Valerie Confections: Small Truffle Assortment

First I started the tradition of ordering something from Valerie Confections around Valentine's Day. Then I guess last year I added to the tradition by figuring that, while I was doing an order, I might as well also add in a small box of something extra, too. Last year it was the toffee. This year it's a Small Truffle Assortment. Instead of the usual white boxes, this set comes in a clear box that showcases the unique shapes of the nine truffles. There is a standard set of flavors, but their website lists that there can be variations based on availability. I got most of the flavors they listed, with just one that was different. 

Liquid Caramel - This was pretty much a blind tasting, as I had no idea which flavor was which except of course for the one white chocolate. This dark chocolate, square shape with lines running across the top was the one I chose to cut into for a picture. Naturally I made the worst choice for cutting by unknowingly going for the liquid filling. But at least things didn't get too messy. I've had caramel from Valerie before. The sort of burnt sugar flavor goes well with the sweeter notes of the dark chocolate. 

Scotch, Champagne - These are two separate chocolates, but I wasn't completely sure from tasting which was which. I'm going in order here of how I went through the box, so my second choice was the milk chocolate, geometric shape (the one in the top middle). It had a delightful booziness in a creamy silken ganache, so at first I thought it was the Champagne. But my next selection happened to be the milk chocolate square with slanted corners. It also had an alcohol flavor, but it was overall lighter and creamier. I'm concluding then that this was the Champagne (which I've greatly enjoyed before) and the first one was the Scotch (which I've also tried in the past).

Earl Grey Tea - The milk chocolate square with black sprinkles did rather naturally have to be either the Earl Grey or the Jasmine Tea. I like this chocolate even more than the Earl Grey Petit Four. It's like a fresh cup of Earl Grey along with the creamy chocolate base. Stellar.

Mezcal Caramel - I was thrown for a loop by this one. I bit into what I'll refer as the dark chocolate twisted square and found the weirdest caramel with a stingy alcohol flavor. The caramel isn't liquid, but looks extra soft and has a layer of almost liquid type of caramel above it. And that flavor bit me right back. I couldn't figure out what it would be from the listed flavors, so I snooped around Valerie's other flavors and concluded that this must be the Mezcal Caramel. Mezcal fits in with the unique biting nature of the alcohol flavor. When it comes to alcohol truffles, I like to stick to classic Champagne truffles; otherwise, I'm usually out. So perhaps my complete distaste for this one would be delight and fascination from someone else who's more of an alcohol enthusiast. I would have much preferred to have the Moroccan Mint Tea (which was the only flavor I didn't get).

72% Bittersweet - This is the dark chocolate round, which contains a plain ganache. After the previous funky flavor, the simplicity here was a welcome relief. Even Valerie's dark chocolate comes on the sweet and creamy side, which can be pleasing in its own way when it's done like this. 

Jasmine Tea - Here we have the dark chocolate version of the geometric shape. I'm a big fan of these unusual, yet still sleek, shapes; they add quite the visual twist. This tea flavor doesn't hit as strong initially as the Earl Grey does; here it takes time to build. But it's still nice and fresh, and the Jasmine works better with the dark chocolate base. A cup of Earl Grey can have cream and sugar in it, but Jasmine is usually served black. So the dark chocolate works as a better accompaniment. 

Matcha Tea - I saved the one that I for sure could identify for last. Obviously this is the only white chocolate, and inside is that distinctive green from the matcha. It's nice and creamy from the white chocolate. I don't know if I'm just so used to matcha these days (even though it isn't as though I have it often) that this didn't taste particularly strong to me. So perhaps that means this would be a welcome way to ease into match if you do find matcha a little strong in general. 

Gilded - There was also this one, which is also identifiable from the fleck of gold on top. But I set it aside since I've had similar things from Valerie in the past. So no thoughts from me here except that the look is nice and classic.

There was such a variety of flavors here that it's no wonder my comments were somewhat mixed. Plain truffles, tea truffles, alcohol truffles, and the caramel. I can easily see most people preferring one half of the box to the other. I liked the tea chocolates best; along with the Liquid Caramel and the Champagne, they're the best display of what I enjoy about Valerie Confections. The Mezcal Caramel, on the other hand, was an unwelcome addition to what you might call the more feminine flavors of tea and such. So while a box like this is great for getting to try several flavors, just be aware of course that the variety might mean that you'll have some dislikes along with your favorites. 

