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London.

Believe it or not, London is probably the most dynamic city on the planet for chocolate It's hard to overstate just how much creativity and interesting work is going on here.

My plane arrived about 15 minutes ahead of schedule and the best thing that can be said for the flight was that it was uneventful. The only downside is arriving at a sleepy 7:30 am (2:30 am New York time). I sailed through immigration, customs, and baggage claim, and found my way to the Underground - Piccaddilly line to Earl's Court and transfer to the District Line for Sloane Square. I am staying at the Sloane Club, a charming private club with rooms in a very comfortable single en-suite.

Fortunately the room was ready when I arrived so I was able to relax into the typical early fall London day - overcast, chilly, and intermittent rain ranging from a light drizzle to a persistent nuisance.

My schedule today includes two activities a crossover tasting event for London Cocktail Week - Choc Tales - and London Chocolate Week and a dinner for the speakers at tomorrow's Academy of Chocolate Meeting.

It's raining rather heavily as I head out to the former of the two events, on Dean Street in Soho. (Note to self and others in London odd and even numbers can be on the same side of the street. 68 Dean is across from 48 Dean. I got quite wet discovering this fact and locating the event.)

Choc Tales featured five confectioners (Rococo/Grenada Chocolate, Artisan du Chocolate, William Curley, Damian Alsop, and Paul A Young) paired with five spirits (Ron Santa Teresa; Aperol, Johnny Walker, Martin Miller's Gin, and AquaRiva Tequila). Noted London mixologist, Felix Cohen/Manhattan Projects created a cocktail for most of the spirits, paired with the chocolates.

Rococo's offering was a rum-scented ganache made with dark Grenadan chocolate paired with a warm buttered rum made with the Santa Teresa aejo, apple cider, treacle, butter, and spices. Paul A Young offered a chocolate bar with grated parmesan inclusion (as the salty/savory/sweet accompaniment) to a disarmingly straightforward margarita made with AquaRiva tequila. Also notable was the combination of Aperol and Prosecco (which made me think about taking it up one more level to make a sparkling Negroni).

For me the event was not just a chance to catch up with friends - Maricel Presilla, Martin Christy, Santiago Peralta, Bertil Akesson, Kate Johns, and more - but also a chance to finally meet in person people whose names I have come to know very well, William Curley and Damian Alsop. (I told you in my last post that I was going to name drop shamelessly.) Though the chocolate world seems very small at times, the Atlantic is a not-inconsequential hindrance to international relations.

After Choc Tales, and around the corner from Dean St at Kettner's Restaurant, it was time to meet some of the other speakers at the Academy of Chocolate conference tomorrow.

After a short time to mingle I had the great pleasure to sit at the same table as Robin Dand (author of the book, The International Cocoa Trade) and Tony Lass along with Bertil Akesson and Sara Jayne Stanes of the Academy.

It's now about 1:30 London time (only 8:30 NY time) but it's been a very long day. Tomorrow morning it's off early to take part of the annual conference of the Academy of Chocolate. I will check back tomorrow, after the day's activities.

I am writing this in the chocolate factory I have been helping to build for Fine & Raw Chocolate. I am getting ready to leave for London - I leave for the airport in less than six hours. There is still much to do and I am going away for two weeks at a critical juncture. Sigh. Construction projects do tend to stretch, but this has taken longer than even a stretch schedule.

It's less than four hours before I head to the airport and my Heritage Radio Network program streams live at 3pm. Crunch time.

The basic itinerary has not changed.

I will be in London for four days, speaking at the Academy of Chocolate meeting on Friday and giving a presentation at Chocolate Unwrapped on Sunday. There is very little downtime with events (already) scheduled for Thursday, Friday, and Saturday evenings.

On Monday morning I head to Amsterdam to speak at the Origin Chocolate conference on Tuesday and Wednesday. After the conference is over I am heading to Kortrijk with ChocolateLife member Geert Vercruysse before heading to Brussels, where on Thursday I will be getting a guided tour of Pierre Marcolini's workshop, given my Mr Marcolini.

