Look what my personal
chocolate courier, my dear sister, brought me from Belgium! It's a
set of 18 tiny chocolate bars, or chocolate sticks, with
eight different
flavours! That's a really lovely box, a true chocolate sampler's
dream.
The package is pretty, with a picture
of a present (very appropriate!) and a window that lets you have a
peek inside. Each chocolate minibar has been individually wrapped in
a stylish Galler wrapping with a dark lower part and a top of a different colour. Unwrapping reveals the text “Galler” in
a simple, stylish font in each bar.
But let's take a brief look at each
bar:
Praliné Lait, milk chocolate with
praline filling
The scent is soft, and so is the
taste. The milk chocolate is silky smooth and sweet, but not too much
so. The filling is also soft, with tiny pieces of praline in it. They
taste sweet and nutty with a lovely hint of burnt sugar.
Pistaches Fraîches, white chocolate
with fresh pistachios
This has a very fine, barely-there
scent. The pistachios are a nice addition, their crispiness provides
a contrast to the creamy texture of the chocolate. Likewise, they
create an almost salty sensation, which acts as a delicious
counterbalance to the sweet white chocolate.
Piémontais, milk chocolate with
crispy filling
Again the milk chocolate is smooth
and sweet, but not too much so. The filling is soft with something
crispy in it. I can't quite identify what those little crispy pieces
are, they remind me of crunchy cereal.
Praliné Noir, dark chocolate with
praline filling
This is a dark chocolate shell with
praline filling. The tiny wrapping didn't mention the cocoa content
of the dark chocolate, but the box itself states that the cocoa
content of the dark chocolate pieces is at least 60 %. This is one of
the best dark chocolates I've ever tasted. There is not a hint of
bitterness, it's smooth and intense but not overpowering. And the
filling! It has a lovely, melt in your mouth texture and it simply
tastes delicious. The combination is perfect, this might well be my
favourite in this selection!
Praliné Blanc, white chocolate with
praline filling
This is a white chocolate shell with
praline filling. The white chocolate is creamy and sweet but it
doesn't have the sugary, overly sweet flavour that some white
chocolates have. And the praline filling is very tasty!
Café Liégeois, dark chocolate with
mild coffee filling
Again, the dark chocolate is lovely.
The coffee filling is silky and creamy, with a mild coffee flavour.
It's a nice combination of mellow coffee and intense chocolate, but
if I had not known what the filling was supposed to taste like, I
might not have guessed what was in it (granted, I had had quite a lot
of chocolate before tasting this one, so my taste buds might not have
been at their most active).
Croustillant, milk chocolate with
crispy praline filling
Another piece of that lovely, smooth
milk chocolate. The filling, titled crispy praline, is very similar
to the fillings in many other pieces, praline and/or crispy. Don't
get me wrong, it's delicious. But at this point, it becomes difficult
to tell the different pieces apart (especially when you're not
tasting them all at the same time).
Praliné Aux Noix, dark chocolate
with walnut praliné filling
More tasty dark chocolate! In this
one, the smooth filling contains pieces of walnut, or rather, walnut
praline. The walnut flavour is easily detectable and deliciously natural, and
the praline isn't too sweet.
I first assumed that the box
contained bars of nine different flavours – there were 18
altogether and it seemed natural that there'd be two of each flavour.
However, at least in this box, there were eight different bars,
because four of them were Praliné Noir. As it happens, that was
perhaps my favourite, so I'm quite happy with the arrangement.
When I was a child, I was told that a
proper review never includes mere praise but also a suggestion for
improvement. If I had to come up with something, I would wish for a
little more variety in the flavours. All these bars are very good, but many are rather similar in taste – including a wider
variety of tastes would make the experience of sampling these
chocolates even more interesting.