Valerie Confections: Petit Four Bouquet

Nearly ten years ago, I first tasted a Rose Petal petit four from Valerie Confections, and I've been wanting one again ever since. For the last couple of years, I've been making it my annual tradition to order a box of confections from them around Valentine's Day. This year, though, I found that I've tried most of the Valentine's offerings already. They do slightly different collections each year, but mainly with the same type of chocolates. So instead of getting a Valentine's box, it was time (at last) to order some petits fours.

If you visit the shop, you can of course just get one petit four. Online, though, they come in boxes of twelve. So you can get "a dozen roses," that is, twelve Rose Petal petits fours, or you can choose other flavors. Fond as my memories were of the Rose Petal ones, I had to take the chance to try some other varieties, as well. I chose the Petit Four Bouquet, which came set with a sort of dusty-purple-mauve ribbon. At $55, these are well more expensive than a box of twelve truffles, but they're a special occasional indulgence.

Rose Petal - Though not all of Valerie's petits fours are white chocolate, the four flavors in this set are. Like before, the Rose Petal comes of course with a sugared rose petal on top. I would definitely call it the prettiest and most visually unique of the four given that the other three garnishes are fairly common garnishes among fresh truffles. Or maybe I just have a bias for roses. The rose petal also gives a light texture to the soft cake because of that sugar coating. Combined with the delicate vanilla cake and the sweet white chocolate, the rose flavor gives a wonderfully feminine quality to these confections. It's an effect quite unlike anything else.

Lavender - The lavender on top also makes these an easy one to identify. Instantly, the cake has that sprightly, springy, bouncy flavor of lavender along with the sweetness of the chocolate. I like quite a present floral flavor, and this lavender is well-pronounced. If it's too mild, what's the point, right? As with all of these, the cake comes in three layers that are soft and not at all dry. And they're also not completely like eating a slice of cake because the layers are so thin. Each petit four is like a giant truffle, so they're not big. They're quite luxurious little layered sweets.

Earl Grey - This is the only one that isn't instantly recognizable: it's topped with a bit of gold rather than with Earl Grey tea. Gold is a better idea. It's also the only one of these four that does not white cake. I'm not certain, though, that it isn't still the same vanilla cake base as the rest have: I believe it's just colored by the inclusion of the Earl Grey. You can see little peppery specks within the cake layers. Earl Grey always makes for an interesting flavor to add to non-tea items because Earl Grey simply means bergamot added to black tea. And bergamot is citrus, so this is essentially just another citrus flavor in addition to the lemon coming up next. Two citrus and two flowers, is that really a bouquet? Well, bergamot and lemon also have flowers, so I suppose it works. Anyway. Bergamot is a light and bright type of citrus; it reminds me more of lime (which I prefer to lemon). That means that this Earl Grey makes for a nice bridge between the springy flavor of the Lavender and the more traditional citrus note of the Lemon. 

Lemon - I always balk a bit at lemon-flavored sweets and then usually find them much more pleasant than I'd imagined. Such is the case here. The lemon taste is light and sweet with just a delicate tartness that pair well with the creaminess of the cake and white chocolate. It's a very classic effect. Maybe because this time this was the new flavor, but this time it was the Lemon more than the Rose Petal that put me in mind of a Victorian tea party. 

Did my memory of these petits fours hold up? Yes, I it quite did. Now, though, I'm strangely unsure about which was my favorite flavor. Normally rose-flavored things are most exciting to me both because I like rose and because it isn't the most common flavor to come across in the chocolate (or dessert) world these days. And they are beautiful. But I find myself leaning towards the Lavender this time. Maybe it's because of all the lavender products I took in from Los Poblanos last year, maybe they've left me with an extra fondness for lavender. 

Valerie Confections: Toffee Assortment

So you know how it's become my big splurge to dare an online order and get Valerie Confections for Valentine's Day? Well, this year I decided it would be good to also order a second box besides the Valentine's one. Said box ended up being the eight-piece Toffee Assortment. 

