Review: Chocolates and Cocktails with Cocoa Cabana and The Violet Hour

Lots of studies have said that chocolate, good chocolate mind you is good for you – good for your heart, blood pressure, good for your soul. So a little bit of excellent chocolate, eaten with a cocktail or two, must be even better… right?

Taking excellent ingredients on both sides, the cocktail experts at The Violet Hour and the chocolate experts at Cocoa Cabana came together to pair exquisite handmade chocolate with bespoke cocktails, each designed to complement the other. A decadent evening of twists on classic cocktails, handmade chocolates and slivers of Marou Chocolate, it promised to be a night of beautiful scents, flavours and textures.

 

 

The first cocktail on the menu was a cherry and rum daiquiri, made with Heering Cherry Liqueur and Alantico Rum Reserva. Atlantico Rum is made in the Dominican Republic and uses a blend of different rums to create it’s unique flavour -with Enrique Iglesias as a shareholder, it’s definitely got a little something special going on. Heering Cherry Liqueur has been around since 1818 and uses Danish cherries to create it’s characteristic sweet taste. As one of the original ingredients for the Singapore Sling, you could say it’s got cocktail credentials.

Combined in this cocktail. with a good kick of lime, you get a lovely fresh, flavour, pulled back from being too much by the sweetness of the liqueur and the sugar.

The handmade chocolate made to accompany this cocktail was a cherry and chilli truffle with 67% Madagascan milk chocolate. The chocolate was sweet, fruity and had a delicious warmth that just tickled the back of the mouth

Together these two were in perfect harmony. The sweetness of the milk chocolate and the cherry in the truffle worked incredibly well with the lime in the cocktail, taking away the almost over-sour flavour. The the warmth of the chilli and the rum played together, leaving a lingering warm creaminess in the mouth. Anything else and this pairing might have been too sweet or too sour. Together, a match made in heaven.

 

 

For the second cocktail, I was on very familiar turf with a Rose and Basil Bramble with Ish Gin. I’ve come across Ish before – A modern twist on a London Dry gin, it’s beginnings are in the sunnier climes of Spain. The Poshmakers, who run the very well known Bristol Bar in Madrid, wanted to create their own posh gin..

The cocktail played with your senses. The fresh basil garnish was the predominant scent as you sipped, and the rose syrup’s perfume was soft, and lightly sweet. I mentally pictured myself on a summers day, a glass of this in hand, watching the world go by..

The truffle was deceptively complex –  a cucumber basil and rose truffle. Made using a dark 56% chocolate as a base, the different ingredients didn’t hit the palate at the same time. Firstly, the fresh, clean, cucumber, then the soft, perfumed rose and the dark chocolate swept across your mouth, the warmth of the gin tantalised and finally the basil sugar pulled the chocolate with it, leaving a lingering flavour in the mouth.

 

 

The third and final cocktail was a Green Tea Margarita with Herencia Mexicana Reprosado Tequila. This is an artisan Tequila and brand spanking new to the UK. The family making this utterly gorgeous Tequila manage the entire operation, it’s their own grown agave, oven and still. It’s a true crafted Tequila – even the bottles are hand blown locally. And the quality is obvious.

Alongside the Tequila, the margarita uses a green tea syrup and orange bitters, but the lime is removed and instead, a little more Tequila added. This intensifies the smokiness of the cocktail and allows the green tea to come through.

This was matched with a green tea and lime truffle with salt, made with Ecuadorian (single estate) 70% cocoa chocolate. This was the most intense and savoury of the matches and my favourite. The sharp lime mixed with the grassy green tea, bitterness of the chocolate, smokiness of the margarita and the salt into a powerful combination.

Even without the goodie bag to take home, this was a fabulous evening, but don’t worry if you missed out. I have it on very good authority that it will be back….