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Dragee Me Away! Trendy Chocolate Treats with an Exotic French Name By Zel Klotwog d |
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Coated candies are nothing new. In Europe, fruits and nuts have been coated with sugar since the 14th century. These candies were called confetti, though this had no relation to tiny bits of paper. Today, we have a dragee candy small enough to really confuse the historical meaning of the word confetti: sunflower seeds.
Despite their tiny size, sunflower seeds pack powerful nutrition. They are high in protein and fiber, in vitamin E, vitamin B1, vitamin B5, folate, magnesium and selenium. Vitamin E is an important fat-soluble antioxidant, and sunflower seeds are rich in healthy polyunsaturated oil, so you get all that goodness in one absorbable package. I’m not especially fond of plain sunflower seeds: it’s either too much trouble to shell them, or the pre-shelled seeds become rancid before I finish them. Chocolate-coated sunflower seeds seem to keep longer, or perhaps it’s just that, given the chocolate, I eat them sooner.
The Eclectic Mix Dragee from The Cocoa Room looks like a work of art at least worthy of display at a pretentiously hip art museum gift shop, with mixtures of squares, circles and ovals, and both transparent and opaque areas to the candy box. It has a nice weight in the hand and comfortable proportions. It already looks like a gift even without wrapping. I'm not sure if I should say that I was delighted or doomed when I discovered that these candies not only look appealing, but they also satisfied my taste for chocolate par-excellence. As chocolate candies go, these were exciting: the best chocolate-covered sunflower seeds I've ever had. The sunflowers weren’t oily, salty, grainy or bitter, and the candy coating yielded easily. With only a whisper of just enough chocolate and the sheerest of candy shells, this dragee was an excellent complement to the nutritious sunflower seed. I don’t see the point in having an enrobed candy if you can’t tell what’s in the middle. There was nothing waxy or excessive here. As if I wasn’t corrupted enough by this luxury chocolate treat, I ventured into the larger candies in the mix. Some of these had thick chocolate coatings and some had thin coatings. The small dark red candies were enrobed pistachios with just a bit of chocolate, and the light green candies were pistachios with a thick chocolate coating. The thicker chocolate coating gave a distinct fine chocolate liqueur taste. The orange, purple and sky blue candies contained toasted almonds with a thick chocolate layer. The Cocoa Room package label said that the mix might contain fruits, but there were no fruits in this dragee mix. It was a pleasant and satisfying blend, and the first time I've seen chocolate-covered sunflower seeds paired with other treats. Dare I say that I doubt it could be done better? One ounce made for a satisfying treat, and two ounces a good combination of snack and chocolate fix. The flavor symphony was perfect, even without the fruits. Until I get the chance to try The Cocoa Room’s
dried fruit dragees, I’ll continue to sing the delights of
Dilettante Chocolates. Dilettante is renowned for their chocolate
ganache, and if you have the
Chocolate dragees make an excellent gift for chocolate lovers. They ship and travel better than chocolate truffles or bonbons, being less susceptible to jostling or heat. They are more colorful than plain chocolate and make a cheerful gift without the need to wrap. The Cocoa Room's Dragee Mixes and other chocolate products can be purchased and shipped through their online catalog. Dilettante sells gift packages online and at their cafes. See www.thecocoaroom.com or www.dilettante.com for more information. |
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One of my favorite candy treats is
chocolate-covered sunflower seeds. Only recently have they become
readily available. It isn’t easy to add a candy coating to such a
tiny seed. I’m happy to see this trend, and even happier to have
discovered the candy offerings from Chicago-based The Cocoa Room,
which I’m touting as an alternative favorite alongside Dilettante
Chocolates, a Seattle company that does not (yet) offer
chocolate-covered sunflower seeds but does have other dragees.
Recently, I happened across a colorful and
modern-looking candy package that leapt off the shelf into my
curious hands. Imagine my further delight that it was mostly
chocolate-coated sunflower seeds.
chance to visit one of their Mocha
cafés in and around Seattle, prepare yourself for a rich chocolate
infusion with savory hot and cold chocolate or coffee drinks. If you
prefer to sink your teeth in, don’t resist the wide variety of
desserts, many of which are served with their famous ephemere and
truffle sauces. There are just too many good things at Dilettante to
have them all in one day. When I visit the Mocha Cafe in Capitol
Hill, often I take away a small sampling of Dilettante’s dragee
candies. My favorites are the blueberry and the ginger candies, and
the cherry candies are good also. To my taste, the apricot and
strawberry dragees just don’t complement the fruit well, but others
rave about them along with the rest.