A plain cream-colored ribbon adorns the box. No holiday colors of pink and red for this one because toffee is for always and for everyone. Inside, the chocolate comes in big squares of dark chocolate with little decorative flourishes. Though the squares are big, they're fairly thin, so they appear smaller once you pul them out of their wrapper nests. And yes, each one is a different flavor, so let's just go down the list, shall we?

Almond - This one's easy to spot with that single almond on its top. The toffee is nice and light, not of the variety that feels so hard it might break your teeth. While I might have preferred some of Valerie's milk chocolate with the toffee, the dark chocolate pairs fine with the almond (and with most of these flavors). Almonds have a similar texture to toffee, and also aren't so strong as to win out too much in a competition for flavor dominance. So they fade into quietness when paired with the almond and seamlessly add a dash of flavor and texture. 

Almond Fleur de Sel - The salt that sits on here is good salt that works with the others flavors. Salt is, after all, often a companion to nuts, as well as to chocolate. You can see bit of almonds within the toffee, but the almond flavor isn't strong. So the effect is more of a salted toffee chocolate with just a hint of almond. 

Ginger - As you can see, there's quite a big piece of candied ginger here. Not being one for candied ginger, I tried to keep it mixed in with the toffee and chocolate as much as I could while I chewed so as not to get it too much by itself. The toffee is paler in color than it was with the almond toffees and continues to be so for the rest. Certainly I personally would have preferred a smaller ginger topper. Yet it was still nice to try out; I've never had ginger toffee before. The bite that I had without the ginger topper had almost a sweet lemon flavor to the ginger that was at a more comfortable level of strength. That was rather nice. 

Orange - The candied orange topper, in contrast, is a tiny square. Even when you don't get the orange topper, you can still taste the orange oil. The effect is more light and floral than fruity and citrusy; given my liking of rose, I prefer the floral tone, as well as the more subtle flavor in comparison with the strong ginger. Maybe it was just this batch, but this toffee definitely seemed harder/more apt to stick in my teeth than the others. 

Mint - Instead of a candied mint leaf like you'll find on the Mint Mendiants, this toffee is decorated with gentle chocolate waves. Perhaps a mint leaf would be too much in this context. Though you can still taste the toffee, mint is definitely the prevalent flavor. Generally mint has to be paired with dark chocolate rather than milk, but with the toffee here you still get a sweet element. So this is a nice way to set up a sweet mint chocolate that also doesn't have that awkward flavor that mint milk chocolate generally has. Quite nice. 

Classic - I probably should have started here, except that I followed the order of the box and this one is right in the middle. The plain toffee allows you to take in its flavor and texture; it's thin and soft (for hard toffee) and classic in flavor. The dark chocolate is a thin layer that adds just a dash of taste. 

Pumpkin - The orange sprinkles on top I believe must be the smoked paprika I see listed in the ingredients. Pumpkin seeds are visible when you bite into the toffee. So you will find neither canned pumpkin nor pumpkin spices here; it's a completely different take. While pumpkin seeds are definitely a very recognizable taste and texture, like with the almond, they have a lot of competition from the toffee. Whether it is because there are more of them proportionally than there were almonds or simply because they have stronger flavor, the pumpkin seeds do have more influence than the almonds did. And you get a little bit of tang from the paprika. It's all very different from any toffee I've ever had before, and yet it doesn't feel "experimental" in a bad way. It's just unique. And while you can have it for autumn, this toffee doesn't need to be solely for fall, either. 

Black Sesame Seed - The helping of black sesame seeds on the surface are just the beginning: there are lots more on the inside of the toffee, as well. So you instantly get a strong sesame taste and a bit of their crunch. I hate to end on a bad note, but this was easily my least favorite toffee from the set. That's a flavor preference, though; I don't like strong sesame. 

