Labooko Zotter Kaffee

The St John Betjeman train

Southend-on-Sea, reminds me of an old mans mouth slightly fleshy, watery and slack after years of consuming too many sugary donuts and greasy fish n chips. A face battered by strong oily winds blowing in across the Thames estuary from Canvey Island. Teeth resembling a mix of slightly yellowing crowns, a few unsightly gaps, the odd blackened incisor and finally a splattering of pearly white shinners that are so intense they blind you with their brilliance. Southend-on-Sea, similar to Las Vegas is perhaps better seen at night. 

Dream Machine Classic Lancia Flaminia

Southend pier is without doubt a 'pearly white' if we are to continue the mouth teeth thing... It is the longest pleasure pier in the world and a Grade 2 listed building with amazing views of mudflats that extend for miles. 

Apparently, in the 19th century wealthy tourists would not stop at Southend preferring to birth their yachts at Margate thus avoiding the mud. In the olden days, when Councils had bright ideas, they decided to build this lengthy piece of wood into the estuary. This meant you could dock your schooner at anytime without having to worry about tides or mud, for that matter. 

The pier has its own train that runs up and down the whole length but you can walk the 7,080 ft for £1 and back again after a rest on the sundeck. 

This is not Jamie's Cafe

Disappointingly, Jamie Oliver's cafe looked as though it had seen better days. The film production team had long left and the likes of Gwyneth Paltrow, Jonathan Ross and friend Jimmy Doherty had obviously moved elsewhere. Jamie Oliver refurbished the cafe in 2013, turning it into an ice-cream parlour. Not much going on now? Well, who needs Jamie Oliver when you can have fantastic views of mudflats, big ships, Curlews and Oystercatchers!  

ACHTUNG nicht essen!

Ok, lets talk about chocolate from Zotter. I purchased this bar of Zotter Kaffee from a fantastic market in Vienna several months ago and as all the packaging is written in German I can't tell you too much about it. However, Zotter does have a good tip and warns you not to eat the chocolate unless you follow his top tip, "If you want to be a fine chocolate maker then you must not chew the chocolate but, enjoy the melting". Well something like that...

This has to be one of the most straightforward and underwhelming chocolates I've ever tasted from Zotter. Perhaps that's the point.....If it hadn't been for the packaging I'd find it hard to believe it was from Zotter. A million miles away from 'Plum and Caramelised Bacon'. I can only say the milk chocolate is smooth, creamy and sweet with a delicious and inoffensive coffee flavour. The packaging is probably the best thing about this bar but I did polish off both bars!

Labooko 2 Bars - Zotter Coffee

Zotter - Walnut-Marzipan

Clearing out my chocolate draw today I came across several chocolate bars that I'd totally forgotten about. Amongst this slightly old collection of confections was a bar from Zotter.  This was great news but a Best Before date of Feb 12 is not really ideal and I nearly had second thoughts about eating it.  But, in my book, if it smells okay and looks clear of anything green and furry then it is probably alright to eat.

As usual Zotter do not fail to impress with their packaging standards. In my opinion they are world leaders in their field.  I'm sure there are people out there right now buying up the artwork rather than the chocolate.  So, I was surprised to read on their website that many people do not believe they take their chocolate seriously?! 

Dark Mountain Milk Couverture 50%

There are very few companies that actually make their own chocolate from 'bean to bar' and Zotter is one of them. They have very close links with their farmers and have amassed a wide and diverse range of cocoa suppliers from around the world. In total Zotter buys chocolate from 11 countries Peru, Brazil, Ecuador and surprisingly India. You can see the full list here.

Hand Scooped - This is hand-made in Zotter speak. Hand Scooped is a range of bars that have one, two or even three distinctive layers.  This bar reminds me of an over sized praline and I imagine the processes are similar but on a massive scale.

70g Walnut and Marzipan - for adults only

Once out of the packaging this bar is best seen cut into slices to enable you to see the various distinct layers. This particular bar is made with freshly roasted and caramelised walnuts mixed with marzipan and rum which is then coated with dark mountain milk chocolate. The marzipan is sweet and the 'crunch' I can only assume comes from the walnuts. The chocolate itself doesn't provide very much in the way of flavour as it is masked by the slightly overpowering marzipan. Soft, sweet, almost like eating a piece of cake! 

