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Chocolate-loving friends, in Ecuador, South America, we have the best cocoa in the world for its good taste and quality, we are the leading exporter of cocoa Fine Aroma variety Arriba, I invite you to visit my country, where I can offer a tour of the main sectors of production of cocoa beans, the tour route of cocoa , then visit the centers of production of cocoa liquor for coverage and places where they make handmade chocolates, made by the peasant associations.
Do not miss the delightful experience of tasting the beans fresh from the cob, which is an almond covered with a white-fleshed sweet and pleasant, also experience the pleasure of seeing and smelling the aroma of roasted cacao, enjoy exciting taste of freshly from cocoa liquor, and finally taste the delicious handmade chocolates produced by the natives of the area. 
The tour will be great, do it for the path of cocoa and learn all about this delicious grain, you can visit many wonderful places, because we have beautiful places, both in the mountains of cold weather (6-18 C/43-64 F), where we have beautiful mountains with snow on the coast where we have beautiful and large beaches with a sea rich (20-32 C/68-90 F), then there is the East with its warm and humid, with large trees, lush vegetation and beautiful waterfalls (22 - 30 C / 72-86 F).
If you decide to visit my country Ecuador, also enjoy a variety of typical dishes from each region, and finally, if you are interested can visit the Galapagos Islands or Enchanted Isles, with its wonderful wildlife, giant tortoises and marine species unique the world who have been declared World Heritage Site, so mind and travel, forming a good group of 20 people, give me 30 days to organize everything and I have the great pleasure to be your guide on this wonderful adventure.
Sincerely,
Ivn Andrade
info@dissupp.com
"Fine chocolate is expensive, but less expensive than therapy" - a visitor's T-shirt
The long-awaited San Francisco International Chocolate Salon finally arrived on April 17th at Fort Mason, a beautiful waterfront structure overlooking the Golden Gate Bridge. There were over forty chocolatiers who attended the salon, bringing with them chocolates with dozens of exotic flavors. There was everything to please your eyes and satisfy your taste buds, including fine quality and beautifully hand painted chocolates.
It was truly an awarding experience to attend the chocolate salon. I sampled chocolates infused with dozens of exotic spices and flavors that you don't usual find in the store, such as goat cheese, purple yam and durian from Marti, sweet fungus from Salt Side Down, fig roasted walnut and berry truffle from Coco Tutti...etc. I cannot say if I dislike any of the participants there, but I definitely love three: Vice, William Dean, and Amano.
Vice Chocolates is on top of my list for its quality, creativity and a wide variety of exotic flavors. Vices logo design is a capital "V" with a graceful serpent head eyeing covetously at a lovely bird, conveying a simple message: the sinful pleasure of eating.
Vice's dark chocolate passion fruit and Thai chili, smelled and tasted strongly of the passion fruit at first bite, then a chili flavor that is a little spicy, just enough boost your blood circulation a bit but the sweetness and spicy quickly softened each other into a good balance. The dark chocolate shell melted a couple of seconds later, created a nice creamy sensation in your mouth. Its smooth texture and exotic fruit flavor makes it worth a try if you are looking for a little thrill and chill.
High percentage dark chocolate are my favorite.And Vice 88% dark sea salt chocolate is verydelicious. The chocolatehad a hint of flavorful sea salt that really brought out the chocolate flavor, and complimented the bitterness of the high percentage of dark chocolate. It was very smooth and creamy, and had a deep and intense chocolate flavor with a long lingering aftertaste.
I like most of Vice's chocolates, especially soft caramel with pear & ginger and black lager beer with crispy brown rice. Overall Vice's chocolates are all smooth and beautifully made.They are all well balanced and fresh with playful flavors.
William Dean chocolates are very stylish and trendy, and there was a long line of people waiting to try his chocolates. He had various assortments packed in signature blue boxes imprinted with the initial WD. While tea flavored chocolate is very trendy, most chocolatiers usually only make jasmine tea chocolates. However, WD pushes the envelope and makes a full selection of tea flavors: Masala Chai, Earl Grey, Matcha, Mint, and Jasmine Lychee. WD also makes granola bars with milk and dark chocolates for those who are very health conscious. They are crunchy and flaky, not too creamy and not too sweet. I was surprised to see that he even has Asian influenced chocolates: wasabi and Goji berries bars. Goji berry is a small red oval-shaped wild berry that is believed to have medicinal values. I tried both and liked them all. The wasabi bar was spicy, playful and fun to eat. Goji bar had this nice sweetness, and soft fruity flavor.
