Chocolate Truffles Natural

Swedish chocolate truffles with cocoa powder and a great melt

The Natur chocolate truffles from La Praline are cocoa-dusted truffle confections from Sweden and the house's original variety. They melt on the tongue before you have even really taken a bite. No hard shell, no filling, no alcohol.

Natur chocolate truffles are the foundational variety from the Swedish manufacturer La Praline in Gothenburg: irregularly shaped spheres, generously rolled in low-fat cocoa powder. All sixteen varieties from the house are based on this recipe, ranging from licorice and cardamom to sea salt. The decorative box contains about twenty pieces, and no two spheres are alike.

Matte, powdery, and irregular, they sit in their paper liners, and the very first bite explains the name. The cocoa coating feels dry on the tongue, followed immediately by the cream. Tart and sweet at the same time, milky soft, with a faint hint of vanilla in the finish.

Powdery on the outside, creamy on the inside

The cocoa powder is low-fat and bitter, the sphere underneath sweet and soft. This contrast creates the entire appeal of these Swedish truffles.

Unlike a filled praline, the truffle has no shell that cracks. It gives way immediately. The mixture of vegetable fat, sugar, cocoa powder, and whey is so soft that it dissolves with body heat, and the bitter powder keeps the sweetness in check. If you prefer your confectionery with a crunch, this isn't for you. If you are looking for melt-in-the-mouth perfection, you are in the right place.

Taken out of the refrigerator a quarter of an hour before eating, the truffles are firm enough to handle and soft enough to melt. The bitter cocoa coating goes wonderfully with strong filter coffee, in winter with a glass of non-alcoholic Småland Glögg, and in summer with vanilla ice cream topped with a crumbled sphere. Coffee brings out the tartness, glögg the spices, and ice cream the melt.

Coconut fat melts sooner than cocoa butter

The truffles do not contain any cocoa butter. Their melt comes from unhardened coconut and palm kernel fat, which is precisely why they have such a soft consistency.

The lower the melting point of a fat, the sooner the mass gives way. Coconut fat becomes soft at around 25 degrees Celsius, while cocoa butter only melts at about 34 degrees—just below body temperature. That is why a La Praline truffle melts on the tongue immediately, and that is why it likes to be kept cool. In summer, the box belongs in the refrigerator; this keeps the spheres firm and the powder dry.

A word on honesty, because no one else says it: this is not chocolate in the strict sense, as it lacks cocoa butter. It is cocoa confectionery, and very well made at that. If you are looking for cocoa butter, you will find it in our bars and pralines.

Katharina and Jean-Claude started with a shop

In 2001, Katharina and Jean-Claude Eggel opened a small chocolate shop in Gothenburg's Linné district, selling the finest goods Europe had to offer.

It was a time when Lasse Hallström's film "Chocolat" was in cinemas and half of Sweden was discovering dark chocolate. The shop became a wholesaler, and the wholesaler became its own brand. Ten years later, they wanted to do it themselves: in 2011, they began their own truffle production in Gothenburg, first on the shipyard island of Ringön, and since 2019 in a new facility in Viared near Borås.

"The fact that one hits the brakes while the other hits the gas has worked well for us," Katharina says of their division of labor. The company has been IP-certified since 2014 and FSSC 22000-certified since 2020, which in practice means that every batch can be traced back to the ingredient. Swedish thoroughness, sweetly packaged.

Sixteen varieties are on the program today, from sea salt and raspberry to licorice, and all are derived from this one recipe. If you would like to get to know the others, you can find more truffles from Gothenburg with us. The Natur variety remains the one with which it all began.