I'm not used to so many flavors in toffee. Usually toffee is milk or dark, almonds or plain, right? I just thought I was getting another indulgence with this box, but it turns out that I got to go on interesting flavor journeys, as well. The Pumpkin and Mint were intriguing. The Orange and maybe also the Ginger were a good break from the plain toffees I've been used to. And the plainer, more classic flavors were also just nice toffee chocolates. Sometimes you can buy a box of just one flavor, but I'd definitely recommend getting the sampler first to see what you like best. It might not be the flavor you expect. And when else do you get the opportunity to try so many flavors of toffee?

Valerie Confections: Pink Box

Two years ago, I started the habit of using Valentine's Day as an excuse to buy myself a box of Valerie Confections. I rarely buy chocolate online and I'm not much into Valentine's Day, but Valerie Confections has long been a sort of secret chocolate crush of mine (as you can tell since I keep going back to them even though they don't necessarily fit my usual chocolate criteria). So I've reviewed their Grand Homme Assortment and the Grand Elle Assortment. Each year, the Valentine's offerings differ somewhat. I believe the Pink Box this year might have been new. 

As I mentioned with the masculine/feminine boxes of Grand Homme and Grand Elle, the name may give a description of the tone of a box but won't necessarily correspond to who will like each one best. Some men might prefer floral flavors, and some women might prefer dark truffles. It varies. So the Pink Box simply describes the color of the ribbon. This pink is more of a dusty rose compared to the light pink on the Grand Elle box. 

Inside is a classic Valentine's look. Broken Hearts and Caramel Hearts accompany pink Arrow Truffles and pink-topped Blushing Berry Truffles. The big difference with this box compared to the other two is that there are no larger hearts; it's just truffles in here. So if you prefer bonbons to plain chocolate, that's a big advantage. (Otherwise you can just buy a chocolate bar, right? And like I've said before, it isn't for plain chocolate that I go to Valerie's.)

Broken Hearts - Let's say that these hearts are broken wide open in outpouring love, not in heartbrokenness, shall we? And what an outpouring it is. At first glance, they look simply. They look like plain chocolate with some space left for nuts and seeds. But there are no nuts: that's black sesame seeds, toasted rice, and "crunchy pearls," which are made of flour and sugar and such. And that isn't all: everything sits on a little bed of caramel. That is, it's soft and solid like a thicker sort of caramel, but its flavor is of toffee. The black sesame seeds add a touch of Asian cuisine, and the toasted rice brings in nostalgia because of cereal associations (though its flavor is a thousand times better). The crunchy pearls are intriguing. They're soft and sweet, setting the tone decidedly in the indulgent sphere. A steady milk chocolate holds it all in. There is a deceptively simple-seeming complexity at work here.

Arrow Truffles - While these truffles do look pretty as part of the collection, I find that the printed picture style isn't my favorite. Compare, for instance, these arrows with the each-one-unique broken hearts with their fillings of seeds and rice. And also I'll make note here of the artificial colorings that are in the ingredients list--are they included specifically to make this shade of pink? Please, no artificial colorings. Anyway. While at first these do appear as simple, plain chocolate ganaches, there does seem to be a little more going on. The ingredients list vodka, chambord, and black raspberry liqueur, but I don't know which truffle they're in. The liqueur is perhaps for the Blushing Berries, but might the vodka or chambord be here? There is certainly a high level of indulgence to the ganache's flavor. The texture, as well, is incredibly soft, melting quickly into liquid in the mouth. This isn't a dark chocolate but neither does it have what I would consider the usual confection level of sweetness. Chocolate like this is why I had to start using the separate word bonbon, as well. 

Liquid Caramel Hearts - I've had these before. I seem to enjoy them more each year. The heart shape holds a good pocket of sweet vanilla-tasting caramel, while the shell is thick enough to hold it both physically and flavor-wise. The dark chocolate is once more mild. 

Blushing Berry Truffles - These I have also had before. So yes, my Valentine's box this year had two repeats and only two new flavors. But they're good repeats. A juicy raspberry flavor here pairs with that soft ganache to create a classically feminine effect. 

Overall, as the pink suggests, this is a more feminine than masculine collection. Valentine's offerings in general, though, tend to be so. But there is still dark chocolate in here, so it's a balanced femininity and not quite as frilly as the floral Grand Elle box. In fact, for only having four flavors, this set hits a lot of bases. Milk chocolate, dark chocolate, berries, caramel, crunchy texture, smooth texture, plain, flavored. At $50 for 20 truffles, that comes out to the perfectly-average price of $2.50 each. So whether you're getting these for a sweetheart or a friend or yourself, once more you'll find them a wonderfully indulgent box of chocolates. 

