Chef Subasis Bandopadhyay of Chrome with his chocolate shots

Struck by the chocolate fudge and chocolate boat syndrome? You ain’t seen nothing yet. Just wait till you savour the new-fangled chocolate goodies that the city’s hottest chocolatiers are busy drumming up.

Think on the lines of single origin chocolates and pastries, truffles in exotic flavours like tequila and wasabi and sumptuous chocolate drinks laced with alcohol. It’s also time to head for Calcutta’s first skybar — an open air rooftop bar — to down chocolate shots with alacrity. And if the chocolate craving still refuses to go away then try a main course dish like a chicken steak doused with aromatic chocolate sauce. Here’s a sampling.

Single origin: Like wine, the taste of a single origin chocolate is defined by the region from where the cocoa beans are picked. For example, chocolates sourced from Ghana are earthy and fruity while those sourced from Costa Rica have a slightly woody flavour. These chocolates are prized for their strongly defined, distinctive flavours and cost four times as much as blended chocolates.

Soon you’ll be able to buy single origin chocolates off the rack from all the nine Flury’s outlets in Calcutta. Flury’s will source its chocolate blocks (for single origin chocolates) from Ecuador, Ghana and Nicaragua. The chocolate from Nicaragua is known to contain the highest percentage of cacao fat (up to 75 per cent) and prices go anywhere from Rs 3,000 to Rs 5,000 a kilo.

Choc a bloc: (From top) chef Vikas Kumar of Flury’s, chef Mark Smith of New Kenilworth Hotel, Reshmi Bhattacharya of Miette and Anjali Jindal of Vanilla Bean with their creations

“We will be introducing single origin pastries and single origin truffle cakes,” says chef Vikas Kumar, custodian of Breads and Desserts at The Park and executive chef, Flury’s. The single origin goodies will be cooked by a team of four pastry chefs in a special, temperature controlled room at the 75-year-old Flury’s factory on Park Street.

Brand new flavours: “Flavoured chocolates will be the next big thing in Calcutta what with the gamut of spices available,” says chef Harpawan Singh Kapoor, senior sous chef of ITC Sonar. Try the cardamom flavoured truffles The Gourmet Shop of the hotel.

Chef Mark Smith, executive chef, New Kenilworth Hotel, plans to go for flavours like dried ginger, chilies and even wasabi at the newly opened outlet, Oven Fresh.

“Chillies can be used to flavour white chocolate to great effect,” says Smith, who picked up the tricks of chocolate-making from celebrity chef Gerard Mendis of the Hilton Colombo. Now he dreams of opening a chocolate lounge at New Kenilworth Hotel.

Oven Fresh, which has two outlets in the city — one in New Kenilworth Hotel and another on Loudon Street — already has a list of hotselling chocolate truffles.

Swissotel Kolkata Neotia Vista (in New Town) has just flagged off Café Swiss — a 24-hour restaurant with a slew of chocolate-based drinks and desserts on its menu. “Since the Swiss use a lot of nuts in their chocolate, expect nutty flavours in the truffles, marzipans, biscottis and cheesecakes,” says Shobhit Pal, F&B manager.

Homemade goodies: It doesn’t get better than this — chocolates delivered at your doorstep for weddings, parties and birthdays. Twenty-five year old Anjali Jindal picked up the art of chocolate-making at the French Culinary Institute in New York before setting up Vanilla Bean which specialises in customised chocolates for weddings, birthday bashes and parties.

“I supervise all the cooking, keep an eye on the quality and finish for all the orders,” says Jindal. The popular flavours for large orders are coconut, roasted nuts, butterscotch and of course, white chocolate. Her truffles and truffle cakes sell for about Rs 1,500 a kilo.

Reshmi Bhattacharya too set up her homemade chocolate brand, Miette (French for crumb), five months ago after learning the basics of chocolate-making from a trained chef. “I have a sweet tooth and that’s the reason why I got into chocolate making,” she says.

Reshmi imports all her cocoa beans and butter from Malaysia and supplies chocolate platters as well as gift packs. The goodies range from truffles (in flavours like fruit-and-nut, strawberry, black currant) to chocolate bars and fudge shaped like stars, airplanes and houses. Jam-filled chocolates and white chocolate truffles are also popular. Prices are hooked at about Rs 800 a kilo.

Chocolate shots: Tired of the all-time favourite — hot chocolate? The swanky F-Bar, ready to open as Calcutta’s first skybar at the brand new Chrome hotel, will introduce chocolate shots as fillers between meals. The shots will be spiced with coffee, strawberries, blueberries and liqueurs like Irish cream and crème de menthe.

“The real trick lies in cooking the chocolate at the right temperature and flavouring it proportionately,” says chef Subasis Bandopadhyay, F&B in-charge at Chrome hotel. Chrome’s 24-hour coffee shop, Nosh, will also offer chocolate shots.       

Chocolate Truffle

Ingredients: l200ml cream l280g dark chocolate l50g bitter dark chocolatel100g good quality cocoa

Method: Make a ganache by boiling the cream before mixing it with the dark chocolate. Cover and cool in the refrigerator. Spoon out small amounts of the mix. Roll them into balls with your hands. Put them in the refrigerator for a while. After having melted the bitter black chocolate, soak the truffles in it with a fork and roll them in the cocoa immeditely. Keep the truffles in a cool area but not in the refrigerator.