bc magazine

Chocolate Lovers High Tea Delight

Attention chocolate lovers, Three on Canton‘s latest offering looks to sate your desires. The ‘Divine French Chocolate High Tea Set’ features an array of chocolate-themed savoury and sweet treats. What’s immediately obvious when the three-tiered high tea arrives is the amount of food. Too often tea-sets feature micro-bites, here each is at least two bites and you’ll certainly not leave hungry.

The tea set features 11 beautifully presented offerings, 4 savoury and 7 sweet, and you can enjoy your food with a cocktail, mocktail, tea or coffee. The savoury chocolate bites are a chicken nugget in a delicious dark chocolate dip – what a fine combination – and a mango and prawn brioche with white chocolate yoghurt sauce, it sounds delicious and is. These are served with two popular favourites Toast with fig, blue cheese and Parma ham and Smoked salmon asparagus rolls.

The sweet bites cover a broad range of flavours and textures and include: Chocolate and pear panna cotta, Dark chocolate mousse with mixed berries pie, Double chocolate cream puff, Milk chocolate mousse with vanilla apple filling, White chocolate mousse with apricot cake, Dark chocolate brownie, Coconut and chocolate chip butter scone with real clotted cream and jam. All are tasty and while none stand out, there are also none you’ll want to ignore.

The ‘Divine French Chocolate High Tea Set’ ($488/2 people, 3-5pm daily) offers a fine way to spend a relaxing afternoon, sitting inside or out. The portions size are good and although there’s a lot of chocolate the chefs have cleverly balanced it with other flavours and textures to ensure that it doesn’t overwhelm your taste buds.

Three on Canton / Be on Canton: Level 3, Gateway Hotel, Harbour City, Tsim Sha Tsui. Tel: 2113 7828

Godiva Saveurs du Monde @ HK Maritime Museum – 2 September, 2014

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The Food of Gods – Cacao

There’s a lot to savour and enjoy for chocoholics today, as we look to sate our desire for the cacao bean. As with products like coffee, wine, tea and cheese not all chocolate is created equal, and everyone will have own favourites. At GREAT in the basement of Pacific Place, both Lindt and Valrhona have chocolate counters where the range of flavours to explore is extravagant.

Newly arrived at the Valrhona, the French chocolate makers, counter is the Vintage Single Origin collection, an annual celebration of cacao – the 70g bars ($98) are made with cacao beans from a single plantation with each having a unique sensory signature. This year’s collection features:

Ampamakia: a 64% cacao dark chocolate made from a fine blend of Trinitario beans harvested at the Millot Plantation in Madagascar. A fruity and refreshing, single origin dark chocolate with an additional sharp edge on the finish.

Gran Couva: sourced from the San Juan Estate in the village of Gran Couva, tucked on the hillside of Montserrat. The damp climate and rich, deep soils encourage the cacao trees to flourish producing beans with intense chocolate notes and a touch of dried mint and fresh spices. A mild mannered dark chocolate with low acidity and good length of flavour, not as tart as the Ampamakia vintage.

Loma Sotavento: a beautifully smooth dark chocolate created from Trinitarion and Criollo cocoa from the Loma Sotavento estate in the Dominican Republic. Very long on the palate, little acidity and with caramel notes, toasted aromas and a particularly creamy melt. A satisfyingly rich chocolate flavour to savour.

El Pedregal: the name of an estate in Venezuela dedicated entirely to the growing of Porcelana cacao – a form of Criollo cacao. An almost extinct variety of cacao bean known throughout the world for their wonderful flavour profile. A very creamy dark chocolate with notes of dried fruits and honey, with a spicy edge. Perfectly balanced with slight acidity and great depth of flavour. Ends with a touch of liquorice and prune. Outstanding length of taste

What is the difference between cacao and cocoa?
Cacao is the bean that comes from the cacao tree, which is known by the scientific name of Theobroma – which translates as “food of the gods” – cacao. Cacao pods – large football-shaped fruits – grow off the trunk and limbs of the cacao tree, and cacao beans are found inside the pods.

The beans are harvested, fermented, dried, cleaned and roasted, after which point the products are often referred to as cocoa. In other words, cocoa is what the bean is called after it has been processed (and lost much of the nutritional goodness that has cacao labelled as a superfood).

Valrhona:
GREAT, Level LG1, the Food Hall, Pacific Place Phase II, Queensway, Admiralty
Opening Hours – 10am – 10pm
Enquiry: 2918 9709

In the production of this article, bc sampled chocolate provided free by Valrhona.