All About Chocolates

[keroppi]

Choc lover here. Oh i like most of the chocs mentioned here. I love Godiva choc and gourmet choc in general but they are beyond my budget.

Royce nama (from taka, yes melts in your mouth) is great n affordable and so are the green tea kitkats.
Used to get friends to carry them back for me from Japan until I found this Japan titbits store at tampines I basement shop that carries everything you can find in Japanese convenience store. Imami I think they do have the strawberry ones there.
NTUC currently carries the Japanese dark choc kitkats which I like very much (called otona meaning adult in Japanese - guess it is semi sweet less calories so meant for adult?).
I also like dove choc very much! Wonder why it is not popular? Can see NTUC trying to get rid of stock.
Used to like hersey's Reese choc when I was much younger ... Now so old cannot indulge . Too sweet. :love:
Like many of you my fridge is stocked full of different types of chocs.

[cherinelee]

Royce is good. My DD loves it!!

[Imami]

keroppi:

Choc lover here. Oh i like most of the chocs mentioned here. I love Godiva choc and gourmet choc in general but they are beyond my budget.

Royce nama (from taka, yes melts in your mouth) is great n affordable and so are the green tea kitkats.
Used to get friends to carry them back for me from Japan until I found this Japan titbits store at tampines I basement shop that carries everything you can find in Japanese convenience store. Imami I think they do have the strawberry ones there.
NTUC currently carries the Japanese dark choc kitkats which I like very much (called otona meaning adult in Japanese - guess it is semi sweet less calories so meant for adult?).
I also like dove choc very much! Wonder why it is not popular? Can see NTUC trying to get rid of stock.
Used to like hersey's Reese choc when I was much younger ... Now so old cannot indulge . Too sweet. :love:
Like many of you my fridge is stocked full of different types of chocs.

Thanks! But tam pines is so far...

[jce]

The few Finest are generally well stocked in their Jap confectionery section, give it a try. I will keep an eye out for the strawberry ones. Keep you posted

[dasalo]

jce:

Dark choc should not be more than 70% otherwise it becomes too bitter.


I like Royce for nama, dark goes to Beschle (Swiss brand) for their bars. There's also Brit brand Hotel Chocolat, but sadly, not available here and the French Maison Du Chocolat, again, not available here. But if you guys are at East Coast Road, head to Pave. Their chocolates are really nice. The shop is located opp Roxy, near overhead bridge. Pastry there is good too.

PAVE wrapped up their business already.. I've tried their chocolates, not bad but I find it alittle too salty to my liking. They are generous with their hazelnut.

I bought quite alot of their raw ingredients/stuffs during their closing sale. eg. Easel board, chestnut paste/nuts. Coffee beans,lingot beans, sugars etc...
Surprisingly, I was told they added 花椒 in their chocolates.

[dasalo]

I am not a real eater of chocolates but when I have cravings, I would go to the counter buy a 100g and start chomping away within mins. I don't usually stock chocolates in my fridge as I find them loses it's freshness and becomes too hard in our fridge temp.

gladyschan:

Ritter Sport omg, my favourite!!!

It used to be my fav too but my tastebuds has upgraded to Teuscher, Godiva, Leonidas, Royce but now they also have taken a backseat. The latest is I've tried is Valrhona.

Teuscher is only available in Palais Renaissance.

Valrhona is best if you like bitter chocolates as their high cocoa content chocolate still taste real smooth.

Godiva's is cheaper elsewhere other than in SG. Even in HKG, the beautiful padded box set is always cheaper. In London, you'll get the metal box type.

[jce]

Yes, Pave, sadly, has closed down. Something to do with the rental, so I heard. Such a pity cos I did like their choc and truffles, and more so, their pastry and cakes.

[osim]

Mychildren:

osim,


http://candy.about.com/od/candybasics/ht/temperchoc.htm

about tempering chocolates.

Thanks MyChildren, I move my query to this thread as it is more appropriate.

Quite troublesome and also must find special chocolate thermometer. Will consider tempering. Now my chocolate goes from my fridge to my mouth. Strangely, my chocolate already look very glossy without tempering but they melt too fast for me to give as gifts to my friends. They taste really good. Mine is 100% raw cacao powder and butter with Agave syrup. Once I used Manuka Honey instead and it was heavenly. I don't use commercial chocolate block. That seem like remoulding chocolate more than making chocolate. Making chocolate from scratch allows me to control the sweetness.

Anyone with experience making raw chocolate, please share any other way to increase melting point.

[Mychildren]

osim,


I just guess only. You can try increasing the proportion of cocoa powder to increase the melting point.
If you're going to try, can you let me know whether it works this way?

[osim]

Mychildren,


I’ll try increasing the cacao powder proportion. I wonder if that will make the end product feels chalky in the mouth. I don’t add any milk. Anyway, I’ll let you know after I do the next batch.