Organic and Fair 

Marzipan, you either love it or hate it and I felt that there was nothing unpleasant about this bar and therefore it deserves 5/10 for flavour and 9/10 for presentation. 

To the people of Zotter, I promise that I'll review my next bar within the 'best before' deadline next time but, I think it stood up rather well considering how late I'd left it! 

Zotter you need to check your website. Planet Organic is not selling your products at the moment? However, Chocolatiers is selling this bar at a special price of £2.16, a 30% discount.

Chocolate. Have we bitten off more than we can chew?

Season ticket purchased ready for January's commute to London and discovered that costs have increased by just a fraction under 5% which was a bonus, as I thought it was going to be nearer 10%.  Life is full of little surprises!  As was the strap line from the Daily Express (13.12.2011) that I came across recently. 


Apparently we'll be paying "£7 for a chocolate bar" in the not too distant future, according to Julie Carpenter of the Daily Express. To quote Julie Carpenter, there is already a huge shortage of cocoa somewhere in the region of a million tons.  Potentially this chocolate calamity is only eight years away.  The rising Asian market is one of the main contributory factors, according to Angus Kennedy, a leading confectionery expert, a steady demand for Western products is increasing and subsequently prices are climbing.  Startlingly the Chinese only have to eat one more bar of chocolate each per year and there will be a shortage.  What about America, where there has been an increased awareness and demand for  'quality' chocolate. A growing range of small Chocolatiers including the likes of Potomac are helping to spread the word in America.



According to some industry experts we might end up with less 'cocoa' and more inclusions such as nuts. But, isn't this already happening?  You just have to look at the products that are coming from Austrian chocolate maker, Zotter. His "double-scooped" bars are already extremely popular, certainly not main stream, but perhaps in the future we're all be trying to make these?


Cocoa production, as many of you will know, is extremely difficult. Cocoa trees are very sensitive to temperature, humidity and also prone to disease which has proved fatal in the past. This makes the cocoa plant almost impossible to farm on a mechanised, industrial scale.  According to Angus Kennedy farmers do not know how to get the best yields from their crops or store it once it has been harvested. 


However, companies like Mars have been working towards more sustainable cocoa production methods to maintain the all important supply chain.  The Rainforest Alliance organisation recently reported that they had teamed up with Olam International Ltd to produce the world's first Climate Friendly cocoa. They are also looking to keep production as the main focus whilst reducing deforestation and improving the livelihoods of their farmers and families.


Only a few months ago an International ban was imposed on importing cocoa from the Ivory Coast.  At the time, everybody was worried that Easter Eggs would be missing from supermarket shelves. Allegedly 433,000 tonnes of cocoa sat rotting in Ivory Coast warehouses? Cadbury's actually stated that production wasn't affected as they bought their crop from neighbouring Ghana. The Cote D'Ivoire is not the only source of cocoa others include Indonesia, Ghana, Nigeria and Brazil. 

Some analysts believe Chocolate is 'recession proof' as many of us will reward ourselves with a small glass of wine or a bar of chocolate.  This year it was reported that amongst the final panic purchases on Christmas Eve chocolate was up there with perfume and lingerie. Haven't these always been the traditional male 'default' purchases at this time of year?  Interestingly, Thorntons has been suffering a downturn in business during the recent turmoil and we're less likely to see them on the high street as they move away from traditional shops to superstore shelves and a greater online presence.  I for one am not convinced that this is a good long-term strategy. Have you seen how many brands there are on supermarket shelves?  Thorntons produce some good chocolate and I've always found their chocolate blocks to be good value and at the same time very innovative.  


So, why are they suffering?  Perhaps, they're just not a la mode unlike Hotel Chocolat who are snapping up new retail locations, upgrading stores and showing a 25% surge in profits this year.  You only have to visit Rabot Estate in Borough Market to see some of the prices people are willing to pay. At the recent 'Chocolate Week' held at Vinopolis one company from Hungary was charging £6.00 for a 100g bar and this did't seem to be affecting their sales. Interestingly, Hotel Chocolat now have 40 different products on sale at discounted prices some as much as 50%! 