Valerie Confections: Grand Elle Assortment

Normally I steer clear of Valentine's Day chocolates (and honestly of Valentine's Day itself, as well, do you not find it odd also?); however, I've always found Valerie Confections enticing and last year I started working my way into their Valentine's Day offerings. I looked then at the Grand Homme Assortment, so this year it's the Grand Elle Assortment. You really don't have to choose these based on whether you're buying for a man or a woman. Everyone's palate is going to be different, so just go off of what they (or you, if they're for yourself) tend to like best. Though I'd thought that the Pour Homme flavors sounded more appealing, it turns out that I definitely favor the Pour Elle chocolates.

Instead of the bold red ribbon of the other box, this one has a soft pink. And the chocolates inside are so pretty and feminine. The addition of those four white roses just does me in. I mean, I fell for Valerie Confections over their Rose Petal Petit Fours, so I guess I'm already weak in the knees for rose chocolate from them. It's the same type of set as the Grand Homme box, except that you have the roses instead of more little hearts and the most plentiful (and also alcohol-flavored) chocolates are rounded instead of sharp and angled in shape. And the flavors are quite different.

Liquid Caramel Hearts - I had to start with these because I'm finally getting actual caramel. Yes, it's liquid caramel, not toffee masquerading under the name of caramel. It's excellent caramel, too, tasting of vanilla and sweetness to balance out the semisweet dark chocolate. Using dark instead of milk chocolate here gives it more of a classy feel. I do really have to emphasize that the caramel is great because that's what makes Valerie great, elements like that. These aren't quite what I consider confections and not quite truffles, either; they're "chocolates," if that distinction makes any sense to anyone other than me. There are three of these in the box.

Champagne Truffles - These are the round dots of milk chocolate that are most plentiful in the box. They're smooth-looking like fabric-covered buttons on an elegant settee. They taste like decadence and elegance, too. This is what I mean by chocolates rather than truffles or confections. These chocolates make me feel pampered like a 19th century Parisian lady lounging around in silk and lace and perfume. The smooth ganache has a definite champagne flavor but also lots of cream and a light chocolate flavor. It's more reminiscent of a chocolate cream than a traditional champagne truffle. So indulgent.

Blushing Berry Truffles - These are the three squares with little red specks of dried rose petals on top. The ganache here is a little firmer and the chocolate a little thinner than in the Champagne Truffles. Immediately you get a rich berry flavor that doesn't taste so much like a specific berry but more like a medley. It tastes like a berry jam spread on scones at an afternoon tea served on flowery china outside with a view of a grassy lawn or a forest. Again, elegant and feminine.

Rose Petal Passion Fruit Truffles - The pictures don't show how great these look in person. White roses with just a little gold painted on them. They look so special, like wow, that's done just for me--that means I'm so special to have these. Initially I felt like I enjoyed the rose taste but would maybe have preferred not to have the greater pizzaz of the passion fruit. But as the bite went on, I literally fell in love (kind of a repeat of the Petit Four experience). Rose is a watery sort of flavor and passion fruit has more zing, so the two come together to create something that dances between flavorful and gentle. The white chocolate is perfect here because it just gives creaminess to everything. Milk chocolate and passion fruit with be too cloying and this would be too harsh with dark chocolate; so white chocolate is the best. The aftertaste is rose. This chocolate makes me feel female. It puts me in the rose garden at the Huntington Library, or sitting in the tea room and then strolling through the art galleries. No surprises as to which truffle is my favorite, eh?

Bittersweet Hearts - And we'll finish with the simplest item. These are the two big hearts with stripes. They're just plain dark chocolate, which is kind of disappointing. I was a big fan of the Almond Toffee Hearts in the Pour Homme box. And I don't go to Valerie Confections for plain chocolate. I mean, they're nice chocolate hearts. A light bitter twinge and a little sweetness move toward a nice warm and red finish; it's pleasant, balanced chocolate. But I would have preferred to have more truffles, or some other type of flavored something. I can see how someone who doesn't have stacks of chocolate bars at home like I alway seem to might enjoy getting some plain chocolate, too, but that's just not what I prefer in this context.

