montezuma’s, london e1
earlier this year, when we were in brighton, i bought a bar of chocolate that became my obsession. montezuma’sdark chocolate with essential oil of geranium and orange. wow! dark chocolate has always been my favourite but the floral flavour of this bar blew my mind. it was soon my new favourite, usurping the previous winner, green & black’s dark chocolate with cherries.
once the bar was finished i decided a visit to montezuma’s shop in spitalfields was needed. by happy coincidence i saw on emily’s blog, chocolate in context, that the blogging event “food destinations” was focusing on “my favourite chocolate shop”. this is my contribution.
our trip to montezuma’s saw me spent over £20 and come home with 7 bars and a small bag of truffles. the truffles are long gone, and were delicious, especially montezuma’s revenge which was dark chocolate with tequila, lime and chilli!
so, what else did i buy? as well as the geranium and orange i bought a few more of their emperor bars:
* dark chocolate with ground chilli – this is superb with a rich chocolate flavour and a strong chilli kick (too strong for some who tried it with me) that slowly comes through as you eat it. in the summer i’d like to use this to coat fresh strawberries.
* milk chocolate with hungarian sweet paprika and dried strawberry – i was disappointed with this. it is a very smooth tasting milk chocolate and there is a hint of strawberry but i didn’t pick up on the paprika at all.
* white chocolate with black, pink and white peppercorns – i liked this. it reminds me a little of the winning combination of freshly ground black pepper on strawberries. the pepper takes the edge off the sweetness of the chocolate and this is another candidate for dipping summer strawberries in.
i also bought three of their speciality bars:
* whoopee, aka white chocolate with raspberry – a taste of summer apparently and very lovely it is too. the raspberry pieces are quite large and have been freeze dried so they have a slightly fluffy texture and retain their characteristic refreshing tang.
* gourmet gorilla, aka dark chocolate with almonds and hazelnuts – a classic combination with my two favourite nuts, what’s not to like?!?
* space hopper, aka milk chocolate with essential oil of orange – i was hoping this would have shards of fizzing candy (there used to be a sweet called something similar) and i’m not a big fan of orange chocolate so this was always going to have to work hard to get a thumbs up. however, succeed it did, as the quality of chocolate means that the orange oil doesn’t create the usual sickly-sweet combination that is dislike.
so, the verdict? a definite thumbs up but i’m not sure i should visit too often… if you’ve been, let me know what you think.
montezuma’s, 51 brushfield street, spitalfields, london ec1 6aa
tel: 020 7539 9208
all montezuma’s chocolate is organic quality and handmade. they have shops in brighton, chichester, windsor, lichfield, winchester and london.