Pierre Marcolini
I included Pierre Marconili in my must-try chocolatiers. There were some reasons: like Mary, Pierre Marconili was a Belgian Royal Warrant Holder and the brand's modern and elegant style stood out among the warrant holders. I would love to try chocolate that the Royal family loves. Pierre Marconili is also known as a pioneer of "bean to bar." Apparently he spends about two months in a year to visit cacao farms around the world to find his ideal cacao beans, and at his own factory in Belgium, he involves in all processes of the production in person from 5am. Because of the luxury chocolate that he has been innovating, there are many fans of Pierre Marconili even in Japan. His chocolate is available in Japan (Pierre Marconili sends fresh chocolate to his shops in Japan from Belgium by air), but those shops are located mainly around Tokyo area, not in my town Osaka. None of his shops is in the US, I think. Our trip to Brussels was the best chance to taste Pierre Marconili's.
We saw at least three Pierre Marconili shops in the center of Brussels. Two of them were located in the Galeries Royales Saint-Hubert. We visited one of them. At that time, 11 kinds of individual bonbons were available. We chose eight of them. According to the gentle man in the shop, they didn't have a box for eight at that time but could provide a plastic bag instead. It was not a big deal. We carefully brought the bag back home along with the other chocolate boxes.
Our eight included:
- Red heart-shaped piece was called "Séduction Heart" - dark chocolate ganache with fresh raspberry pulp, coated in white chocolate, which seemed their popular flavor.
- "Golf Ball" - hazelnut praline, caramelised nuts and creamy caramel, coated in white chocolate - looked funny.
- "Violet Soft" was filled with ganache flavored with violet, coated in dark chocolate.
- "Quatre épices(four spice)" was soft chocolate caramel with spicy notes, coated in dark chocolate.
- One with the name "Pierre Marcolini"was filled with pure ganache made using cocoa beans from Ecuador and Cameroon, flavored with fresh vanilla, coated in dark chocolate.
Each bonbon was amazingly tasty. Other three... unfortunately I couldn't identify but they were superb, too. All were purely delicious. In fact, J said Pierre Marconili was the best so far.
