02 January,2022 08:32 AM IST | Mumbai | Phorum Pandya
The chocolate menu is vast with bon bons, ganache cubes and strawberry balsamic ice cream. Pics/Sameer Markande
A SWEATING ice cream counter is one of our pet peeves. It makes the ice cream inside look distressed and rightfully so, as an inappropriate temperature can affect its texture and overall mouth feel of the serve. When we made the trip to Out Of the Blue at Le Sutra, Bandra, to try ice creams and chocolates at their latest addition The Blue Gourmet, we encountered a similar sight. Perhaps, it is time to call that service number.
On trying, most of them had icicles, and were of a watery texture. With 11 flavours on the menu, the ice creams are available in two packaging sizes - 125 ml and 500 ml apart from scoops. We try them as tasting spoons. There's organic Bailey's, a single origin chocolate with roasted almonds, and even a strawberry balsamic that gets our nod. Two favourites are chocolate ice cream with organic zest, and the Kashmiri rose berry ice cream, which is made using almond milk and is thus, vegan.
Next up, we try the ice cream scoops served in Mexican coffee bun, presented as plated-desserts. Chocolate and orange zest and the Kashmiri rose berry ice cream appear interesting. Our impression is ruined soon enough. While the bun is dry, the ice cream melts into a puddle. Since it is made without preservatives, it is likely to melt fast we are told, but this hurried experience is no fun. The ice cream flavours are unique and would do well if the quality is improved.
The chocolate menu is vast with bon bons, ganache cubes and enrobes. The Jack Daniel's bonbons don't have enough alcohol and are too sweet. Baileys bonbons and Amarula bonbons are bold in their flavours but again, on the sweeter side. The banofee bon bon seems to have just a banana mash as filling, while the apricot filling had gone stale. Same is the case with strawberry mousse - a greedy bite makes us regret our temptation.
We try the organic coffee almond praline bark (Rs 475) and the salted caramel bark with butterscotch nuts (Rs 475). The latter has coated breadsticks that are crunchy but the chocolate fails to impress us again. All chocolates are made in refined sugar as well as khandsari sugar variants. We even try some ganache cubes that just about pass the average mark. In some, the texture disturbs us and in others, the chocolate quality.
"We follow the SLO approach [sustainable, local and organic] and source the beans straight from Kerala farmers to make our own coverture chocolates," says owner Rahul Bajaj, who has travelled to Kerala and Garhwal with his team to understand the process of growing, harvesting, and processing cacao with his team in the past few years.
His research and experimentation with desserts and chocolates is what intrigued him to launch The Blue Gourmet. "Our teams took online courses with artistes from Stockholm, Paris, Belgium in chocolate processing that has 11 steps including, roasting, fermenting and winnowing," he adds.
Over the years, brands like Entisi, Ether, Fabelle and La Folie have raised the bar for quality chocolate products and we have been spoilt for high-end choices. At Blue Gourmet, we don't find any reason to return for a craving.
