(upbeat blues rock music)
- Hello and welcome.
We are SORTEDfood,
and today, two of our normal home cooks
will be tasting and reviewing four chocolate trends.
Four things under the cloche,
plenty to talk about
- Lots of chocolate.
- Mm-hm-hm.
(dynamic blues rock music)
- Shall we?
- Trend number one, lift the cloche.
- Okay, ready?
It's a giant coco bean.
- I don't think it's giant,
I think that it just is a cocoa bean.
- Bean...?
- [Both] Pods.
- Pods.
- Oh, oh my goodness it's open.
Okay.
- So open up, have a look.
Barry, the one you've got in front of you is from Ecuador.
Jamie, yours has not been cut into,
but it's from Saint Lucia.
- I thought I was really strong for a second then. (laughs)
- So the trend we're looking at
is some research that said two thirds of consumers
would like to know more about where
their chocolate comes from and what it is.
Have you ever tried inside a fresh coco pod?
- [Both] No.
(bright music) - Cheers.
- It's soft.
- But with a crunch.
- Very bitter.
- Doesn't taste like chocolate.
- Oh, look at that.
- [Jamie] My impression is
this is gonna have the texture of coconut.
- Almost furry, like the skin of a peach as well, isn't it?
It's kind of fluffy.
- It's springy.
- Spongy. - Spongy.
- But hard underneath.
- Yeah, a hard sponge.
- Cheers.
- It's really, oh, it's got a bit of chocolate early on.
Got a bit...
- Oh wow.
- Oh my goodness.
- [Ben] What are you getting?
- Whoa-ho-ho-ho.
That's actually very enjoyable.
Straight away, you get a pop of freshness.
- Yeah. - From the flesh.
- A very tropical fruit style pop.
- But then, of course, inside,
there's a incredibly bitter piece of cocoa bean.
(jar clatters on counter) Whoa!
- Ebbers!
(jar scrapes counter)
Cocoa butter. - Yeah.
- And cocoa nibs.
- Correct, now the cocoa nibs still have the fat in them,
but once it's processed, they're about 50% fat,
that cocoa butter comes out
and the cocoa butter, also used in cosmetics,
when combined with dairy and sugar becomes white chocolate.
Some of it is added back into...
- It's not what I expected.
- That's not white chocolate, no.
- It's not. - That's just fat.
- That is not the Milky Bar kid, that.
- No, that's just like eating a lump of coconut fat.
- And there is a flavour of white chocolate.
- As always, all the products today,
we have bought ourselves,
but we will link down below where we got them from,
because it is such a fascinating experience,
if you wanted to try it,
there are only a few places in London
that will be able to get a hold of them for you.
The flesh around the cocoa beans is also useful.
Incredibly sweet, can be turned into juices,
and some companies are even using it to sweeten chocolate.
So rather than adding sugar from a cane,
they're now adding the sweetness of the cacao flesh
to make it 100%
- Cacao. - Cacao,
even though it's only perhaps 70% cocoa bean.
- Phenomenal.
- Our next three items under the cloche
take chocolate to different places.
- [Both] Ooh!
(upbeat rock music)
- Back on form, Ebbers.
Good cloching.
Ooh.
- Chococo-cococo. (Barry chuckles)
Choco, Chococo.
- I have a Dark Chocolate Ocean Egg.
- I have a Milk Chocolate Dinosaur Egg,
studded with mini chocolate dinosaurs and ammonites.
- Open it up, have a look.
These are both from Chococo.
And the trend we're talking about
is the importance that consumers have
on the world around us.
(paper rustling)
- Oh wow.
- Also, Jay.
(package filling rustling)
No plastic.
Good, ain't it?
- No plastic, just a massive (bleep)
- (laughs) Better, embrace it.
That is a very pretty egg.
- That is...
Ahhh.
Shat himself. (both laughing)
- Two, three.
(packaging rustling)
- This is what happens when you buy kids Easter eggs.
- Look at this! (paper rustling)
Okay. Mine's very different.
And mine's a little bit br...
You've got little turtles and, and starfishes!
- Can I break into mine?
- Do it.
(egg taps)
Ooh, a nice little tap.
(egg whacks)
Like a Kinder Egg.
Oh. (gasps)
- Mine is full of fossils that look nearly as old as Ebbers.
(Barry chuckles)
I love this Ebbers,
but are Easter eggs really a trend?
- So there's always a bit of a space for novelty at Easter.
And I like the throwback to the Jurassic coast,
where this artisanal husband and wife team
have been making chocolate for 20 years.
But also, the trend we're looking at
is the importance of trust, legacy, and reducing plastics.
Claire, one of the founders,
before she started this business,
she sailed around the world
and she saw the impact on our oceans
that were happening even 20 years ago.
So from starting this chocolate business,
even their chocolate gift box selection
comes with paper separations.
- Wow.
- It's been ahead of the times
when it comes to plastic reduction.
- It's so rare to see novelty delivered with class.
No, (laughs) no.
