Martine’s Chocolates

Posted by Edmund in Assorted Chocolates, Chocolate, Featured Articles, USA | 0 comments

Location: 1000 3rd Avenue, New York, NY 10022-1230.
Country of Production: USA.
Price: $2.50 for Chocolates, $2.75 for Fresh Creams/Truffles, $4.25 for the Oyster. 18 pieces a la carte for $49.75.

In New York, while I didn’t always get the best chocolate, I was always struck by how grand and how trendy some of the chocolate stores were. Places like Jacques Torres and MarieBelle weren’t just stores, they were full on chocolate parlors with indoor cafés, numerous display cases, and what seemed like hundreds of options.

…Then I got to Martine’s Chocolates, located in a very small area within a department store. That to me was an immediate red flag. Department store chocolate? How’s that supposed to be some of the best in the city?

Oddly enough, though, Martine’s didn’t disappoint, even if it wasn’t the best of the best. While the storefront itself may not turn any heads, I’m positive that its chocolate will, as much for the design as for the taste.

Martine’s takes a unique approach to the presentation, crafting each chocolate into a particular shape that represents the main ingredient or flavor. For example, Marzipan comes in the shape of colored fruits, Almond Rock is crusted like a crystal, and Cherry is decorated with floral imagery. Martine’s shows an even more creative side with some of the more complex pieces, giving them cutesy names and shapes like Cameo (a portrait), Chessman (a rook), Cello, and King Tut. Even the box is nicer than your traditional chocolatier’s, as Martine’s keeps the old-fashioned box-and-string look, but modernizes it a bit with a mini-portrait of a crouching woman and a jazzy gold signature, though I’m not a fan of the hot pink exterior.

Martine’s doesn’t take quite as many risks with the taste of its pieces, instead preferring to do the basics and to do them well. The store doesn’t just produce bonbons, but also truffles, fresh creams, and a couple of special varieties, like the Oyster, a blend of five premium types of chocolate. While the shop has 40 different chocolate pieces, though, that’s not actually as large as it may sound. Since there are so many different categories of chocolates—bonbons, creams, truffles, etc.—it’s easy to fill up all those different types with very traditional flavors, and Martine’s often reuses the same ingredients, especially caramel, vanilla, pecans, butterscotch, hazelnut, and marzipan. Martine’s doesn’t really break the mold with anything, then.

Still, the quality is excellent. Out my 9 pieces, I’d recommend five. Moreover, even the worst piece I had was still good. That type of consistency is very impressive, showing that Martine not only has good taste but understands how to properly temper and craft chocolate, balance out its sweetness, and incorporate all the different creams and pastes that she does. The chocolates can, however, get redundant, since the flavors are very similar. The problem is most marked in the fresh creams, which have rich and at times overpowering vanilla overtones.

Moreover, Martine’s gets pricey very fast, especially since the best pieces tend to have little but noticeable price boosts. Only one piece, the Oyster, truly amazed me, and it was unsurprisingly the most expensive of them all, coming with a hefty $4.25 price tag. Any chocolatier charging $4+ for a chocolate should be able to import only the best cocoa to churn out an amazing chocolate, in my opinion. No matter how exclusive the cocoa itself in the Oyster may be, it’s very overpriced for a small chocolate. The other pieces fare better in the value department, but only by a bit. $2.75 for truffles is still overpriced, in my opinion.

Overall, Martine’s Chocolates plays it safe, making well-crafted, beautifully presented, and often delicious pieces that are so simple that more adventurous palates will find them simply boring.  Martine’s is, however, a great chocolatier for anyone who loves the basics.

What I Tasted

1. Caramel Truffle: Very nicely balanced—rich, crunchy, nutty ganache with just enough caramel for a sweet kick without overwhelming you. Great balance. 4.0+
2. Dark Chocolate Truffle: Again, perfect balance. The dark chocolate ganache is rich and heavy, but it’s sweetened just a bit more than usual to make it less abrasive. Great cocoa powder exterior. Smooth but intense. 4.2
3. Oyster (Blend of Five Chocolates. A Secret Recipe): Absolutely delicious. Crystallized sugar and a hardened exterior really give it a nice crunchiness, but on biting it you’re shocked by just how soft, smooth, and creamy the whole piece is. Of course it has a lot of sweetness, but it’s actually very nicely balanced by that rich ganache. 4.8. It’s a must try!
4. Butterfly (Hazelnut Praline and Whipped Cream): Really nice for a nutty piece. The milk chocolate is far too sweet, but it has a subtle hazelnut flavor and crunch, as well as a layer of smooth vanilla cream, for some balance. The texture is great—smooth, creamy, and crunchy all in one. Nice flavor integration, too. 3.7
5. Benji (Chocolate Pecan Turtle): Very good, but boring. Just a huge layer of pecans covered with very good dark chocolate. It has a pronounced nuttiness (more so than any of the other pieces) but that’s only because it’s half-nut. 3.5
6. Chessman (Chocolate and Marzipan Mousse): One of the best in the bunch. It has a really great crunch on top. Moreover, it has a nice touch of liquor (like Bailey’s) and/or something cakey to it, as it has a wet sweetness very reminiscent of liquor. It’s not nauseatingly milky either. 4.2
7. Aria (Hazelnut Pate, Topped with Hazelnut): Truly operatic! This is the one with the gianduja taste to it—and it’s quite good, too. Perfect sweetness, with lots of flavor. And if that’s not enough for you, there’s a hazelnut on top for some added crunch and a more authentic hazelnut flavor. Perfect for nut lovers. 4.0
8. Piano (Butterscotch Caramel): Really nice if you love caramel, which just oozes out of the chocolate, kind of clashing with it because it’s too sweet. I also don’t like that the chocolate is deliberately hard, so that you have to crack it as you bite. It’s just a bad contrast with the smoothness of the caramel. 2.5
9. Shell (Chocolate Mousse): Kind of simple and boring, but very well-done. It’s a very sweet milk chocolate ganache filling with a bit of dulce de leche or caramel I think. It’s about the milkiest and creamiest of all the flavors—and I’d expect that of something that incorporates fresh cream, as this piece does. However, the piece seems plain. 3.0+

Scores

Presentation: 4.3/5.0
Taste: 3.8/5.0. Bonus points for consistent excellence.
Flavor (How well flavors are integrated): 4.2+/5.0
Selection: 3.3/5.0
Value: 1.9/5.0
Verdict: 3.7/5.0