- Title: Would you taste this chocolate made with one of the world's hottest chillis?
- Date: 28th October 2022
- Summary: PARIS, FRANCE (OCTOBER 28, 2022) (REUTERS) CAROLINA REAPER CHILLI PEPPERS IN JAR NEXT TO THE 'REAPERCHOC' CHOCOLATE JAR FRENCH CHOCOLATIER AND PASTRY CHEF, DAMIEN VIDAL, INVITING VISITORS TO SMELL TONKA NUTS VIDAL HOLDING REAPERCHOC CHOCOLATES AND INVITING TWO JAPANESE STUDENTS TO TASTE / VIDAL SAYING (English): "Nuts, black (dark) chocolate and Carolina Reaper." JAPANESE
- Embargoed: 11th November 2022 15:16
- Keywords: Carolina Reaper Chocolate
- Location: PARIS, FRANCE
- City: PARIS, FRANCE
- Country: France
- Topics: Arts/Culture/Entertainment,Europe
- Reuters ID: LVA001538528102022RP1
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: It is hard to come up with something new at Paris' annual chocolate fair, but French chocolatier Damien Vidal found a way to put a mouth-tingling twist on his confectionary: incorporating the world's hottest chilli.
Besides traditional ingredients such as raspberry, cassis and passion fruit, his marble-shaped "Bille en tete" (a play on a French idiom for "headfirst") chocolates are flavoured with Carolina Reaper, the world's hottest chili pepper according to Guinness World Records.
He managed to put just enough chili in them to give them a kick, but not too much so as to make them unpalatable.
Two Japanese tourists and other visitors at the chocolate fair gamely tried the shiny chocolate-chili balls and nobody spat them out.
"It is both sweetie and spicy, not too spicy, the spicy taste is mild," said Japanese student Hitomi Ebitani.
French fair visitor Justine Bonneau agreed.
"It's really good, it's a good surprise, the heat comes at the end. First it's fine, then it heats up and it gets hot," she said, making fun of her companion who she said was looking flushed after eating one.
Vidal - an award-winning pastry chef who has worked in top Parisian restaurants and was invited as "young talent" at the Paris Chocolate fair - said this delayed effect was exactly what he was looking for: sweet and gentle at first, then a taste explosion, which eases off after a few minutes.
"We've had to go through several recipes, several attempts to find the right balance, one that allows to please most people," he said.
French households on average eat 13.2 kilos of chocolate per year, but leave enough for France to export 243.793 tonnes of chocolate each year, Paris Chocolate Fair data show.
(Production: Lucien Libert) - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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