Hotel Café Royal and Valrhona partner on new chocolate

Chocolate Week is the UK's biggest chocolate celebration and is happening from the 13th – 19th October. From restaurants creating chocolate inspired menus to The Chocolate Show in London we'll be bringing you all things chocolate.

French chocolatier Valrhona has collaborated with London’s The Café at Hotel Café Royal to create an exclusive new chocolate - Profile 66.

In a world’s first for Valrhona, this chocolate has been developed by Hotel Café Royal’s executive pastry chef Andrew Blas with the Valrhona team following exhaustive tastings.

As with wine, where the flavour of the grapes used is influenced by the conditions they are grown in, cacao beans are similarly affected. Chef Andrew Blas has experimented with flavour combinations using various cacaos from South American and African plantations and the result is that upon tasting Profile 66, guests will experience floral notes, nuttiness, a hint of spicy citrus and a cocoa silky finish.

“It has been brilliant working with a brand as prestigious as Valrhona and I am honoured to be the first chef they have collaborated with in the UK,” said Andrew.

“Having my ideas translated into chocolate has been a fantastic experience and I’m incredibly excited to finally be unveiling Profile 66.”

Valrhona is a French chocolate manufacturer created by a pastry chef for pastry chefs. They been supplying gastronomy professionals since 1922.

Hotel Café Royal is the second member of The Set, a luxury hotel collection created to redefine the concept of the luxury hotel for the 21^st Century.

The chocolate will be used from 14th October in all chocolate patisseries, petits fours and drinks throughout the hotel’s cafés, bars and restaurants. The Profile 66 bar will be available from Easter 2015, price at £5 for 100g.

By Stuart Armstrong