Monday, August 11, 2008

Perugina Nero Sfoglie Arancia

Perugina Nero Orange ChocolateI was wandering the candy aisle at Gelsons, an upscale grocery chain in Southern California, on Saturday night and happened upon a new chocolate product I’d not seen before.

Called Perugina Nero, it looks like a pretty direct import, as the package was all in Italian except for a sticker on the back with the ingredients & nutrition facts in English. The sticker covered up the native descriptions though, so all I could glean was that they were thin tablets that appeared to be a little smaller than business cards made of chocolate.

The chocolate leaves come in three varieties: 70% Cacao, 85% Cacao and Gusto Arancia (Orange Flavor). I went for the Arancia because I really love the touch of orange essence combined with dark chocolate.

Perugina Nero Dark Chocolate OrangeThe box is pretty big but holds only 3.38 ounces. The price was right though, at $2.99 on sale, it’s about the same as an imported chocolate bar.

Inside the box is a tray sealed in cellophane. Four little compartments hold stacks of three little chocolate cards. It feels like a bit of overkill on the packaging, but I have to admit that it did a nice job, all my cards were pristine.

The pieces are 2.75” by 1.75”. Each piece is far thinner than a regular chocolate bar as well, even the tasting squares that I’ve picked up before, each is only 8 grams (most tasting squares are 7-12 grams but only 1” square at most).

Perugina Nero Dark Chocolate Orange

The little leaves are quite pretty, with the stylized Pegasus emblem on each.

They smell of woodsy, smoky chocolate and quite strongly of orange.

Biting into a piece, it sits on the tongue and melts right away, releasing its flavors quickly. I got a rush of rich chocolate, bitter tones, woodsy flavors that combine bark, coffee and Popsicle sticks along with the bright notes of orange essence and then a low bitterness that echoes the orange zest and dark chocolate.

Even though the chocolate itself isn’t particularly buttery, the quick melt because of the format gives it a creamy component I often find difficult to tease out of big chunks of chocolate without chewing it a bit.

Since the box is essentially the equivalent of the large 100 gram tablet bar, this is a great solution to sharing. It’s a great option for serving with coffee or tea or even an aperitif. The pieces are lovely to look at, though serving right from the tray isn’t quite elegant, neither is cracking up a regular bar and flattening out the foil wrapper.

For those who are watching their calories, each leaf has 42 calories. The impression of a large portion if you were to eat two leaves would still only deliver 84 calories, a decadent treat without busting your diet. (Though they’re not individually wrapped or anything, so nothing to stop you from eating the whole box.)

Related Candies

  1. Ghirardelli Intense Dark
  2. Vanilla Beans KitKat & Bitter Orange Aero
  3. Voisin Papillotes
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  5. Jacques Torres
Name: Nero Sfoglie Arancia
    RATING:
  • 10 SUPERB
  • 9 YUMMY
  • 8 TASTY
  • 7 WORTH IT
  • 6 TEMPTING
  • 5 PLEASANT
  • 4 BENIGN
  • 3 UNAPPEALING
  • 2 APPALLING
  • 1 INEDIBLE
Brand: Perugina (Nestle)
Place Purchased: Gelson's (Laguna Beach)
Price: $2.99 (on sale)
Size: 3.38 ounces
Calories per ounce: 149
Categories: Chocolate, Italy, Nestle

POSTED BY Cybele AT 10:29 am Tracker Pixel for Entry    

Comments
  1. arenee's avatar

    Oooo! I hope I run into these lovelies.  I LOVE wafer thin chocolate.  It’s so rare too, how sad!  Thanks!

    Comment by arenee on 8/11/08 at 11:32 am #
  2. seian's avatar

    I’ll have to watch out for this one. I do love the paring of orange and chocolate, but too often I’m disappointed with recipes that toss in spices with the orange, which I am not fond of - especially if that includes cloves.

    Comment by seian on 8/11/08 at 11:43 am #
  3. Yum!  These do sound delicious.  Just as an aside, the symbol isn’t a Pegasus after all, but a griffin, which is the medieval symbol of the city of Perugia (it’s supposed to symbolize the dual nature of Christ, what with the feet and the wings).  Of course, I only know this because I went to the Eurochocolate Festival two years ago and took about a million pictures of griffins, while eating about a million different varieties of chocolate raspberry

    Comment by DebbieS on 8/11/08 at 1:13 pm #
  4. I can’t pronounce the name.

    P-p-eru-gee-na Nee-ro S-s-s-fog-lee A-ran-see-a.

    Comment by Marvo on 8/11/08 at 4:08 pm #
  5. looks good but looks more like a pegasus than a griffin!

    Comment by Candy Lover on 8/12/08 at 6:55 am #
  6. These sound fantastic and right up my alley in terms of chocolate enjoyment.  Guess I’m going to have to start looking for them!

    Comment by Maura on 8/12/08 at 7:05 am #
  7. These look a bit like a product I had in the Netherlands once. (Might even have been Lindt…)  They came looking like a little slice of bread and were intended to be laid upon a hot slice of toast.  They melted really well - gourmet Nutella!

    Comment by Jody on 8/13/08 at 2:38 am #
  8. I was going to mention the griffin, but I see somebody beat me to it. I lived in Perugia for a semester, so Perugina chocolates are very close to my heart grin.

    Comment by Maasikas on 8/22/08 at 12:34 am #
  9. I just found out about this and bought the last box of the 85% cacao at the Tarzana Gelson’s. It was on sale as an item to be discontinued. I asked an authoritative looking man if that meant at all Gelson stores and he said yes. That made me unhappy.

    Comment by Just Plain Jane on 9/29/08 at 3:00 pm #
  10. looking for the 85% Cacao in Los Angeles USA

    Comment by blank on 10/31/08 at 12:20 pm #
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