Jean Paul Hévin Chocolate Afternoon Tea Set @ Cafe 103, The Ritz-Carlton Hong Kong

I have never been keen on football. My high school used to teach us girls to play football in PE lessons (boys and girls had PE lessons separately in my school). I still remember how we tried to avoid the football as if we were playing dodgeball - we were obviously more interested in preventing our legs from bruising rather than scoring. There were only a few football lessons but the awkwardness was traumatizing enough for me not to like football. :0

Logically, I don't watch football games. World Cup is the only exception though. I used to be really, really ecstatic about World Cup! Rather than the games, what I truly enjoyed were the privileges during World Cup, i.e. staying up late, munching on midnight snacks, shouting out loud with Dad and Bro... the joy was endless. :) Of course, watching cute football celebrities added to the fun... though my friends generally disagreed with me that Ronaldinho was cute. :P 

Sadly, World Cup has become much less enjoyable these years. Now being a sleep-deprived, full-time employee, staying up late has become more a chore than something to feel excited about. The bottom line is, watching World Cup is no longer a free entertainment. THIS IS SO NOT COOL. :( 

I decided that celebrating World Cup over afternoon tea might be my painless way out. Cafe 103 (formerly The Chocolate Library) of The Ritz-Carlton HK has teamed up with Jean Paul Hévin to prove that these 2 polarized interests can actually be harmonized. Together they have created a chocolate afternoon tea set with a South American theme to celebrate 2014 World Cup Brazil! This is far more exciting than watching World Cup via Xiaomi Hezi and lamenting the poor stability of live streaming. 

Weather was brilliant on the day of our visit. As the restaurant was on 103/F, we enjoyed an expansive view of Victoria Harbour from the window. People say Hong Kong is dying, and I think it is. Ridiculous things that used to happen elsewhere now hit the headlines of our local newspapers every day. Whenever the thought of moving away from HK clouds my mind, it is always the beautiful harbour that reminds me there are still things I love about HK after all. 

The glorious tea treats arrived in a wooden cigar box evocative of South America. :) 

Savoury (clockwise from top): duck foie gras pâté mini puff with Cuba cocoa nibs; seafood and dill cream, Brazilian coffee bread sandwich; vanilla cocoa oil marinated smoked salmon, rye bread sandwich; truffle egg mayonnaise brown bread sandwich

Sweet (left to right, top to bottom): "Macae" strawberry pepper verrine, religieuse, crusty chocolate tart, orange flavour Madeleine, Piura chocolate macaroon, Brazilian chocolate bonbon

One more sweet item: coffee hot chocolate, a combination of the 2 best things from Brazil. It's as rich as melted chocolate!

This is a tea set that would leave you a great sense of satisfaction even if you have the most insatiable appetite for chocolates, because the chefs have used cocoa in making all the sweets and even half of the savouries! It would actually be more sensible to worry more about intoxication! ;)

Although every piece of sweet tasted flawlessly of fine chocolates, I managed to pick out my top 3 favourites: 

2nd runner-up - chocolate macaroon
Now with macaron shops blooming in HK, you may easily stumble on a better macaron, but I'm not sure if you can find a better chocolate macaron than this. The melt-in-your-mouth layer of chocolate ganache, which had a distinct note of berry-like fruitiness unique to premium dark chocolate, was beautiful. :9

1st runner-up - crusty chocolate tart
A chocolate twin of mille-feuille, this is going to be everyone's teatime sweetheart.

Winner - "Macae" strawberry pepper verrine
This was really, really good. It would in fact be somewhat insulting to use "good" to describe it because it's so much more than that!  First the pepper teases your palate, then fleshy strawberries thrill your taste buds... and Brazilian chocolate rounds off the tartness as the grand finale. Try this and enjoy the gustatory roller coaster ride!

The quality of the savouries was sufficient to make up for the small quantity. The truffle egg sandwich completely blew our minds - the truffle was soooo powerfully fragrant that I don't think they needed any specially trained pig to sniff it out in the forest (I would be happy to do that job, wahaha :P)! I didn't notice the presence of cocoa oil in salmon sandwich, perhaps because the rye bread tasted too strong. The combination of foie gras with cocoa nibs was more interesting; the earthy cocoa nibs gave nuances to the evil puff and enhanced the sweetness of foie gras. Delicioso! :9

We ordered Cafe 103's signature hot chocolate as beverage. We knew we were having too much chocolate but we were just too tempted to have a complete chocolate experience! We kinda regretted the choice, though, when we later learnt that a cup of coffee hot chocolate was already included in the tea set. :0 For a moment I worried if I could be the first person died of chocolate overdose, but then I thought maybe it wasn't so bad to die in that way anyhow. :P

Like any other branded afternoon tea sets, the tea set comes with coupons. Each coupon entitles you to a 10% discount in JPH boutiques. While you may not want any more chocolate after tasting the tea set, you can buy some for your family and friends to share your love for South America. :) 

THE VERDICT 

Ambience: A-

Service: A 

Food: A- (A chocoholic's dream come true! :9)

Overall remarks: It's obvious that the South Americans are ruling the world with football AND chocolates this summer! If you don't have a favourite South American football team, join the bandwagon by picking your favourite South American chocolate from this tea set!

INFO

Cafe 103 (website)
103/F, The Ritz-Carlton, International Commerce Centre, 1 Austin Road West, Kowloon, Hong Kong
Afternoon tea: 3:30-6:00pm daily
* Jean Paul Hévin Chocolate Afternoon Tea Set available from now to 31 July 2014
$318 for 1 person, $538 for 2 persons (Mon - Fri)
$338 for 1 person, $558 for 2 persons (Sat, Sun & PH)