On Friday it's off to Turin where I will be visiting Domori, and then spending Saturday in Turin doing some chocolate sightseeing - the must-stop destination is the master of gianduja, Guido Gubino.

On Sunday it's off to Milan where I will be spending all day Monday and Tuesday at FBM getting training on their machines and troubleshooting some chocolate tempering challenges. I return to NYC on Wednesday the 24th.

I do plan to be blogging every day of the trip and you will find those reports here in the blog section of TheChocolateLife. Photos, first-hand anecdotes, shameless name dropping (!) and more will be posted, along with tasting notes and impressions.

I would like to thank all of the ChocolateLife members who graciously donated to my trip fund. I really do appreciate your support. I will be bringing chocolate back for you, and probably throw in a few surprises.

Yours in the pursuit of chocolate,
:: Clay

I would like to share this blog post:

Below were questions asked to me by Zy of The Filipino Lifestyle , I like to share my answers here. Hobbyist in Focus: Pete Rahon was the title of the article. Excerpts were culled from my answers below.

1. How did you get into blogging about chocolate?

I discovered pinterest.com and from there it reawakened my fond memory of eating my first chocolate cake that my aunt baked for me. I started f repining all those beautiful photos of chocoIate cakes. Then I thought of blogging about chocolate. I thought of pinoychocophile (Filipino lover of chocolate) for a name. I found out that unlike in other countries that blog solely about chocolate, here in the country I believe I am the first blogger to blog only about chocolate. Some food bloggers do blog about chocolate but not their primary blogging niche.


2. Did you plan to be a chocolate blogger from the start or was it just coincidence?

So it was not planned at all since I have several blogs already from personal to social issues. So this chocolate blog was a product of my interest of chocolate cakes. I am still in the process of developing it since even for chocolate as a topic you can go as varied with your subtopics. For now I like to do reviews or tasting of those chocolates made by Filipino artisan chocolatiers ( like Theo and Philo and Machiavelli among others) and also those other foreign commercial brandsbut mostly dark chocolates (more than 60% cacao content) . But I would also like to write about the history and tradition of chocolate in the country like doing a review of the best Tablea that are used to make hot chocolate drink. Since we have good producers from Batangas, Cebu and Davao. In line with that, I would like to visit cacao plantations and write about how they are grown and produced. Also, There are also several restaurants that serves mostly chocolate in their menu like Heavenly Chocolate in Roces Avenue in Quezon City. So I would like to review also the chocolate food and drinks served in those restos.

Read more here - http://pinoychocophile.blogspot.com/2012/09/chocolate-blogging-more-fun-in.html#.UF8XLa4X04Q

hello everyone my name is john and yes i am a chocolate lover as well i have a website in which it is my goal to provide the very best chocolate recipes you can find i came on this site to meet new friends and expand my knowledge of chocolate my website is www.chocolateonly.net i always like to hear from people if anyone has any links they would like to share i will gladly post them on my site but they must only be concerning chocolate

Melbourne Chocolate History Tours --
Fitzroy and Collingwood

Gambol through the Great White Chocolate City (once employing 3,000 people). Learn about the "Chocolate King of Victoria", MacPherson Robertson , inventor of Freddo Frog, Cherry Ripe and Old Gold.

Walk through the secret chocolate laneways. See where Mac began his business. Learn about his biggest successes and his modest beginnings, all within a few blocks. Peek into Mac's private life. Also walk by other famous chocolatiers in the neighbourhood. Tour finishes with a spectacular Chocolate Tasting High Tea at Mmor Chocolates.

See Photo Gallery for more pictures of sites that will be visited.

Your Guide : Professor Howard Frederick. Aside from being a professional chocolatier, Howard is also a professor at Deakin University where he is involved in business entrepreneurship and researches the lives of Victorian-era entrepreneurs.

