Darker than Black, Week 34: Niederegger Lübeck Marzipan Classic
I've loved marzipan basically as long as I can remember. My father always used to get boxes of See's candies for any holiday or birthday available, and eventually I developed a taste for them too. I presume that my father picked up his love of marizpan from his time living in Germany, and that's also why he pronounces it without the R (which is much more subtle in the German pronunciation). As I mentioned in Week 33, softlykarou and I go to Christkindlmarket every year and get food, and there's a giant marzipan display in one of the buildings set up by a candy-maker. So of course, I had to get some marzipan bars to write about.
Strictly speaking, this isn't really darker than black. The box says it's 55% cacao, after all. But I have such an affection for marzipan that I was going to to do if it were any darker than milk chocolate. I hope you will forgive me.
Especially since this year, I didn't get any See's marzipan chocolate at all. All the times that my parents went to order some, See's was out of stock. I'm not surprised, since marzipan is amazing and I would order tons of it if I ever thought to do so, but it does mean I'm marzipan-starved compared to my usual patterns of consumption. I have it on the brain, especially with this bar sitting on top of our fridge. Maybe eating it will help clear my mind.
This was excellent, but I have to admit that most of its value doesn't come from the chocolate. Marzipan has a distinctive taste, a kind of nutty sweetness--I was going to say sweet nuttiness, but no, sweetness is definitely the dominant element of the flavor--that I absolutely love because of all those years of exposure to it. I was going to like this regardless of the chocolate's quality because it was marzipan.
That's not to say that the chocolate was extraneous, though. It was a thin shell around the marzipan and the flavor was very subtle, but I could till tell it was there, and I think it was an important part of the bar. Without that bit of counterbalance to the overwhelming sweetness of the marzipan itself. The wikipedia page about marzipan has a picture of two really cute pigs sculpted out of it, but I don't think I could eat them, and not just because they're so cute. They'd be too sweet by themselves.
This wasn't as good as the See's candies, though. I think that's because See's marzipan chocolates have darker chocolate with a thicker shell, so there's even more of a counterbalance. Here it was just a moment's chocolate taste before the marzipan hit, which was good but not that much protection. Just a bit more chocolate would have provided a better balance.
I really fond of this picture. That advertisement at the top was inside the packaging.
softlykarou's OpinionI love almond flavored things in general so I am always excited when marzipan is in something. I'd wanted to try it when I was a kid after seeing Balanchine's The Nutcracker movie, but such exotic fare did not really makes its way to Paducah. Even though now if I wanted it, I could get it, marzipan still feels like a special food for me. I liked it with this chocolate but the thing is, marzipan is a very overpowering flavor. I can't really taste chocolate at all in my mouth, it was more like a vehicle for the marzipan. I'm not complaining, I'm saying don't go in expecting intense chocolate and lots of marzipan. I definitely feel full after eating it, but it's a bit of the overfull feeling that makes me uninterested in food for a while (yes...I am aware that is what full means). I love marzipan with dark chocolate because anything else would be too sweet, there just wasn't much room for chocolate here.
Now I feel bad! I didn't realize that softlykarou had gone through life so cruelly deprived of marzipan. I suppose my childhood was different since my father's time in Germany meant he made special effort to seek out the treats he remembered.
Well, the ones he liked. He doesn't speak with fondness about the fresh, warm milk served at breakfast that had been in the cow an hour prior.
Strictly speaking, this isn't really darker than black. The box says it's 55% cacao, after all. But I have such an affection for marzipan that I was going to to do if it were any darker than milk chocolate. I hope you will forgive me.
Especially since this year, I didn't get any See's marzipan chocolate at all. All the times that my parents went to order some, See's was out of stock. I'm not surprised, since marzipan is amazing and I would order tons of it if I ever thought to do so, but it does mean I'm marzipan-starved compared to my usual patterns of consumption. I have it on the brain, especially with this bar sitting on top of our fridge. Maybe eating it will help clear my mind.
This was excellent, but I have to admit that most of its value doesn't come from the chocolate. Marzipan has a distinctive taste, a kind of nutty sweetness--I was going to say sweet nuttiness, but no, sweetness is definitely the dominant element of the flavor--that I absolutely love because of all those years of exposure to it. I was going to like this regardless of the chocolate's quality because it was marzipan.
That's not to say that the chocolate was extraneous, though. It was a thin shell around the marzipan and the flavor was very subtle, but I could till tell it was there, and I think it was an important part of the bar. Without that bit of counterbalance to the overwhelming sweetness of the marzipan itself. The wikipedia page about marzipan has a picture of two really cute pigs sculpted out of it, but I don't think I could eat them, and not just because they're so cute. They'd be too sweet by themselves.
This wasn't as good as the See's candies, though. I think that's because See's marzipan chocolates have darker chocolate with a thicker shell, so there's even more of a counterbalance. Here it was just a moment's chocolate taste before the marzipan hit, which was good but not that much protection. Just a bit more chocolate would have provided a better balance.
I really fond of this picture. That advertisement at the top was inside the packaging.
softlykarou's OpinionI love almond flavored things in general so I am always excited when marzipan is in something. I'd wanted to try it when I was a kid after seeing Balanchine's The Nutcracker movie, but such exotic fare did not really makes its way to Paducah. Even though now if I wanted it, I could get it, marzipan still feels like a special food for me. I liked it with this chocolate but the thing is, marzipan is a very overpowering flavor. I can't really taste chocolate at all in my mouth, it was more like a vehicle for the marzipan. I'm not complaining, I'm saying don't go in expecting intense chocolate and lots of marzipan. I definitely feel full after eating it, but it's a bit of the overfull feeling that makes me uninterested in food for a while (yes...I am aware that is what full means). I love marzipan with dark chocolate because anything else would be too sweet, there just wasn't much room for chocolate here.
Now I feel bad! I didn't realize that softlykarou had gone through life so cruelly deprived of marzipan. I suppose my childhood was different since my father's time in Germany meant he made special effort to seek out the treats he remembered.
Well, the ones he liked. He doesn't speak with fondness about the fresh, warm milk served at breakfast that had been in the cow an hour prior.