Beacon Hill Chocolates

It is no secret that I really enjoy chocolate, and in fact, start every morning with (at least one) piece, alongside my morning coffee.  By mid-day, I'm ready for a sweet treat after lunch, generally involving chocolate again.   Luckily for me, there are many, many chocolatiers in this world, and thus, I have constant opportunity to try more chocolate essentially all the time.

Which leads me to Beacon Hill Chocolates, based in Boston, in, yup, you guessed it, the Beacon Hill neighborhood.  I walk by every day when I'm in town, as I always stay in Boston near the commons, and commute over to my office in Cambridge, strolling through Beacon Hill along the way.

"Beacon Hill Chocolates specializes in small batch handcrafted chocolates from Belgium, France, Switzerland, Italy, Brazil and the United States. The boutique’s special truffle collections elevate the art of chocolate with the most surprising flavors such as lavender, ginger, blood orange, Arabica coffee, Grey Goose Vodka, green tea, Chai, mint, bacon, chilies, lemon, vanilla, raspberries, hazelnuts and olive oil."

While I do think they make some of the chocolate in-house much is curated from other chocolatiers from around the world.  They do sell bars, and chocolate covered confections (espresso beans, candied citrus peal, gummy candies, etc), but the focus, at least for me, is the extensive truffle line up. 

8 Piece Assortment. $24.
Candy Cane. Chocolate Covered Cherry. Palet Des Neiges. Dark Chocolate Salted Caramel.
Paradis. Signature Chocolate. Vitamin C. Bolero.
(Clockwise, from top left).

"An elegant selection of 8 unique and delcious (sic) handcrafted chocolate masterpieces."

I was given a gift box of 8 assorted pieces, which included a mix of dark and milk chocolates, and a seasonal item as well.  No guide was given, but I was able to go to their website to dig up the descriptions of each.

Candy Cane Truffle. $3.

"Peppermint infused truffle center covered in dark chocolate and topped with crushed candy canes."

For the winter/Christmas season, a number of seasonal offerings are added, including egg nog, a hot cocoa snowman, snowman decorated, gift shapes, and this, the candy cane truffle.

This was a lovely, seasonal piece.  The chocolate was quite dark, smooth, and intense.  The shell had a proper snap.  High quality chocolate.  The peppermint center was subtle, but did not have a medicinal taste, as sometimes happens with peppermint.  I appreciated the extra mint flavor and crunch from the candy cane pieces on top.

Overall, clearly a nice quality piece, I'd love for stronger peppermint flavor, but, overall, very good. Third pick overall.  ****.

Chocolate Covered Cherry.  $2.75.

"Whole cherry enrobed in Belgian dark chocolate and infused with Kirsch liquor."

The chocolate covered cherry came in a red foil wrapper like many other brands.

I bit in cautiously, as these types of pieces often have liquor that comes exploding out if you are not careful.  This one did not gush.  

The dark chocolate shell was reasonably thick, snappy, and high quality.  Great chocolate.

Inside was a full cherry, very moist and soaked in Kirsch, although not particularly boozy tasting.

This was quite flavorful and enjoyable, and I'd get it again.  Quality components making a classic piece really shine.  My favorite in the box.  ****.

Palet Des Neiges. $3.

"Milk chocolate ganache with raspberry pulp and brandy enrobed in ivory French chocolate."

Oops, I got into this one before I took a photo!  

This one had a lot of promise (raspberry! brandy!), but didn't really deliver on those fronts.  It was a lovely smooth and rich milk chocolate ganache, and the white chocolate coating was very creamy and not the kind that makes people hate white chocolate, but I just didn't really taste the raspberry nor brandy.  There was some complexity to the ganache, but not distinctly fruity nor boozy.

***+ as an enjoyable piece, but not one quite as advertised.  Forth pick overall.

Dark Salted Caramel. $2.75.

"Buttery smooth old fashioned chewy caramels dipped in milk or dark chocolate and sprinkled with sea salt."

Beacon Hill Chocolates offers the salted caramel in either dark or milk varieties.  I had the dark.

The chocolate was a nice quality smooth dark chocolate, and I appreciated the pop of salt from the sprinkle on top.

Dark Salted Caramel: Inside.

Inside was a thick, rich, sweet, caramel.  This part didn't taste salted (just the salt on the exterior).  It was good caramel, and had a good "pull" to it if you know what I mean.

Overall a nice piece if you are in the mood for a sweet confection, the chocolate itself is not very dominant.  Third to last pick.  ***+.

Paradis. $2.75.

"Milk chocolate hazelnut gianduja topped with crunchy hazelnut pieces."

This was a very attractive piece.  I loved the thought of it too - like an upscale peanut butter cup with hazelnut instead.  Even the foil wrapper was an upgrade from common thin wrappers, it really was quite thick, and took a bit of effort to peel off.

The milk chocolate was creamy, good quality, higher end milk chocolate as expected from Beacon Hill Chocolates.  I'll admit that I clearly didn't read the description very well, as I expected to bit in to discover a hazelnut butter, some crunchy bits, etc, like a standard peanut butter cup.  Instead, it was smooth, creamy, homogenous filling.  The hazelnut flavor was minimal, but the gianduja was a really lovely consistency.  I did like the few bits of crunchy nut on top.

Overall, an enjoyable chocolate, great for a milk chocolate craving, not too sweet, and very subtle hazelnut.  Second favorite. ****.

Beacon Hill Signature Chocolate. $2.75.

"Our Signature Piece is the perfect bite of 72% single origin Venezuelan dark chocolate."

I love a good dark chocolate, and was quite excited for Beacon Hill's signature piece.  It was ... fine, but truly not any better than other generic brands.  The shell did not have much shine nor nice snap to it.  It was dark, but not particularly deep.  The filling was a bit grainy, not a smooth beautiful ganache.  It too was dark, but not remarkable.

Overall, fine, but not impressive, and not really a notch above a generic store brand.  My least favorite of the truffles I tried.  ***.

Vitamin C. $3.

"Milk chocolate is infused with orange, lemon, and lime to create a healing treat that is both tart and sweet."

This was an interesting one.  The outside was a lovely painted creamy milk chocolate.  Inside was a smooth creamy center that didn't taste particularly citrus, and didn't seem to be chocolate based either.  Below that was a crispy biscuit layer. So ... I'm not entirely sure what I had, but I did really enjoy the base and the creamy shell.  Second to last pick though.  ***. 

Bolero. $2.75.

"Vanilla buttercream fills a Belgian milk chocolate cup topped with dark chocolate sprinkles."

This piece was quite different from any other chocolate I've had before.  The cup was a lovely creamy quality milk chocolate, and the sprinkles were sprinkles, so those elements were not unexpected.  

The filling is what was unique, described as buttercream.  When I think of buttercream I think of frosting, like on a cupcake or cake.  This was not that kind of buttercream, not fluffy.  Instead it was more firm, still creamy, but more like a regular soft chocolate ganache, but, without the cocoa base.  If that makes sense.  But it wasn't white chocolate ganache either, which is another more common chocolate piece filling.  It had a mild vanilla taste, strong cream taste. It was ok, just, different.

I appreciated trying such a unique piece, but, the filling wasn't a favorite for me.  Forth to last pick. ***+.