Spiritual gluttony

The Creator, Nurturer and Destroyer come as different names to different groups of people — for the Greeks, it might be Chaos, Gaia and Abaddon; to the Hindus, it is often Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva. But to the sweet-toothed who live by carpe diem, the words mean ITC’s Fabelle Trinity-Truffles Extraordinaire, the world’s most expensive chocolates at  Rs 430,000 per kilogram.

Co-curated by France’s Michelin Star Chef Philippe Conticini and handcrafted by Fabelle’s master chocolatiers, the three truffles feature “a hero ingredient representing a stage in the cycle of life,” according to the company. The ‘Creator’ consists of coconut to signify ‘beginnings’, while the ‘Nurturer’ contains Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee and the Grand Cru dark chocolate is the ‘Destroyer’.

“This artisanal masterpiece by Fabelle is a reflection of best of both world coming together. With Chef Conticini’s international expertise and Fabelle’s understanding of Indian chocolate consumer preferences and institutional strength, we have been able to deliver a world-class product,” says Anuj Rustagi, chief operating officer, chocolates, confectionary, coffee and new categories, food division, ITC.

Like the little Willy Wonkas, let’s take a dip into each of the truffles for a little tour into the three stages of life.

The Creator truffle is covered with a creamy Belgian white chocolate shell, with three layers of coconut. The truffle takes its symbolism seriously — its milk chocolate has been sourced from the area where the sun rises first, signifying the beginning of a creation.

The Nurturer Truffle, the second one in series, represents the sun’s nurturing energy that can be felt the most near the equator, where cocoa and coffee are grown. The mature flavour of the truffle — infused with coffee powder crunch and coffee-almond praline, and topped with Ruby chocolate — is meant to appeal to the senses and instill the spiritual principle of learning and progressing through life.

Finally, to complete the circle of life, the Fabelle chocolate series, just like in real life, concludes with a descent. This descent in the final truffle, The Destroyer, is represented by putting cocoa in the centre and encasing it in a shell of Venezuelan 72% dark chocolate with black olive and woody notes. Unlike the Creator truffle, which comes in an impeccably white shell, the Destroyer comes in a dark, crumbled form, thus completing the ‘Trinity’.

If you want to indulge yourself with a box of 15 such truffles (15 gram each), ITC will get the limited edition ready for you in a handmade wooden box, at a price of  Rs 100,000.

If spiritual is not your cup of hot chocolate, and you’d rather go for a single truffle lying cosily on a bed of sugar pearls inside a gold box, Denmark-based Knipschildt’s La Madeline Truffe is the perfect creation for you. The base is made up of 70% Valrhona dark chocolate, truffle oil and vanilla. This rich ganache then surrounds a rare French Perigord truffle (a type of mushroom). The truffle that is then prepared is topped with fine cocoa powder to give the extravagant look that justifies its extravagant price tag —  Rs 18,000 per piece.

Make celebrations ‘chocolatier’ for that friend with a sweet tooth and gift them a box of truffles.