Tag Archives: Michel Cluizel

Our October Pick: Michel Cluizel’s Maralumi Lait

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We were originally wowed by Michel Cluizel’s handling of the Maralumi Noir, made up of beans from his Papua New Guinea plantation. But then he sent us Maralumi Lait.

Cluizel has an excellent record when it comes to dark-milks. Just taste the surprisingly bright and citrusy Mangaro Lait. His Maralumi milk keeps this trend going.

On the back of the bar, Cluizel suggests the following: “The characteristic notes of bananas, red berries and blueberries emanate progressively in an herbaceous harmony and then in salty caramel.” In short, we loved the soft, well balanced fruit notes in this bar that mingle throughout with rich caramel. And certainly at the end, the quick appearance of ‘salted caramel’ is quite endearing, and something much loved in all dark-milk chocolates.

For all these reasons, we chose the Maralumi Lait as this month’s pick. Drop by the shop and mention this post to receive 10% off Maralumi Lait bars throughout October.

A chocolatey Christmas preview

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Hopefully you are all starting to get into the Holiday spirit! We are really excited about our Christmas collection this year, featuring some old favourites as well as some new treats to put under the tree, in stockings, or really, just to sit back and enjoy.

Rebecca (one of our fabulous chocolatiers), has created some beautiful seasonal truffles for your enjoyment. Flavours include: Gingerbread Linzer Torte (Gingerbread ganache with raspberry compote), Sugar, Apple and Spice (Soft caramel and apple-milk chocolate ganache), Glühwein (German mulled wine) and White Christmas (Cranberry and orange in a pearly, white chocolate shell). We’ll have deep-red boxes of twelve waiting to be opened and enjoyed.

We are happy to have our Chocophilia Christmas Trio back again this year, featuring five kinds of dark and milk bark: Gingerbread and Orange Spice, Chai Crunch, Fleur de Sel and Toffee, Nibs and Fruit and Ginger Spiced Nuts. Three of the five flavours are wrapped up in each box, with the beautiful packaging designed here in Edmonton by Keith and Judi of Vanguard Works.

Chocolate dipped orange, apricot and ginger pieces are wrapped and ready to go, with milk or dark Chocolate Santas sitting on the next shelf over, waiting to be taken home. And for those who may deserve that lump of coal, we think you should be a little more kind and give them a Sack of Potatoes… really good chocolate ones, made up of hazelnuts and creamy milk chocolate by Michel Cluizel of France. It is the holidays after all.

And while we’re sad to say we will no longer be carrying Kusmi Teas, we’ve got some beautiful new teas in from Dammann Fréres of France, that pair with some of the chocolate around the Shop wonderfully, and come in some incredible packaging.

As per usual, we’ll have gift boxes and totes made up for those of you who need a quick gift to go, and of course, if you’d like to linger and make up your own customized gifts, we’re very happy to help there too. There’s still a bit of time to pre-order gifts of confections, bars, etc. for home, office or other events. Send us some details at xmas@kerstinschocolates.com.

We hope you have an excellent holiday season! We’ll be hanging around the Shop trying not to eat all of Rebecca’s truffles. Hope to see you soon!

Easter!

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The Shop is full of all sorts of colourful Easter treats right now!

We have three types of Easter eggs – a small, house made marshmallow filled egg, a medium sized, hand painted hollow egg, and a large egg filled with crunchy Valrhona pearls. All the eggs come in white, milk, and dark, and the medium sized ones are flavoured. The essential hollow Easter bunnies are sitting neatly on a shelf too, in milk and dark, waiting for owners.

Also for Easter, are Dulce de leche filled eggs, lots of fun solid shapes, and white, milk and dark bunny lollipops!

We have also received bright blue ‘Robins’ Eggs’ from Michel Cluizel – milk chocolate and praline ganache, wrapped in a milk chocolate shell… these ones are certainly great for ‘the hunt’!

And finally, there are assorted Easter ‘baskets’ filled with Valrhona Pearls, a small solid bunny, a Theo flavoured bar, a bunny lollipop and a few of the ‘Robins’ Eggs’. This is a great, seasonal switch up for the chocolate lover in your life!

Happy Easter!

A Full Shop

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It’s lovely and sunny out today, and we just received a bunch of new treats from France! We received a new order of Michel Cluizel’s bars, sardines and nougat mushrooms. Also, the beautiful criollo cacao pod ganaches pictured below, will be out in the store next week!

Also new, are Barnier caramels in a very fun lollipop form. We have lots of all five flavours: café, lemon, mint, salted butter and orange. They are all neatly waiting (along with the Cluizel ganaches) to head out into the Shop next week.

There are new tins of Violet and Anise Drops from Les Anis de Flavigny… these little flavoured mints are lovely to hide away in your purse, desk, backpack (or anywhere, really), but the tins alone are just too beautiful to pass up.

Liz and Rebecca have been working hard in the back all week getting Easter treats ready (look for a preview coming soon!). But to ease your wait, they also filled up the truffle case with crème brûlée, mocha, chili caramel, Fleur de Sel, passion fruit, and lavender truffles, as well as two new flavours – Irish Whisky (pictured below) and Lime. There are also lovely, fresh pieces of Lemon and Chili-Lime-Cashew bark right now too.

We are out of the Fleur de Sel bar in the Shop right now, but don’t forget Chocophilia bars are available at Sobey’s Urban Fresh on Jasper, at Planet Organic, and the Italian Centre (South and Downtown), just to name a few spots (check out this link for more locations selling Chocophilia).

And just as a note, Kerstin and Angie arrived back in Edmonton safe and sound last night, with treats and stories from Paris. Watch for posts coming soon!

More Amedei and Domori just in!

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We have just received a new shipment of Amedei bars and hot chocolate! More Porcelana, Gianduja, Toscana Black (63% or 70%), Toscana Red (with raspberry, strawberry, and cherry… lots of these have been scooped up already), and Toscana Blond (with pistachios) are on the shelf. And we still have the Chuao and the award winning “9” bars in as well.

There is also new Domori! We’ve stocked up on Javablond, Porcelana, Lattesal and a new white bar with mint, Biancomenta, that is divine!

The Michel Cluizel “Sardines” are also back in store! And no, these are not sardine flavoured, they are very deceiving solid milk chocolates that make for a surprising gift, or a treat for yourself.

We are running a bit low on Chocophilia Drinking Chocolate at the moment (after the Olympic order!), but we should have more in the Shop later next week. Also, a bit of an update on our Mad Orange Pistachio Chocophilia bar – we are having problems sourcing the appropriate orange rind needed to complete the recipe, but we will be sure to let you know when the bar is back in stock!