The new Richart catalog just arrived. They have their usual chocolates
that are fairly conventional with a few bold combinations. However
their new seasonal box is very extreme in my opinion. It is called "A
Festive Garden". My task for you is to see if you can match a wine, or
any drink, to the 7 chocolates in the collection as described below.
If you can not match a single drink for the whole collection, then
perhaps you can match a wine to the single types of chocolates. The
chocolates a

1. black truffle in criollo genache on a bed of potato coulis;
2. grilled corn on a bed of chestnut coulis;
3; pear coulis on a bed of Cassis de Dejon genache;
4. kalamanzi in soy milk genache on a bed of carrot coulis;
5. tomato in light genache on a bed of basil genache;
6. pumpkin coulis on a bed of chamomile flower coulis;
7. carmelized celery root coulis on a bed of genache flavored with
mild spices;

All are covered with high quality chocolate - no white chocolate.
Usually the flavors are not too bold for Richard unusual combinations,
but I have not tasted these chocolates. Unusual flavors are not new
for Richard. Their special collection for the year 2000 include a
tobacco flavored chocolate.

"cwdjrxyz" wrote in message
...
The new Richart catalog just arrived. They have their usual chocolates
that are fairly conventional with a few bold combinations. However
their new seasonal box is very extreme in my opinion. It is called "A
Festive Garden". My task for you is to see if you can match a wine, or
any drink, to the 7 chocolates in the collection as described below.
If you can not match a single drink for the whole collection, then
perhaps you can match a wine to the single types of chocolates. The
chocolates a

1. black truffle in criollo genache on a bed of potato coulis;
2. grilled corn on a bed of chestnut coulis;
3; pear coulis on a bed of Cassis de Dejon genache;
4. kalamanzi in soy milk genache on a bed of carrot coulis;
5. tomato in light genache on a bed of basil genache;
6. pumpkin coulis on a bed of chamomile flower coulis;
7. carmelized celery root coulis on a bed of genache flavored with
mild spices;

All are covered with high quality chocolate - no white chocolate.
Usually the flavors are not too bold for Richard unusual combinations,
but I have not tasted these chocolates. Unusual flavors are not new
for Richard. Their special collection for the year 2000 include a
tobacco flavored chocolate.

I cant match the wine but since you brought up chocolate
I highly recommend http://www.franschocolates.com/home....8b90e583fc3520
Outstanding world class morsels of delight..

--
Lew/+Silat

On Nov 20, 5:47 am, Mike Tommasi wrote:
cwdjrxyz wrote:

1. black truffle in criollo genache on a bed of potato coulis;

2. grilled corn on a bed of chestnut coulis;
3; pear coulis on a bed of Cassis de Dejon genache;
4. kalamanzi in soy milk genache on a bed of carrot coulis;
5. tomato in light genache on a bed of basil genache;
6. pumpkin coulis on a bed of chamomile flower coulis;
7. carmelized celery root coulis on a bed of genache flavored with
mild spices;

nitpickthat would be GANACHE and DIJON?/nitpick

These are odd combinations, I am not sure that they all "work", there is
a little bit of an attempt to "épater les bourgois" here, no? :-)

I am so sure some of the combinations will not work for me that I have
absolutely no plans to order any. These combinations remind me
somewhat of certain chefs that try too hard to make something
completely new and different.


I have no idea how these are presented, are they chocolates filled with
the above ingredients, or are they dishes prepared using chocolate? How
present is the chocolate, if it is a ganache it must be quite strong...

These are all filled chocolates containing the mentioned ingredient
combinations. The chocolate used to cover in other Richard chocolates
often is quite intense, sometimes up to about 70% cocoa content.
Ganaches used in the interior of some other Richard chocolates are
also often rather intense.

Richart has a web site and has stores in a few major cities around the
world. However I do not find the seasonal "A Festive Garden" listed
there. Perhaps they do not include seasonal items on their site, or it
has just not been added yet. The catalog I received from Richart came
from their San Francisco store.




I find that, unless the chocolate is present in a subtle form (a
sprinkling of shavings?) the pairing fails even before the wine is
added, except for #1 and #3

--
Mike Tommasi - Six Fours, France
email linkhttp://www.tommasi.org/mymail