Blogs

Dark chocolate and red winefind yourself floating up to heaven just thinking about the combination?!Keep flying and Ill fill you in on the results of a wine and chocolate pairing I recently did at my house.There were 11 of us 2 sommeliers, 8 admitted chocoholics and one who just isnt into desserts.I made a variety of truffles including a creamy white chocolate & goat cheese dipped in dark chocolate, a dark chocolate sprinkled with rose infused sugar and a lavender infused dark chocolate. Also, we had a chipotle, cinnamon chocolate bar and a delicious dark chocolate flourless cake. WowIm craving chocolate all over again.Red wine can be a most delightful accompaniment to chocolate, so we had four of those to work with and one sparkling.The wine choices were a delicate sparkling rose Baumard Cremant de Loire (one of my favs for the price), a M. Chapoutier Banyuls, 06 Hartford Zinfandel, 05 Faust Cabernet Sauvignon and a Villa Pozzi Nero dAvola (Italian red).The results of the pairing were interesting in that nothing was agreed to unanimously which shows you how subjective wine tasting can be, but there were some pairings that almost everyone agreed to.1. Most everyone thought the sparkling paired best with the goat cheese truffle2. The Bayuls went well with everything although it was a bit sweet for a few in our group3. The Faust Cab was a hit with the chocolate/lavender truffle in particular and the dark chocolate cake4. The Hartford Zinfandel paired nicely with the chile/cinnamon chocolate5. And almost unanimously, everyone liked the Villa Pozzi with the dark chocolate truffles and cake.A huge thanks to the ladies who agreed to spend part of their Saturday afternoon on such a tough assignment.We did all the hard work for you so grab a glass of red wine, a rich dark piece of chocolate and relaxtheyre both good for you!To see HOW good, check out my blog post at http://goodtastewithtanji.com/tanjis-tanjents/2009/02/07/chocolate-sensual-pleasures-your-health/

Hi,I have a private label that is looking for a dark and a milk chocolate bar, 3oz, to use for our label. Would love a bean to bar manufacturer if it is possible. We will be using our bars to raise money for charitable organizations. If anyone out there is or knows of someone that would be a good fit please respond.looking forward to your response,Steven

Time Magazine reporter Joel Stein visits the restaurant Animal and cooks a very manly bacon chocolate bar with owner/chefs Jon Shook and Vinny Dotolo. Part of an article set on Bacon for Dessert .The video can be seen by clicking this link .

Ive always loved Patrick Roger s chocolates and his chocolate sculptures . But with the window display at his new Faubourg Saint-Honor boutique, my appreciation is going to new heights (hardy har har). To commemorate the 40th anniversary of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landing on the moon, hes whipped up this clever little chocolate sculpture. My American pride prompted me to celebrate with a few bonbonsamong them, lemon-basil, passionfruit, salted caramel and a couple good old pralins.199 Faubourg Saint-Honor8eme

Check this out.http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2009/jul/19/top-food-gadgetsEven more rewarding as every other chocolatier in UK has copied our caramels but ours still rock!

A couple of months ago, one of our regular transatlantic customers paid for a large order of our dark chocolate coated candied gingers. I am proud to say that they are now traveling with her in space. Apparently food tastes less in zero gravity so the intense ginger and chocolate combination seem to be a favourite with her and the rest of the crew. How cool is that?

Cherry season is almost over - sniff, sniff - so now is the time for all good chocolatiers to honor this exquisite superfruit. Cherries come in sweet and sour varieties, including Bing, Morello, and Schmidt among many others. Historians suspect they are originally from China and first cultivated in Turkey by the Romans in the 1st century. They later captured the adoration of the Chinese brush painters; their blossoms became a national cultural symbol of Japan and many cities (notably Kyoto, Washington DC and Vancouver) incorporate them into their landscape and organize festivals around them.Sweet or tart to create a cherry compote for your chocolate confection? Given that tart cherries are naturally bittersweet (like you-know-what), opt for deep, dark red Morellos or Montmorency, pit em, give them a rough chop and boil them in 1/2 cup of water, 1 cup of sugar, 1/4 cup corn syrup with a pinch of salt and a splash of brandy for 5 minutes or so. While they cool, make a thin shortbread crust, baked very soft. A simple sugar cookie recipe or pate sucre will do - just roll it out to 1/4 on a sheet pan and bake just until light brown on the edges. Next, make a milk chocolate ganache (1 cup melted milk chocolate, 3/4 cup hot cream, a little black pepper; pulse them in the food processor for about 10 seconds). Put a 1/2 layer of ganache over the shortbread, then a thin layer of the cherry compote. Push the cherries into the chocolate ganache so they will stay put. Allow it to set, then slice into 1 squares or circles and enrobe them in dark, 72% chocolate. Top with pink chocolate plastique cherry blossoms. If this all sounds tasty but too much work, visit my on-line store at www.happychocolates.com and Ill send you a batch. Pssst. Either way, buy cherries now and freeze them! Youll thank me in September.

