Did you know that chocolate releases the same endorphins that, ahem, "intimate relations"?
That's not really what this post is about. But now that I have your attention...
...IL CIOCCOLATO DI BRUCO IS THE BEST CHOCOLATE I HAVE EVER WRAPPED MY LIPS AROUND...
Phew, sorry. Didn't mean to yell, but I couldn't restrain myself. But seriously, this stuff is amazing. I picked it up at Citizen Cupcake, where I had stopped to get one of the lemon sandwich cookies that Sam turned me on to.
Citizen Cupcake has a really unique and wonderful selection of chocolates and candies. From the classic American Idaho Spud, to a broad range of Dolfin bars, they've spanned the generational and cultural gaps.
Andrea and I started chatting about Vosges (whose bars I think are decent, but whose balsamico and taleggio cheese truffles I adore), and I told her about Katrina Markoff's Full Moon Brownies made from their Black Pearl Bar which contains ginger & wasabi.
As I mentioned I was always looking for really interesting dark chocolates for brownies and chocolat chaud, she excitedly told me about this new ancho-flavored bar they have. We wandered over to the back wall (which, shame on me, I hadn't even noticed), and she pulled out this pretty little red paper pouch with silver writing. At nearly $4, the stuff isn't cheap, but I was hooked anyway.
As we stood there talking, I noticed another bar by BruCo, Fondente Rum Vaniglia, and realized I was going to have to buy that one too.
Both of these are extraordinary, but I am downright addicted to the rum & vanilla bar. It's a deep, satiny color, and has the "snap" of really good chocolate. The aroma is intoxicating - the liquor melding with the smell of really good pipe tobacco.
Letting this melt on the tongue, you distinctly taste deep raisiny fruit and, on top of that, a brighter fruitiness, almost like the flavor of really good olive oil. The rum is there, too... but it doesn't overpower the way so many liquor-laden chocolates do. Texturally, it melts into an elixir-like consistency - utterly smooth and totally viscous.
The Ancho bar is also wonderful... at slightly lower cacao content (48% ancho ganache center, 68% couverture, while the rum is a solid 72%), it's definitely sweeter and milkier, but that's the perfect foil for the ancho heat that builds in the back of throat as you swallow the chocolate. I offered C a piece without telling him what it was, and realized when I saw the look on his face that it's not a nice thing to do to your husband at 10:00 on a weeknight.
Turns out, BruCo was named best artisanal chocolate in Italy at Eurochoc 2002, and with good reason. They have five or so different flavors including an anise bar and an orange and cinnamon bar, all of which seem to be carried at Citizen Cupcake. The cacao is a blend of South American Trinitario, Forastero and Criollas cacaos.
OK, I've waxed poetic about this stuff long enough. Now, go to Citizen Cupcake and get your own, because I'm not sharing mine.