Even so, my overall opinion on this box was much more favorable than with the Pour Homme box. So maybe they're aptly named after all? I didn't dislike anything in here, I was okay with the plain chocolate, I greatly enjoyed all four truffles, and I loved most of them. Visually they're appealing and flavor-wise they set up beautiful imagery. This is chocolate to spoil a girl, for sure. And I use that diction on purpose: yes, there will be men who like this chocolate and women who don't and women who like this chocolate but also like rich and dark truffles that focus on cocoa origins more than floral additions, but this chocolate selection expresses that traditional concept of femininity. And I'm really into it.

Valerie Confections: Grand Homme Assortment

Ever since I had the Rose Petal Petits Fours from Valerie Confections a few years ago, I'd been wanting to try some of their Valentine's offerings. So since today is the year for everything, this year we have their Grand Homme Assortment. While the Grand Elle Assortment is very pretty, I thought that more of these flavors sounded appealing. Visually, though they have more of a standard look of heart shapes, they're still attractive.

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.

Valerie Confections: Petits Fours

"Alright, so I'm going to be in the L.A. area. Type that into Google. Hmm. That chocolate shop doesn't look very good; that one just looks like a lot of hype. That one looks okay, but their website doesn't excite me. What's this? Valerie Confections? What? Rose Petal Petits Fours? I must have those."

Their original boutique is in Silverlake, not too far from downtown L.A. It's a small shop, with a glass case of petits fours next to a shelf of preserves, which are in turn across from shelves of boxed chocolates. When we stepped in, the shopkeeper offered us freshly made Smoke & Spice Truffles. These happened to be some of the ones I singled out online; I was thrilled. The cocoa powder makes them look like they would be soft ganaches, but there is still an outer layer of chocolate. They aren't nearly as spicy as many spiced chocolates these days, of which I was glad. The flavor is used within the chocolate rather than thrown in as a novelty. 

 We picked out a box of Mint Mendiants for a gift, which have already received positive commendations. They come topped with a candied mint leaf.

The six chocolates we picked out (two each) we didn't get in a gift box; perhaps we imagined we would eat them more quickly. But being that these are petits fours rather than little truffles, they tend toward slower eating. My in-the-car pictures hardly do them justice, but they're visually gorgeous. The chocolate is smooth, and the garnishes have all the more impact because the look is kept simple. Lemon, Mint, Orange, one I'm not sure of, and my own two: Rose Petal and Champagne. 

The Rose Petal Petit Four brings me to a Victorian tea house, with flowers and fine dishes and ladies wearing feathered hats and lace gloves. The candied rose petal is delicate and the white chocolate base substantial. It felt so strange to be so drawn to a white chocolate, but from the first picture I saw of this chocolate (or should I say dessert?), I was in love. And then I bit in and felt all the ingredients coming together, the softness and the lightness, the crispness and the sweetness, and I fell more in love. The composition is four layers of vanilla bean cake, with rose petal ganache in between. A box of these would be a better gift from a gentleman to a lady than any bouquet of roses. 

The little Champagne Petit Four got left behind and carried around all the way home. Not the best conditions for it, yet it managed to arrive looking decent. It begged me for a photoshoot of its own. A gold flake glints on the top. 

This one uses butter cake with the champagne ganache, making it look more like a mini cake than the Rose Petal one did. Maybe it was because this one wasn't new by the time I had it, but I prefer the Rose Petal; it had a more complex and crafted flavor. This isn't, of course, to say that the Champagne wasn't well made. I sliced it into triangles as if it were a cake and it disappeared in errant thoughts of richness. 

I didn't go for the chocolates or for the straight out desserts at Valerie Confections, but through the petits fours I discovered how complex and gourmet a "confection" can in fact be. It needn't be trite or childish or nostalgic; it needn't neglect quality ingredients or precision. Would I go back to Valerie Confections? Instantly. Instantly.