I've been wandering through the neighbourhoods of Paris in order to start to get my bearings, and I am absolutely amazed at the number of chocolate shops. It seems that around every corner there is another patisserie or chocolate shop tempting me with their amazing sculptures, displays and delectable creations. Not only do they have an amazing array of patisseries of all colours, shapes and sizes (perfectly sized for the single-portion requirement of the aimless wanderer), they also have counters and counters of freshly made chocolates, filled with just about every type of praline or ganache conceivable. I am in heaven.
This past week, I had a visitor come and join me for some Parisian exploring. I figured there was no better way to get to know Paris than by going on little chocolate adventures to seek out some of the well-reviewed chocolatiers, and no better partner in crime than my mum, who also loves chocolate (one could even be tempted to say that chocolate and horses are tied for love in her books...it's really close).
Four boxes of chocolates, a cone of freshly made chocolate mousse, a caramel mille-feuille, an ephemere (oh, and thankfully a few kilometers of walking) later, we have our initial review of 4 chocolate shops in Paris: Chapon, Christian Constant, Pierre Herme, Jean Paul Hevin and Jacques Genin (note: we only sampled the renowned Mille Feuille and Ephemere at Jacques Genin...will have to go back for the chocolates).
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| Three contenders: Christian Constant (Dark box), Pierre Herme (Blue box), Chapon (Cute box) |
Direct chocolate-to-chocolate comparison:
- Box: The winner is....Chapon. The most adorable box by-far. Completely playing on the parisian/french theme of adorable school children eating chocolate. Their bars (see below) were also decorated in themes that provided glimpses of the origination of the chocolate. The only thing missing was a little insert telling us what was in the delicious chocolates we were eating (we couldn't remember them all). Christian Constant (CC) was the hardest to open, while Pierre Herme (PH) had a nice turquoise leather tie.
- Insert: The winner is....Jean Paul Hevin, for a small, square elegant insert that fits nicely in the box. PH was the most creative, with a full on pull-out poster of the chocolates, but unfortunately it didn't fit into the box, making it awkward, and the size made it difficult to pass around the table while enjoying the chocolates. Unfortunately Chapon was the loser here - no insert made it difficult to remember what was in the chocolates!
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| The Pierre Herme insert-poster. You can see the size (I left the remote in the photo to help scale...) |
- Overall Chocolate: The winner here is Chapon, by a landslide. Really nice looking chocolates, all very different looking, with a beautiful balance between the bursts of flavour and the intense chocolate. Creative, yet still beautifully chocolatey...so that you got the feeling of 'mmm, this is a great chocolate...and wow, that's awesome flavour'. Jean Paul Hevin takes second place, with delicate chocolates and excellent soft pralines. The Christian Constant chocolates were smaller overall, very aromatic with flavours based on teas and infusions, simple presentation, but the flavours were a little too subtle, sometimes getting lost in the dark chocolate ganache. Pierre Herme was dissapointing....too much time spent on the marketing and not enough on the chocolates...overpowering and odd flavours (corn? burnt sesame?) completely wiped out the delicate chocolate taste.
- Cassis-chocolate taste-off: For the Pierre Herme and Chapon chocolates, the cassis overpowered the chocolate, Christian Constant had better balance, but even the chocolate taste was a bit muted.
- Sea Salt-chocolate taste-off: The sea salt chocolate from Chapon was AMAZING. Pierre Herme's was overpoweringly salty.
- Basil-chocolate / Saffron chocolate: They were good, but we felt that basil and saffron are best left for italian foods and paella...not in our chocolates.
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| Chapon: The bar of chocolate, the chocolate mousse bar, and the cone of chocolate mousse to be enjoyed on the street outside the shop in the sunshine |
The overall winner of this crew was Chapon. We event went back a second time in order for my mum to stock up before heading home. It was just that good.
Now on to the next 4....
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