Almond Toffee Hearts - These are the biggest hearts, so there are only two of them. I could go for a whole box of these. They're milk chocolate with little toffee and almond pieces. Caramel toffee flavor, nice and strong. This toffee isn't the hard kind; instead it has the perfect crunch and delivers the taste of sugar and vanilla, along with salt from the almonds. The milk chocolate wraps it all up in a flawless example of a high quality confection.
Caramelia Hearts - These blend in well with the Caramel Truffles, so it can be hard to tell them apart visually. The Caramelia ones are essentially a twist on plain truffles. They come with a light caramel taste and a super rich, vanilla ganache flavor. Also milk chocolate, so another sweet one.
Caramel Truffles - If you have these in two bites, they can break kind of awkwardly. The bottom is thicker and the rest is fairly thin. In fact, I do also have to note that with one of them, the bottom stuck to the paper, so the whole thing broke apart when I tried to pick it up. The caramel is gently free-flowing and of the darker flavored sort. No touch of salt. The chocolate here is dark. Naturally, I would prefer the milk chocolate because I tend to prefer milk chocolate when it comes to confections. This chocolate, though, isn't bad (some dark chocolate confections I can't even stand); it tastes much like Ghirardelli. The darker tone does go well, though, with darker tone of the caramel and also helps to keep it all from veering too much into the candy-confection side.
Scotch Truffles - There are seven of these round truffles, so definitely the most of these. You get that alcohol hint right away. It's strong and yet also toned down enough that it doesn't overwhelm or take over the chocolate. In fact, they go together quite well. The Scotch enhances the rich concept of the ganache, giving a similar effect as a Champagne truffle. So quite nice; probably most people won't mind having the greatest amount of these in here. Personally, though, I'd have preferred more Almond Toffee Hearts or maybe Caramelia Hearts.
Black Pepper Truffles - Just three of these squares. The only pepper is that dash that's visible on top. The ganache is super smooth. The black pepper taste comes in when the chocolate is almost melted, because of course it goes quickly since it's mainly ganache. You can taste it but it isn't so strong that you're hit by coughing and spiciness. It's just kind of a warmth and a flavor. So here we have an example of subtle use of a strong ingredient. Just a touch of pepper and that's all that it needs. If it were stronger, it would make it more of a novelty and also not as good. As it was, this truffle made a nice addition to the mix, something a little darker to balance out the sweet chocolates.
And what did the homme think of the chocolates I chose? Well, I only got his opinion on three of them. Reluctantly, too, I might add. The almonds in the Toffee Hearts were too much for him; he said if he wanted healthy, he'd go to Whole Foods. As for the Caramelia Truffles, he liked the outside until he got to the ganache on the inside. He said that truffles sound like something British (they're not British) and aren't they something that pigs help you find in the forest (chocolate truffles are named after such truffles, yes, but they're not the same thing)? And the Black Pepper Truffles, well, I tried to give him the half of the truffle that didn't have pepper on it. What is this, Fear Factor, he said. He said that it tasted exactly the same as the Caramelia Truffle, except darker, he could taste the blackness in this one. Well, you can't win them all.
So while I suppose that yes, you do have to know your audience, overall I'd say that Valerie Confections is a wonderful example of gifting chocolate. They make confections but on a high quality level that stunned me last time and stunned me again this time. They keep things simple and do it all well--and quite beautifully, too.
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