• Dates : First Sunday of each month--October 7, November 4, December 2, and resuming on February 3. Or by special arrangement. BOOKINGS HERE .
• Time : 1:50pm (for a 2:00pm start). Duration is approximately 2 hours plus 30 minute Chocolate Tasting & High Tea. Length is about 2.3 km.
• Meeting place: Will be emailed upon registration. Is in the centre of Fitzroy.
• Price: Individuals are $55 all-inclusive, adults or children. No children under 12 years old. Groups of 6+ receive a $10 discount--must register online as a group with all names.
• Finish the Walk with an elegant Chocolate High Tea
  Includes : Chocolate Tasting High Tea service (value $25) at the end of the tour in one of Melbournes most exotic chocolatiers, Mmor. The tour includes a free download of the iPhone app that accompanies the tour (pending). You will also receive a coupon for local chocolatier(s) and a map of the tour.

To book the tour, go to the online registration . Re-Tweet This

FAQ : Please arrive on Sunday to the starting point (to be emailed to you) by 1:50pm for a 2pm start to the walk. Please dress for comfort and wear comfortable shoes taking into account the predicted weather forecast and the length of the walk (about 2.5km). Walkers with any health issues should be guided by the opinion of their doctor regarding activities of this nature. We suggest that you bring a bottle of water and umbrella with you.

If you encounter any issues on the day of the walking tour, Howard can be contacted on 0488 282 116.

Payment, cancellation and change policy
You may change (add or subtract) members or cancel up to 24 hours before your event. Use the online registration site for payment and reservations. There is no refund for cancellations less than 24 hours before the event. If you do not show up, we will not reschedule. There is a 15% fee to cancel your reservation at any time.

2012 Mmor Chocolates & High Tea Szaln Pty Ltd
153 Johnston Street
Collingwood (Melbourne), Victoria 3066 Australia
Phone: (03) 9419 3869 Mobile: 0488 622 446
Email: tours@mamorchocolates.com
Website: www.mamorchocolates.com
BOOKINGS HERE

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Entries must arrive in New York by Friday 7 September

Enter online and send your entries as soon as possible, all details are online here .

We've had a great response so far to our call for entries for the Americas Semi-final of the International Chocolate Awards , with entries in already from far and wide, including Argentina, New Zealand, Latin American growing countries and plenty from the USA.

There's still time to enter though if you use the online form and ship your products as soon as you can.

For any questions or queries, use the contact form on the Awards website.

Canadian entrants are due one week later in Vancouver, by 14 September.

Good luck to all the entrants!

www.internationalchocolateawards.com

Hi, Just moved from Denver to Spokane and can't find a chocolate supplier.

In Denver I purchased blocks at Restaurant Depot - Callebaut823NV / about $35.00

I'm shocked at Internet prices plus shipping.

Is anyone familiar with my new area? Can you suggest online sources?

Thanks

I definitely like and love chocolates.

And I find this quote chocolicious:

There are four basic food groups: milk chocolate, dark chocolate, white chocolate, and chocolate truffles.

and more here - http://www.healthdiaries.com/eatthis/50-quotes-about-chocolate.html

"Chocolate is a divine, celestial drink, the sweat of the stars, the vital seed, divine nectar, the drink of the gods, panacea and universal medicine." - Geronimo Piperni, quoted by Antonio Lavedn, Spanish army surgeon,1796.

I just felt this itch to blog about chocolate. Lately I have been collecting/curating or pinning images of chocolates and even those products of Filipino cholatiers here are the links:

Pinoy Chocophile
http://pinterest.com/rahonpete/pinoy-chocophile/

Tsokolate
http://pinterest.com/rahonpete/tsokolate/

Bliss Luxury Choclates
http://pinterest.com/rahonpete/bliss-luxury-chocolates/

Machiavelli Chocolatier
http://pinterest.com/rahonpete/machiavelli-chocolatier/

Maitre Chocolatier
http://pinterest.com/rahonpete/maitre-chocolatier/

Risa Chocolates
http://pinterest.com/rahonpete/risa-chocolates/

Tablea Chocolate Cafe
http://pinterest.com/rahonpete/tablea-chocolate-cafe/

Marti Chocolatt
http://pinterest.com/rahonpete/marti-chocolatt/

So what this blog is all about?

