Valrhona is a renowned French chocolate company, whose name is so associated with quality that it appears on menus as part of the dessert name. Restaurants and food creators use its inclusion as a selling point, and it is pretty effective.

A few months ago, therefore, I was fascinated to read about a new type of chocolate they had created – blonde chocolate.

There is a whole anecdotal back story about a cooking accident involving white chocolate, but my first thought was, “I wonder if it tastes like a Caramac?”.

This was clearly an obvious thought, as Chocablog did a whole post on the matter, which is well worth a read. They went to the launch event (envy) and it seems the company was all too aware of the comparisons people were likely to draw, even though if you read the article you can see they are two very different things.

Luckily for me, H procured me some as a Christmas gift (from the Chocolate Trading Company).

Chocablog is right – this stuff is sweet. Incredibly so. I don’t really eat white chocolate on its own as I find it too sickly, and Dulcey teeters on the edge. However there is something very moreish about it. It reminds me of baked white chocolate – as in when you eat a chocolate chip cookie made with white chocolate, and the exposed chocolate surface goes a delicate brown from the heat of the oven. It really is like a caramelised white chocolate, with all the smoothness and meltability that implies.

As an eating bar, it is not for me, but I can see it being used to great effect in cooking paired with sharper or more bitter flavours. Maybe a raspberry and Dulcey muffin, or as a ganache poured over a dark chocolate cake.