Vosges tasting

Last month when I was in Las Vegas, I discovered a Vosges store inside of the Forum Shops at Caesar's Palace. I was pretty psyched about it since I thought they only had stores in Chicago and New York.

Anyway, the night before we left, I swung by and bought a ton of chocolate: two boxes of truffles (Italiana, Green), three bars (bacon, mushroom, goji), and one box of exotic caramels. The truffles and caramels are long gone, but I just started on the last bar today. I've written down my thoughts about all the different chocolates below.

Exotic Caramels
Crema: Argentinean dulce de leche + Costa Rican cashews + milk chocolate
Sunshine: tupelo honey + milk chocolate + bee pollen
Maple: Canadian maple sugar + maple syrup + walnuts + dark chocolate
Tarte: blood orange + Campari® + dark chocolate + hibiscus powder

I surprisingly did not like the blood orange, as it was too-caramel-y and definitely not orange-y enough. The maple syrup was pretty good, and the dulce de leche was not as sweet as I'd feared (having been to Argentina recently), but nothing stood out about them. Even the bee pollen was fairly bland. As you can tell, I was not a big fan of the caramels.

Collezione Italiana
Rooster: Taleggio cheese + organic walnuts + Tahitian vanilla bean + bittersweet dark chocolate
Sale del Mare: Sicilian sea salt caramel + milk chocolate + pine nut
Polline di Finocchio: Wild Tuscan fennel pollen + dark chocolate
Olio d'Oliva: First press extra virgin olive oil + white chocolate + dried kalamata olives
Balsamico: 12-year aged balsamic vinegar + dark chocolate + Sicilian hazelnuts

My favorite of this collection was the Sale del Mare. I'm not sure if it was the pine nut or what, but there was definitely something in addition to salt that I really liked. The Rooster was quite good as well; the cheese taste was subtle, although it got stronger towards the base. The Olio d'Oliva was fine, although I'm not so much a fan of white chocolate, but the Balsamico was too sour (the vinegar overwhelmed the chocolate) and the Polline di Finnochio was also too strong for my taste. Maybe I'm not a fan of fennel, either. Overall I thought the collection was more creative than the Aztec, and about on par with the Exotic, although that one has the edge of greater variety.

Green Collection
Ellateria: Indian green cardamom + dark chocolate + white poppy seeds
Kaffir: Thai kaffir lime + fresh coconut + dark chocolate
Kayoko: Japanese macha green tea + white chocolate + cherry blossom petals
Buddha's Leaf: Malaysian pandan leaves + dark chocolate + cocoa powder

For me, the standout in this group was the Kaffir, which also trumped all of the Italiana truffles. The dark chocolate was delicious, there was a refreshing lime aftertaste, and the coconut was not too sweet (as it sometimes is). The Ellateria and Kayoko were both yummy and well executed, but I'm a bit tired of cardamom in desserts, and again am not as fond of white chocolate. Also, the cherry blossom taste in the Kayoko was strong and fragrant, but there wasn't enough tea flavor for my taste. The Buddha's Leaf tasted fine too, but the pandan leaf flavor was pretty weak, so it mostly tasted like dark chocolate with cocoa powder. I liked this collection quite a lot; definitely more than the Italiana and the Aztec, about as much as Exotic. It's a shame it's a limited (spring-only) edition.

Mo's Bacon Bar: applewood smoked bacon + Alder wood smoked salt + deep milk chocolate, 41% cacao
Organic Enchanted Mushroom Bar: organic dark chocolate + reishi mushrooms + organic walnuts, 66% cacao
Goji Bar: goji berries + pink Himalayan salt + deep milk chocolate, 41% cacao

My favorite of the bars was the Goji Bar. The sea salt was delicious (I love salty chocolate) and the dried goji berries added wholesome sweetness and texture but weren't too chunky. The Bacon bar was also well done; the bacon bits made the bar slightly salty and crunchy but the overall taste remained surprisingly cohesive. The Enchanted Mushroom was so-so; I felt there wasn't enough mushroom flavor, and I couldn't find any walnut taste at all.