Chocoholics, are you looking for a reason to feel a little less guilty about indulging? Then check out Chocolate and Love who sell the most delicious dark chocolates which according to experts provide health benefits as dark chocolate is made from flavonoids. Flavonoids are produced by plants, fruits, and vegetables. Flavonoids act as an antioxidant and anti-inflammatory, improving blood flow, benefiting your heart and brain, and even warding off cancer.
As a lover of chocolate I have never been keen on dark chocolate but when I was offered some PR samples of Chocolate and Love dark chocolates I just had to try and wow I am pleased I did as I have now fallen in LOVE with their dark chocolate not bitter at all.
Chocolate and Love
Founded by Richard and Birgitte O’Connor in 2010 they set up Chocolate and Love which is an award winning chocolate producer.
Chocolate and Love source some of the World’s finest organic ingredients and producers in Switzerland, creating dark chocolate giving consumers tasty and full flavoured dark chocolate.
They sell nine delicious 80g variants including two pure chocolate bars 80% Panama and 71% Rich Dark and seven others with stunning flavours mixed into them, all of which are wrapped in bespoke hand-painted designs. Six of their 80g bars are suitable for vegans.
Chocolate and Love is excellent quality, ethically-made, organic chocolate at an affordable price and can be purchased across 40+ countries.
Their chocolates are all Fair trade and have won over 37 Great Taste Awards and their Pomegranate and Coffee flavours have also received awards from Academy of Chocolate.
Chocolate and Love hug in a bar
I was kindly gifted a box of a selection of their dark chocolates as well as a single bar of their Milk Chocolate Caramelised Hazelnut & Sea Salt.
Did you know that dark chocolate can be good for you?.
“Dark Chocolate is rich in compounds that have been found to reduce inflammation, lower bad LDL cholesterol, lower blood pressure, reduce your risk for heart disease, and much more.”
Sonya Angelone a spokesperson for the Academy of the Nutrition & Dietetics
However remember chocolate even dark chocolate is high in calories. The recommendation is to eat no more than 6 teaspoons of added sugar per day, and if you’re at risk for diabetes or heart disease. So if you are conscious about your health, stick to a couple of squares and truly savour those bites of deliciousness. The higher percentage of cocoa solids equals higher the percentage of flavonoids so the darker the chocolate the more you can safely eat but obviously in reasonable quantities.
Upon receiving my luxurious chocolates from Chocolate and Love I instantly fell in love with their very tropical designs which are displayed on their chocolates as well as their chocolate boxes. Their hand-painted packaging is by artists Birgitte and Richard who come from New York and their painted designs which are inspired from the rich areas Chocolate and Love beans come from.
Not only is their packaging beautiful to look at, but it is also produced on paper that is 100% Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified, so in some small part is contributing to the global drive for responsible forest management. Their silver inside wrapper is biodegradable and is produced with materials made from sustainably harvested wood.
Plus Chocolate and Love also sell a bag for life with a stunning rain forest design.
PACKAGING AWARD
Winner of Award for packing 2014. food + media (mad + medier). The Jury says: “Chocolate and Love conveys a compelling product story, and the hand-painted illustrations with the exotic colours provide the packaging with taste even before you open the chocolate. Aesthetics, ethics and packaging design blends together beautifully and makes Chocolate and Love a natural winner of food + media packaging award 2014”
As you can see from the above all their dark chocolates have won numerous awards from Great Taste.
Chocolate of love in a box
My gifted Pomegranate Gift Box is completed vegan and consists of 4 x 80g bars of Pomegranate, Rich Dark, Panama and Orange Chocolate.
I had a nibble of each and everyone of their chocolates which each tasted as great but I also got creative and made some sweet treats with each.
Firstly let me tell you about the taste of the chocolate pure.
Their Panama Chocolate 80% is made with cacao from Panama and provides a full bodied yet mild, decadent and incredibly smooth with chocolate with hints of nuttiness from the pieces of nuts. A nutty bite of delight.
The Rich Dark Chocolate 71% is made with cacao from Peru and The Dominican Republic and provides notes of red berries followed by a fresh and delicious rich chocolatey creamy flavour.
The Pomegranate Chocolate 70% is made with cacao from Madagascar and provides unique flavour notes, of hints of citrus and pomegranate providing sweetness and tartness. Dark, rich and surprisingly creamy
The Orange Chocolate 65% is made with cacao from Peru and The Dominican Republic and gives a lovely creamy taste of oranges, with a zesty tanginess and creaminess of the chocolate. Orangetastic.
