Friday, March 27, 2015

Not Your Average White Chocolate Bunny; SOMA has outdone the competition

All the flavour of toasted marshmallow...without the marshmallow!
 
Has winter been too long, and now you're missing that toasted-by-campfire-marshmallow-flavour of summertime? Well, miss it no more! Toronto's SOMA Chocolatemaker just introduced a delicious white chocolate rabbit, called 'Rascally Rabbit' for Easter that has a fire-burnt exterior. And it tastes just like slightly tinged marshmallows that are roasted over a campfire. Seriously. Good. Stuff. 

If you peel away the roasted exterior, the white chocolate inside is mild with a light taste of cocoa butter and real vanilla. It's delicious (nothing like those white chocolate chips made with artificial vanilla at the grocery store). But when eaten together with the tinged and crispy exterior, the taste of slightly burnt marshmallow lingers in the mouth, and it wakens the feeling of summer. It is a perfect gift to take us out of the cold season and into Spring, looking ahead to the warmer months that will come after Easter arrives.

I have been reading the ingredients of a few different 'white chocolate' bunnies at the grocery store this week, and I can tell you that those commercial bunnies are not actually made with white chocolate. The cocoa butter, which is a key ingredient in actual white chocolate, is most often replaced with hydrogenated oil. So it is worth the extra expense to buy a quality product like Soma's.

Soma is often trying unconventional methods (and equipment) when it comes to chocolate. In addition to torching some white chocolate, Soma's 2015 chocolate egg is resting on a nest of hazelnut chocolate that has been put through a Venetian pasta press. I am (not so) patiently waiting until my birthday on Sunday to try the egg, but I promise to tell you all about it next week! Soma has inspired me to try 'toasting' white chocolate in my own kitchen. I will also tell you all about that once my experiments are complete.

It may not be too late to order for Easter! If you do not live in the Toronto region, Soma takes orders by e-mail and they will ship it to you! Or check them out at their two locations in Toronto, in the Distillery District or on King Street. Here is a link to the online brochure. The bunny comes in four flavours, 'Roasted White Chocolate' being one, and Costa Rican Milk Chocolate, Dark Sugar-free chocolate, and Soma's signature Peruvian Dark Chocolate (66%).  But you had better hop to it - Easter is just over a week away!

As always, here are the package and ingredient details from the chocolate that I tasted above:

Rascally Rabbit: White Chocolate, $10 each
SOMA Chocolatemaker (Toronto, ON)
www.somachocolate.com
Ingredients: sugar, cocoa butter, milk powder, natural vanilla, soy lecithin. May contain trace amounts of wheat & nuts.

Please note:
Although this may sound a bit like an Soma advertisement, I really have not been enticed in any way to write this article. I paid for my products in full, and I am simply excited to share this unique chocolate product and the high quality of Canadian craft chocolate with the world.

1 comment: