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Kcal ??? Fat ??? Fat(sats) ??? Carbs ????Three and a half years of constant chocolate reviewing has meant I have reviewed an awful lot of chocolate but the wonderful thing is that there are still some glorious brands out there of which I haven't even scratched the surface. One of these very brands appears to be Valrhona - if we all indulge ourselves in a little wikipedia for a minute ...
"Valrhona is a French chocolate manufacturer based in the small town of Tain-l'Hermitage in Hermitage, a wine-growing district near Lyon. The company was founded in 1922 by a French pastry chef, Albéric Guironnet, from the Rhône valley and has five subsidiaries and 60 local distributors across the globe. The company also maintains the École du Grand Chocolat, a school for professional chefs with a focus on chocolate-based dishes and pastries. Valrhona focuses mainly on high-grade luxury chocolate marketed for professional as well as for private consumption"
My only past experience with Valrhona chocolate came when I tried out Lucky's Cakes (See HERE) and it was that very flirtation that led me to buying this 70.0g Jivara bar. This Jivara offering came described as a creamy 40% cacao milk chocolate which has been made using beans hailing from the Foratero plantations. Expectations were high so I called in my expert chocolate tasting panel (the people I sit next to at work haha :D ) to help me out with some well valued second opinions.
The chocolate came packaged as a flat panel slab and looked the business from the start with it's sleek black box and inner foil wrapping. The chocolate whilst thin was easily divisible thanks to some prepared block grooves and it broke with a lovely sounding snap which reaffirmed the fresh smelling cocoa scents being offered. Placing the first piece on my tongue both the flavour and melt initiated upon contact, and it was literally only a matter of seconds before I was treated to a lovely soft melt and burst of wonderful flavours. As promised by the on-pack blurb this was indeed a very creamy tasting milk chocolate and the taste from start to finish had strong undertones of rich double cream that seemed entirely fitting with the way in which the bar melted to a similar sort of thick liqueur state. The luxurious mouth feel of this melt was complimented with supplementary hints and notes of different flavour influences, with elements of caramel and butter frequently emerging from the sweet cocoa chocolateyness. The long lasting end note of vanilla made for a rich and satisfying chocolate that was met with seals of approval from all that tried it. In the words of a fellow colleague this was a 'posh chocolate that was worth paying more money for'.
Overall this Valrhona Jivara bar certainly didn't fail to live up to expectations and it has managed to earn itself one of the highest scores so far this year (2011) on the ChocolateMission rating system. Whilst I was mid-reviewing this bar (had taken the photos and researching it!) I learnt that this bar had won a silver award in the latest Academy of Chocolate awards for the 'Best milk bean to bar' category. Having tried it now myself I can only add my own appreciation to that of those more experienced chocolate experts - it was genuinely a joy to eat from the very first block to the last. Before anyone ask what is my favourite between this and the Galler Lait Pleine Saveur I'm going to declare myself 100% sitting on the fence :D All you guys need know is that they play in the same ballpark, and that the Valrhona Jivara is a milk chocolate that you simply need to try now if you are any sort of chocolate lover.
9.3 out of 10
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62 comments:
After hearing you didn't have a HC review this weekend I was wondering what you were going to replace it with. It looks like you found yourself a chocolate that was just as special, if not better then anything you could have got from then. It sounds like a must try.
No offence ...... but AT BLOODY LAST!!! Sorry but when I first started reading this site it was all about chocolate but recently I started thinking you are doing way too much else. It's refreshing to see you get back to the real stuff and find us some pure chocolate thats worth us checking out.
Its been a long while since I last treated myself. When I get paid I think I might upgrade my monthly treat box of Lindor to a few bars of Valrohna. If the score you've given it is any basis to go by it sure sounds worth doing.
Are these people to posh to be found in a supermarket or do any of the big un's carry them at all? I hope your are going to tell me they do. It makes things a heck of a lot simpler.
See my request wasn't so silly ;) I knew you would love Valrohna chocolate.
If this is what you make of their milk chocolate I can't wait to see how highly you rate their dark stuff.
