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Incredible Chocolate News |
March 12th, 2020 |
Written By: Joanne Kryszek, Chocosphere Co-Founder and Chocolate Goddess, and the Chocosphere Team
| Time for a chocolate pick-me-up! | Staff Picks |
| Incr‘Edible’ Chocolate Deals… | Customer Service |
| Recipe Corner | Newsletter |
| What's New? | Topics |
| Upcoming Holidays |
Advice from Joanne – Time for a chocolate pick-me-up!
In challenging times like these Chocosphere is here, ready and waiting to brighten your day. You know by now that chocolate is a natural mood elevator. It can help keep you more awake and aware. We think our chocolate can bring you happiness and joy too. Our offering is full of amazing, delectable, different and crazy good chocolate to help. The crew here at Chocosphere is definitely willing to share.
We want to help brighten your chocolate day even more, so please see the Incr'Edible Chocolate Deal below!
Incr‘Edible’ Chocolate Deals
As an added chocolate pick-me-up, for a limited time we're offering a discount of 10% off orders over $50.00 in merchandise. This applies to most products sold by Chocosphere including chocolate clubs and gift baskets, but excludes gift certificates as well as shipping and warm weather packaging. You must use the code SPRINGCHOCOLATE in the "Gift Certificates / Coupon Codes" field right below the shopping cart display to get the promotional discount.
This offer begins at 12:01 AM Pacific Time on March 13th. To qualify, orders must be placed online with an Order ID issued by our web site no later than 11:59 PM Pacific Time on March 28th, 2020. This offer is not valid for orders placed outside the date range noted above.
To make your "pick-me-up" even better, we will be including a special treat of something incredible in every order.
Upcoming Holidays
Easter, Mother’s Day and Father’s Day are just around the corner, one following the other in pretty rapid succession. So use this opportunity to get your gifts at a discount. Our Easter basket can be tailored for adults or children. All you need to do is ask. Normally the assortment will include chocolate bars, fancies, bunnies and eggs. Long ago, we were selected as the “BEST CHOCOLATE EASTER BASKET” by the Wall Street Journal. It was in the early years of our company and we had the best time lining up more that 200 baskets for all the kids; big and small. So get hopping and let us help you with all your chocolate needs.
Staff Picks
Joel, our webmaster, shares his current favorites below.
What I like varies with my mood. Sometimes I want something sweet and creamy, other times something dark and rich.
Valrhona El Pedregal Porcelana Chocolate Bar
It's hard to go wrong with Valrhona. This bar has a strong yet complex chocolate flavor that really appeals to me. At 64% cacao, it's not overwhelming, just very satisfying. We don't have many of these left, and I'll be sorry to see them go.
Valrhona Blond Dulcey Chocolate Bar
Another Valrhona offering, this chocolate is utterly unique. It is sweet, creamy, and slightly salty (even though it doesn't contain salt!), with caramel overtones. When I want something different, this bar hits the spot.
Suzanne's Chocolate Peppermint Meltaways
Suzanne is one of our local Portland chocolatiers. She crafts many fine confections, all of them delicious. The peppermint meltaways are perfect when you want something rich and refreshing.
Hint: Check out Suzanne's Easter novelity offerings, they're spectacular!
Michel Cluizel Plantation La Laguna Noir 70% Chocolate Bar
When you want a dark bar with complex flavors, the Plantation La Laguna Bar strikes all the right notes. Chocolately, fruity, and mildly spicy, it's a real treat when you want dark chocolate. As an aside, milk chocolate lovers haven't been left out; Michel Cluizel also offers a milk chocolate bar made from this cacao.
A chocolate bar for connoisseurs and special occasions, the Bonnat Porcelana bar is dark and smooth with many subtle overtones. It captures some of the best expressions of the characteristics of Porcelana cacao that you are likely to find.
What's New
We have a special page on our site where you can find products newly arrived at Chocosphere within the last couple of months. Here’s the link:
https://www.chocosphere.com/default/new-products.html
We have a spread from Les Comtes de Provence called "Fruits Rouges Bio". It is a 64% fruit combination of raspberry, cherry and strawberry for an intensely fruity flavor, E.U. organic certified, and made with just the right amount of pure cane sugar.
Also new are our first tea offerings from Teekanne of Germany We're starting with herbal selections Chamomile and Ginger Lemon, and we plan to add more soon.
Valrhona's Raspberry Inspiration is their newest Inspiration Line offering. It just came in and it is mouth watering, bursting with raspberry flavor. Valrhona's Inspiration Line products melt, mold, and temper like chocolate because they are made with pure cocoa butter, and they have the intense authentic flavor of fruit, berries or nuts.