As mentioned before I don’t usually like dark chocolate but each and every one was ever so tasty and different and I instantly fell in LOVE with them. None were bitter, in fact all very creamy and left me craving for more.
Apart from the gift box of vegan chocolate I was also gifted a 80g of Caramelised Hazelnuts and Sea Salt Milk Chocolate. This chocolate used cacao from Peru and The Dominican Republic. Provided a very creamy and rich milk chocolate followed with a crunchiness from the sweet caramelised hazelnuts and a hint of sea salt. A caramelised explosion.
To taste any chocolate at it’s best let it melt in your mouth as more flavour will be released!
Desserts using chocolate
Now as a lover of desserts I created some conjunctions from their bars of several panna cottas, mousse and profiteroles.
Chocolate Panna Cotta
used Chocolate and Love Panama and Orange bar
Ingredients
(serves 2)
- 100ml milk
- 100ml double cream
- 1 leaf of gelatine
- 15ml water
- 15g caster sugar
- pinch of salt
- 60g Chocolate and Love chocolate
Method
- Coat two small panna cotta / jelly moulds flavourless oil.
- Dissolve leaf of gelatin in cold water for about 5 minutes.
- In a medium saucepan bring the cream, milk, sugar and salt to a simmer over medium-low heat.
- Remove from heat and add the chocolate cut into small pieces. Stir until chocolate is completely melted.
- Add gelatin and stir until the gelatin has completely dissolved.
- Pour it in the prepared moulds and refrigerate to set for about 4 hours or overnight.
I made two panna cottas one with Chocolate and Love Orange and another with their Panama chocolate which equally came out just as well. The orange bar gave the creamy panna cotta a real tanginess from the orange and the Panama a pure clean richness of chocolate. Chocolate lovers cooked cream of delight.
Mini Chocolate and Hazelnut Profiteroles Stack with Tequila Surprise
Ingredients
(serves 2)
Choux Pastry
- 70g plain flour
- 1/2 tsp golden caster sugar
- 60g unsalted butter cut into small pieces
- 2 large eggs (about 115g) beaten
Chocolate sauce
- 35g soft light brown sugar
- 20g cocoa powder
- 35g golden syrup
- 75g Chocolate and Love chocolate roughly chopped
Hazelnut Brittle
- 1 tbsp ready-chopped hazelnuts
- 75g white caster sugar
Filling
- 40g Nutella
- 75ml Myst Salted Caramel Tequila
- 12g icing sugar
- 300ml double cream
Method
- Put the sugar, butter and ½ tsp fine salt into a large pan with 120ml of water. Heat very gently until the butter has melted, then increase the heat and bring the liquid to the boil.
- As soon as it’s bubbling, lower the heat, tip in the flour and beat it in with a wooden spoon until the mixture forms a smooth dough that clumps together, leaving the rest of the pan clean. Carry on beating and cooking over a low heat for 5 minutes (steam should continue to rise from the mixture).
- Cool for 5 minutes, then add in the egg a little at a time, beating in completely between each addition, until the dough is smooth and glossy but still thick. Make sure not too runny otherwise you won’t be able to pipe it, too thick and the buns won’t puff up in the oven. Dampen a sheet of baking paper and use it to line a big baking sheet (or two small ones).
- Heat the oven to 200C fan or 180C. Transfer the dough to a piping bag fitted with a large round nozzle, and pipe 15 walnut-sized balls, spaced apart for rising. Dip your finger in a little water to smooth out any bumps or peaks in the dough, then put the tray or trays in the oven and bake for 30-35 minutes until the profiteroles are puffed, golden and crisp. Turn off the oven and leave the profiteroles in for another 30 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to finish cooling.
- Make the chocolate sauce by putting the sugar, cocoa and golden syrup in a pan with 100ml water. Whisk together over a medium heat then, once it begins to boil, bubble fiercely for a minute, remove from the heat and stir in the chocolate until it has melted. Pour into a bowl and leave to cool, then cover and chill.
- For the hazelnut brittle, line another baking sheet with baking paper and sprinkle over the chopped hazelnuts. Heat the sugar in a medium pan without stirring. When it’s melted, bubble until it turns a golden caramel colour. Pour straight onto the baking sheet, tilting to spread as thinly as possible and cover all the nuts. Once set, bash the brittle in a food processor into small pieces, and whizz 1/3 of these to make a sugar ‘dust’.
