Chocolate 3. Lingonberry 'white' chocolate

Day 3: Lingonberry, Vaccinium vitis-idaea

When picking blaeberries, often just at the base of the blaeberry plant, and snuggled into the moss, there is a smaller Vaccinium, with small clusters of round white-then-red berries - the lingonberry or cowberry.  These ripen slightly later than the blaeberries, and often seem difficult to find; because they are so low growing, nestled in amongst the blaeberries and moss, you can easily miss them.  They are not as sweet as their cousin, and the flavour has a sharp, tending to bitter flavour - but the colour and taste are vibrant none the less.  I use a Scandinavian berry comb to pick blaeberries, and there is always a 'by-catch- of lingonberries; later in the season I go out to focus on lingons and always get a by-catch of blaes! 

Once picked, they keep incredibly well - which makes them one of my favourites!  Blaeberries, brambles and raspberries have to be processed as soon as picked which often means long sessions in the kitchen after long harvesting sessions.  Lingons allow space and rest between the two, for which I am deeply grateful.  They are full of benzoic acid, a natural preservative, and store so well because of this.  They can be kept in jars of water, steeped in sugar to draw out their juice and make a simple jam or compote.  They are similar to cranberries in flavour, and make great relishes to accompany savoury dishes.

In this 'white' chocolate, we have ground dried lingonberries into Original Beans white chocolate, producing a wonderful pink chocolate!  Do not confuse it with Ruby chocolate (whatever that is) - it might look the same colour, but the taste is completely different.  We first made this chocolate when the Barbie film came out last year - our own little pink extravaganza