damian allsop chocolates

when i read about damian allsop’s chocolates, i knew i needed to try them. they are different from other chocolates as damian uses water-based ganaches, preferring the neutrality (in terms of flavour) of water to the more usual and obvious choice of butter or cream. the flavours also sounded amazing – coffee and passion fruit was the one that stood out in my mind and was the one i really wanted to try, mainly because i couldn’t imagine how the flavours would combine.

the number of london stockists is quite low (although it does include my much loved fat delicatessen in balham)so i took myself off to fortnum & mason, hoping it would haveat good selection and not too many tourists (sterling’s low value means that continental europeans are flocking to london to stock up for the festivities!). the queues were awful but i was able to get myself a little box containing each of the eight or so chocolates on offer.

the flavours were wonderfully intense and somehow these chocolates tasted much richer than their creamy counterparts. the passion fruit and coffee was predictably exciting – the intense passion fruit hit balanced beautifully with the chocolate and coffee depths. when eating this, i tasted the passion fruit followed by the coffee; david’s experience was the other way round.

other favourites were a fabulously intense basil and a beautifully balanced pear (which was provided in the form of a fruit jelly) and aniseed. the pine scented “christmas” was a wonderful way to finish and the prompt for me to offer to send a box of these chocolates to one lucky eat the right stuff reader. if you fancy trying them, buy yourself a menu for hope raffle ticket (or two) – see here for full details – and cross your fingers!