BEHIND THE CRAFT
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What are Enrobed Chocolates?

Simply put: layers of chocolate smothering something special inside. The enrobing process is actually quite technically complex and an art.

Using traditional techniques, chocolate is repeatedly poured across a central ingredient, until a thick layer has been built up, followed by polishing and glazing. That central ingredient might be a natural fruit or peel, a speciality nut or a select coffee bean.

Our Belgian chocolate is a blended couverture from Ghana, Cote d’Ivoire and Sao Tomé, for a rich creamy texture with a lingering flavour and glossy sheen. We carefully consider the cacao content to balance the sweetness and intensity of both chocolate and ingredient inside.

This artisan craft is the Critical Ingredient that makes our enrobed chocolates different and special.

FGCH12109

Milk Chocolate Enrobed Raspberries 140g

Net Weight: 140g

Real raspberries, freeze-dried to preserve flavour and delicately enrobed in fine Belgian milk chocolate. A sweet and punchy present, these melt-in-your-mouth treats are all about indulgence.

The East India Company - Lifestyle

Chocolate

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£15.00
Did you know that raspberries are the edible fruit of a plant from the rose family?

Red raspberries are native to Europe and fabulous legend has it that these red raspberries were much loved by the Olympian gods on Mount Ida in Turkey, hence the botanical name Rubus Idaeus [or bramble of Ida]. The legend continues that the nursemaid of the infant Zeus pricked her finger whilst gathering snow-white berries, staining them red for eternity.

A little more recently – and at a slight tangent - it was the import tea tax imposed by the British Parliament on the American colonies to financially support The East India Company [resulting in the Boston Tea Party] that lead to raspberry leaves becoming a popular substitute for the colonists for tea!
Back to the fruit… for centuries, raspberries would be routinely dried as a way of preservation beyond the short summer season.

And borrowing from the past, today we take fresh, plump raspberries and dehydrate them in a freeze-drying machine to remove virtually all of the water from the fruit [raspberries are actually about 85% water when fresh]. The result is a crisp, sweet and tangy treat that retains the shape and the bright colour. Absolutely nothing else is added. Until…

Our artisan chocolatiers delicately enrobe each raspberry in our unique couverture of fine Belgian Milk Chocolate.

The thick and creamy chocolate shell contrasts with the tart sweetness of the fruity inner core for a melt-in-your-mouth treat that is all about indulgence.

Ingredients

Sugar; Whole Milk Powder; Cocoa Butter; Cocoa Mass; Freeze Dried Raspberries(8%); Gum Arabic; Shellac; Soya Lecithin; Natural Vanilla Flavour


Allergens

May contain traces of nuts, contains milk and soya.

Nutrition

Typical values 100g - Energy 2137kj/512kcal | Fat 29.3g, of which saturates 18.1g | Carbohydrate 52.6g, of which sugars 50.8g | Protein 7.5g | Salt 81.3mg


Storage

Store cool and dry. Avoid sunlight and strong odours.

Suitable for vegetarians.

Stories

The London Chocolate Houses

London arrived rather late to the chocolate party... Cocoa was used as a beverage over 2000 years ago by the Mayans, who, like the later Aztecs, used cocoa as a special occasion beverage, to reward brave warriors and as an aphrodisiac. Both empires also used cocoa beans as currency.

Columbus first brought cocoa back to Spain in 1502 to little acclaim but after Cortes conquered Montezuma and the Aztecs, he successfully introduced cocoa, transformed from bitterness with sugar or honey, to the Spanish court, saying “One of this precious drink allows a man to walk a whole day without taking nourishment.”

Chocolate soon arrived in Britain, being first sold in 1657 in The Coffee Mill & Tobacco Roll. It was all things to all people: to some, as with the Aztecs, it was the viagra of the day; to others including Samuel Pepys, a hangover cure.
London Chocolate Houses also became the fashionable meeting places for the elite of London society, as well as being dens of iniquity for the colourful characters of London. The surviving White’s Chocolate House was like all, an all-male establishment, charging a penny for entrance, whilst The Cocoa Tree in Pall Mall saw Tory strategy developed over cups of chocolate.

The East India Company did trade in cocoa, paying 2 shillings in tax per pound of cocoa imported by 1760, the equivalent to one day’s wages, for these beguiling cargoes of cocoa from far off lands, but in truth was more engaged in tea than chocolate. And industrialisation made chocolate a food for the masses around this time and Chocolate Houses soon fell out of fashion.

Our spirit delivers no ordinary products

  • FAQ

    What is a Couverture chocolate?
    A couverture chocolate is one that that contains a higher percentage of cocoa butter (about a third) than ‘eating’ chocolate. This additional cocoa butter, combined with proper tempering (the process of heating and cooling chocolate to control its structure) gives the chocolate more sheen, a ""snap"" when broken, and a smooth flavour. Couverture chocolate is used for coating our enrobed chocolates.

    How is chocolate made?
    The fruit or pods of the cacao tree are harvested and opened and the beans are scooped out. The beans are allowed to ferment and then dry, after which they are cleaned, roasted and hulled. What remains are the nibs. These are ground up and the fatty cocoa butter is released. The heat from this process creates a liquid chocolate liquor mixture of the cocoa butter and finely ground nibs, from which different chocolates are produced.

  • Delivery & Returns

    UK Standard Delivery: £3.95
    UK Next Day Delivery (mainland UK only): £9.95 (Order before 12pm)
    International Delivery is available, please see our delivery page for details. For more information and Terms & Conditions, please see our Delivery page.

  • Reviews

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