Oriol Balaguer, Barcelona - Chocolate Overdose Part 1

Oriol Balaguer, Spain’s rising star pastry chef?  I’m not sure about that, as Spain is one tough market to lead, but he sure does make good chocolates!  One can only imagine the sleepless nights he and his team have trying to figure out how to decorate the damn mold for his many different flavours!

You see, he only uses 1 mold, the cocoa bean shape, and trust me, trying to come up with different decorations to make each one unique is a pain in the butt.  This was my first time tasting his stuff in Barcelona, having only had his chocolates in Japan.  At Calle Morales in Barca lies his kitchen and though he was on holiday, his chef prepared the following for me:

1. Custom Selection of the most interesting chocolates
2. 18 piece collection
3. Paradigma de Chocolate – 8 Textures of Chocolate Cake

Now, friends and repeat visitors to this blog will know that this blog is not an, “Oh look what I made today” kinda blog with posts everyday of a few paragraphs and nice photos.  I apologise if the posts get too long, but if any of you reading this are pastry chefs, chocolatiers, chefs or home-cooks with some serious brain problems (Anyone who is obsessed with food is a bit of a whackjob), hope you all like these kinda posts and please do shout out your appreciation with comments.  It keeps me motivated on those dark and lonely nights……….

Here are my tasting notes for the custom selection:

Custom Selection

• Albaricoque (Apricot)
  • Milk chocolate ganache with apricot puree and possibly apricot Eau de Vie
    • Sweet yet tangy with a ‘baked’ apricot flavour and a slight hint of eau de vie
    • Apricot is a dominating flavour and the tanginess cut the sweetness of the milk chocolate
    • Still a bit too sweet for my liking and I wonder how it would taste if Cluizel’s Mangaro Lait 50% was used, my favourite milk chocolate!
•  Tonka
  • Tonka bean is banned in some countries due to its alleged ‘blood thinning’ properties attributed to Coumarin
    • Its aroma is that of vanilla and bitter almonds
  • This chocolate contained praline, salt, tonka bean and milk chocolate
  • The hazelnut/almond praline’s nuttiness gave way to the tonka bean aroma which grew in presence with every chew
  • The salt brought out the nuts (Think salted peanuts!) and gave a different flavour dimension by contrasting sweet with salty
  • Still a bit too sweet, but thats just personal taste.  This was a good use of nuts and tonka.
• Olive Oil
  • A soft, semi-firm ganache that melts in the mouth
  • Gentle olive taste that would have tasted better had my tongue not tasted other chocolates before
  • The fruitiness reminds me of Arbequina Olive Oil
    • Actually I am bullshitting you, Arbequina EVO is one of the most revered Olive Oils in Spain, so its highly likely Oriol uses it.  It is my favourite EVO by the way!
  • For some reason, I did not note if it was white chocolate or dark/milk chocolate was used
• Caramelo Sal (Salted Caramel)
  • Fluid, medium heavy caramel with a very light touch of salt
  • There are 2 schools of thought when it comes to salt and caramel
    • Just enough to bring out the sweetness
    • Just enough to make a balanced salty-sweet contrast
  • This chocolate belongs to the former, and was very pleasant to eat, though I would’ve liked it to be less sweet and more caramely.  Once again, its a personal preference for stronger flavours in flavours that should be well…..strong!

From the top of the left corner, going downwards, prepare yourself for the list to follow!

Crujiente

• Praline with paillette feuilletine (Small, flat, crunchy ‘wafer’ bits) and a hint of salt
  • Salt gave a nice contrast to the sweetness of the praline, which could have been toned down
  • Feuilletine gave a crunchy textural contrast

Yuzu

• White chocolate ganache with Yuzu
  • Refreshing yuzu taste with a bit of lemon and mandarin orange flavour at the end
  • First had this in Japan in 2006, and it was really nice, but then again, I just love Yuzu

Tartufo

• Dark chocolate ganache with truffle
  • Don’t ask me if its black or white truffle, this is most probably truffle oil
  • Nice, earthy with a balanced truffle taste without the horrible kerosene one often smells and tastes in average truffle oils
  • Initial hit of truffle gradually gives way to the chocolate at the end

Vanilla Taihiti

• Medium bodied and flavoured ganache with a light vanilla flavour
  • Lightness of the ganache allowed the gentle floral properties of Vanilla Tahitensis to come through

Pera Williams

• A semi-firm centre with a light taste of Pear Williams Eau de Vie
  • Pear and chocolates is a classic combination, and the Pear Williams Eau de Vie gave a slight taste of pear

