Artisan du chocolat and shoes: two steps to lady heaven
Sunday, September 12, 2010 at 11:54PM 
Last weekend in London, I made a long-awaited trip to Artisan du chocolat's shop and chocolateria in Notting Hill. With a total of three shops in the city, the Notting Hill branch was top of my list as it is the only one that serves their chocolate and salted caramel tart, cold cacao pulp juice and a selection of chocolate cocktails. Not sickly sweet, cloying affairs, but four classics reworked into perfectly balanced, chocolatey sophistication.
The mission was born last Christmas when, hunting for family gifts, I discovered Artisan's original salted caramels, created in 2003 for Gordon Ramsay’s menu at Claridges: a sweet liquid caramel with a pinch of untreated grey salt from the French island of Noirmoutier (harvested by hand from clay marshes since medieval times), captured in a cocoa dusted shell of intense dark chocolate. They remain the company's bestselling chocolate. And deservedly so. Much copied, but not equalled.
On Saturday, having tramped the length of Westbourne Grove, window-licking boutiques much of the way, I was ready for a caffeine lift. The choices: Espresso hot chocolate, their espresso chocolate bar, liquefied and souped up with Colombian coffee beans, or Matcha white hot chocolate, the white chocolate and green Tbar, melted down with even more green tea. Though I love matcha - the very high-grade powdered green tea used for Japanese tea ceremonies, algae-green in colour, reminiscent of toasted rice and freshly cut grass in flavour - it was a deep, dark and intense coffee I was in the mood for. In fact, I wanted one so badly I practically ached for it. But that day's batch was all done and the matcha wasn't quite ready.
Devastated, I retreated to one of the chocolate bar impression tables, menu in hand, to reform my chocolate strategy. The edibles were a cinch: their salted caramels are so good that leaving without trying the tart was never really an option. Though I was momentarily swayed by the Dipped butter cake slice, an individual portion of butter cake to dip in a pot of melted Mexican dark chocolate. Perfect spirit-lifting material on a rainy afternoon.
No pics of the tart so here's the fondant instead
The tart met expectations. Warm chocolate ganache and liquid salted caramel in a butter-rich, very fine textured pastry casing, topped with one of the famed caramels. I rather generously proffered the diminutive decoration to my companion and watched with pleasure as he had his first AduC salted caramel experience. The velvety dusting of bittersweet cocoa slightly dry on the tongue, its tannins gently drawing his cheeks in around the small sphere, biting through the pleasingly hard shell of dark chocolate, followed by a rush of minerally salted caramel. He smiled. I smiled back. No words necessary.
Next we tried the Cacao pulp juice. A cold drink made from the white pulp encasing the beans of fresh pods. Billed as tasting like lychee and tart apple, it reminded me more of mangosteen. Sweet and refreshingly tangy with a curious combination of tropical perfumes and seductive woodiness. And it looked the same too - just like puréed mangosteen flesh in fact; a thick, oyster-hued shimmer. Full of antioxidants and B vitamins it's really good for you as well.
Finally, we settled back on a Cacao martini. Created by Nick Strangeway, cocktail legend - I hadn't heard of him before, but I can see why he's earned the rep. Beautifully presented in a polished half-coconut shell, filled with opaque pebbles of ice, a stemless martini glass perched on top. A traditional martini made using vodka infused with cocoa nibs and ground cocoa beans. Strongly flavoured of chocolate, without being sweet.
Hidden at the bottom of the glass, we found a bright green, smooth lumpen thing. A fragment of rainforest canopy? A fossilised jewel beetle? We sniffed tentatively. Smelled edible. My newly cheesewire-wrapped nashers prevent me from biting into very much at all, so my companion bit it in half for us to share. A Gianduja almond: roasted then coated with praline, white chocolate and a final wash of jungle-green. The dramatic colour and punchy crunch abruptly recalled attention from Amazonian reverie to the present; a clever little apéritif trick.
