Monsieur Truffe - Praline

Cost: $11 for 10

Comparative cost: $12.22 per 100g (average weight 9g each)

Rating: 3 out of 5

Buy again: Maybe, good but more nuts than chocolate

Sight

Nuts nuts nuts.  That's all I can see - and all I can smell.  There's no overriding sense of chocolate, instead this is a heady mixture of nuts and sugar and it reminds me of Nutella.  Yum!

Taste and Texture

Already in my hand, the touch of the spiky little slivers brings the image of a porcupine to mind!  But instinctively I know under this porcupine type exterior lies a soft and smooth centre.  At least I hope...

And as I bite into this, the immediate flavour I am overwhelmed with is, you guessed it, nuts!  I start searching for the chocolate but aren't really getting much, only small hints of the sweet stuff. 

In terms of texture I find myself a little confused as there is a texture to the soft centre I expect - and it isn't nuts!  But something smaller, finer.  And then there are hints of sweetness and I realise there are small bits of caramalised something or rather lurking around in here.  My mind at ease I sit back and enjoy these little textured trespasses, they work really well with the nuts and are obviously an intentional addition.  But I'm still missing my chocolate - even at the end it is still about the nuts, with a strong and overriding almond flavour.

The texture is lovely as far as bite factor - it allows you to ease your teeth into it beautifully.  But after eating several of these, including one which I rather gracelessly eat the nuts off in an attempt to get to the chocolate, I'm still not getting a strong sense of the chocolate.  It is just lost amongst all the other flavours, and as nice as they are this would work better (for me) with a more distinct chocolate flavour.  

The overriding taste that lingers is strongly nutty (with of course the little nut bits making their presence known for sometime) there is also a sharpness of sugar that lingers at the back of my throat.

Summary

As it stands it is nutty, caramelised, sweet and very moorish.  Lovely, but I need more chocolate - maybe even a larger centre would have been preferable and with more balance between chocolate and nuts I would have been happy to rate it higher.

Overall a nice treat but given that it is lacking in chocolate I am going to rate it as 3 out of 5.  If you are after something sweet and nutty you may find yourself rating it higher, recommended for nutophiles!

Monsieur Truffe

http://monsieurtruffe.wordpress.com/
90 Smith Street, Collingwood, Melbourne

Reviewed: Shari
5 February 2010