Christmas truffles

Christmas truffles by Michel Cluizel, rolled in cocoa

Michel Cluizel's Christmas truffles are a box of fifteen pieces that feature a coating of bitter cocoa powder instead of a chocolate shell. These are the same Truffes à la crème that Cluizel carries all year round, here in a Christmas edition with its own gift bag.

Christmas truffles are the 160-gram truffle box from Michel Cluizel's Royaume du Solstice collection, containing fifteen pieces in three rows. The ganache is made from cream and 71% Mangaro chocolate from Cluizel's own plantation in Madagascar. On the lid, a snowy owl glides with spread wings over snow-covered fir trees.

Dark chocolate that consists only of itself

These truffles are the most puristic item in the entire Christmas collection, as they place the cocoa center stage all on its own.

The Mangaro bean brings the red, almost fruity notes that Madagascar is known for, and the cream rounds them out into a ganache that melts on the tongue immediately. The dark cocoa powder on the outside provides the tart counterpoint. Bourbon vanilla resonates beneath, without being recognizable as vanilla. Because the surface is irregularly powdered and each truffle has its own unique dents, no two pieces look the same.

With espresso, red wine, or an open fire

A truffle of this size does not fit into the mouth all at once, so it is taken in two bites, and the cocoa powder dusts up with the first.

Only then does it become clear just how much bean is actually inside. It pairs well with espresso because both share the same roasted bitterness, and it works with a robust red wine for the same reason. Take the box out of the fridge half an hour before serving, otherwise the ganache remains muted and you only taste the cold. By the way, fifteen pieces are gone faster than you’d like.

Why the powder and not the shell

A truffle could also be dipped in chocolate, but then it would be a different confection, and that is exactly the point here.

The classic truffle dispenses with a hard shell and is rolled in cocoa powder instead, because the powder absorbs the moisture of the ganache and forms a thin, matte skin. This skin holds the core together without cracking when you bite into it. The price for this is a short shelf life: a powdered truffle ages faster than a coated praline, which is why it is traditionally only available in winter.

The owl of a thousand stories

Every product in the 2026 Christmas collection has its own figure, and the owl watches over the truffles, serving as the house’s narrator for the kingdom.

It settles on the snowy fir trees, huge, luminous, almost motionless, and its eyes glow like two winter suns – this is how Michel Cluizel himself describes the motif. Each beat of its wings is said to tell a memory of the kingdom. Behind it lies the mountain range in the northern lights, at the edge of the forest below, two foxes trot through the snow, and far in the back, the cave entrance glows again – Royaume du Solstice, the Kingdom of the Solstice. Of all the motifs in the collection, this is the quietest, and that is exactly what suits a box of dark truffles.