Companies like Melt, Chococo, Paul A Young, Duffy, continue to do well and perhaps Angus Kennedy is right when he states that demand for premium chocolate will not be affected but it will be the staple KitKat and Dairy Milk products that may see a change in fortunes. 


If overall business confidence continues to falter then the already saturated chocolate market will begin to choke and splutter with more casualties on the way. Perhaps it's not supply that is the problem but the fact that there are just too many players in the market and we'll see more merges throughout 2012. 


Just remember to savour that next KitKat a bit longer and enjoy each nibble! 


Posted by Richard.

Strong Coffee

If you still have room for another mince pie then you've obviously been cheating!  Whilst other members of your family have been fighting their way though slices of turkey, mounds of Christmas pudding and bottomless lakes of festive mulled wine you've been sitting on the sidelines feeding your pet dog the leftover scraps or possibly whole meals. Well, if you do have a jar of mincemeat lounging in the cupboard and you would rather use it now rather than in another twelve months then I suggest you make your next batch of mince pies with dark chocolate and pecans, (As seen on The One Show).  The pecans provide extra crunch and dark chocolate adds depth to the flavour. Based on a dozen mince pies I used a handful of dark chocolate (about 4oz) and pecans in this recipe.


I was very fortunate to receive three different Valrhona chocolate bars from Father Christmas this year. However, they're for later and before we get to sample them I have another offering from Zotter to review, Strong Coffee "IN & OUT".  Not something I'm really looking forward to tasting!

This is another example of Zotter's 'hand-scooped' bars. 
To quote from their literature. "Owing to the wonderful compositions of taste and their unique design the hand-scooped chocolates have turned into a cult. Seductive individual layers piled up, coated with homemade chocolate couverture which harmonizes with the filling and constantly merges into an impressive experience of taste. With the new "In & Out" chocolates Zotter has managed to exceed this incredible experience of taste. Using a special procedure at our factory we manufacture nut and fruit couvertures which result in increased taste and refinement". 


The Chocolate:  Coffee couverture - coffee and chocolate form part of the Viennese way of life.  A noble bitter chocolate with a creamy filling of strong Fair Trade coffee, milk and whisky.  Surrounded by Zotter's new coffee chocolate: freshly ground coffee in a combination with white chocolate uniting a tender melt and coffee aroma!

Surprise, surprise it smells of coffee!  It certainly lives up to its name and the coffee aroma is very strong but what is a surprise is that the coffee flavour doesn't over power the taste buds.  The whisky comes through as the creamy centre melts leaving a sweet, cold cup of coffee experience which isn't as unpleasant as it sounds. However, the taste of coffee lingers in the background for a while.  Essentially this is a coffee and whisky liqueur chocolate in a bar. You're either going to like or hate this bar and whilst I enjoyed the different flavours it's not a bar I'll be buying again but don't let me put you off!  Ideal for the coffee lover in your family!  I tried a small sample on a friend and they literally swooned over it! 


Overall I give this 6/10 for its clever use of flavours and 9/10 for packaging! You can buy this bar from Planet Organic, just click here.

A Piece of Forest

Well, within the world of catering there was only one event of any real importance taking place in the UK and that of course was the "Great British Bake Off" final. Forget X-Factor and Come Strictly Prancing or whatever it's called these days!  Well, I actually love both of these but the GBBO has just got better and better.  The Facebook servers must have been lit up like a Christmas tree with all the catty, I mean, well informed and objective comments from baking ladies around the country!  Congratulations to Jo Wheatley,  who is from Southend-on-Sea and a fellow Essex lady.  My cravings for all things sweet just go through the roof when this programme is on. Darn you! Darn you GBBO!


Unfortunately, a rather well endowed squirrel stole the show.  Within seconds the Twitterazzi were Tweeting pictures of the animals attributes around the world.  I could almost hear Mary Berry choking on her meringue. That certainly boosted your rankings, hey BBC2?


This leads me nicely into the next Zotter post, A Piece of Forest, a place where you might find squirrels and fluffy monsters...yeah, ok I think you get the picture.

