Pierre Hermé Signature And Classics Assortment Box

As I continue my trip around France’s best chocolatiers that has included the Jean-Paul Hévin Madagascar Bar, the Chapon 75% Dark Chocolate From Cuba and the Patrick Roger Assorted Carré I now stop at the doors of Pierre Hermé wth his Signature and Classics Assortment Box that only set me back 20€ (£16.71) – ok, so that’s a bit more than “only” when the box holds a 200g of chocolates. So they better be good.

Well they actually arrived (a long with some bars) in what looked like a puffa jacket, inside of which was an isotherm to keep the contents cool. Now I’ve never seen anything like this before and I could obviously tell that they took the state of how they arrived very seriously. Not only was there some cellophane to protect it from scuffing during transportation, but there was a nice little wrap around with his logo on in orange – which would be a theme continued inside.

There you’ll see a wonderful flower-style inner leaves which fold out to display the carré inside. I did let out a little “wow” when I saw this.

The chocolates inside did look a bit crammed in and a touch dusty, but at least I’m getting my money’s worth here. The only problem is that I didn’t know what they were. Only by trial and error and with the odd bit of trying to pick up the aroma gave any indication of what they were.

I’d have to hazard a guess at the first which I think was a Seville orange ganache which was pretty damn phenomonal. It was rich, delicate, soft absolutely 100% spot on. It melts, evaporates and just fills your head with cocoa heaven. They should offer these on the NHS as anti-depressents. I can picture the queues outside GP surgeries already!

Next up was an intensley dark ganache. My God. Wow! It’s like fireworks in your mouth. It’s bitter, but not overly so. The sweetness is just absolutely spot on. Chocolate just shouldn’t be this good. I feel I’m just a few seconds from transcending from superlatives into expleatives.

And then a praline. And I actually liked it. It wasn’t excessively salty, nor too crunchy. It’s just esquisite. Chocolate has never bought me to the edge of tears before, but I’m almost there now. Damn you praline. You’re not supposed to do this to me.

And then an even more intensly powerful orange ganache. The zing on this is incredible. It really gets you excitable and its damn good with it. The first time you taste it you’ll probably get a rush through out your body that you’ll just want to repeat over and over again.

There was also a salted caramel but that dissapeared to quickly to take a photo of – sorry. I never thought chocolate could get this good. Please, please make sure that you add trying a box of these is on a list of things to do before you die. You won’t regret it!