London's creative wizard, Paul A. Young, is at it again this Christmas, as keen as ever to send you on a mind-bending sensory journey through his magical chocolate world.
Cast your mind back to earlier this year when he created a romantic storyline for his Valentine's Day chocolates. It was a very successful concept and he's done something similar with his Christmas range for 2019.
Through the medium of filled chocolates, Paul walks you through the festive period from key moments such as putting up the Christmas tree through to eating Christmas Dinner and celebrating New Year's Eve. Flavours include:
- Trimming the Tree - Guittard 38% Milk Chocolate ganache blended with orange and clove essential oils inside a shell made with the flavours of pine and cedar.
- Christmas Dinner - A beef dripping infused sea salted caramel flavoured with rosemary, sage, and thyme, all held inside a Firetree 75% Makira Solomon Islands shell, topped with a crunchy beef dripping roast potato crumble. Wow!
- Yule Log Christmas Dinner Dessert - A ganache made with chocolate Swiss Roll sponge, demerara sugar, dark rum, Guittard 72% dark chocolate, and brandy buttercream, smothered in Valrhona 66% Caraibe chocolate with a cocoa butter snow decoration.
- Boxing Day - A cheddar and parmesan cheese ganache, traditional chutney caramel inside Duffy’s 65% Dominican Republic chocolate.
- New Years' Eve - A champagne, lemon, and gin white chocolate ganache finished with a sparkling decoration.
- Stir Up Sunday - Inspired by Christmas pudding, this features a Firetree 76% Vanuatu single origin chocolate ganache with Port-soaked California Prunes, black treacle, stout, brandy and festive spices. It's finished to resemble a small Christmas pudding in a 65% Guittard Madagascan chocolate shell.
- The Nutcracker Suite - Roasted Brazil nut and almond crunch mixed with hazelnut butter fudge, smothered in Valrhona 46% Bahibe Dominican Republic milk chocolate.
- Baking Gingerbread - A Lebkuchen cookie dough filling made with ginger, cinnamon, cardamom, nutmeg and treacle, covered in Guittard 38% Milk chocolate and topped with a gingerbread crumbs.
- The Office Christmas Party - 65% Guittard Madagascan chocolate with a Mulled Wine ganache of red wine, festive spices, and tobacco leaf.
- Carol Service - No story about Christmas is complete without gifts of Gold, Frankincense, and Myrrh. So, this Guittard 91% dark chocolate caramel ganache contains essential oils of Frankincense and Myrrh inside a Valrhona 46% Bahibe Dominican Republic milk chocolate shell, topped with a sparkling gold decoration.
- Treat for Santa - This chocolate mince pie starts with Guittard 38% Milk chocolate and butter pastry crumbs which surrounds a cognac-soaked home-made mincemeat.
- After Dinner - Coffee, Anyone? - White chocolate together with coffee grounds and Valrhona 72% Venezuelan dark chocolate, finished with a golden bean decoration.
I wouldn't say no to any of these, but Christmas Pudding, Christmas Dinner, and Boxing Day would be first on my list to try. What about you?
Besides the filled chocolates, Paul will also be selling a gifting product range. Here you'll find a box of familiar biscuits - think along the lines of custard cream, bourbon, and jam biscuits - made entirely out of solid chocolate (£24.95).
On the topic of things not quite as they seem, check out his White Christmas Snowball. A Guittard white chocolate sphere has mini winter mint truffle snowballs hidden inside (£12.95).
I like the look of the reindeer motif dark, white, or milk chocolate bars finished with a metallic shimmer (£7.95). It's such a striking design with the shimmer and red nose finishing it off nicely.
There's also a Christmas Jazzies Bauble filled with discs made from Guittard 38% Milk Chocolate and Guittard 35% Soie Blanche chocolate (£14.95). The Mulled Wine Grapes box contains Madagascan 65% Guittard dark chocolate grapes filled with a mulled wine caramel (£9.95).
It wouldn't be Christmas without Terry and his Chocolate Orange. Drawing inspiration from this, Paul's version sees 65% Guittard Madagascan dark chocolate paired with essential oils of orange and mandarin (£12.95).
And it certainly wouldn't be Christmas without a mince pie. Paul's Brownie Mince Pies start with buttery pastry filled with his downright delicious brownie plus a helping of cognac and ale soaked mincemeat (£2.95).
For a festive dessert, consider the Sea Salted Caramel and Chocolate Mincemeat Tart crafted for four people to share. Inside a buttery pastry shell is mincemeat topped with a caramel made with Firetree 75% Makira Dark Chocolate (£12.95).
Thankfully, calories don't count at Christmas, right?
Paul's chocolate creations will be available at his stores at 143 Wardour Street in Soho, London, and at 33 Camden Passage in London in the run up to Christmas. There's also a mail order service available for those of us who can't readily get to London. A selection of his products will also be available to order on Uber Eats.
What's going straight on your Christmas shopping list? Let me know in the comments below.
