planning process, as if one of the bars proves to be more popular than they thought, and sells out, sometimes they have to wait months before receiving the next shipment of couverture and need to think of an alternative. Or, as a very recent example of bad luck, the delivery of their Ecuadorian couverture was confiscated at customs because of illegal drug trafficking of unknown source. So now, even though they have just received a prestigious Gold award from the Academy of Chocolates a few weeks ago, they might have to wait months until they can make a new batch of the winner bar flavoured with candied kumquats and roasted coffee beans.

The toppings used to create their bars are also far away from the casual fruit and nut. Viki is always eager to find new, rare and unique ingredients to pair up with her chocolate when she’s visiting farmer’s markets or travelling abroad. And many times, this also means a good bit of DIY from her part, such as dehydrating cherry tomatoes, candying kumquats or caramelising almonds with smoked salt.

mexican66
Beautiful and unique mould design and delicious chocolate (photo credit: Fabric Csokoládé)
cocoanibtuile
Mexican 66% dark chocolate with cocoa nib tuile (photo credit: Fabric Csokoládé)

Speaking of DIY, her atelier also has some equipment that were developed by her father working as an aeronautic engineer (sorry, the details will remain company secret). Viki is a real artisan chocolatier, who is actually doing everything by hand from start to finish. As said above, Viki is a packaging designer, so no wonder that all her packaging and even her chocolate moulds are designed and created by herself. She revealed to me, that she always has a little pot of playdough in her bag. In case she finds an interesting texture or design, she just pushes it onto her playdough and then recreates it at home, casting in plaster, then silicone. This way, she can recreate any design (company logo, intricate textures, images or text, etc.) and keep her products very unique and customisable, opening a way for her to collaborate with others, such as a wine maker, a hotel chain or a children’s book illustrator to just name a few of her projects.

plaster moulds
Before becoming chocolate, her designs are first cast into plaster, then silicone (photo credit: Fabric Csokoládé)

In a following article, I will show you a few products more in detail, but for now I’ll just give you a general idea about how these delicious chocolates are created. Would you believe that Viki is one of those people who doesn’t really like sweets? She prefers more characteristic and less sweet flavours so this is what she recreates in her chocolate bars, using mainly dark chocolate as a base. She doesn’t make any chocolate that she wouldn’t like to eat herself and this is one of the reasons she doesn’t work with marzipan for example. Cocoa nibs, nuts, dried fruits and spices are her main ingredients with a few more peculiar toppings such as brown rice, millet, date vinegar, dried tomatoes previously soaked in raspberry vinegar, among others. Picking up inspiration for future flavours everywhere, her famous lemon-cinnamon combination was born thanks to one of her favourite desserts: ‘crema catalana’.

Future plans

As staying unique is one of Fabric’s main priority, no wonder that the bean-to-bar production is also on their mind. This would allow them to really create flavours and flavour combinations that no one else does on the market. But of course, even though small-batch production is now possible with a smaller investment by using table-top melangeurs, there is still the question of buying the right cocoa beans. It is a steep learning curve, and you can be sure that Viki won’t release anything before being 100% satisfied with the product herself. Don’t worry, I’ll give you an update as soon as it is available.

tasting squares
Viki is interested in creating her own chocolates from the bean to make her products even more unique (photo credit: Fabric Csokoládé)

It’s no secret, that getting awards for their chocolates is a key to international recognition and possible distribution. Viki says, that instead of trying to reach out to chocolate retailers with samples, as they did when they started, now it’s the opposite, they get more and more national and international trade possibilities thanks to these awards. Now their chocolates available in Germany, France and even in the USA, they would like to distribute them to other countries as well.

More importantly, their aim is to stay true to their original work ethics which means they will stay small, as doing everything by hand, they have physical limits of how many bars they can actually make in a day. So far, anything that has been made under their name, be it a bar of chocolate or a piece of packaging, has always gone through Viki’s hands and needs to meet her strict quality standards.

matcha ginger
White chocolate with matcha tea and ginger (photo credit: Fabric Csokoládé)

Coming up…

As a follow-up for this post, I’ll continue with a more detailed tasting review of some of Fabric’s products, including award-winning bars and a dangerously addictive pecan dragee. Stay tuned!

Did you already know Fabric chocolates, and if yes, which of their bars is your favourite? If not, which one would you like to try? Share in the comments below!

UK Easter Egg Hunt – Forget the creme egg!

It’s only ten days until Easter, a peak time in chocolate trading, when every shop is flooded with chocolate eggs, bunnies, hens and chicks, lambs and hot cross buns. And no matter how early or late Easter is, those (in)famous creme eggs hit the shelves bang on Boxing Day (yes, last December!). I always think it’s waaay too early and you will see from this blog anyway, that I am not a huge fan of anything by Cadbury, especially these chocolate eggs filled with a painfully sweet fondant (sugar paste).

So, in today’s post I would like to show you some alternatives. Living in the UK makes it so easy to swap boring creme eggs to something much better. There is an ever-growing offer of beautifully handmade, delicious chocolate treats, that are created with higher quality chocolate, less sugar, and with lots of creativity and passion. My list is almost entirely based on what I found on Instagram, my favourite platform to see what other chocolate makers and chocolatiers are up to. Also, this list is a very subjective collection, and probably missing many creations that exist on the market. But hopefully, I can give you some ideas in time to fill your Easter baskets.

