Petits Noirs

Fall flavor Profiles

James — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 16:50:43 +0000

As fall descends on the valley finally, the leaves are showing color, and the hectic pace of crush is slowing…we are thinking about new flavor profiles and truffle ideas, just as the wine-makers are about to showcase their new creations also. The fall events in the valley bring a wide host of people to the area who are looking for epicurean creations to please and/or challenge their taste experience. We love this time of year, because it gives us a push to be a little more creative and inventive with our chocolate….most notably the truffles. I have been working and thinking about several different flavor creations for some time now and i will try to give you some idea of what i am up to. First, i have been working on the idea Sasparila/Rootbeer/Cola….truffle. I am leaning toward the the dark brown herbal tones that a local wine maker used to describe some of the notes present in one of their wines. I really like this idea in a truffle format and i am finding that i may have some help from the old Ginseng root also. It should turn out to be something really complex and perhaps even more healthful that chocolate already is. The other idea i have been banging around in my brain for a while, is capturing the essence dark smoke….which was inspired by a particular brooding Mouvedre wine that i smelled over a year ago now. I have been working with some amazing smoked black Cardamom, Kokum, and several other south-east Indian spices that i think are going to create something that goes beyond the cigar-box tobacco chocolate(Havana) that we have created already. Many of you are fans of the Roasted Beet truffle, which is in the store right now. We will be bringing out some of our other beloved wine-chocolate truffle creations for the ensuing weeks to come. Look for: Black Pearl(dark soy sauce-cocoa nib), Clove(a favorite at Ensemble Cellars), White-Truffle-Parmesean(white truffle oil), The Havana, Violet-Smoked salt, as well as the two new creations and the rest of our stellar line-up of truffles….looking foward to dazzling. thanks for your time~~~~james

Crazy for Toffee

lan — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 19:31:43 +0000

This summer we had tons of sweet tooth lip smacking fun coming up with our new toffee flavor. We wanted something nutty without using nuts, but also something different from people’s understanding of the traditional toffee. One hot day, while taking probably the second shower of the day, I was craving lemon poppy seed muffins and was thinking how great the poppy seeds added interesting texture and flavor to the muffin experience. And thus this was the birth of the Poppy Seed Citrus Peel Toffee. Lots of flavorful nuttiness from the poppy seeds with a slight brightness from the citrus peels. But what was more interesting about this toffee was the conversations that came about from the use of poppy seeds. I gave out samples to customers that came to our shop, and they would tell me stories of their experiences with poppies. Some would talk about gardening experiences, but others would talk about the process of harvesting the paste to make poppy teas - a tea that was more than just a casual drink in the afternoon, if you know what I mean. Which got me thinking…can poppy seeds make a person high? I don’t know the answer to that, but I can say that when I have a peice of toffee I feel good, it could be the sugar or it could be the poppy seeds…

summer time exploration

James — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 15:49:51 +0000

Hello all you lovers of chocolate and sunshine…here is a little snippet of what Lan and i have been up to over the past few weeks:::well it was recently my birthday(yee-haw 36!). Lan has been sitting on a bottle of Cayuse syrah 2004 en chamberlin, a lovely gift from our friends at Isenhower vineyards, i convinced her to open it. So we were able to sit down and taste some of our chocolates with a very sought after creation:::Cayuse wines. We really have been wanting to sit down and try some of our chocolates since we poached a couple of tickets to the holidays barrel tasting at Cayuse, where Lan made the bold and profound discovery that the most distinctive quality of the Cayuse wines is that the lovely- funky nose is quite similar to durian fruit. So we created a durian chocolate. I hope lovers of Cayuse wines and durian fruit come into try this chocolate. It is amazing! Still has the lovely sensual mouthfeel of durian, yet the pungent aroma is tamed quite nicely but the chocolate. This is a funny chocolate, because a lot of folks have never had/heard of durian, and some are put off by the powerful scent it eminates, and steer clear of it. We of course love to tickle all corners of the pallete and senses, so this chocolate embodies what we love to do. It is really an amazing chocolate. I urge you all to come in and try it. If you happen to be some of the fortunate few who are housing a few bottles of Cayuse wines, i encourage you to participate in a lovely melange of the senses.

We are bringing back the Mojito truffle from last summer, at the request of several different people…dont worry it will be here as soon as the sun comes back! Another new one is a Lemongrass with toasted coconut…..this just tastes like summer for some reason. Another new creation is our response to folks who say “do you make a chocolate with orange flavor” well here it is::: our Blood Orange truffle topped with a bit of dried orange powder. This truffle is deep-dark-rich and intensely orange. In addition we have added a simple-subtle-summery Rosemary truffle. Last, but not least:::fresh Mint-Lime leaf. This is at core a very simple truffle, but by the time you realize that the lime that you are tasting are fresh Limes leaves, not lime zest…it is too late. The mint is a well-loved chocolate combo, but the fresh Lime leaves add such a complexity to this chocolate….it is really intoxicating. This chocolate is may morph into some kind of curry exploration with milk chocolate….so get it while it lasts.

other notes…

James — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 14:23:41 +0000

In my haste to write my first blog piece, i left out some other things that i have been working on with chocolate. Specifically a few of the flavors that i have been pondering and playing with as of late. Will be showcasing these new creations, as well as bringing one back. The Havanna:::some of you may remember this chocolate. It is our homage to tobacco and was originally brought about by the lovely folks at Trio Vintners by request. It was designed to meld with those deep dark “cigar-box” tobacco notes found in their Syrah. It took me a while to figure this preparation out and i settled on a infusion of pure Dominican cigar tobacco, fresh vanilla bean(Mexican), and a touch of dark Meyers rum. It will be back in the shop for Spring release weekend. In addition we will be adding the Violet truffle, which was a suggestion from our friends at Lost River Winery in Mazama. Viva la Nebbiolo!!! Also the debut of a Mole chocolate. I have been talking with Ryan at Tertulia cellars for some time about this one. It is going to be incredible. Deep. Dark. Nutty. Smoky. Spicy. Intense. MMMMMMole! Lan bought me some cool new ganache frames, so i may try and use those for this one. So it should look really different than most of our other chocolates. Hope you all get to try a few. Cheers.

bacon…

James — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 02:33:02 +0000

Hey all you chocolate and bacon lovers. This is my first blog posting here on our site at Petits Noirs. This one will be short and sweet. Lan and i have been pondering doing a bacon truffle of some kind for a long time now. Well we have finally got one that we love. I originally had planned on doing this bacon truffle with some maple sugar in the ganache, with the idea of a chocolate-wine pairing that melds with some of the gamey-smoky-bacon fat notes that are present in many of the red wines that we taste. Lan had the brilliant suggestion of adding some of these lovely medjool dates that she was sampling one day(she was telling me she sensed a lot of maple qualities)… so i gave it a whirl. So i created a medjool date ganache, dipped it in dark chocolate and topped it with a piece of lovely-crisp-maple smoked bacon. WOW! This truffle is amazing. The subtle natural sweetness from the date works magic with chocolate and does not posses too much sugar, which would harm a wine pairing. I love this chocolate with a meaty-smoky Syrah, but am loving on the Tempranillo and Malbec pairing possibilites also. We will debut this truffle for spring release weekend, but it is available in our shop right now. Come buy and give it a try all you bacon and wine lovers. Salud~~~James

Chocolatey Greetings!

lan — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 19:45:31 +0000

We’ve finally had the chance to offer a sneak peek into our world of chocolate. Enjoy this diary of what runs through our minds when we make our chocolate.