Sea Salted Caramel Bar - Paul A Young

An early raid on Easter chocolates was usurped by a bar of Sea Salted Caramel from Paul. A. Young. Phew...that was a close one!

For those of you who are new to the world of chocolate, Paul.A.Young, is a confectionary wizard when it comes to making fine chocolates with fresh ingredients. You can find PAY stores in Wardour Street, Camden Passage, The Royal Exchange and Heals. His empire is certainly expanding! I recently discovered that you can buy some of his chocolates online at Craved. 

You can find such flavours

including Sourdough; Chilli and that old favourite you either love it or hate it, marmite. Not surprisingly this rather edgy marmite bar is on offer at £3.50 reduced from £5.90.

Paul and his team of apprentice wizards, that's certainly an apprenticeship to end all apprenticeships if they offer such things, make all their chocolate delights without the use of complicated tempering machinery preferring the coolness of marble to facilitate the magical process.

As you would expect, the chocolate, a 64% Madagascan dark chocolate, is delicious,  delivering a woody and fruity almost zesty aroma.
 

50g - Sea Salted Caramel Bar

The soft caramel has been sandwiched in between two pieces of chocolate which have been cleverly glued back together. Maldon sea salt has been combined with the sweet caramel to provide a little astringency;  very subtle. This particular bar won Gold at the International Chocolate Awards European Semi-Final. You can now learn how to make this bar by joining one of his workshops,  but hurry as these events are selling out fast.

Little effort or for that matter expense has been made in regards to packaging. A simple piece of fairly thick clear plastic held together with two labels and a purple bow. Paul makes it clear he wants his chocolate to do all the talking. Substance over style. 

Nowadays caramel and sea salt is probably the most popular flavour in the world and can now be found in absolutely anything. I enjoyed this bar which is really well balanced but to be honest I prefer a plain bar rather than the squidgy mix.

Prestat - Almond, Sea Salt on Milk

Before diving into a bar of Prestat. I thought I'd just talk about the historic Essex town that is Burnham-on-Crouch, as I believe it deserves a little mention.  As you would imagine sighted on 
the banks of the River Crouch (in the Dengie 100 Peninsula) there is a very large sailing community and the town boasts at least 4 yacht clubs including the Royal Corinthian which is one of the largest structures that can be found along the quayside. It was built in 1930 by Joseph Emberton. The growing popularity of sailing meant that boat building and sail making industries quickly sprung up. 


The town has a large number of important historical buildings dating back to the 17th and 18th centuries including the White Hart where the notorious pirate the Fiddler was caught. He was later hung in chains and executed and left to rot in a place now known as Fiddlers Point, Greenhithe.  


Looking for a great place to eat, no pun intended, then you should visit the Contented Sole restaurant in the High Street which I highly recommend. Just over the river you can see the village of Canewdon, a village that is reportedly the most haunted place in the UK.

Prestat

Ok, moving swiftly on from one old sea dog tale to a sea salty chocolate tale. I know that was bad....enough of this malarkey I hear you shout!

I can't believe that I've never tried chocolate from Prestat before. If their eye catching and barbie colouring is not enough to grab your attention then I can only assume are colour blind.

75g - Roasted Almond, Sea Salt and Milk Chocolate

Prestat has been making chocolates for royalty, nobility and stars of the stage and screen for over 100 years. Interestingly, for such a well established company, they are also committed to trading fairly and buy their cocoa from Africa to make this bar. Hit the link here to find out more about this amazing company.

This is a 35% milk chocolate and the overall presentation of the bar is not particularly shiny and it has a fairly 'soft' mouth feel about it. The mix of salt and crunchy, roasted almond nibs is just right balanced off against the sweetness of the milk chocolate. The chocolate is bit light in flavour but I imagine the sugar content has to be high to balance off the sea salt. This bar is so moreish and good value for money at £2.20/75g or £2.93/100g and deserves a high score of 7/10. Click here to buy on line from Tesco.