May 2005
Chocolatiers
by Celia Cheng
ULTRA-FINES TASTING COLLECTION
Food is first and foremost on my mind most of the time, but this is a rare case in which I am not particularly craving any one flavor of the bonbons or the collections but positively crave RICHART’s beautiful designs. And who wouldn’t?! While all the chocolates are eye-candy, the Ultra-Fines Ballotins are the most visually exquisite to me because of their subtlety. These individual, thin, square pieces of mono-origin dark chocolate seem to have only the RICHART logo, the name of the origin and the cacao percentage printed on them, but upon closer examination you can see beautiful cacao leaf patterns printed on like a varnish. Varnishes generally give a shinier texture, a glossy effect, and that’s why it is not really noticeable except under the right lighting. So the Ultra-Fines Tasting Collection not only emphasizes the taste and purity of the origin-specific cacao, but also the extent to which a chocolate can express subtle beauty. The little details and a touch of the unexpected are what make the experience really stand out.