Te Earl Grey

• Dark+Milk chocolate ganache with Earl Grey infusion
  • Beautiful tea and bergamot flavour partnered with a milky, yet deep chocolate ganache

Menta

• Mint ganache with an obvious taste of mint essential oil
• Would have preferred a fresh mint infusion where a bit of ‘green-ness’ comes through and the menthol flavour is more rounded, unlike the harsh essential oils

Naranja

• Ganache with a light orange flavour
  • Ganache probably flavoured by orange zest and Grand Marnier, though the alcohol was unnoticeable

Whisky

• Dark ganache with whisky
  • Strongly oaked whisky was used which gave it an interesting ‘smoked’ flavour

Cardamomo

• Cardamom ganache
  • No distinct cardamom taste, only the floral fragrance

Azafran

• Milk chocolate ganache with saffron
  • Very gentle, floral fragrance of saffron which indicates saffron that was ‘freshly harvested’.  Saffron tends to get more earthy in storage as it matures

Mascleta

The famous chocolate with hazelnut praline, maldon salt and pop rocks

• Just like the Crujiente, the hazelnut praline had salt crystals in it for extra crunch as well as flavour contrast
• There is an underlying flavour of mandarin orange peel (Clementine or Satsuma, etc…), this wasn’t there the first time I ate it in Japan in 2006
• The pop rocks pop around in the mouth for a unique sensation that gave this chocolate its name, “Fireworks”

Pasion

• Passionfruit with milk chocolate ganache
  • Nice aroma and zing from the passionfruit puree
  • Acidity is countered by the sweetness and fat from the milk chocolate
  • Nice chocolate and passionfruit is a passion of mine (Pun intended), but Pierre Herme’s Mogador is still the benchmark IMO
    • Is this a testament of skill, or testament to the difference of quality in the chocolate used?
      • Cacao Barry/Callebaut vs Valrhona?

Frambuesa Gengibre

• Raspberry puree ganache with crystallized ginger
  • Fruity flavour dominates with a hint of ginger, especially at the end
    • Combined with the acidity of the raspberry, the crystallized ginger tastes a bit like Beni Shoga, the Japanese pickled ginger

Cafe

• Almond praline with coffee and coffee bean bits for texture
  • Almond + coffee is a great combination and the beans gave spurts of coffee goodness without the bitterness
    • Most likely Arabica beans, as the flavour was nicely balanced and not sharp and obtrusive
  • Pretty sure instant coffee was used in the praline to flavour it, its normal in kitchens and WAY better than the ‘Coffee Emulsion’ named ‘Trablit’.

7 Especias

• Basically, 7 Spices in a praline with paillete feuilletine (Crunchy thin butter wafers)
  • Praline has a natural affinity with spices, and the one that stood out the most was Jamaican Pepper, or Allspice
  • Using my amazing tasting abilities, the other spices are probably cinnamon, clove, nutmeg, pepper, star anise and coriander
    • Actually, those are the most common spices used in chocolate making and we used to do a similar 7 spice chocolate at Totel and it tasted the same!

Anis Estrellado

• Star Anis ganache
  • Started off with a light, liquorice-like flavour that is reminiscent of Green Anis
    • Green anis is often used with star anise for a more rounded flavour
  • This develops into an oriental/middle eastern kind of anis flavour from the star anise
  • Ends on an acidic note which was hidden all this while as it carried the flavours
    • Notice how anis flavoured drinks all have a sickly sweet, thickish feel in your throat at the end that lasts forever?  This one is the opposite and actually refreshes the palate.

Kikos

• Kikos, or corn nuts, are basically deep fried rehydrated corn kernels

This chocolate was a salted nut praline and rough ground kikos for texture and taste

• Kikos are eaten like a snack with salt and flavourings
• The salted praline worked great with the popcorn accent

Conclusion

I found most of the chocolates a tad on the sweet side, but that is personal preference over a country’s preference, just like sweets in India are really sweet to a foreign tongue.  The flavours are interesting and some shine and some sputter, which is normal, seeing that he has so many flavours.  No one can make 100 types and ensure all 100 are winners!

Having had Cacao Sampaka, Paco Torreblanca and some Enric Rovira, I gotta say Oriol Balaguer is one of the best in Spain, with Paco taking top spot (Yes yes yes, I am biased again, but really, he’s got a secret 72% dark chocolate from Mexico that he uses!).  Of course, I have yet to visit Yann Duytsche at Dolc outside of Barcelona who is doing some awesome stuff.  His book, ‘Sweet Diversions’ is AWESOME. 

Is Spain leading the way?  I sure hope so, and Oriol Balaguer is its upcoming superstar.