Described as Chestnut and Milk Couverture. I quote, "The piece of forest is filled with cranberry ganache (somebody has made a typo and put canache) on home-made nougat with walnut oil.  This irresistible filling is covered with sweet chestnut coating, which has been newly developed by Zotter in its chocolate factory".  The reason they've called it, A Piece of Forest will become clear soon and you'll be able to see the wood for the trees!

The bar has a chunky, clunky feel to it that makes it feel bigger than its 70g.  Unfortunately, there is a lot of bloom on the bar as it was a sample and has probably been in and out of crates for a few weeks.  Bloom is caused by temperature fluctuations and whilst not aesthetically pleasing it will not do you any harm.  Sweet milky chocolate aroma wafts up through the air as I breathe deeply.  This is a 40% milk chocolate. 65% of the ingredients are Fairtrade and a big % of the products are from controlled organic cultivation. I'm not really getting the chestnut or walnut as the tart, sharp cranberry is very powerful and floods out the other flavours.  The soft ganache is very pleasant and the bar works well I would just like a bit more walnut and chestnut.


Not bad for a posh piece of Turkish Delight!  Overall an enjoyable bar of chocolate scoring 6/10 for flavour.  As usual Zotter score highly for their presentation.  Priced at £3.35 from Confection Affection!. As I mentioned before the bar is so named because Zotter are committed to a project in Laos under the leadership of the WWF and Austrian Federal Forests. For each "piece of forest" chocolate sold, a new tree will be planted in the rainforest.


Well done Zotter!

Black Cherries and Vanilla

Chelmsford has finally got some graffiti, or should I call it street art, that we should actually and rightly be proud of!  What a refreshing change to see some quality artwork splashed across the drab hoarding that has gone up next to the railway station.  For the past few months the drunks and the not so skilled at spelling have been scribbling their garbage all over it. Now we have some great images that look amazing.  Well, I think they look amazing!  If I had enough money I think I'd use them for my next range of packaging.  To see some of their other work click BRAVE.


This actually leads me into the next chocolate review rather nicely.  Followers of Zotter will know that they've recently changed their Mitzi Blue packaging and they have some of the best designs that I've ever seen.  There is nobody that comes close to their original and exciting artwork.  Their entire Zotter product range is created by art director, Andreas h. Gratze.  He has received the IF packing award 2008 and was nominated for the Design Award 2009 of the Federal Republic of Germany.  He uses environmentally friendly paper and  colours for the packaging.

Chocolates Hand-Scooped:  According to the literature provided these organic and fairtrade bars have turned into a cult.  To quote, "Seductive individual layers are piled up, coated with homemade chocolate couverture which harmonizes with the filling and constantly merges into an impressive experience of taste."  Using a special procedure at their factory they manufacture nut and fruit couvertures which result in increased taste and refinement.

Hand Scooped Black Cherries with Vanilla

The Chocolate: This is a chunky little bar looking a lot bigger than 70g. The bar is slightly dull due to a small amount of blooming.  This may be down to storage.  The black cherry aroma mixed with the cocoa is heady stuff!  As you break open the bar there is slight smell of alcohol giving the impression you've broken into a liqueur chocolate.  Now, I wished I'd taken a photo of the inside as this is where it gets interesting.  The dark chocolate hides a black-cherry fruit purée with a layer of vanilla-almond nougat.  It's quite odd because I just wasn't expecting this.  I'd describe it as an upmarket, rectangular, Wagon Wheel, if that's possible. The bitter chocolate (60%) isn't very bitter and the jam also lacks flavour. The black cherry flavour seems to have disappeared totally to be replaced by hints of orange and apricot. I'd describe this as a sheep dressed in wolf's clothing.


The packaging is very creative but overall flavours are a bit of a let down, almost an anticlimax.  I think Zotter have tried to be too clever and therefore I can only give this bar 6/10!  To find out more about this bar click here.  The bar can be found in some Waitrose stores and expect to pay £3.25 per bar.

Labooko 2 Milk Chocolates

I seem to be going through a Zotter phase and have another intriguing creation from the boys and girls in Austria to taste.