A Filipino blog about his search for the divine chocolate. It will deal with the history, culture and tradition of chocolate in the Philippines. It features stories on chocolate, recipes, chocolatier, etc. Also, highlights anything and everything chocolate.

I came to know about this site - http://www.thechocolatelife.com they have some basic questions which I answered like this:

Most memorable chocolate experience: sensual, orgasmic and bliss...

My favorite chocolate is: I am still searching for that divine chocolate... I believe I will create it myself...

So, I am dreaming of becoming a chocolatier in the near future, yummy-licious....

So Mabuhay and welcome to this pinoy chocophile's blog...

- - -- -

updated 7 April 2012

CHOCOPHILE
by The Chocolate Dictionary
http://thechocolatedictionary.wordpress.com/2012/01/15/chocophile/

Someone with a great love for, or an inordinate attraction to, chocolates. Chocophiles dont just buy chocolates, they worship them at the altars of Theobroma; they dont just unwrap chocolates, they undress them; they dont just eat chocolates, they have passionate encounters with them; and they dont just digest chocolates, they allow them to metamorphose irrevocably into poetry.

That chocolate is complex and mysterious is well known to chocophiles, and yet the substance is so simple it can be enjoyed plain. That is, if ever there is such thing as plain chocolate its expressive potential is perhaps too great to fit into a simple classification. In categories that include the auditory, visual, olfactory, tactile, thermal, and gustatory, the sheer variety of sensory stimuli means that in terms of sophistication chocolate can easily be compared with fine wine.

Its soft textures can be smooth, silky, velvety or moussey, yet it can also be brittle, and the characteristic snap as it breaks on the fingers or teeth is one of the great pleasures of eating chocolate. It can be cooked and it can be frozen. It can be chewed, it can be drunk and it can be licked. It likes to be combined with other flavours, being noticeably more partial to some than others, yet it releases its own rainbow of impressions, memories and sensations as it melts slowly on the palate.

Chocolate can be made into desserts as well as main courses. It can be spread, piped, shaped, molded, sculpted, painted with, printed onto, and even worn as clothing. But most of all it enjoyed as confectionery. From highly sweetened milk chocolate, to filled bonbons such as truffles, ganaches, crmes and pralines, to premier cru, single-estate, high cocoa content bars, the formulations in which chocolate confectionery are found seem limited only by the creativity of the makers.

Although chocolate is appreciated all over the world much of its profile is still mysterious and unknown. Indeed, it is said that chocolate is Mother Natures best kept secret. So numerous are its properties that despite decades of research food chemists are still unable to synthesize it. The appeal of chocolate crosses national, cultural and age barriers, yet its roots are deeply South American, where it has long been used in medicine and ritual. So versatile are the healing properties of chocolate that it is now used in therapy, recreation and massage.

For many consumers, chocolate is such stuff as dreams are made of. It is such stuff as ecstasy and perfection. It is a Holy Grail. It is a weaver of fantasies. The more one gets to know chocolate the more one realises it has its own character and personality: it talks and it listens; it comforts and it calms; it lifts spirits and it boosts energy levels; it brings joy and it stimulates desire.

That chocolate is so open to interpretation is a quality fully exploited by manufacturers and advertisers, especially in their adoption of the so-called Milk Tray Approach. Some say chocolate is feminine: that it is an Aphrodite, a Cleopatra, a Juliet or a Josephine Baker. Others say that it is masculine: that it is a Mark Antony, a Romeo, a Casanova or a Byron. Chocolate is neither and yet it is both. Because of its versatile, contradictory nature we think of it as human, and some are even apt to fall in love with it, but as the botanical name for the cocoa tree means food of the gods, perhaps it is divine.