If you are looking for one to try I must point you in the direction of their 72% dark. I'm not a big fan of the stuff but my dad who loves dark chocolate swears its the best.
9.3!!!!!!!!! amazing score. This chocolate must be sensational.
p.s. Looks like you need to update the top score board now Jim.
Can I ask the age old dull question of where might one be able to purchase this? Apologies, I know I annoyingly always ask that. It has to be asked though when you come out saying something is as good as it is here.
I know what chocolates I'm going to be asking for my birthday now lol. Is anyone aware of them doing a white chocolate? I would have thought they must do if Lucky cakes always use valrhona. They have white chocolate cakes don't they!
Dx
Epic score here. I think I need to get involved with some of this.
This is going straight to the top of my 'must try' list now. If anyone can suggest a place that has it at a sensible price please can you send on the link.
I'd seen some really positive reviews on some of the other chocolate sites so I'm not at all surprised to hear you liked this. Gr8 review matey.
I know this will go without saying but please can we see some more from these people :-) I'm sure you are well on top of that already if you have any sense.
Woah. way to lay down a marker with your first appearance. This does sound like the business I will have to try some of their chocolate now.
Hey Hun I was flabbergasted by the score when I saw it this morning. I thought this was just going to be a boring review of an a chocolate you were going to say 'wasn't as good as the usual Hotel Chocolat' but this sounds like it's well worthy of hanging with those cool cats. If they make truffles you should do a review of them. Your truffle reviews are the best ;)
Rxxx
Yum this sounds excellent.
Ocado.com says you can get some of their 68% dark chocolate from waitrose.
http://www.ocado.com/webshop/getCategories.do?tags=|13618
JIMMMMMM Grrrrrrrrr.
You missed off the price again.
Lol how are we meant to be able to tell what is what when you don't include such an important detail man. From what I can tell it sounds fantastic, but if I was then to learn it cost like £20 a bar my POV would change drastically. Sorry to nag but it's just so important.
This is an amazing review of what sounds like one incredible chocolate. You are so lucky getting to try all these amazing things all the time. It sounds like you totally struck lucky getting involved with this chocolate aswell. If you hadn't of had those Lucky's cakes do you think you would have ever tried it?
I did my usual thing of reading the score first but then I went back and made sure I read every word of your review which btw was so so good. The way you describe this one makes it sound almost orgasmic.
This is one I think we all need to try now.
Thank heavens for JCM.
I never would have found these people on my own. Thanks so much for telling us about them Jim. I can't wait to sample them myself now.
What sort of prices do these people demand? Are they like Lindt or more a Hotel Chocolat expensive?
Lol you love giving the plain chocolates high marks don't you! Your leaderboard is starting to get more and more dominated by chocolates that are simply just normal chocolates without any added flavours or ingrdients. A few companies might want to start taking notice of that I think.
That's is one heck of a score, well done Valrohna. You think we are going to be seeing more from these guys then Jimbo :) I expect so if this is anything to go by huh :-)
Geeze since when have the French made good chocolate. This one has come out of the blue a bit hasn't it.
Hey J,
I've just seen that Wayne Rooney got another goal in your pre-season tour. I hate to say it but it looks like he may be in some sort of form heading in to the new season if he carries that on ... sounds a little ominous for the rest of us.
In more important matters I love the review you got up today. I expect most ppl will disagree with my but I think you reviewing something different from Hotel Chocolat is cool. Don't get me wrong I love HC, but seeing other chocolates from brands we haven't heard about before is awesome. Especially when you say they are that good.
Cheers mate
N.
You should change it to being valhrona mondays now and not hotel chocolate ones.
Have you heard from them about this review yet?
I knew you were going to do a review on these guys ever since I read your posts on the lucky's cakes. I could tell you were well liking the chocolate they are made with.
Same day, different brand, same result :)
These guys do have a website but not one for GB.
I'm just using the worldwide one now. The music is creepy lol.
http://www.valrhona.com/worldwide
Err if you hadn't noticed you sorta need to get around to updating that leaderboard of yours. It's kinda out of date now don't you think.