- For the filling, put the Nutella into a bowl with 1/2 the Salted Caramel Tequila and 1/2 the icing sugar, and gently whisk until combined. Pour in 1/2 the cream and whip to soft peaks with electric beaters. Pour the remaining cream into a separate bowl with the remaining icing sugar and Tequila, and whip this to soft peaks as well.
- When the profiteroles are cold, you’re ready to assemble. Poke holes in the bottom of each bun with a small piping nozzle. Spoon both fillings into separate piping bags fitted with small nozzles, and pipe into 15 profiteroles each, until they feel heavy and the cream wants to squirt back out.
- To assemble, dunk each profiterole in the chocolate sauce to cover the top as you stack on a serving plate. Sprinkle over the nutty brittle shards and dust, and serve the profiterole tower.
A little like mini balls of eclairs my Tequila filled profiteroles provided an explosion of alcohol, and caramel where Chocolate and Love Rich Dark Chocolate gave a real chocolate hit. The sprinkled hazelnuts gave a crunch to the dessert. A real chocolate mountain.
Classic Chocolate Mousse
Ingredients (serves 2)
- 50g Chocolate and Love chopped
- 13g butter cubed
- 2 medium eggs, separated
- 1 tbsp caster sugar
Method
- Put the chocolate, butter and 37ml warm water in a heatproof bowl set over a pan of barely simmering water. Push the chocolate and butter gently into the warm water with a wooden spoon to help it melt, but avoid stirring too much. Once three-quarters of the butter and chocolate is melted, remove the bowl from the heat. Stir until melted, smooth and glossy. Set aside until lukewarm.
- Working quickly, use a spatula to stir the egg yolks into the chocolate mixture, one at a time. In a separate bowl, use an electric whisk to whip the egg whites to soft peaks, then gradually add the sugar, whisking, until stiff peaks form.
- Gently fold about a fifth of the egg whites into the chocolate mixture, then fold in the rest, being careful not to knock out the air bubbles. Pour into a dessert glasses, cover with clingfilm and chill overnight to set.
The mousse worked well with their Pomegranate chocolate giving this light, fluffy, airy mousse a fruitiness and hit of chocolate, a real joy.
Chocolate LOVE
All of Chocolate and Love chocolates were so delicious just as a bar but also worked beautifully in creating sweet desserts.
Instantly from the packaging you can tell their chocolates are not your normal average chocolate, upon opening the chocolate wrapper up, and breaking the sealed foil which keeps the chocolate fresh I was instantly hit by the gorgeous smell of chocolate, then upon biting into it hit with pure deliciousness of a creamy dark chocolate and note of the flavours used within the bar.
In fact I loved them so much I even bought a their Sea Salt & Caramel bar which was an explosion of chocolate, caramel and salt, pure bliss.
Which chocolate appealed to you the most?
I highly recommend these chocolates if you are a dark chocolate or not as you won’t be disappointed.
Chocolate and Love Ltd order your bar of love
Chocolate and Love Ltd
6 Atholl Crescent
Perth
PH1 5JN
customerlove@chocolateandlove.com
Purchase yours:
80g Bars
Coffee Chocolate
Orange Chocolate
Mint Chocolate
Pomegranate Chocolate
Panama Single Origin Chocolate
Rich Dark Chocolate
Creamy Dark Chocolate
Sea Salt Caramel Dark Chocolate
Caramelised Hazelnuts and Sea Salt Milk Chocolate
Selection of gift boxes
Pomegranate all-vegan gift box
Thank you all vegan chocolate gift box
Rich Dark Chocolate gift box
Rich Dark Chocolate Tin
Rich Dark Chocolate Mini Gift Box
Creamy Dark Chocolate Gift Box
Thaky You Creamy Dark Chocolate
Sea Salt Tin Assortment of Flavours
Sea Salt Chocolate Gift Box
Panama Chocolate Gift Box
Thank You Panama Chocolate Gift Box
Chocolate Napolitains
Bag for life
Rich Dark Tote Design Bag
Discover more about Chocolate and love click here.
Alternatively purchase via my shop.
Thank you to Chocolate and Love for the chocolates they were a real indulgent delight. All views are my own honest opinion.
“I love going out discovering new and existing restaurants, theatres, immersive experiences and so much more but I also love staying in and discovering new gadgets, gaming and cooking.
