Cacao Lorenzo artisanal chocolates, just right for those carpe diem moments . . .
Photo by: Fern Shen
Make up for forgetting Mom on Mother’s Day, treat yourself because you deserve it or educate yourself about the vast world beyond Hershey’s or Godiva – whatever rationale gets you to the Lutherville-Timonium shop of chocolatier Larry McGlinchey, you’ll find it’s a worthwhile trip.
Tucked in an unlikely industrial park landscape on Pot Springs Road, McGlinchey’s Cacao Lorenzo is filled with a small, select group of freshly-made European-style chocolates, always kept at a temperature between 58 and 68 degrees Fahrenheit. His chocolates are made from scratch, using real ingredients, not the aromatic flavoring, and cocoa butter equivalents found in most chocolates.
“These have to be made by hand,” McGlinchey told me, when I visited last week. “The rich ingredients would simply jam a machine.”
McGlinchey said he also puts a premium on freshness and doesn’t make any chocolates more than a week in advance. “They should never be refrigerated,” he said, emphatically, “and never, ever frozen.”
McGlinchey first learned about quality chocolate in Europe, where he traveled as part of his work in medical sales. “I discovered how delicious chocolate could be,” he said. After studying chocolate-making in Lyon, he opened Cacao Lorenzo six years ago.
One of his precepts is to never use any consumer-ready products. The butter, milk and cream come fresh from a local farm and the other ingredients come from France. The sourcing on the cacao product is a little more complex.
Chocolatier Larry McGlinchey, of Cacao Lorenzo. (Photo by Francine Halvorsen)
Theobroma cacao (the botanical name of the cacao tree) grows only in the “Cocoa Belt,” 20 degrees north and south of the Equator, but none is processed there, McGlinchey said. He said he only purchases chocolate and cocoa from members of the World Cocoa Foundation, which is committed to ensuring accepted labor standards and protecting the environment. No country that cultivates the trees, produces chocolate and no country that produces chocolate has been able to grow the trees.
The end products are spectacularly subtle, hand-crafted wonders: ganache centers flavored with lovely lavender, hazelnut gianduja, figs in port wine, chestnut paste, and honey that are then enrobed in dark, milk or white chocolate. McGlinchey also uses a selection of high-end liqueurs, such as Poire William, Calvados, Kirschwasser and Frangelico in some of his ganaches, as the spirit moves him.
If you think you don’t like white chocolate, you probably have never had the real thing. Made with cocoa liquor, Cacao Lorenzo’s white chocolate has no resemblance to the commercial waxy stuff. My favorite white chocolate bonbon has a Bailey’s Irish Cream ganache center.
The prices seem quite modest to me. A 15-piece, Gallerie au Chocolat is $15.99 and a box of 24 is $24.99. The box includes, pistachio, port-wine-soaked figs , lavender flower, honey, chestnut paste and calvados, as well as other fillings, enrobed in milk, dark and white chocolate. The mouth feel is very smooth. I thought fig and the lavender were really memorable. If you go you will find your own favorites, I’m sure. Also on hand are various solid chocolate bars, truffles, cocoa mix, and chocolate-covered seasonal berries and nuts. The dark chocolate covered roasted hazelnuts are an especially fine treat.
McGlinchey is very direct, describing his attitude to chocolate-making: “My goal is to be the best. There is plenty of mediocre on the market.”
PS: If you are drinking red wine, McGlinchey suggests that the bolder the wine, the darker the chocolate and for a white such as Chardonnay, a dark chocolate with a sweet ganache filling. For Prosecco, he recommends a darker milk chocolate – about 41% cocoa liquor*. And with champagne – the classic strawberry dipped in chocolate.
* For information on the importance of cocoa liquor and cocoa butter in quality chocolate making check out the Q and A on Cacao Lorenzo’s website.
PPS: Want to make something memorable and chocolatey at home? Watch for a FOODWISE BALTIMORE Mexican Chocolate Cake recipe coming soon.
CACAO LORENZO CHOCOLATIER
Open 10:00 AM – 6:00 PM Monday – Friday, 10:00 AM – 5:00 PM Saturday
1818 Pot Spring Road, Suite #20 (Just off Ridgely Road, East of York Road)
Timonium, MD. 21093
Tel: 410-453-9334
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