Past Newsletters
Vol 2 No 11

In Pursuit of Chocolate

The Skelligs Chocolate Company
A Bit o' the Emerald Isle

Thankfully, through the luck of a couple of Irish entrepreneurs, we are able to bring you the delectable tastes of Skelligs Chocolate this month. The company, lovingly founded by Michael and Amanda McGabhann, is based at the tip of the Iveragh Peninsula, in the spectacularly breathtaking and secluded St. Finan's Bay, South West Kerry, Ireland. The factory, which lies only minutes from the water's edge, has a direct view of the Skelligs, 2 small islands, ten miles out to sea. People often comment about the remote area in which they work, but the beautiful surroundings are definitely a positive contribution to their creativity and the rendering of their hand-painted boxes. As a husband and wife team they have incredible enthusiasm for their handcrafted products that are renowned in Europe and the USA, for their exclusivity and gourmet flavors. They intend for their chocolates to leave lasting memories and their boxes to be enduring gifts, with packaging that can be enjoyed long after the contents have been consumed.

Modern technology has made it possible to operate their business from a very rural area. Their company is an important part of the local community, employing nine people, and they appreciate the pride and interest that is taken locally in their success. Michael and Amanda came to St. Finan's Bay several years ago looking for a quality life and a less complicated world in which their children could grow. After trying out their homemade ideas on friends and neighbors, the response was so overwhelming, they decided to set up the factory and have been in business now for more than three years. Both being chocoholics and having a natural passion for good food, they made a pact to strive for delicious flavors and sumptuous textures never before obtained in the world of chocolatiering. They personally taste and hand pick all their natural ingredients, and never resort to the cheaper chemical and artificial alternatives. This uncompromising approach to their ingredients also applies to the methods used in preparation. Asked recently if they comply with the year 2000 regulations, and what steps they were taking to avoid disruption, the interviewer was confused by their total lack of automation. True, they could speed up their processing and increase their output by bringing in machinery, but they believe their chocolates would suffer and refuse to compromise.

Champagne Fizz, Handmade Truffles

Our feature presentation from Skelligs Chocolate Company this month is the unique Champagne Fizz - handsomely rich handmade truffles. Each one of these tantalizing milk and dark chocolate specialties will bring a sparkle to anyone's eye! Packed in a hand painted wooden drum, they are covered in cork to resemble a real champagne cork, and finished with braid "wires" with a gold-wax seal. The truffles are lovingly hand rolled on marble, their fillings piped individually, and their centers carefully hand-mixed. The enrobing chocolate is hand-tempered for an exquisite texture that melts in your mouth - an art seldom found in use in the present day because it requires time and patience, rare ingredients in modern food production.

Skelligs Incredibly Rich Chocolate Bar

Created for serious chocoholics like themselves, Michael and Amanda have included their solid Milk Chocolate Bar as one of this month's selections. Made with the highest quality, all natural ingredients, it's perfect chocolate for scraping over mugs of coffee and tantalizing desserts, yet blissfully indulging to sit and savor as-is.

The Chocolatier's Works of Art

All Skellig's chocolates are different from the normal run of handmade chocolates, in that, while Michael and Amanda have concentrated on producing a high-quality, original and delicious product, they also pay great attention to the way in which they are presented. There is a great element of fun and fantasy about them, including incredible, minute detail. Reviving the days when packaging was not simply plastic and cardboard, but instead tins, boxes and jars, good enough to reuse and enjoy even after the contents are gone.

Amanda remembers "In our house there was a tin button box that was gotten down on a rainy day, just to be raked through, sorted or chatted over only to be returned to the shelf when the sun came out. What a simple way to while away an afternoon, and how many memories that button box holds for me! Now I am a mother myself and I have my own button box. I like to think that some of our boxes might be enjoyed simply as decoration or reused as a container, and maybe somewhere in the world a child is tipping one out and whiling away a rainy afternoon, waiting for the sun to come out."

What's In a Package?

Welcome to the world of being a chocolate connoisseur. As part of this trust that you have so responsibly taken on, there comes the task of educating yourself. To be a true connoisseur, you'll need to know the inside and outs, the good and bad of the wide world of chocolate delicacies. Gaining knowledge about the wrapping and packaging is part and parcel of your induction into the society of chocolate lovers. The package speaks volumes about what kind of chocolate is inside. These days, packaging design goes from one extreme to another. Much can be learned from the nutritional information on a bar of chocolate as well. Read on and see if you don't come out a little wiser in all matters chocolate.

Wording on Wrappers

As with the labels on your fine wines or virgin olive oil, the wording on a chocolate wrapper can provide significant information as to the quality of the chocolate, so for a chocolate lover, it is worth becoming familiar with the terms. An area of confusion arises over the terms "cacao liquor" and "cacao solids." Liquor is the term used in the United States, while Europe favors solids, but both refer to the same thing - entire cacao content including the butter. This is usually expressed as a percentage of the net weight of the end product. Cacao content ranges from 15 percent, which hardly comes into the category of chocolate, to an incredible 99 percent, which is almost inedible but an interesting experience.

