Chocolate review: Valrhona Tulakalum

The trip to Bangkok yielded several Valrhona's from the duty free shop at Suvarnabhumi Airport. Those included this 75% cacao bar. It was the first time we encountered Tulakalum, which at 75% we thought could be a little too strong to be a standalone eat. Perhaps it could go well with some ice cream?

Tulakalum is a 75% cacao dark chocolate

Details on the chocolate are at the back of the packaging as well as on the inside of it (as shown later).

Ingredients including a minimum of 75% cacao that was sourced from Belize.

Nutrition information on the chocolate

Storage temperature tip (keep it in a dry place at 16-18 C).

The chocolate is wrapped in gold-colored foil.

More details on the chocolate including tips on how to enjoy it. The cacao is sourced from Belize and is supposed to have that nutty taste mixing it up with the cocoa nibs that gives some crunch to the chocolate.

We decided to try it out first to determine how strong this 75% dark chocolate was. It turned out to be one of the smoothest dark chocolates we've had above 70%. The nutty taste was there and it blended well with the bar and the cacao nibs. This is a must buy the next time we see this chocolate in a shop.

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Hakata Ikkousha, Cebu City

In a recent trip to Cebu, I found this Japanese restaurant at one of the major malls located in the North reclamation area. I extended my stay in Cebu for a couple of nights in order to catch up on work as well as to serve as a panel member in a webinar organized by our center.

Menu cover

Restaurant interior including visuals for the food they serve

They seem to have a bar for individual customers though it also looks like something for a salad bar.

I ordered tonkotsu ramen and gyoza. These are items I thought restaurants should not be wrong on if they included these in their menu.

Close up of the ramen, which I thought was good considering I had no expectations.

The gyoza was also good and on the crunchy side.

I thought the food was okay quality and quantity-wise and the prices translated to good value for money. Will I eat there again? Certainly, if I was craving for Japanese food and depending on the preference of company. When in Cebu, of course, there are many options and Japanese food is not a default.

 

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Chocolate review: another taste of Valrhona Jivara

Here is another exceptional milk chocolate, again from Valrhona. Jivara is light and not too sweet like the typical mass produced milk chocolates available on supermarket shelves. One can easily finish a bar in a few minutes but that would be atrocious as far as a chocolate of this quality is concerned. It is best to have small bites and some self control to preserve this chocolate to eat in more than one sitting.

Jivara with the new packaging of Valrhona chocolates

The milk chocolate claims a minimum of 40% cacao content.

Nutrition information

Storage info on the chocolate suggests a dry place with temps betweem 16 to 18 degrees C. That's way lower than the average room temps here. We recently had a heat wave when chocolates like this would probably have melted.

The updated packaging includes much information the chocolate and how to enjoy (immerse is the term used in the packaging) the chocolate. Note also the certification that "the company meets the highest standards of social and environmental impact."

The chocolate is wrapped in foil.

Would I get this chocolate outside of the pack or box it came with? I think so and probably will, but not in the same quantities as the other Valrhona chocolates (dark chocolates) we prefer like Manjari and Caruibe. Any chocolate lover will definitely like Jivara like Dulcey, which I wrote about earlier, and enjoy this chocolate.

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