Shopping fires stoked on chocolate, we made our way to Selfridges where they've just opened a new shoe gallery. Rooms and rooms of shoes. But not before stocking up on a selection of AduC's Couture Chocolates from their in-store shop, and location of their second chocolateria. Made from their own chocolate, each one is a miniature work of art.
I conducted a spontaneous tasting the other night, in that two led to two more, which led to another, and then another, etc etc. You know the score. I was particularly impressed by the following:
Tonka. Outstanding. The musky vanilla, bitter almond and sweet hay character of the bean is perfectly captured in a dark ganache. Perfectly complemented by it too. Works so much better than the milk chocolate tonka bar or the white chocolate and apricot O, both faint and insipid by comparison. Choccie headline: Sensual spice escaped from ganache prison in Sonnda Catto's mouth.
Green Cardamom. Another incredible example of chocolate entrapment. The spice notes ring out with wonderful purity and clarity. Rich and intensely aromatic.
Madagascar Dark. Strong, simple and damned good.
Tobacco. Originally made for Heston Blumenthal's Fat Duck restaurant. On first try I was inclined to dismiss this as a novelty chocolate: something to try for the hell of it rather than taste pleasure. With a misleadingly unassuming start - gentle notes of caramel, coffee and vanilla - the tobacco follows with a tingle that revs up to a heat of Fireball Jawbreaker proportions. Weird. In a good way. By the second one I wanted more. Definitely not to be missed.
Honey Nougat. A mouthful of playful, nutty and chewy deliciousness. "Cream tangerine and montelimar, A ginger sling with a pineapple heart..."
Coriander praline. Perhaps the most beautiful of all, but with a barely-there subtlety that was lost on me, probably because I was already several into my tasting/scoffing. So delicate that it should be eaten first from a selection. I'll know for next time.
I also tried two others in the salted caramel range. No 4, infused with pink and black peppercorns. And No 7, by aged balsamic vinegar. But unlike the No 1 original, they didn't blow me away. Tasted on different occasions, I was unable to discern which was which. The problem, I think, that the mini torrent of liquid caramel disappears too quickly to catch the delicate additions. Yet they're strong enough to take away from the original's pure saline hit. I still want to try No 15, tinkered with sage and thyme, both because I love each herb and the idea of combining them with chocolate strikes me as a bit bonkers. But for now at least, the original remains unrivalled in my estimation.
Wandering around the shoe collections, I was told I'd used up my lifetime allocation of shopping. As a humorous text to a confidante of his revealed, my man friend had been transported from (chocolate) heaven to (shopping) hell. The net effect, I supposed, akin to a kind of anxiety-provoking limbo.
For my own part, like Eddie says in the song, there are actually three steps to heaven. I took my first before getting out of bed and leaving the house. Good sex, fine chocolate, shoes, shoes and more shoes. Lady heaven.
Artisan du chocolat
Shop & chocolateria
81 Westbourne Grove
London W2
Shop & chocolateria
Artisan du chocolat at Selfridges
400 Oxford Street
London W1
Shop
89 Lower Sloane Square
London SW1
Tel: 0845 270 6996
www.artisanduchocolat.com
Many thanks to Anne Weyns, Director of Artisan du chocolat for providing me with such beautiful images of their products to illustrate this post. It seems I can't concentrate on food and drink and photograph at the same time. Some activities just aren't meant for multitasking.
Reader Comments (4)
nom nom nom nom
AduC is a dreamland...or for some a nightmare. Chocolate heaven or waistline disaster area, what is it for you? All I know is that once you have tasted those salted caramels something changes, it is almost a profound experience, like you have been let in on a naughty secret which you are privileged to have been told. As for the shoes bit, well I am not going to grace this blog with a comment. Lovely reading Miss Pond, please keep it up.
Wow, what a great chocolate tour! I think the little martini is my favorite, I thought it was a little chile at first.
Brilliant my dear!!! SUFFOCATINGLY, DECADENTLY, TRULLA, TRULLA- LICIOUS FOR YOUR PORK-CHOCOLATE CHOPS !!!