Coco-luxe Confections, a Bay Area-based chocolate company, recently opened a retail store in San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury district. Though it was too warm out to try a drink from their hot chocolate selection, when I stopped by this afternoon I picked up four truffles: German Chocolate, Double Cherry, Mocha, and After Dinner Mint.
German Chocolate: Tastes sweet, not chocolatey. The coconut bits work well, though – they’re moist, unlike the dry pieces in some chocolate. While it had all the elements – chocolate, coconut, pecan – my co-tester thought it needed more of a German chocolate taste. I know that this isn’t what Coco-luxe was going for, but I think that a dark chocolate coconut piece would work better.
Double Cherry: Definitely the winner in this group. Intense cherry burst, followed by dark chocolate during the melt. I’m surprised that I liked this piece since I usually dislike cherry flavor. However, while the cherry flavor is strong, the piece avoids a syrupy sweetness with a hint of tartness.
Mocha: Way too gritty, which is a shame, because the subtle coffee flavor might have worked with a smooth ganache. Since both the coffee and chocolate flavors are subtle, the grittiness is overwhelming, but I doubt that bolder flavors could save this piece.
After Dinner Mint: Smooth, soft ganache, in great contrast to the mocha piece. The mint flavor was strong in my first nibble, but mellowed out as a I ate more. The dark chocolate is very present in the taste. Good balance between the mint and chocolate.
Overall, the truffles varied from surprisingly good (Double Cherry) to mediocre (Mocha). The truffles were attractive, and the outer layer was good, thin and soft, not hard to bite into. However, in two out of the four pieces I tasted, the flavors in the ganache need tweaking in order to be successful.
[In the efforts of full disclosure, I was afraid that I might be predisposed to disklike Coco-luxe because of of something their founder, Stephanie Marcon, say in an SFist.com interview: “Who has time to read?” Really? However, I take chocolate too seriously to let a statement like that sway my opinions.]
The Chocolate Monster 