Gilli chocolates, Firenze, Italy
Wednesday, June 20th, 2007We finally got to taste the Gilli chocolates we brought from Firenze and we had high hopes, because of the unusual flavor combinations. Here are our notes and some pictures:
 You can find more information about the oldest cafe in Firenze here.
This was the tabacco confection. We wondered if they were made similar to the tea ganaches, were you steep the tea leaves in the cream or similar, maybe giving it an herby or green flavor. Instead we were surprised by a very smoky and in the end peppery/spicy flavor. It actually tasted like a smoked cigarette. And I am not kidding! I smoked cigarettes for about nine years, roughly a pack a day and I was very familiar with the taste 
We were kind of disappointed by this. Who wants to taste this I wonder …. I know that there are still many smokers in Italy (much more than here, a little less than in Germany right now), but this still came surprising. One day we might experiment with tabacco leaves, but it will be a bright flavor and nothing that smoky or dark like at Gilli’s.
Balsamico. We had high hopes for this one too. And the flavor was surprising, although not as devastating as the tobacco one. The first similar flavor coming to mind was cheesecake. Mmmmmmh cheesecake I wonder if this is what you get when you pair Balsamico with white couverture and cream. I was surprised that there were so many ganaches made with white chocolate. For the Balsamic I would have maybe used a darker milk or a dark chocolate - maybe dark chocolate is too overpowering? I know that one day I will try the same thing, with a nice old Balsamico and see how it turns out - maybe I use it in savory dishes first, together with chocolate?
Tartufo. We hoped it had savory truffle in it - and it might have, but the flavor wasn’t that distinct. It had a very firm texture, and enrobed very thin. The design wasn’t perfect, but I always like to see little imperfections, as it shows you it was made by hand, by a person.
Rose. Yeah, definitely the rose! Not a favorite of mine, I always think it tastes like soap - Melanie seemed to like it though. It was a very clear, almost too powerful flavor - only almost though. Why the milk chocolate shell in between - I don’t know, maybe they had to use them - maybe they wanted the optics ….
Pear pate de fruit. Very delicious, a hint of green apple in there too. Used were two molds for the shape and a little plastic thingy acting as a stem (I know these from Germany in marzipan fruits). Very coarse sugar on the outside and much bigger than our pate de fruit. I like the idea of representing the fruit in its shape, but I don’t like the idea of using molds, so personally I stick with my square shape for now.
All in all we enjoyed the tasting. It is always exciting to taste other flavors and regions and people’s work and with a history like the one from Gilli’s comes a lot of respect on my end.
] the Golden Scoop Award 2007 with his confection made with Olive oil instead of cream/butter. We met him and his wife before the ceremony and had a great conversation about chocolate and the market in general.