Robert Linxe, founder of La Maison du Chocolat and magician of the ganache recognizes this perhaps more than anyone. He has defined over two hundred sensory impressions one can derive from chocolate, yet admits the real total is probably much more. For Linxe, chocolate is more than just confectionery it is a complete sensory entity. Professor Chantal Favre-Bismut, a Nutritionist at the University of Paris, went further, describing chocolate as one of the most delicious and noble factors of our whole existence. Few, if any, chocophiles would disagree.

Original link source - http://pinoychocophile.blogspot.com/2012/04/pinoy-chocophile.html#.UCJ79PbiapE

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For those who are wondering how on earth one could write three entries in a blog about Belgium and not go into detail on chocolate Heres what youve been waiting for!

Actually, Belgium rarely gets full credit for some of its best features. Take chocolate for example. Arent the Swiss claiming to be the best chocolate makers in the world? Or the French even? But what have they got to show for compared to the Belgians?

True, there are some wellknown Swiss brands, like Suchard and Lindt . And the Swiss invented some machinery for chocolate making.

But Belgium has done so much more with raw cocoa. We own a whole series of globally renowned trade names to start with, such as Cte dOr , Chocolade Jacques , Callebaut , Godiva , Neuhaus , Leonidas and Guylian .

Whats more: the Belgians came up with the concept of the praline (not to be mistaken for pralin , which is a chocolate filling made with hazelnuts), an individual chocolate bonbon with a filling. As well as its traditional packaging, under the patented name ballotin , which is a rather simple, heavy duty paper box.

My personal n1! Many have tried to copy it, but Leonidas make the one and only Manon!

Suzanne by Neuhaus, with raspberry ganache

Guylian, renowned for its seashell chocolates

Signature Lait Caf by Godiva

Apart from the bigger manufacturers, Belgium boasts hundreds of chocolate artisans. Nearly every self respecting town has its own chocolatier. One of them is Bruges supertalent Dominique Persoone who owns two exclusive chocolate boutiques (Bruges and Antwerp). The Chocolate Line is one of only three chocolate shops featured in the prestigious Guide Michelin . He is a member of Heston Blumenthals The Fat Duck think tank and works closely with other top chefs such as Ferran Adri (chef of former 3 Michelin star restaurant El Bulli)

Persoones creativity reaches sky high. He created a gimmicky chocolate sniffing device called the Chocolate Shooter for Rolling Stones Ron Wood and Charlie Watts birthday party.

Watch the video here (his accent is pretty awful, but who cares, the guy makes great chocolates!):

Dominique Persoone demonstrating his Chocolate Shooter

His first book CACAO de chocoladeroute (in English: CACAO the roots of chocolate ) was internationally welcomed as best book about chocolate in 2009.

The second one, Shock-o-latier , has a much more extravagant feel to it, featuring somewhat controversial photos and being judged too edgy by US and Canadian publishers.

Persoone is a chocolatier and a rock star in his own right. However, he is also a man who takes his business very seriously. He draws on scientific research to look for new flavor combinations and uses only top quality ingredients. Most of us wouldnt dream of mixing chocolate with bacon, curry or cauliflower. But Persoones strange combos work and are a hit among foodies everywhere.

My personal favorite from the Chocolate Line is Marrakech , a praline filled with white chocolate ganache and fresh mint leaves.

Marrakech by Dominique Persoone

Here are some more Belgian chocolate makers worth checking out on your next visit (or I could also bring some of these goodies on my next overseas trip of course): Chocol@ , Pierre Marcolini , Daskalids

HOT TIP: try googling chocolatier and Belgi/Belgique and you will find literally one in every city or town!

More on all the best things Belgium has to offer: Three Kisses From Belgium blog