Sugar Savvy

I have been sitting on these tasting notes for ages. Like most of my notes, I guess. I bought these four Joseph Schmidt truffles last winter when I was in California. Joseph Schmidt used to be an independent truffle maker; now they, along with Dagoba and Scharffen Berger, are owned by Hershey’s Artisan Confections subsidiary. I was able to buy these at the Scharffen Berger factory.

Joseph Schmidt truffles are of the molded variety, as their smooth, glossy, perfectly formed dome/cone shapes indicate. The outside shell of chocolate is thicker than I expected, with a great snap that shows that the chocolate is well-tempered. The creamy ganache inside is extremely smooth on the tongue and fairly flowy. They come in regular and mini sizes. The mini truffles are pretty standard-sized, while the regular ones are ginormous and are too big to be eaten lightly.

Pomegranate mini truffle (right)

The first hit of flavor was lightly sweet and fruity. It then suddenly takes on a very intense pomegranate sweetness that pretty much tastes generically like berries. Nicely flavored and gorgeous to look at. Way to jump on the pomegranate bandwagon! Not bad.

Mexican chocolate mini truffle (left)

Upon biting into this chocolate and broaching the shell, I can smell the chili before I can get around to tasting it in the ganache. Once you get to the ganache, the chili adds a slight burn and tingle. It’s a nice amount of heat that makes itself present but isn’t painfully strong. I looooove well-done chili and chocolate.

Vanilla cognac (left) and lemon meyer (right) truffles

Sooo… I didn’t eat these myself. They were just too big and daunting to take on, and I ended up giving them away.

These truffles would make an impressive gift, and they’re not too expensive for fancy well-made and well-flavored chocolates. I personally prefer truffles with thinner hard chocolate shells that are easier to eat, but I did enjoy the flavors of the ones I tasted. But they weren’t so delicious that I just had to taste the other two I ended up giving away. So, good for gift giving, meh for personal splurging.