Founded in 1982, Gourmet du Village is a family-run Canadian company specializing in gourmet foods and tableware. What started as a hobby, a side business at Christmas-time, has grown into a full-time enterprise selling internationally.
In addition to their line of tableware (dip chillers, brie bakers, etc.) Gourmet du Village’s inventory includes a variety of sauces, dips, candy, coffee and hot chocolate.
Up for review are single-serving packets of three of the company’s hot chocolate mixes: Double Truffle, Maple and French Vanilla. Each single-serve package contains 35 grams of mix, which can be made with 3/4ths cup of hot milk or water.
For hot chocolate to be good — really good — it needs to be rich, creamy and full of flavor. It always
seems doubtful that any one of these three qualities, let alone all three, can come out of a little paper packet. So how do the Gourmet du Village varieties hold up? Very well, as it turns out. When prepared with skim milk, all three mixes result in a marvelous mouth feel, smooth and silky and an absolute pleasure to sip contentedly (would whole milk or cream intensify the texture, one wonders?).
While all three are delicious, taste-wise, the Maple Hot Chocolate is definitely the best. The maple flavor is distinct, but neither overwhelmingly strong nor artificial tasting. It blends well with the chocolate for a sweet, but not cloying result, much like drizzling real maple syrup into the hot chocolate. The French Vanilla and Double Truffle are more subtly flavored, but still quite pleasing as well.
There are other varieties of Gourmet du Village available for purchase, including Gingerbread, Irish Cream , Amaretti, Tiramisu, Butter Pecan and more, a tantalizing array of flavors to ward off winter’s chill.