Packaging: 

Once again their packaging is just so innovative and thorough. They obviously spend a lot of time and money on design and marketing. The images and information used are always eye catching and informative. In fact the Zotter organization has it's own art director Andreas h. Gratze. With the environment in mind they have cleverly used environmentally friendly paper and colours to produce this packaging.


The purpose of the Labooko series according to Zotter is to provide an opportunity to compare chocolate personalities. Apparently the cocoa for these bars is obtained from cooperatives in Latin and Central America such as Uncrisproca or El Naranjillo or a particular region such as Satipo and Pagoo or Talamanca. 




Chocolate 1: The first bar is the milk chocolate bar from Nicaragua which has a 60% cocoa content plus it also includes full cream milk powder. I found it very strange to be tasting a 60% milk chocolate which looked dark. In fact it was so disconcerting that I did a blind tasting on a friend and they immediately spotted that it was a very creamy, rich in cocoa, milk chocolate. I was very impressed by this chocolate once I'd got my head round the dark looking milk chocolate bar. I want more!

Nicaragua 60

Ingredients: cocoa mass, raw cane sugar, full cream milk powder, cocoa butter, salt and vanilla. There is a rich cocoa smell coming from the bar as the gold foil wrapper is removed. 

Chocolate 2: This bar is from an area of Peru where farmers earn more from their illegal cultivation of cocaine than usually from cocoa. Zotter points out that he pays the farmers well above the normal organic and Fairtrade surcharges to obtain these quality beans. The milk is also organic and comes from the Tyrolean mountains.

Peru 40%

This is another delicious bar of milk chocolate with a strong hint of caramel at the beginning. It is velvety smooth in texture and sweet but not sickly.

Ingredients: raw cane sugar, cocoa butter, full cream milk powder, cocoa mass, whole cane sugar, salt and vanilla.

£3.25 for 2 x 35g bars of chocolate is expensive but yet again this is delicious chocolate. Overall I give these bars 9/10 mostly for their great taste and the effort that goes into making these bars.

Mitzi Blue by Zotter Smooth Milk Chocolate with Cashews

This bar grabbed my attention when scanning the shelves in John Lewis recently and it wasn't until I got to the checkout that I noticed that it was made by those rather quirky and individual people at Zotter. 


They have some fantastic and unusual combinations to choose from. There are apparently 200 different varieties in their current range. The name Mitzi Blue was the name of the sky blue vintage car that Joseph Zotter owned. 

Packaging - Their chocolates are always beautifully presented and they continue to provide innovative and excellent ideas for packaging especially if you're looking for a gift. Inside there is plenty of interesting information about the chocolate and other facts that I just love.




Environment - The team at Zotter have very good environmental credentials and all their cocoa shells and wood chips are burnt in a small steam plant, located behind the factory providing a constant supply of energy. The packaging is also made with the environment in mind and printed with food colouring!

The Chocolate - 36% cocoa content. Organic and Fairtrade. 50g 
To make Mitzi Blue a blend of Criollo and Trinitario cocoa beans are used to the exacting standards set down by Joseph Zotter from 'bean to bar' which includes roasting, grinding and refining of the conche.



Ok, how does it taste? As soon as I smell the chocolate, a familiar Easter Egg or Toblerone  sweetness kicks in. The cashews have been been crushed and speckle the chocolate. As the chocolate quickly melts you're left with the texture of crunchy cashews. You can tell this is good quality chocolate but I would have preferred one with a higher cocoa content. It's well balanced and I have to say I enjoyed it. It's not overly sweet and I've already eaten half a circle!

Ingredients: 


Raw cane sugar, cocoa butter, full cream milk powder, cocoa mass, cashews, whole cane sugar, vanilla, salt; cocoa 36% minimum. Certified Fairtrade from controlled organic cultivation. 
Milk products are produced by "Bio vom Berg", organic farmers from the Tyrol. This is a cooperative set up in 2002 to provide a range of organic products including milk, yoghurt and cheese.


Overall I give this bar 7/10 mostly for its creativeness and environmental credentials. At £2.49 for 50g of chocolate it is a tad expensive but I think I'll be going back for more. Only another 199 to try!