Speaking of raspberries, "Berries & Bubbly" is our latest addition from Ritual Chocolate of Park City, Utah. It is a combination of dried raspberries that have been infused with champagne and Ritual's 70% cacao dark chocolate. Get this limited edition bar while you can!
Recipe Corner
LUXURIOUS CHOCOLATE TART (Recipe by Valrthona)
Category: Cakes and Tarts
Difficulty: Easy
Prep Time: 1 hour
Cook Time: 20 min
Freezing Time: 30 min
Refrigeration Time: 2 hours 30 minutes
INGREDIENTS
Serves 6-8
Almond Shortcrust Pastry
1 stick (4 oz./120 g) butter, room temperature
½ tsp (2 g) salt
2/3 cup (3 1/4 oz / 90 g) confectioner's sugar
3 Tbsp (½ oz / 15 g) almond flour
1 ea egg
2/3 cup (2 oz / 60 g) cake flour
2 cups (6 oz / 180 g) cake flour
Chocolate Ganache
12 1/3 oz (350 g) ITAKUJA 55% Dark Chocolate
1 cup (250 ml / 250 g) heavy cream
1 Tbsp (15 ml) honey
3 Tbsp plus 1 tsp (1 3/4 oz / 50 g) butter (diced)
Melted chocolate to brush the tart shell
INSTRUCTIONS
Almond Shortcrust Pastry:
Soften the butter and combine it with the salt, confectioner's sugar, almond flour, egg, and 2/3 cup (2 oz./60 g) cake flour. As soon as the ingredients are mixed through, add the remaining flour, and mix quickly, until just combined.
Roll out the dough to a thickness of 1/8 inch (3mm) between 2 sheets of acetate or parchment paper. Place it completely flat in the freezer for 30 minutes.
When the dough has hardened, peel off the sheets and cut it out to the desired shape.
Line your tart mold or pan with the dough and return it to the refrigerator for 30 minutes (so it retains its shape during baking), then preheat the oven to 300°F-325°F (150°C-160°C) and bake until it turns a nice golden color, about 15 minutes.
Leave to cool for 15-20 minutes.
Chocolate Ganache:
Chop the chocolate and melt it slowly in a bain-marie or in the microwave (on “defrost” or at 500 W maximum, stirring every 20 seconds).
Bring the cream to a boil with the honey.
Gradually pour one-third of the boiling cream over the melted chocolate. Using a flexible spatula, mix in energetically.
Incorporate the second third of the cream-honey mixture, using the same procedure. Then repeat with the last third.
When the temperature cools to 95°F-104°F (35°C-40°C), stir in the diced butter. Process for a few seconds using an immersion blender so that the mixture is smooth and perfectly emulsified.
Assembly & Finishing:
Brush a fine layer of melted chocolate over the cooled tart shell to seal it.
As soon as it has hardened, pour the ganache into the shell and chill for about 2 hours.
Serve it at room temperature.
Be sure to eat this tart the day you make it if you want to enjoy the crisp pastry and creamy ganache at their best.
Customer Service
Of course we are happy to help over the phone, but we do appreciate it when you place your order on line. It helps us give the most prompt and accurate service. And when you need help, we are here for you. There is generally someone answering the phones between 8:30am and 4:30pm Pacific Time, Monday through Friday, with the exception of commonly observed holidays.
There are five of us answering phones at Chocosphere, where we speak fluent Chocospherian. We try hard to answer all calls personally during normal business hours, but occasionally one slips over to voice mail. If you call and end up in voice mail, please leave a message. We will do our very best to call back promptly. If by chance you don't hear back from us in a reasonable time, please call again during our normal business hours.
We each have varying levels of experience. It is our goal to happily serve you the very best chocolate!!
Finally, and very importantly, our web site lists our service commitments as to when we ship an order based on when the order is placed. However, we certainly understand there are circumstances where you may want us to process an order faster, when you need your chocolate “now”! If you need your order shipped faster than our listed service commitment, please place your order online letting us know of your need in the “Comments” section, and then call us 503-692-3323 x 0 for Customer Service) to let us know. We can't guarantee early shipping, but we always try hard to provide chocolate happiness to our valued customers.
Newsletter
If you want us to send a copy as an email every time there is a new issue or to tell you about special offers, please create an account at chocosphere.com and check the newsletter box.
Topics:
If you have a topic you would like us to cover in the newsletter, please drop us a line: customer-service@chocosphere.com and we will be happy to include it in a future edition.
Contact us at 503-692-3323 and press 0 for Customer Service
Fax 503-692-1494