Amano is well recognized as one of the best brands of chocolates. Amano keeps its classic tradition, but is flexible with new trends. Its colorful animal shaped chocolates are very beautiful.
Amano's honey truffle was made with Sidr honey from Yemen that costs $85 per pound. Sidr honey is made from bees who only feed on the nectar of the Sidr trees, that are indigenous to Yemen. Sidr honey is the rarest and most expensive honey in the world because of its exquisite taste and medicinal properties, it is even known as an aphrodisiac. The truffle had a velvety texture, a subtle honey flavor and not very sweet. Unlike other fancy chocolates, Amanos honey truffle is "simple and elegant".
Amano's 70% dark chocolate from the Dominican Republic was absolutely delicious. It had a strong fruity, smoky flavor, and a little acidic. Interestingly, a friend tasted a little tobacco that I did not detect.
There is something unique about Amano that is indescribable. It might be their incredible smoothness and silky aftertaste, balanced flavors, or most probably the whole combination.
Another chocolatier that is worth mentioning is "toffee talk" chocolate. Their toffee is the best I have ever had. It had a soft and creamy layer, then a layer of crunch toffee,topped with dark chocolate and crushed nuts. What distinguished them from others was that the toffee was easy to bite into. It was not hard and did not stick to your teeth. It had a nice chocolate aroma and a strong almond flavor, sweet, but not cloying. I usually avoid toffee but eating "toffee talk" toffee was a true treat.
The Salon was a great experience for chocolate lovers.After spending almost all day there, you might bea little frustrated for not beingphysically able to eat chocolates all day long. Next time, be prepared to fully indulge yourself like the realchocolate salon goersin the picture below.
Absence of chocolate is just not happening, just my absence while making some real transitions in my life, mostly that of moving part-time to Ecuador related not to cacao, but coffee....and cacao.
Now that may seem strange as a combination, but I have long had a passion for coffee and have developed one for dark chocolate as well, knowing the health benefits offered from this incredible food. So following my heart back to Ecuador, fully immersed in coffee, cacao trees are in many cases used as shade for coffee trees. This is also a way to diversify crops and sources of income.
So, as I move forward and eventually secure my own small coffee plantation, cacao trees will be in place even before the coffee trees! There will also be banana trees and likely papaya, as it grows virtually wild in the area where I will be located in Southern Ecuador.
Current plans include a potential trip to visit Kallari Organic Chocolates, one of the Organic dark chocolate manufacturers in Ecuador this summer, of which there are several, and get an up close and personal experience of just how it's done. I will be potentially be meeting up with Roxanne Browning to visit both the factory and plantation in June. It should be a great experience, at least for me!
So interesting things lie ahead with cacao! I should be making some additional posts here on my visit, assuming all goes well and I don't "fall in a vat of chocolate!" :D
My newest Sweet Paradise Chocolatier chocolate boutique is soft opening May 1st at the Wailea Gateway Center in Wailea, Maui. The official "Grand Opening" will be June 16th. This has been a 9 month process to get permits and open a store here and it doesn't even have a kitchen! Talk about island time. The store features my own truffle/confection collection focused on Tropical flavors but also bars from various Hawaii chocolate-makers- Original Hawaiian, Malie Kai, Waialua Estate, Madre Chocolate, Garden Isle Chocolate and other bars from around the world. We also carry Tropical Dreams ice cream and sorbets. I will post some pictures next week when our indoor cacao tree is "leafed out" and we can actually put some product in the store.
If you are visiting Maui, please stop in and say hello!
Exciting news today: one of my favourite chocolate bars, the Duffy's Honduras Indio Rojo 72%, won the 'Golden Bean', the chocolate '
Oscar' from the Academy of Chocolate in London!
And not only that, Duffy Sheardown also won the 'Best Newcomer Award'. So, again Duffy, CONGRATULATIONS!!
Marcel and I are very proud as well as we were the first Chocolatiers in the Netherlands having Duffy's in our shop in Amsterdam.
