And the Lord Kenneth said "Let there be chocolate!"

[Originally posted at LJ, 1/26/10]


And lo, there was, and it was good.

Is good. I'm being very, very careful so this box gets me through to the next one!

A few days before Yuletide, I was greeting with this missive in the Inbox:

Congratulations!

You've been given a Gift Membership to the Gourmet Chocolate of the Month Club. In each shipment you will discover handmade chocolate confections from around the world, reminiscent of age-old traditions and presented with savoir faire! Read our newsletters and learn first hand about each featured Chocolatier, and how they craft their signature creations. You will learn how cacao beans are transformed into chocolate, secret ingredients and techniques used by the masters, and so much more...

Your membership will begin in January and will continue for 12 months, shipping consecutive months. You should look for your shipments to arrive between the third Tuesday and Thursday of each month shipped.

Kenneth had decided to spoil the HELL out of me.

I'm sure you can imagine the happy squeeing that commenced, and then continued for some minutes. Chocolate delivered right to the door is a delight, particularly from the companies this service contracts with.

My first shipment arrived last week - Nirvana Chocolates, out of Wellesley, MA. OK, not quite. The company lives in MA. The actual chocolatiere is in Bruges, Belgium, and that's where the chocolates are shipped from! What arrived? A 32 piece box of classic Belgian truffles, 4 each of 8 varieties: Amaretto Creme, Praline Chocolate, Soft Mocha, Raspberry Cream, Smooth Caramel, Classic Praline, Champagne, and Cointreau.

The presentation was so gorgeous, and the fuschia ribbon is long enough to tie my hair up with! (Actually, I have a whole bunch of ribbons that are from Kenneth's prior rounds of spoiling!):

Also included in the well padded shipping box was a newsletter - In Pursuit of Chocolate - detailing the history and methods of the featured company, an overview of the ingredients in this particular box, and a comparison of chocolate tasting to wine tasting, with instructions for proper enjoyment of these handmade delights.

Chocolate: Srs Bznz!

Nirvana uses coverture from Callebaut, one of the smoothest chocolates in existence, and fills their truffles with ganache made from the freshest organic butter and cream around. No artificial flavors or preservatives, either - that Amaretto Cream is more than a little laced with fine Amaretto! NOM.

Keeping myself to just one a day is proving difficult. I had a Cointreau truffle today, and the scent drifting out of the box was enough to make me want to sit down and shovel down the whole box! Instead, I behaved, and enjoyed the smoothness of the truffle I had selected. The crisp citrus of the Cointreau is so beautifully complemented by the lightly sweet milk chocolate coverture. I so very much appreciate European milk chocolates - they're not sweetened so much that you lose the flavor of the actual chocolate.

The lingering taste of that glorious truffle is making my work day so much better.