Oh, Valentine’s Day. I dislike it for so many reasons, personal and professional. Regardless of whether you’re single or coupled up, it’s a day fraught with tension and expectation. And I have made enough heart-shaped chocolates, decorations and desserts to last a lifetime.
I do, however, really like those cheap chocolate hearts that are wrapped in red foil. I think it must remind me of fun Valentine’s Day memories, when you could deliver a valentine to the boy you liked and have it mean something. Those were the days before you had to give a valentine to everyone in the class, lest someone’s feelings get hurt.
Robin Chocolates makes a raspberry ganache heart that sort of reminds me of those foil-wrapped hearts. The flavour is lovely – it’s a bright, fruity ganache that definitely tastes like raspberries, as opposed to some random red fruit. The texture is smooth and creamy.
The molded chocolate shell is absolutely perfect. I mean, it’s uniform all the way around, and thin enough that it just yields to your teeth (or, in my case, knife) without interfering with the ganache inside. The bottom of the chocolate is perfectly, absolutely smooth. And that, my friends, is very hard to do.
Having said that, the top of the heart is decorated in an opaque layer of red cocoa butter. I don’t have anything against cocoa butter, nor red, but it seems a bit excessive to me. After all, I signed up for chocolate, not for red dye. I would have appreciated a light smattering of red – for visual interest – with more emphasis on the chocolate. Because hey, that’s what I’m eating, right?
You can buy Robin Chocolates here. Their online store isn’t up yet. If you ask very nicely they might ship stuff to you, but only if you live in the continental US.
