Last-minute Chocolate

You’ve got four days to get this right. Monday is Christmas, and the best gift you can give your favorite chocoholic is not that cheaply-wrapped, chemical-packed, commercially-produced drugstore special you’re about to grab off the shelf between the cereal boxes and incontinence products.

There’s time to do this right. Specialty grocery stores and markets carry the good stuff at this time of year. It’s a little late for shipping, unless you want to pay half a paycheck in shipping costs. But here are some gift ideas you can still use:

A gift certificate to Worldwide Chocolate:  Not sure what they want, or how much? Get the gift that lets your recipient decide. Worldwide ships everywhere and has chocolate from every region, from bars to baking blocks, from cocoa nibs to candies, mints, squares and sampler packs. They offer vegan, gluten-free and organic products, too.

Homemade hot chocolate mix: A nice Mason jar filled with 3 1/2 cups sugar, 2 1/4 cups high-quality cocoa powder and 1 Tbsp. salt. Mix thoroughly, cover and tie with a festive ribbon. Add two mugs and instructions to use two tablespoons of mix to one cup of milk.

Look around the nicer grocery and ethnic stores. Most of the year, the high-end chocolate manufacturers aren’t as easy to find. During the holidays, you’ll find Chuao, Valrhona, Vosges, Cote d’Or, Lake Champlain and Michel Cluizel. Buy a variety of bars in different cacao percentages or with a variety of fillings, fan them out in a gift basket (the better to see the artistic labels), cover with clear wrap and a silver-flecked brown bow.

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Speaking of gifts, here’s my review of two recent tastings:

Caffarel Firenze Milk Chocolate: I’d never found this Italian beauty in a local store before (hence my suggestion above to check your local groceries around the holidays). This one is milky-smooth with good vanilla undertones and not overwhelming sweetness, even at 41%. It’s a grown-up’s milk chocolate bar.

Castronovo Nicalizo Nicaragua 70% (Silver Award Winner 2017, International Chocolate Awards; Silver Award Winner 2017 Academy of Chocolate): This is 28 squares of gold-wrapped greatness, proudly wearing those two awards on the white-and-purple outside package. Who got the gold awards? Who cares! This Florida native deserves raves the moment you open it. You don’t need more than a square to appreciate the fruit and toast notes; strong but balanced. Keep every piece for yourself.

 

Chocolate, Ale and Wine Just Fine in Columbus, OH!

The modern and elegant interior of Le Chocoholique

There’s this shop on the south end of High Street, the main north/south drag through Columbus, Ohio. And although it’s wishful thinking that they could move closer to me, it’s just a good thing that this place exists at all, in a city I happen to like and visit once a year.

Le Chocoholique, open since 2010, is a dark and elegant space with cafe seating, coffee drinks, a wine bar offering chocolate-friendly wines, ales and cocktails, and trays of impossible-to-try-them-all pastries and chocolates. You’d have to visit many times to work through the selection, and even then, you’re likely to get frustrated (in a good way), since flavors get switched out and new ones added regularly

Where to start? Just look at the adult beverage list, with offerings such as Joel Gott Relative Red 2000, Vinum Africa Chenin Blanc and Steele Cuvee’ Chardonnay, plus a variety of dessert wines. For ales, there’s Brooklyn Brewery Chocolate Stout, Hell or High Watermelon Beer and Well’s Banana Bread Beer. Want a chocolate-covered pretzel martini, or a dulce de leche martini with those truffles? You can get them here. Coffee drinks are available in everything from black pepper fig to cardamom rosewater to ginger passionfruit, plus classic espresso, Americano, cappuccino and hot chocolate.

But you are here for the chocolates. And please, try a variety of the most unusual: the Velvet Elvis (with peanut butter, banana and bacon), Hellishly Hot Peanut Butter, Olive Oil, Ghost Chili, lavender Fleur de Sel, rosemary caramel, Limoncello espresso, Bleu cheese and any of those flavored with liqueurs and spirits (Courvoisier, Absolut, Maker’s Mark and Remy Martin). There are plenty of “standards” flavored with fruit, nuts, maple syrup, spices, coffee and honey, too.

Le Chocoholique also does pies, brownies, cupcakes, chocolate fondue, gelato and specialty desserts including tiramisu, creme brulee, Sacher torte and cheesecake. It’s a cocktail boutique, a coffee lounge, a chocolate specialty shop, a bakery, a wine bar; it’s enough calories for the day and sweet selections for several months. And it’s a can’t-miss stop in the Short North district.

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The shop also carries a selection of bean-to-bar chocolates, including a brand I had not tried: M. Recchiuti. I bought the Orchard Bar, which is a semisweet chocolate bar studded with caramel syrup-coated mulberries, toasted almonds and currants, and the Dark Milk Bar. Dark Milk sounds like a contradiction of terms, but the taste is anything but confusing. It’s an excellent compromise between on-the-mild-side milk and fruity-finishing 85% dark. If you are on the fence when it comes to either milk or dark, this bar will knock you right off your perch.And while the Orchard Bar sounds like too much going on in a three-ounce package, it isn’t. There’s enough fruit and nuts to keep you interested, but not so much as to mask the chocolate quality. A thumb’s up for each of these!

Le Chocoholique (http://www.lechocoholique.com/v1/), 601 North High Street, Columbus, OH. Phone (614) 223-4009. Hours: Monday through Wednesday, 7 a.m, to 10 p.m., Thursday and Friday 7 a.m. to 11 p.m., Saturday 9 a.m. to 11 p.m. and Sunday 9 a.m. to 6: 30 p.m.