- So Baz, yours is 72% chocolate, so dark chocolate.
And Jay, you've got the kind of white milk mix.
- Wow.
(slaps counter) Best Easter egg I've ever eaten.
- [Ben] Bold.
- We've had a lot of Easter eggs here
and they're always like, falling one side of the line,
novelty to actual quality.
Here, they've married the two perfectly.
- And with responsible packaging in mind,
the last thing to add,
every one of those ocean eggs they sell
they donate to the Ocean Giants Programme.
So a charity that is also helping to clear up
and prevent further damage to our seas.
- You're starting to see more and more companies set up
that are purpose led, that are trying to do good things,
from the start, whilst creating products
that people will love.
And what's different about this team
is that they seem to have been doing it before it became-
- It was trendy. - Trendy.
They were just set out from the start
to do it the right way.
- Price wise, their giant egg.
They do do smaller ones too, but their giant egg?
- It's always more expensive
than we have been led to believe.
- It's what you should be paying for chocolate.
- Yes.
So I'm going to say, 30 pounds.
- Oh, I, whoa.
Really, For one egg?
- It's a big egg.
- They've won a hundred national and international awards
and every one is still handcrafted.
- I'd say 18 pounds.
- [Ben] Jamie was closer.
27 pounds 50. (register chimes)
- I can't argue with that price.
And for that, you'll get egg with a Barry seal of approval.
- Oh, yay.
- Let's bring on round three.
(dynamic blues rock)
(marker pen scratching)
(graphic blips)
(dynamic blues rock continues)
- I'm having a great time.
- Course you are, I'm feeding you chocolate.
- There's two more.
Right, ready?
- Lift the cloche, number three.
(Barry makes pop noise)
- Are they Chocolate?
- He's given us a chocolate sausage.
(Jamie giggles) - Thought so.
- You have three chocolate saucisson, oh salamis.
They're chocolate salamis. - Chocolate salamis.
We've made chocolate salami before.
- We have made chocolate salamis before.
- Years ago.
(upbeat indie music) - Hang it up.
As you would see on maybe an artisan stall down the market,
lots of salami hanging up,
that's our chocolate salami, sorted.
(upbeat indie music continues)
- Wasn't it like Rocky Road in a sausage shape?
- Pretty much.
- Oh, Rocky Road.
- Oh.
- Rocky Road salamis.
See? Trendsetters!
- Look at us.
- So what you have there
is three products
from Cocoa Chemistry.
So the trend we're looking at
is chocolate breaking the mould.
IE, at Easter, consumers looking for other shapes and forms
rather than just eggs.
- Like sausage?
- Like sausage. (Jamie laughs)
- I like these.
Should we try some?
- Yes.
(bright indie music)
- So inside, you've got chocolate, walnuts
and some date in there, in my slice.
Like a dark chocolate coating
with a more milk chocolatey inside.
Mm.
- Yeah, it's a chocolate truffle.
Mm. - It's tasty.
- It's really tasty.
- I like it.
Does it add anything to it
being in the shape of a (bleep)
(counter slams) - What? How are you...
- It's not the shape of a poo,
it's in the shape of a salami
- How are you picking holes in things that are novelty?
This is your life.
- Novelty with class.
(Barry laughs)
- That is the best chocolate sausage I've ever had.
- Oh, Barry's Badge is back. (Barry laughing)
Let's get his badge back out.
- I quite like the small artisan producer.
And these two in particular, play to sort of the,
the geeky side of me,
which is that they started life as chemists.
And then they transferred from corporate life
to chocolate making,
but kind of took all of that science and understanding
into cocoa chemistry.
- So I think the way that this is packaged
and how it looks like it's marketed,
this is going for the gift market.
To me, this is what this feels like.
It's going for the gift market.
And the type of person that this would get bought for is
me.
As in the type of person who is known for liking meats
and salamis and chorizos and that kind of thing.
And it's a novelty thing, like, ha-ha, it's a chocolate one.
Now I look at it and go-
- Not meat. (laughs)
- That's novelty and doesn't look very good.
Tasting it, it tastes great.
And if it's all responsible sourced
and all of that kind of thing, that's brilliant,
but I'd prefer it in a ball.
Like I want those flavours in a ball.
- I am amazed. - So consumers are looking
for new trends and new forms
and you just want a chocolate truffle?
- I could not disagree any more.
It's done with a smile and it delivers on quality.
And I just, I can't get enough of this, this is great.
- What about price?
- [Barry] I like it, I like it.
- Price?
(Barry laughs)
Uh, five pounds.
- Oh, I dunno.
I'd go with more like seven
- A range of flavours up for grabs
but we bought three (register rings)
and they were 10 pounds each.
- I've never bought a chocolate salami,
so wouldn't know what to pay for it.
But if you were to pay for that weight in truffles,
it's about, not that bad I actually don't think.
(tense dramatic music)
(title graphic slams)
(camera zoom whooshes)
(bell pings)
(bright dynamic music)
(funky electro soul music)
Yeah, go on.
