Fortunato Dark Chocolate Cayenne Pepper Apricots

Our wonderful chocolatier and culinary adventurer Javier Valencia developed them. We take dried apricots, coat them in our delicious 68% Fortunato No. 4 dark chocolate, and then sprinkle them with cayenne pepper. These are my brother Brian's favorites. I tend to be biased against spice. I generally opt for food with limited heat. However, in preparation for making this announcement, I spent some time with a bag of these beauties. They aren't over the top spicy. The cayenne comes on at the end. Dried apricots are tart and have a lovely jelly texture. Our coating of 68% dark chocolate on the outside adds sweetness, but not too much, and also contributes a wonderful creaminess to the mouthfeel. If it wasn't for the cayenne, these would be extremely addictive. Dark chocolate apricots are hypnotizing. The texture is so very pleasing. But then comes the spice. For me, after three apricots the accumulated spice was enough to snap me out of the relaxed, gurgling, unconscious chewing state I'd