How can you call yourself a chocolate reviewer and not have touched Valrhona chocolate before. I would have thought you would have reviewed tons of their chocolates since starting up! For a lot of people it would have been the first suggestion they would have made lol.
Valrhona won Academy of Chocolate's gold award 2006 for Valrhona Araguani in the category "Best bean to bar", and silver for Valrhona Cao Grande in the category "Best dark organic chocolate bar"
Its hardly surprising to hear they did so well when you read about that sort of recognition. Valrhona are a hidden gem we didn't know about.
Step aside HC you've been well and truley upstaged today. I wish we could claim this to be our own (british) but we should let the Frenchies take a little credit. Like someone said above I didn't even know that they made fine chocolate in France. I can't even begin to think of another brand of chocolates from there.
No wonder luckys cakes use their chocolate if they are renowned for bring this good.
To some extent it explains why they are so crazy expensive.
You must have bought some more from Valrohna already if this is how highly you rated them. Can you give us a clue what other bars of their's your going to review for us. I'm tempted to try and buy this one right away but i'm interested to hear whether they could do even better.
You think this is good?
You need to get stuck into this one mate. http://finechocolatereviews.eu/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/6680_1.jpg That 64% dark choc is one of the finest I'e ever tasted. Hearing your take on it would be wicked.
Colour me impressed with this. It's zoomed up the top of my buying list with this review. Thanks mate.
Even when your not reviewing hotel chocolate you spoil yourself :-P
You got to stop being so kind to yourself young man. Do us all a real favour and become a real critic. We want to see you tear some strips of someone please.
Great review Jim. Do they just make plain chocolate bars or do they mix it up with some flavours? I say just get full on the case and review as much of their range as poss now. It looks like they know what they are doing lol.
I was all ready to start consoling you about not having any Hotel Chocolat to review but then you just go find something better. I think you've done this on purpose now lol, its hardly going to be a coincedence.
Hotel Chocolat milk chocolate doesn't even get the same result as this did. Its mega impressive sounding. Defo one I will look out to try in the future now. Recommendations don't come from any better places now.
Now you have the boring one out the way can we see you review some of their more interesting chocs m8. The milk chocolate with pecan nuts sounds like a unique one.
http://www.valrhona-chocolate.com/Grand-Cru-Jivara-Bar-with-pecans-352oz_p_60.html
Its made with the same milk chocolate by the looks of it. Could be more than worth a review.
@Ryan Omg that price make me feel a tad queasy. I thought thorntons and hotel chocolat were expensive but thats mega man. Too rich for my blood.
Go Valrhona! What a first showing from a chocolate maker. Their problem is they have set expectations high now lol. We are all going to be expecting great things from them now they have a score of nine in the pocket.
I'm tres tres excited now. It's been so long since we've seen anything get a score like that. I don't care how much I have to pay now, I simply have to try this now.
Is this the first thing of the year that isn't Hotel Chocolat to get over a nine? I haven't seen you rate anything this highly for donkeys years now. You must have been seriously impressed by it.
I'm looking at some places online that sell this brand and man it aint cheap.
Prices seems to vary from £6 for 100 grams to about £9. That is bloomin expensive but if what Jim is saying is right they could be worth it.
I should really look for this :D I loved most of the high cocoa content milk chocolates I have tried so far.
PS - I accidentally managed to find a superb chocolate yesterday: Lindt Excellence Madagascar 65% Mild Dark. It's not bitter at all, so it's probably not for people who like really dark chocolate, but instead it is so fruity! And, naturally, I love that!
Ahem!!!! You might have noticed it was me whos been telling you to try some valhrona chocolate for ages now. I'm glad you finally took notice of what I've been saying. I can only look forward to your next few Valrohna reviews now. I think there are better ones for you to try out.
Valrhona Jivara is my favourite milk chcolate ive tried so far, absolutely love it. Want to try to get my hands on some more Valrhona stuff but tis quite hard to find!