If you have kids, and you are thinking that these are too expensive yet not enough for them, please think twice. Choose quality over quantity, and you will see that kids are genuinely open to new things. And if we stop saying: “Honey, you won’t like this, it’s dark chocolate”, we get one step closer to a generation growing up on good quality chocolates (consumed in moderation). If I haven’t convinced you, just take a look at this recent survey and see how much sugar your kids will consume if they receive the average amount of traditional Easter treats. I honestly hope that you will change your mind.

No kids? At least, you don’t have to share your chocolates with them (or trying to eat them hidden behind a cupboard door). There is no excuse for not treating yourself to some really good chocolates!

Let’s see what are my favourite picks* from this year’s Easter season:

Pump Street Bakery

It all started with the chicken (or the egg?!). In time, I will write more about this British chocolate maker, launched at a place that first became famous for their freshly baked breads and pastries, hence the name. Then they decided to make chocolate directly from the cocoa beans (bean-to-bar), and they’ve had a triumphant success. If you have already tried their chocolate bars, then you know, that these two bean-to-chickens will be a bliss (if you haven’t, just believe me!). The milk chocolate chicken is made from their 58% Madagascan chocolate, high cocoa content (= less sugar), creamy and fruity. The dark chocolate chicken is made with their Jamaican 75% dark, a rich chocolate with sweet fruity notes. They weigh 35g each. Both chickens are available from their web shop for £5.95 each, and come in a cute, specially designed cardboard tube, sitting on a nest.

pumpstbakeryMilk and dark bean-to-chicken (photo: PumpStBakery)

Dormouse Chocolates

Manchester-based chocolate makers teasing us this Easter with three bean-to-egg creations. Two darks, a rich and fruity Guatemalan 72% and their award-winning Madagascan 75.6% with a deep oaky flavour note. The third is a high cocoa milk chocolate egg, Guatemalan 51.5% cocoa giving you a satisfyingly creamy caramel flavour. They are £10.00 each available from their website.

Bean-to-egg (photo: Dormouse)

JK Fine Chocolates

Ever heard of the Triple Truffle? Jamie Kemp, chocolatier of JK Fine Chocolates is the inventor of these triple-layered delights (a creamy caramel centre surrounded by a single-origin ganache layer and enrobed in single-origin chocolate), and this year he created these rustic mini eggs filled with some of the best single-origin chocolate ganaches from Vietnam (70% Tien Gang by Marou), Ecuador (70% by Montecristi) and Venezuela (43% milk), and of course his award-winning salted caramel. Available in a box of 8 (2 of each flavour) for £12.50 or a box of 16 (4 of each) for 22.50 from his web shop.

Single origin eggs filled with delicious ganache
and award-winning salted caramel (photo: JKFineChocolates)

Zara’s Chocolates

Moving to Bristol now to show you these funky cactus eggs by Zara’s Chocolates. All three milk chocolate eggs are made and decorated by hand and hide a golden egg inside. For a more futuristic design, you can choose one of their marbled eggs: a 67% Madagascan dark with a crunchy almond brittle lining on the inside, a 36% Javanese milk with a honeycomb pecan crunchy inner layer, or the all-time favourite salted caramel egg available in both milk and dark (39% or 76% Ecuador) with 6 salted caramel chocolates on the inside. The three cacti eggs are £10.00, the crunchy eggs are £13.00 and the salted caramel eggs are £18.00 from their web shop.

Fun cactus eggs and crunchy marbled eggs (photo: Zara’s Chocolates)

Fifth Dimension Chocolates

Russel and Albert are well-known for their amazing (and multiple award-winning!) filled chocolates inspired by their travels, but come Christmas or Easter, they also offer seasonal products, that are just as great! I mean, look at these beautiful galaxy eggs, they are handmade from high quality Colombian chocolate. Choose either 65% dark or 50% milk for £13 each. Another fun product they have is their Disc’O Egg, which is layers of 34% white, 50% milk and 65% dark Colombian chocolate discs, weighing a total of 400g, perfect for sharing (if you do :)). Unfortunately, the Disc’O egg is not available online, but you can grab one if you happen to be at Taste Chocolate Festival in Bristol at Easter weekend for example. (See more Easter chocolate events at the end of the article.)

Galaxy and Disc’O Eggs (photo: 5DChocolates)

Hill St.

New kids on the block, Hill St. was founded in 2016 by two brothers, a chocolatier and a designer. Website still in progress, but if you happen to be near Saffron Walden, check out their chocolate shop. Their Easter range of shapes come in different sizes and are filled with caramel eggs, praline characters, moulded chocolates and wafer crisp chocolate pearls.

The egg-cowboy, the sheep and the pink chicken (photo: Hill St. Instagram)

Chocolate Events this Easter

What better way to enjoy chocolates at Easter than to visit a chocolate fair or festival. This year, there are several locations to choose from, so don’t miss out if you are in the area. Click on the links for more info about the venues and event programmes.

8 April / Oxted – Chocolate Fair (FREE entry)

9 April / Dorking – Denbies Chocolate Fair (FREE entry)

8-9 April / Ramsbottom – Chocolate Festival (Free entry)

15-16 April / Bristol – Taste Chocolate Festival (£4/entry)

14-17 April / York – Chocolate Festival (FREE entry)

*Disclaimer: This list is my subjective selection. This is not a paid advertisement of the chocolatiers or events that are mentioned. I didn’t receive any money or favour for writing the article.

 

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