- Yeah? Yeah, final one.
- [Ben] It arrives through your letter box like that.
- Oh
Okay, right.
Willie's Cacao.
- Again, another example of a company
with a fantastic backstory, we'll come to that in a minute,
but this is their Discovery Box.
And the trend we're looking at
is consumers on the hunt for more experiences.
- It's definitely a trend
but I didn't know Willie's were doing one.
- So you can either buy them as individual Discovery Boxes,
which this is, as a gift or for yourself,
or they do do a subscription.
But basically you get a whole bunch of different chocolates,
tasting notes,
a flavour wheel and you can watch a video online
of how to taste chocolate and what it is you're tasting.
- So this first one, Pure Gold
is a hundred percent cacao
and it's a bean that has low acidity
and it's been conched for three or more weeks.
"Worth the wait, taste those silky nutty notes rolling in."
Cheers.
Woo!
- There is no sweetness there.
- It's very silky, though.
And very nutty.
- This is not about-
- Enjoyment.
- Enjoyment of this particular bar.
It's about setting kind of me on a journey.
- It's the enjoyment of the journey.
- It's incredibly bitter and drying,
yet it's melting slowly and it's,
it feels luxurious,
but tastes quite intrusive.
- So Willie, if you've never heard of him,
he is the founder of the business,
started for him in Venezuela.
He was on holiday.
He met an artist who said
"Go to where the mountains meet the sky"
and he walked up the hill and in that hacienda,
looked out and fell in love,
sold his London flat, bought a cocoa farm
and the rest of the story is history.
And from day one has won awards, not just for chocolate,
but for packaging as well.
And it's a really interesting journey
as he's trying to get people to understand more
about chocolate, the tastes and not just single origin,
in terms of country, where does your chocolate come from?
But single estate.
If somebody had said to you
"What wine is this?"
And you said, "It's French",
that's not really enough.
You wanna know which region.
We don't think about that with chocolate.
You say, "What's this chocolate?"
Venezuelan.
Well, actually it's very specifically one estate.
- So we're moving on to two others.
So we've got the Rio Caribe, 72.
Should get some complex layers of coffee and nuts.
(mellow bass groove music)
- First one was like I sat in first class,
but it was a really dodgy takeoff.
Suddenly, we're now at 3000 feet.
And we're gliding.
That is spectacular.
- Relatable.
- So this is the Las Trincheras, also from Venezuela,
same bean, still 72% cacao,
but should taste very different.
- Oh.
It's more creamy
- No, it is creamy.
- It's more creamy, - That's the word
less nuttier. I was gonna say.
- We are not chocolate experts, as you can tell,
but they are spectacular.
- And that's kind of the journey
this is trying to take you on.
The journey takes you through milk chocolate
and white chocolate as well.
Plus varying percentages as well as different estates
within the same country.
- Chances are, you're not gonna sit down
and eat all of these in one sitting.
- That'd be silly.
- But I like the fact that you've got a map there,
as well, to kind of every time you do dip back into the box,
you know where you're going and what's next in the journey.
- In terms of discovering chocolate
and learning that two with the same bean
and the same percentage, from the same place
could be so different from each other,
like as an opportunity, that is incredible.
And to have be able to have that at home, as well,
I think is really good fun.
- 10 bars of chocolate, 50 grammes a pop,
with the flavour map, the wheel and the video online,
the tasting experience.
Sourced from all over the world, responsibly,
including from his own coca farm in Venezuela,
how much?
- I'm gonna keep it simple.
It's 10 bars, they're 50 grammes each.
- Paying 50 quid, aren't you? - 50 pounds.
Yeah, 50 pounds.
- Too spenny, I think 40 pounds.
(bright music ends)
- [Ben] The Discovery Box,
22.99. (register pings)
(upbeat music)
- No. - Huh? No.
- [Ben] Is that an you want in your home?
- Yes.
- Yeah, that makes a lot of sense.
I think it's a fantastic experience.
- That feels very cheap,
compared to everything
that we've just learned about chocolate.
- I think that's brilliant.
I genuinely, I think that's amazing value
and quality there,
and a learning experience.
- Selfishly, I found that quite interesting
but we want to hear your opinions too.
So comment down below, so everyone can give them a read.
- And if you enjoyed it and found it useful,
give the video a like.
Maybe you'll get a Barry Badge of Honour Seal Of Approval.
- What would be your Spaff seal?
- No, no, don't.
Can't talk about that.
(frenetic heavy rock music)
(production card beeps)
- So this is one of those things that if you about Easter,
certainly in the UK is a time to come together with family.
I feel like this is one of those things
that comes out mid afternoon and is something to share.
(Jamie laughing) Whereas if I'm honest-
- (laughing) Ebbers, you can't say
it comes out mid afternoon when it looks like that.
- After a big lunch, this is something you
whip out in the afternoon- (Jamie laughing)
With a coffee. - Right, no, no.
- It is better to share.