About a week ago, I received a package that came all the way from one of my dream destinations in the world: Provence, France. It’s been my longtime dream to visit Provence’s dreamy lavender fields and I think that the universe is trying to show me signs that my dream will soon be fulfilled because Z Chocolat, a premiere luxury chocolate brand sent me a stunning box from their Basswood Box Collection called “Sunrise”.
At first, I was trying to wrap my head around how they would be able to send me the chocolates from halfway around the world. But when the (huge) package finally arrived at my doorstep, it revealed temperature-regulated packaging which contained insulated containers and four refrigerant packs to maintain an inside temperature of 15 and 20 degrees Celcius.
The box revealed two gorgeous velvet drawstring packs each containing Z Chocolat’s “Sunrise” Basswood Box and Z Chocolat’s Easter Collection (which I will save for a later story.. so stay tuned!), a personal note from Margaux of Z Chocolat, and a mini booklet containing all the information about the chocolates.
When I gently pulled out the Basswood box from its drawstring bag, I immediately fell in love with the delicate light-toned basswood. The basswood which is said to originate from Eastern Frances Jura region, is delicately engraved with Z Chocolat’s logo.
My Sunrise Basswood Box opened up to Z Chocolat’s Traditional 15-piece Assortment. Just to give you a short background about Z Chocolat, each of their chocolate recipes were created my world champion Chocolatier, Pascal Caffet. He created 24 original chocolate recipes, plus their original Z Chocolat recipe. My Sunrise Basswood Box included Z chocolat recipes from number 1-12 and three of their original Z Chocolat recipe in dark, milk and white.
The 3 Original Z Chocolat recipes include rich ganaches prepared with French butter and cream from Normandy and finely textured pralines honed from a perfected mixture of Valencia almonds from Spain and Piedmont hazelnuts from Italy. Thinking about them again is making my mouth water.
Each one of these chocolates I had were absolutely divine. But my top 3 would have to be:
- Dark Z Chocolate – intense 70% Venezuelan dark chocolate couverture encasing a duo of a lush caramel and crunchy praliné: the caramel is sweet and salty with Bourbon-Vanilla from Madagascar, the praliné is composed from slow-roasted Piedmont hazelnuts. It’s not their most famous recipe for no reason!
- White Z Chocolate – Velvety white chocolate couverture encasing a duo of a lush caramel and crunchy praliné: the caramel is sweet and salty with Bourbon-Vanilla from Madagascar, the praliné is composed from slow-roasted Piedmont hazelnuts.
- The Chocolate N9 – A praliné crafted from slow-roasted caramelized Valencia almonds from Spain ground into a fine powder, mixed with milk chocolate and pure cocoa butter. All drenched in a 40% Ivory Coast milk chocolate couverture.
What I love about Z Chocolats is that they not only give you a taste of luxurious chocolates that were made in chocolate heaven but they give you the full Z Chocolat experience: from the customer service, to the shipment of your products, to their captivating packaging, and finally, to the actual chocolates. My basswood box for example, can be replaced with different chocolate assortments, or better yet, a fully customized selection of chocolates. You can also have it engraved, gift wrapped, and attach elegant accessories to it as well. Without a doubt, it’s the most special gift one can give to a chocolate lover.
To know more and have your very own bespoke Z Chocolat box, head on to http://www.zchocolat.com/.
xoxo,
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