The French have had a love affair with chocolate since 1615, when Anne of Austria (confusingly, really Spanish) married Louis XIII of France and packed cocoa beans for consuming chocolate in her Paris-bound valise. 400 years later, French sweets are a number of the best on the earth and among the many greatest souvenirs to take residence.
Chocolate smuggling could be a delicate operation, however with sufficient care in choice and packaging, you’ll efficiently have the ability to share your candy Parisian reminiscences over sweets with family and friends again at residence… or not share. We gained’t decide you.
Truffles from MOF Jacques & Vianney Bellanger, obtainable at Mococha. Picture © Simon Lagoarde Waap.fr
Buying sweets
When shopping for sweets, search for store workers who put on gloves. It sounds foolish, however you need somebody who has an consideration to element when it comes not solely to sourcing but in addition presentation. It’s not about germs, however fingerprints, and that type of obsessive consideration to element with regards to presentation signifies that you’re in good arms as effectively when it comes to hygiene.
The sweets ought to have a easy floor, freed from cracks and bubbles. Search for sweets with a shine to them; it speaks to a correct tempering (a specialised melting course of that will increase the sturdiness of the cacao). Properly-tempered chocolate bars will even have an excellent snap whenever you break into them.
Most sweets are bought by the kilo (2.2. lbs), whereas bars are priced individually. You’ll be able to decide to a complete field, however don’t be afraid to ask for a sachet (a transparent plastic sack) in the event you’d like a smaller quantity, need to pick every particular person taste, or need a random quantity like 13 bon bons that wouldn’t usually match within a sq. field.
A tempting field sweets type Jacques Genin
Methods to transport them
Maintain your sweets shut at hand in your carry-on baggage. Chocolate is greatest when stored at an ambient temperature with out an excessive amount of fluctuation and the cargo maintain can typically hold them too chilly or freeze the bars. For those who’re headed to a heat climate location, there’s concern that they might find yourself sitting out within the warmth on the tarmac for fairly a while, too. Maintain the sweets within the authentic packaging, if attainable. A very good high quality chocolatier will present a cushion to guard the sweets and since this France and aesthetics are every part, it’ll probably be lovely. Jacques Genin affords vacationers petites pochettes, little silver padded envelopes, to insulate sweets from chilly climate or hold them cool throughout heat climate. Some obsessives have been recognized to pack their very own cooler baggage particularly for his or her Parisian chocolate purchases. Once more, we don’t decide.
Methods to retailer them
Attempt not to. The easiest sweets, and sweets basically, are ephemeral pleasures that needs to be eaten as instantly as attainable. At Genin’s atelier within the Marais, there are placards proclaiming the expiration dates of all of the sweets on every counter. His stuffed sweets have a shelf lifetime of 15 days most, as do Patrick Roger’s and most of the different chocolatiers in our information, as their sweets comprise recent dairy and/or freshly toasted nuts that may oxidize over time.
A Patrick Roger speciality, full of chocolate, caramel and wild plum liqueur (picture by David Lebovitz)
Chocolate bars, known as tablettes in French, at all times last more than bonbons and different stuffed sweets. When you have a protracted journey forward, they’ll keep freshest because the darkish bars don’t comprise cream or butter. Usually you may hold most bars for as much as a yr, however test at every chocolate store because the specs will range (the crew at Jacques Genin, for instance, recommends consuming theirs inside a month). Crammed bars (fourrée) could be barely trickier than strong ones and will have a shorter shelf life relying on the contents of their filling.
For those who someway have the self-control to retailer your sweets for a time frame, you’ll need to hold your sweets in a cool, dry, and ideally darkish location. A wine cellar is good.
Even when involved about melting, the fridge isn’t an excellent place to retailer your cocoa treats because the humidity is unhealthy for the chocolate and the fluctuation in temperature might trigger the chocolate to “bloom”: for the fats to rise to the floor, which causes the bar to look grey or white, or change into oily. It’s nonetheless fit for human consumption, nevertheless it doesn’t look as good. In line with creator David Lebovitz, you may freeze your chocolate if completely essential for as much as 2-3 months so long as you enclose your complete bundle in a freezer protected Ziploc bag, however count on a decline in high quality in the event you accomplish that. Don’t overlook to take away your sweets with loads of time to come back to room temperature earlier than serving.
Storing chocolate within the fridge: not cool (picture courtesy Krystle @ homejobsbymom.com/flickr)
Chocolate will even simply take up odors so watch out the place you place it – by no means subsequent to your onions or garlic.
What and the place to purchase
Catherine’s favorites embrace
- Patrick Roger’s rocher, “an upscale spin on the grocery retailer favourite Ferraro Rocher made with a crunchy combination of almonds and hazelnuts”
- The hazelnut praline-filled bar from Le Chocolat Alain Ducasse, which is “gritty in a great way, salty-sweet, and stylish”
- Bars from Bernachon, “the extraordinary Lyonnaise chocolatier”, bought at A l’Etoile d’Or
- The artisanal Brittany fondant baulois (“a dense, gooey chocolate cake made with salted butter that is available in quite a lot of sizes, could be bought by the slice as effectively, and retains for as much as 3 weeks with out refrigeration making it best for journey”), fabricated by Marie-Sophie & Stéphane Boullier and bought at Mococha
- Jacques Genin’s bonbons with recent herbs “are showstoppers. The recent mint is so inexperienced and natural you could virtually style grime on the bumps of the leaf of the mint as you chew into the bonbon. Tarragon is nice for licorice lovers due to its potent anise depth. Recent basil and chocolate might be a wacky combo, however Genin makes it appear impressed.”
It’s also possible to seek the advice of Our Information to Paris Chocolate & Sweet Outlets.