What to Look For

The key indicator of quality is the cacao content - the combined total of cacao solids (liquor) and cacao butter. In some cases, couverture (enrobing chocolate) for instance, the cacao butter content is itemized separately. In the case of dark chocolate, a minimum of 50 percent total cacao is an indicator of quality. Quality milk chocolate should have a minimum of 30 percent. Since sugar makes up the balance of the ingredients, a high sugar content is a warning of a correspondingly low cacao content.

As far as flavorings are concerned, look for the words "pure vanilla extract." If "vanillin," a synthetic substitute, or simply the word "flavoring" is listed, the chocolate is likely to be of inferior quality.

Judging Chocolate by its Cover

Chocolate makers have been strongly aware of the value of shelf-appeal since the industry's early days. In France the most exquisitely designed chocolate boxes came into vogue as early as 1780, featuring beautiful paintings, intricately embossed plaques and inlaid semiprecious stones. Britain's chocolate boxes were not so ostentatious; they featured sentimental images that were very much the fashion when boxed chocolates came on the market. The first was produced in 1868 by Cadbury and featured a painting of a young girl cuddling a kitten; the model was Richard Cadbury's daughter Jessica.

Also part of the appeal are the beautiful papers used to line boxes and separate layers of chocolate. Although grease-resistant, the types of paper used have always had a special quality. They may be elaborately padded or embossed with gold or silver, or mysteriously translucent, like crisp tracing paper, with a swirly hammered finish. Another type of paper is known as glasine. It has a waxy feel and comes in wonderfully glossy, dark colors, almost smelling of chocolate in its own right.

In the national preference category, according to the American writer, Nika Standen Hazelton, "Chocolate in a blue wrapper won't sell in Shanghai or Hong Kong because the Chinese associate blue with death. Neither Swiss nor Germans like girl pictures on their chocolate packages, but want a realistic reproduction of the contents."

A Bit o' Irish History

Skelligs Chocolate Company is located on the Iveragh Peninsula in South West Kerry, roughly between the towns of Caherciveen and Waterville in Ireland. Traditionally an Irish speaking (Gaeltacht) area, the Irish language still has a tremendous impact on the culture. Irish is spoken both by many locals and in the schools. Although English is predominant, you will still find road signs and place names in Gaeltacht.

South West Kerry is the richest archaeological area (per square mile) in Ireland, with over 1,500 documented archaeological sites, a tremendous amount of which are found on the Iveragh Peninsula. There are none more impressive though than the early Christian monastic architecture found on Skellig Micheal, the larger of the two islands 10 miles off shore. Settling there in the 6th century, Monks built their monastery 600 feet up where you can still find ruins of chapels, terraces and stairways. If you take one of the boat trips to the Skelligs, you will get a small taste of what that kind of seclusion would have been like. Imagine having ten miles of ice cold, surging Atlantic Ocean between you and the mainland? Needless to say, trips ashore would be far and few between. Though greatly removed even from their nearest neighbors, the monks performed a great service to some, the Skelligs being the only place it was possible to get married during lent. So for those who could not wait (for reasons we won't go into) there was nothing for them but to take the arduous, sometimes harrowing trip in a rowboat 10 miles out to sea!

Small Skellig, passed on the way to Skellig Micheal, is home to 23,000 pairs of Gannets (droppings from the colonies giving it its characteristic white cap) and attracts countless other varieties of bird life including Puffins and occasionally tired migrants such as the Jay, Dipper and Coal Tit. Brimming with history and archaeology, a safe haven for bird and wildlife, and a superb spot for fishing, walking, cycling and water sports, its not a wonder people enjoy the town of Ballenskelligs and the surrounding area for holidays and relaxation. The McGabhann's, however, are lucky enough to live and work there all year round, a privilege they don't take lightly.

Recipes

Irish Chocolate and Coffee Eggnog
2 quarts cold eggnog
1/3 cup Brown sugar, firmly packed
3 tbs. Instant coffee granules
1/2 tsp. Cinnamon
1/2 tsp. Nutmeg
1 cup Irish whiskey
1 quart Coffee ice cream
Sweetened whipped cream
Freshly grated Skelligs Milk Chocolate
Freshly grated nutmeg

Combine the eggnog, brown sugar, instant coffee and spices in a large mixing bowl; beat at low speed with an electric mixer until the sugar dissolves. Chill for 15 minutes; stir until the coffee granules dissolve and stir in the whiskey. Cover and chill at least 1 hour. Pour into a punch bowl or individual cups, leaving enough room for the ice cream. Spoon in the ice cream. Garnish each serving as desired with whipped cream, nutmeg and chocolate.

Irish Creme Liqueur with Skelligs Chocolate
1 14 oz can sweetened condensed milk
14 oz Irish whiskey (use milk can to measure)
2 tbs. grated Skellig's chocolate
2 tsp. instant coffee
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 tsp. almond extract
1 cup whipping cream
4 eggs

Blend condensed milk, whiskey, chocolate, instant coffee, vanilla and almond extracts in blender at medium to high speed. Add the whipping cream and quickly blend at low speed. Add the eggs and blend low speed. Do not overmix. Refrigerate several hours before serving. Store in the refrigerator for up to four weeks. Yield: about 5 - 6 cups.