Hello my friends who love chocolate ,
I am exporter of cocoa beans Ecuadorian fine aroma and cocoa liquor for couverture , I get the orders you to provide any of the products we produce, send their orders to my mail dissupp @ yahoo . com , I'll be happy to serve you.
We also produce cocoa nibs and artesanal chocolates of unique flavor , I hope you will decide to try our products .
Best regards,
Ivn Andrade
Phone: 593 9 9701573
Skype: ivandradez
Hola mis amigos amantes del chocolate,
Soy exportador de cacao en grano ecuatoriano de fino aroma y licor de cacao para covertura, me pongo a las ordenes de ustedes para proveerles de cualquiera de los productos que producimos, envenme sus pedidos a mi correo dissupp@yahoo.com, que estar gustoso de poder servirles.
Tambin producimos nibs de cacao y chocolates artesanales de inigualable sabor, yo espero se decidan ustedes a probar nuestros productos.
Saludos,
Ivn Andrade
Tlf: 593 9 9701573
Skype: ivandradez
Bittersweet Cafe 4/9/2011 Sunny Saturday
I heard about Bittersweet Cafe often, and planned to visit it long time ago. I finally did today.
Bittersweet cafe's Rockridge location is on 5427 College Ave., North Oakland. I took the College Ave exit from Highway 24. It's very easy to find. It is a small caf, about 500-600 sq feet, and famous for their drinking chocolates. On a Saturday afternoon around 4:15pm, the store was crowded with people lining up for their drinks. Against the wall on one side, a row of shelves displays chocolates or chocolate-related goods from Vosges, Askinosie, Frans, Theo and Bittersweet pre-packaged chocolates and colorful Easter eggs. There are 4 tables by the front window that were all occupied at that time. A glass cabinet displaying their handmade chocolate truffles and pastries is in the back. Staffs make drinks to order behind this cabinet.
There were people reading and playing with their kids. Two girls were absorbed in their crafts. Every inches of space in the store is fully used. Drinking chocolates powder is available for purchase. Four flavors are available bittersweet, mocha, classic and milk chocolate. A 10oz packet sells for a little over $12 ($1 dollar cheaper than their online price.) Their handmade chocolate truffles are 1.95 each. If you are really serious about chocolates, you can purchase their tasting kit for about $25, which includes 3 packs of chocolates and a tasting guide. The guide recommends tasting the darkest chocolates first. I thought chocolate tasting is similar to wine tasting - taste the lightest first. I guess I am wrong.
It was time to pick my treats. I usually like 58% or higher dark chocolates. Unfortunately Bittersweet Caf chocolates do not state the % of cocoa content for their handmade chocolates so I asked. The staff looked for the information but returned to say that he did not know and the owner was not around. Forget about the %, I got three of their handmade truffles: one piece of bittersweet (their signature), one piece of orange, and one piece of espresso. I also bought a pack of bittersweet of 78% Organic Venezuela dark chocolate. And, to complete my mission here, I ordered a cup of Bittersweet hot chocolate.
Sharing a table with the two girls who were doing crafts, I sat quietly for couple of seconds admiring the rich dark brown frothy drink in a creamy white china cup. The nice strong aroma of the bittersweet hot chocolate filled me up. I took a sip. Thick and rich chocolate flavor was the first sensation, sweet, bitter, and a little acidic, then follows by a sticky coating in my mouth. It was a little disappointing.
What disappointed me was that it had too much cocoa butter, or the cocoa butter and cacao mass are not perfectly bonded. That made the aftertaste waxy. I felt a layer of fat on my palate and it undercut the smoothness the way hot chocolate is supposed to be. After I finished my drink, the empty cup was covered with an oily layer of a brownish residue. My stomach started to feel bloated.
I did not want to dislike bittersweet hot chocolate. I was looking forward to it for a long time, and I heard people raved about it. Besides, bitter sweet dark chocolate is my all times favorite. I thought I would like any form of dark chocolate. Well, they has a wide variety of hot chocolates, I will try their spicy hot chocolate next time.
The next day, I tried the handmade truffles. The shell of the dark chocolate ganache truffle encased with cocoa powder was crisp with soft and smooth filling. The truffle orange garnished with a couple of small orange nuggets on the top has nice orange flavor with real orange bits. The 78% Organic Venezuela dark chocolate has beautiful prints of flowers and leafs on the surface. It was crisp and the bitterness and sweetness was just right.
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