It’s almost an insult to call these luxury chocolates “Chocolate Easter Eggs.” That figure of speech brings back fowl memories of foil wrapped, cheap milk chocolate that not only tasted of wax, but usually had a slight white bloom as a coating. Worse yet are those Cadbury Chocolate Creme Eggs that ooze this weird white and yellow stuff when you bite down on them. Yuk.
zChocolat has been described by other tasters as “pure chocolate heaven”. They’ve been a “Forbes Favorite.” So what’s the deal?
French chocolatier Pascal Caffet has followed French tradition from beginning to end, evidently with mixed results. For full disclosure, I haven’t actually tasted this product. I’d like to, as I suspect the chocolate itself would be exquisite. But some research made me put away my credit card.
Pros:
- No preservatives
- Very little sugar, high cocoa content and no alcohol
- 100% pure cocoa butter
- Gorgeous looking products and
- Worldwide express delivery
Cons:
- Very expensive products
- Minimum shipping charge is $18.30
- Some customer service complaints
- Very few of the products allow for customization for flavor choices
- Their website is possibly the worst ecommerce site I’ve ever tried to use.
Maybe I’m not high-end enough for this stuff, but when I’m ordering gourmet chocolate, I want luxury chocolate. Yes, I want the packaging and presentation to be attractive and, if I’m giving it as a gift, I do want to impress the recipient. But do I need handcrafted, mahogany boxes with a hygrometer on the top so that I can tell when my chocolate is getting improper humidity? It’s a lovely looking and refillable box. But c’mon – do I really need to pay $102 bucks (plus that shipping charge of $18.30) to get a wood box and only 15 pieces of chocolate?
I’m thinking that this isn’t what a foodie like me is all about. I’ve no doubt this is marvelous chocolate. But I also have no doubt it’s popular because of it’s snob appeal. I’m happy to pay a hefty price for an incredible product. But I’ll pass on the fancy labels and frou-frou and order my luxury chocolate from Vosges Haut-Chocolat or Choclatique
But rest assured: I’m still not settling for those cheap foil eggs or grabbing a Cadbury’s at the grocery checkout counter.
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