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Dragee Me AwayChocolate for an artful escape.By Zel KlotwogChocolate-covered candy treats are trendy again. Like many trendy things, there's an exotic French word to describe them. Dragée (pronounced dra-zhay) are coated nuts, dried fruits or candies. There's also a less French term for coated candy, which is enrobed. But coated candies are nothing new. In Europe, fruits and nuts have been coated with sugar since the 14th century. These candies were called confetti, though this had no relation to tiny bits of paper. Today, we have a dragée candy small enough to really confuse the historical meaning of the word confetti: sunflower seeds. One of my favorite candy treats is chocolate-covered sunflower seeds. Only recently have they become readily available. It isn’t easy to add a candy coating to such a tiny seed. I’m happy to see this trend, and recently even happier to have discovered the candy offerings from The Cocoa Room, which I’m touting as an alternative favorite alongside Dilettante Chocolates, a company that does not (yet) offer chocolate-covered sunflower seeds.
On a recent visit to Travellady headquarters, I happened across a colorful and modern-looking candy package that leapt off the shelf into my curious hands. Imagine my further delight that it was mostly chocolate-coated sunflower seeds. The 4-ounce package of Eclectic Mix Dragée from The Cocoa Room ($6.00 per package) looks like a work of art at least worthy of display at a pretentiously hip art museum gift shop, with mixtures of squares, circles and ovals, and both transparent and opaque areas to the candy box. It has a nice weight in the hand and comfortable proportions. It already looks like a gift even without wrapping. The package was from the Stein Eriksen Lodge in Park City, Utah (which offers much more than their own amazing handmade chocolate adventures), and the Travellady had it displayed cheerfully atop her desk – yes, she had dragée on her desk étagère! I'm not sure if I should say that I was delighted or doomed when I discovered that these candies not only look appealing, but they also satisfied my taste for chocolate par-excellence. As chocolate candies go, these were exciting: the best chocolate-covered sunflower seeds I've ever had. The sunflowers weren’t oily, salty, grainy or bitter, and the candy coating yielded easily. With only a whisper of just enough chocolate and the sheerest of candy shells, this dragée was an excellent complement to the nutritious sunflower seed. I don’t see the point in having an enrobed candy if you can’t tell what’s in the middle. There was nothing waxy or excessive here. As if I wasn’t corrupted enough by this luxury chocolate treat, I ventured into the larger candies in the mix. Some of these had thick chocolate coatings and some had thin coatings. The small dark red candies were enrobed pistachios with just a bit of chocolate, and the light green candies were pistachios with a thick chocolate coating. The thicker chocolate coating gave a distinct fine chocolate liqueur taste. The orange, purple and sky blue candies contained toasted almonds with a thick chocolate layer. The Cocoa Room package label said that the mix might contain fruits, but there were no fruits in this dragée mix. It was a pleasant and satisfying blend, and the first time I've seen chocolate-covered sunflower seeds paired with other treats. Dare I say that I doubt it could be done better? One ounce made for a satisfying treat, and two ounces a good combination of snack and chocolate fix. The flavor symphony was perfect, even though there were no fruits in this mix. Until I get the chance to try The Cocoa Room’s dried fruit dragées, I’ll continue to sing the delights of Dilettante Chocolates. Dilettante is renown for their chocolate ganache (sauces), and if you have the chance to visit one of their Mocha cafés in and around Seattle, Washington, prepare yourself for a rich chocolate infusion with savory hot and cold chocolate or coffee drinks. If you prefer to sink your teeth in, don’t resist the wide variety of desserts, many of which are served with their famous ephemere and truffle sauces. There are just too many good things at Dilettante to have them all in one day. When I visit the Mocha café in Capitol Hill, often I take away a small sampling of Dilettante’s dragée candies. My favorites are the blueberry and the ginger candies, and the cherry candies are good also. To my taste, the apricot and strawberry dragées just don’t complement the fruit well, but others rave about them along with the rest. (6 ounce single fruit packages $6.25, medley packages from $6.25 to $10.) Chocolate Dragées make an excellent gift for chocolate lovers. They ship and travel slightly better than chocolate truffles or bonbons, being less fragile to jostling or heat. They are more colorful than plain chocolate, and make for a cheerful gift without the need to wrap. The Cocoa Room's Dragée Mixes and other chocolate products can be purchased and shipped through their online catalog. Dilettante sells gift packages online and at their cafés. The Cocoa Room Dilettante Chocolates The Dilettante on Broadway Photo by Zel Klotwog |
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Despite tiny size, sunflower seeds pack powerful nutrition.
They are high in protein and fiber, in vitamin E, vitamin B1, vitamin B5, folate,
magnesium and selenium. Vitamin E is an important fat-soluble antioxidant, and
sunflower seeds are rich in healthy polyunsaturated oil, so you get all that
goodness in one absorbable package. I’m not especially fond of plain sunflower
seeds: it’s either too much trouble to shell them, or the pre-shelled seeds will
become rancid before I finish them. Chocolate-coated sunflower seeds seem to
keep longer, or perhaps it’s just that, given the chocolate, I eat them sooner.