Food File: Great chocs and savoury biscuits

STOCKS OF GREAT CHOCS

Christmas is a time to indulge in really good chocolate, and The Chocolate Shop, in Cork's English Market, is the place to go for unusual varieties. Niall Daly searches all over the world for new, small-scale producers. His latest find is Akesson's, a company that makes single plantation chocolate from cocoa grown at its farms in Madagascar, Brazil and Indonesia, as well as sourcing unusual varieties of pepper and salt, vanilla and sugar. Akesson's is run by Bertil Akesson, son of a Swedish diplomat who settled in Madagascar and bought a cocoa plantation. The Chocolate Shop has eight varieties and the bars are €4.50 each. An outstanding example is the 45 per cent milk chocolate with fleur de sel and coconut blossom sugar, made with cocoa from Sukrama Farms in Bali.

“This chocolate holds a caramelised flavour resulting from the use of natural sugar produced from the juice of coconut blossom, harvested by gently slicing the flower. Once collected, the nectars are kettle-boiled into a thick caramel and ground to a fine crystal,” the back of the pack explains. chocolate.ie and akessons-organic.com

SAVORY BISCUITS TO SAVOUR

Luxury biscuits are another seasonal treat, and the new savoury range from Lismore Food Company is excellent. There are two varieties – caraway with Irish seaweed, and digestive with Atlantic sea salt. Another flavour due in the spring will have cheese, cayenne, rosemary and poppy seed.

These are divine, buttery, crunchy and with just the right savoury note.

The chic packaging is very pretty, and each pack has a rrp of €6.50. You’ll find them at Bord Bia’s pop-up shop at CHQ in Dublin 1, until December 23rd. For stockists: thelismorefoodcompany.com

FRENCH CHOCOLATE

Terroirs in Donnybrook, Dublin 4 is another source of great chocolate, especially the French brands Michel Cluizel and Chapon, which both produce very pretty Christmas ranges. Cluizel's Reflets d'Etoiles is a dark chocolate star surrounded by dark and milk chocolates. The company is particularly proud of this, from its Constellation Collection (€33.50), which is moulded in such a way that the star has sharp edges to its asymmetrical points. terroirs.ie