La Petite Rose
Impact
Everyone who has ever been to Paris has a few snapshots of Sacre-Coeur in Monmartre, the neighborhood where you have to be a goat to get around... beautiful "rues" which are often steep stairways lined with more tourists than cobblestones.
Unnoticed by most nearby: the home of piano miniaturist Erik Satie.
This little tea room / small pastry shop run by lovely Asian women is equally ignored by passersby in the next section over – the 8éme – among the city's spirally-arranged arrondisemonts.
But take note of this certain Zen-quality boite in which antimatter matters.
Unnoticed by most nearby: the home of piano miniaturist Erik Satie.
This little tea room / small pastry shop run by lovely Asian women is equally ignored by passersby in the next section over – the 8éme – among the city's spirally-arranged arrondisemonts.
But take note of this certain Zen-quality boite in which antimatter matters.
Presentation 3.4 / 5
minimalist; rose pink ‘n brown coordinate; the fit ‘n finish a bit dipped in haste as much as in chocolate
Aromas 4.1 / 5
cocoa gelée
Textures/Melt 8.9 / 10
| Shells: | thin soft petals slide & fold until ganache melts away first, seemingly infusing the shell with its very own kind of ‘inner ganache’ in a unique bit of engineering; the F/X long-lasting to psychologically boost CQ (Chocolate Quotient) |
| Centers: | full-bodied sihouettes of Kee Tong / Thompson Street NYC: just the right degree of firmness, consistency, silk essence, moonbeams & that ineffable je ne sais quoi |
Flavor 45.3 / 50
finely balanced equilibrium of moderate intensity, neither subtle (the French tradition) nor exuberant (English / American style)
Quality 26.6 / 30
Faultless if perhaps - to a few - seldomly virtuous, & maybe – mistakenly - uninspired on the verge of dour. No over-the-top oo la la’s or ‘wow factors’. Yet its very understated qualities gradually win taste-buds over thru sheer excellence, marrying Asian sensibilities to European classicism bearing faint resemblances to the hyper-minimalist Chocolat de H in Tokyo... enough to draw comparisons a half a world away due to shared heritage alone.
Selections
| Couverture: | Valrhona |
Thé Vert - Dark enrobing around a brightly green-colored tea ganache; Zen quiet all the way thru
Araguani - Valrhona’s glimmering Venezuelan blend, oft-interpretated by Dufoux, William Dean, William Curley, Bespoke & others; crème de la crème as in cream-on-cream when Petite Rose further saturates inherent Araguani cream tones (the base couverture for this) with its own ganached ones that highlight, by way of contrast, these cacáos’ black fruit
Caraïbe - cream accentuates Valrhona’s coffee-inflected Caribbean blend... drains off to some diluted cocoa waterworks; stark, focused & pointed
Canelle - Dark-on-Dark cinnamon; reserved / dignified
Passion Fruit - the romance is back; passion kisses off Milk Choc base to sex up a scoop of cherry vanilla; exceptional... one of the most adept expositions of passion fruit anywhere... ever
Ginger - tremendously proportioned & studied spice in another Dark-on-Dark ensemble, including the most shell snap of the entire collection; inestimable length thanks to a lambent ginger afterglow prolonged by wee caramel; superb
Café - gets right to it, comes on strong until coffee dissolves in cocoa butter oils to dial down to mocha gravity levels; excellente
Rose - ahh, la petite rose... le morceau de signature en d'autres mots (google the translation if necessary)... mais no mere morsel, my amies... Dark-over-White infused with flowers for a blushing pink-cast restraint; formidable in a fragile way
Reviewed April 2011
Araguani - Valrhona’s glimmering Venezuelan blend, oft-interpretated by Dufoux, William Dean, William Curley, Bespoke & others; crème de la crème as in cream-on-cream when Petite Rose further saturates inherent Araguani cream tones (the base couverture for this) with its own ganached ones that highlight, by way of contrast, these cacáos’ black fruit
Caraïbe - cream accentuates Valrhona’s coffee-inflected Caribbean blend... drains off to some diluted cocoa waterworks; stark, focused & pointed
Canelle - Dark-on-Dark cinnamon; reserved / dignified
Passion Fruit - the romance is back; passion kisses off Milk Choc base to sex up a scoop of cherry vanilla; exceptional... one of the most adept expositions of passion fruit anywhere... ever
Ginger - tremendously proportioned & studied spice in another Dark-on-Dark ensemble, including the most shell snap of the entire collection; inestimable length thanks to a lambent ginger afterglow prolonged by wee caramel; superb
Café - gets right to it, comes on strong until coffee dissolves in cocoa butter oils to dial down to mocha gravity levels; excellente
Rose - ahh, la petite rose... le morceau de signature en d'autres mots (google the translation if necessary)... mais no mere morsel, my amies... Dark-over-White infused with flowers for a blushing pink-cast restraint; formidable in a fragile way
Reviewed April 2011