This chocolate looks & sounds divine Jim! According to my colleague, Selfridges sell Valrhona choc so come payday Selfridges here I come! :P x
Hi All,
The positive responses to this one today are very promising :D It sounds like my review has motivated a substantial amount of you to give this one a try. I honestly can't recommend it enough, I thought it was a really really superb chocolate that is worthy of being tried by any chocolate fan.
A lot of you today have asked whether I will be reviewing more Valrohna anytime soon. It is my full intention to get some more of their chocolate soon but I need to actually find somewhere reliable to get it from. I might even be cheeky and send them an e-mail to see if they are willing to send any samples through.
Please don't take it personally if I don't respond to your comment directly. I have to pick and choose my answers these days what with the volume of people commenting.
BEN - Different people ask for different things to be reviewed. I try my best to satisfy everyone, sorry if you think I'm diversifying too much.
STEVEN - I believe Waitrose stock some of their chocolates but no I don't believe anyone like Sainsburys or Tesco do.
LISA - Request noted.
DAISY - They definitely do make white chocolate. Like you say I've tried it before on the Lucky's Cakes. It's very good, I can imagine it scoring very well.
RACHEL - Haha 'Flabbergasted' ... I do love that word. It looks so silly when you type it out.
RYAN - Thanks for the link.
RICHARD - Apologies. When I have readers like you who are all over the pricing stuff it's not like we ever miss out on the detail is it :D Thanks for doing that.
ROBERT - I would have got around to it eventually I think but Lucky's did speed up the process of me reviewing Valrohna yes.
CARLA - I often say it ... sometimes the simpler things prove to be the better.
NIGEL - Rooney is on form indeed. If you have a fantasy football team I would stick him in from the start. I will take onboard the feedback regarding the Hotel Chocolat reviews.
MARK - No nothing from Valrohna yet. I might attempt to get hold of them later on today.
ANON - The leaderboard will be updated soon enough don't worry.
GANESH - They have some really impressive awards from the academy of chocolate society. Reading up on all of them now does underline the point how silly it was for me taking so long to getting around to reviewing them.
TIM - No there have been a few others that have breached the 9 mark that aren't Hotel Chocolat. You can check under the 9 tag on the left hand side.
ANA - I would love to hear your opinion on that. I've tried the 70% mild Lindt and thought it was great http://www.chocolatemission.net/2011/03/march-6th-lindt-excellence-white-dark.html
SARAH - Haha I thought you might revel in the high score this one got. Thanks for the suggestion. I always get around to the requests eventually.
Thanks for the comments and feedback everyone. If some of you who are motivated to trying this do end up doing so, be sure to leave your own thoughts on it.
JIM
I am an addict. Scored mine from Waitrose today ar only £2.91 :-)
Wow, great description. I could almost taste the chocolate.
Wow this ones got the beating of most of the Hotel Chocolat chocolates that appear on here. I've definitely heard of them before but I never knew their chocolate was as expert as this. I will be looking out for them next time i visit my aunty in France. I will have to ask her if she knows about them at all.
I'm not too fussed about all these fancy chocolates most the time but you've bigged this one up so much you've generated mild curiosity lol.
Do you think you might be able to share where you bought it please.
Now you've done one representing their milk chocolate I insist you do reviews for their white and dark chocolates Jim.
Do you have expectations of them being just as good? It could shake up the chocolate mission high scores potentially I think. Brill reviews.
I love that you started the week on a positive lol. Hearing about something sucking would add further to my toil that it's a) the start of a working week b) crappy weather. Reading about tasty chocolate in the morning makes me smile a least a wee bit =)
Talk about raising the profile of a brand in one swoop. 5 minutes ago I hadn't even heard of these people. Now I'm all over researching where I can buy some of their chocolate. They will be so pleased getting such a high mark from a source of pr like this site.
Kudos to your dad for timing his break with mine :D now if only I hadn't ignored the bar I saw of this whilst on holiday...
ROXY - Make sure you tell me what you think of it!
COLIN - That's a sweet price chap!
ALYSSA - Thanks for the nice words.
JAMIE - There have been several places suggested where to buy this now. Look at the comments above.
THEA - Don't ignore it next time :D You will be interested in the review tomorrow. Make sure you log on to see what it is :D
JIM
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