The Sweet Escape With Royce Chocolates

Chocolates are my first love. There is no day in my life when I don’t eat chocolates. I need atleast one chocolate everyday, yes minimum one. So my house is always loaded with chocolates. Even in my office drawers you will find chocolates. Apart from being a mood uplifter, it is sheer pleasure. But I can have chocolate just as time-pass too :) I have tasted chocolates from all over the world. The Swiss chocolates, The US chocolates, The Australian chocolates and now I got a chance to taste The Japanese chocolates that too sitting right in Bangalore. I got an invite from JW Marriott, Bangalore to attend the exclusive chocolate tasting event before it's official launch. Despite of having another event I made it a point to cancel the other one and to attend this one. Yes, I love chocolates and there was no reason for me to say No.

Royce (Not Rolls Royce) was founded in Japan in 1983 in Sapporo, the capital city of Hokkaido, Japan’s northernmost island. Hokkaido is a spacious island located at the northern extremity of Japan and is renown for its rich natural environment and cold climate.Flowers in spring, lush greenery in summer, red leaves in autumn and snow fields in winter, ROYCE' chocolate is made in a truly special place surrounded by the beauty and contrasts of all four seasons.

ROYCE' has brought together the best ingredients from all over the world and developed cutting-edge production techniques to produce a truly unique range of high quality and exquisitely packaged chocolates. It was the first time that I met the celebrity Chef- Chef Jolly. He briefed us with the agenda and an introduction to the chocolate tasting session. Later Avani  Raheja and Samir Gadhok, Directors, Burgundy Hospitality spoke about Royce and started introducing us to the Premium chocolates. Royce chocolates will be launched in Bangalore at JW Marriott’s BBC- Bengaluru Baking Company on 20th June 2014.

A fine, delicate pairing of select chocolate, fresh cream with a hint of prestigious liquors, Nama Chocolate is a velvety smooth 'fresh' ganache chocolate, containing at least double the amount of cream usually found in conventional chocolates. With fresh cream and liquor accounting for almost a quarter of combined ingredients, the extremely high moisture content level gives Nama Chocolate its distinctively silky palate and smooth texture, allowing it to melt slowly on your tongue.  7 kinds of Nama Chocolates are available on a regular basis. From time to time, there are Seasonal Nama Chocolates available, which are made in limited quantity.  These were inside a cooling bag containing dry ice. That is because Nama chocolates melt soon and has to be kept very cool.

Though I do not usually like dark chocolate, the Ghana Bitter Nama chocolate was something I liked. It is a liquor-free bitter Nama Chocolate with an excellent acid-bitter combination. Continuously I felt like as if I was eating truffles. We also tasted the Mild Cacoa which are smooth flavoured and the fragrant aroma of cacao fill your mouth in this liquor-free Nama chocolate. 

Some more flavours which are available are Equador Sweet, Pierre Mignon and Au Lait.

Next we tasted the Baton Cookies. These are golden baked cookies coated with chocolate on one side. These are available in 2 flavours – coconut and Hazel Cacoa. The Hazel Cacoa contained finely crushed cacoa nibs blended into a cocoa crust and were better than the coconut ones. But I did not find anything special about these cookies.

Now we were served with canapes to refresh our palates as it was just too much of chocolate.

Followed by this, we were introduced with Criollo Chocolates. Again there were 2 flavours

I did not try the bitter one as I actually don’t like the bitter taste.

Then we tried some Pure Chocolates. The beautiful facade and shape of the Pure Chocolate was designed to enhance both the texture and the shape.

This chocolate is available in six varieties, ranging in cacao percentages. Each box contains a set of two varieties - 20 pieces of each - a total of 40 individually wrapped chocolate discs. I loved the creamy white and they just melted on my tongue. 

The milk chocolate was also good. These are available in 3 variants – “Creamy milk and white”, “Venezuela Bitter & Ghana Sweet” and “Sweet and Milk”.

Followed by this was a surprise, they were chocolate coated potato chips. These are potato chips coated with chocolate on one side. A new definition to delicious is conceived when potato chips and chocolate are masterfully put together. On one side of every crispy potato chip, lies a generous well-balanced chocolate coating. This novel fusion results in a new yet delicious confectionery for all. The chocolate’s sweetness and potato chips’ salty tang blend in perfect harmony, making for an enjoyable treat. These are also temperature sensitive and should be stored in cool place away from direct sunlight.

Priced between Rs.500 to 1000 these chocolates are a must try. I would recommend the Nama chocolates in comparison to any other International brand of chocolates. I would also recommend the chocolate coated potato chips but I feel that the price mentioned is a bit too high for a packet of potato chips.

If you enjoy reading my posts, do like me on facebook : www.facebook.com/rakshaskitchen
Also share this on Google+, Twitter and Pinterest by clicking on the links below :)