“Grand Lait” Pastilles from Michel Cluizel French Chocolate

These chocolates come from Michael Cluizel, who is apparently an authentic Frenchman.

I automatically give a +2 to Magical Chocolate to anyone that hails from Europe. France gets a +3. So does Switzerland.

According, to the website:

Michel Cluizel has been making chocolate in the southern Normandy region of France to an exclusively high standard, in the French chocolate making tradition, since 1948.

So, I received two kinds of drinking chocolate from Michel Cluizel. The first one I tried are the “Grand Lait” pastilles.

Now, I had many Failed Attempts in making this. Note, that we can blame all of this on me, and not the chocolate.

Problems with Making Drinking Chocolate

It’s not easy. I’m not a chef. I’ve never been a barista or a bartender. I’m not even sure what the word barista means, except I assume it involves some sort of expertise with complex-looking steampunk machines.

Here are many thoughts in and around the problems of making drinking chocolate:

• - It’s not as easy as making Swiss Miss Hot Cocoa.  Banish that thought immediately.
• - Drinking Chocolates usually come “dry” in many forms.  It can be like a dust, little nuggets, a liquid, big nuggets, discs, mini-discs.  It’s all different!
• - I have no special equipment for making this stuff.
• - I am afraid I am too lazy to use a sauce pan and melt things slowly and properly.  I may change this in coming years.  But, I prefer to use a microwave.
• - The experts say (according to the many books I have read) that you should use Water instead of Milk.  Water keeps the taste more pure.
• - The “Thickness” of the final liquid is the most important thing for me to achieve.  One little mistake in the preparation can make it too thick (so you have to eat it with a spoon) or too thin and watery.
• - Most of the time, these finer drinking chocolates either come with no instructions, or the instructions don’t make sense to me.

First attempt – Total but sweet Failure

I mixed the tiny pucks with water then microwaved it.  This created an awful mess that is too embarassing to describe.  The cup looked like an entire kindergarten class had used it to clean their paintbrushes.  It was a total disaster.

But it still tasted good.  Hey, it’s chocolate.

Second attempt – Continued sweet Failure

I tried the same thing as before, but with milk.  This also created a massive disaster inside the microwave.  It makes me feel as incompetent as I really am, and I don’t like that.  Whenever possible, I like to fool myself into thinking that I actually know what is going on.

It still tasted good.  I could not tell much difference with the milk.

Third attempt – Massive but amazing Failure

I tried putting in less water and put the whole concoction in the microwave.  This time, it did not boil over and make a mess… but, it was way too thick to drink. I kept the cup at a raw vertical and it hardly moved. It was awesome, and scary. Like an upcoming ice-tea avalanche of chocolate.

So I had to use the spoon to eat it all. It was rich… wow so rich. Good thing I can take it. The chocolate was still very good… dare I compare it to Nestle’s chips? Maybe this is what you are picturing if you have never had it. But it is not like that… it is a more sophisticated taste. Still rich as all hell, but interesting and nice. I could not get away from the idea that I was eating this chocolate with a spoon. It’s like I was working late at an ice cream store when no one was looking, and I started eating out of the hot fudge dispenser. It was pretty hard core.

I tried, in my mind to think that drinking very thick hot chocolate is only a shade of grey from eating super-thick hot chocolate with a spoon. But there IS a difference. It’s the difference between a very fast walk and a jog. Perhaps it’s “having two feet in the air” that makes jogging feel a lot different than walking fast. And so it is with drinking chocolate. I think it actually has to flow like a liquid. Has to enter the mouth like a tiny river of awesomeness, and swirl about, hitting new taste nerves in unexpected and free-flowing eddies.

When I was done, I had to go drink a cup of milk to keep from going clinically insane.

Fourth attempt – Very thick and awesome

This time I put a bit of science into it.

1. - I filled a measuring cup with one cup of the pastilles.  I then left those inside the final nice-looking drinking cup.
2. - I filled the same measuring cup (now empty) with 1 cup of water.
3. - I boiled the water in the microwave.
4. - I poured the boiling water on top of the chips.   And then stirred.
5. - It wasn’t quite hot enough, so I nuked it another 30 seconds.

This turned out really well!  It was not “chunky” at all… but smooth.  The only problem was that it was SUPER thick.  Now, I like my drinking chocolate thick, but this was so thick that there was quite a delayed response after tipping the cup.  The more it cooled, the thicker it got.

Fifth attempt – Just about perfect consistency

This time, I did about the same thing as above, but added a little too much water.  However, for most people, it might be just about perfect.  I like it a little bit thicker.  You can see photos from this fifth attempt below:

1. - Added 1/2 a cup of chips to a measuring cup.  Then I added that to my yellow drinking cup.
2. - Added 2/3 a cup of water to the measuring cup then boiled.
3. - Poured the water into the yellow cup.  You can see the chips below the water level in the photo below.
4. - Stirred until they were all mixed.
5. - Microwaved another 20 seconds so it was hot enough again

<h2>Final Score</h2>

I do not give this lower marks because it took me so long to make it well… I blame myself for that.  However, once I did have it right, it was still a good cup of drinking chocolate, but only a shade better than melted Nestle’s chips.  The chocolate had a slightly more sophisticated taste, but nothing that really blew me away.  Also, I do tend to like that little cinnamon taste in the end that chases the chocolate down your throat.  Of course, I can add that on my own later.

• Taste 3/5
• Spice:  2/5 – Hardly any… a slight linger.
• Scent:  3/5 – smells like good milk chocolate
• Best way to make:  1 cup of chips. 1.1 cups of water. Boil water. Mix water into chips. Stir. Microwave for another 20 secs. Stir again.

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