Posted in Chocolate Adventures, All the Time Recipes | Edit | No

The sugar and chocolate showpiece competition at the World Pastry Championship is a place to pick favorites. I pick favorites there the way I might choose giant lollipops at the amusement park - which one speaks to my heart in color and design. But heres the trick that sets the sugar artists of the pastry championship miles apart from the guys in the candy kitchen making giant lollipops. Sugar artists must make their sculptures tall. Not just big, but gravity-defyingly tall. Next, they must make its colors so luminous and harmoniously blended that you recognize the object as something worthy of a museum or a sugar art gallery (if only there was one). Unlike bronze, stained glass or canvas where youd expect exquisite color and form meaningfully rendered together, sugar melts in heat and humidity. Sugar breaks. Sugar shatters. Sugar buckles under extreme weight. Creating a brilliantly colored and shaped sugar piece that is also tall and sturdy is the high-wire act these artists must perform. As if thats not enough, they have to do the same dazzling work in chocolate. What a show!For more photos of the sugar artists and their sculptures, visit www.pastrychampionship.com or order the next issue of Dessert Professional Magazine www.dessertprofessional.com

I was fortunate enough to be asked to participate on a panel of local women chocolate experts at the San Francisco Commonwealth Club. The subject - Women and Chocolate: A Natural Combination How did that happen? Melena, owner of The Xocolate Bar in Berkeley asked me how I felt about public speaking. I suspiciously answered that I was better at demonstrating something like truffle making rather than being perched behind a podium. When she explained the panel-style of the discussion and that I'd be one of four, I eagerly agreed.A couple of weeks before the discussion, us panelists, the moderator and the organizer met to get to know each other and develop some pointed questions. What do you love about the chocolate business, what could you do without? Any advice for people trying to get into the chocolate business? What are some of the latest trends in chocolate? But one of the more provocative questions was, Most of the nationally renowned chocolatiers are men. Why is that? I found this most intriguing because I didn't know how to answer it. I and my other women chocolate-centric friends could only name a couple of "renowned" woman chocolatiers, Katrina Markoff of Vosges Haut-Chocolat and Fran Bigelow of Fran's Chocolates and of course Alice Medrich. Who else? Try putting the phase, "women chocolatiers" into Google and the results are very thin indeed.After pondering the issue for a few days I decided to pose the question to the members of The Chocolate Life, an online forum of "chocophiles". Although the thread went a bit astray from the topic, I still got some insight. Perhaps it's true that women have not had the same opportunity as men. There seems to be an increasing number of women in the culinary field and I hope that number will soon be reflected in the chocolate field as well.What do you think? I invite you to answer the question. Women and Chocolate are A Natural Combination and have historically had a close relationship. You'd think that women would dominate the industry. Maybe we four will be the next nationally renowned chocolatiers... despite our sex.

An opportunity to speak at the Commonwealth Cluband be associated with such amazing women.Kathy Wiley - Poco Dolce Christine Doerr - Neo Cocoa Malena Lopez-Maggi - The Xocolate Bar Mindy Fong - Jade Chocolates

Arriba ChocolateIn a previous post, I discussed the definition of "Arriba" chocolate and beans-while there's no legal definition, Arriba can be used to denominate either beans of the Nacional variety from the "Arriba" or upriver area of the Guayas River Basin in the lowlands of southwestern Ecuador, or chocolate made from those beans. So is Arriba a chocolate or a type of bean? It can be both, depending on with whom you are speaking. Growers may call their beans Arriba variety, and chocolate manufacturers may call their finished chocolate Arriba. Many beans in Ecuador are labeled "Arriba" when they may not actually be, due to the blending of different bean varieties which is a common practice in Ecuador. You are probably asking, ok, why does this matter?The loss of the Arriba flavor profile is happening right now. This is due to the bastardization of the chocolate being produced under the Arriba name, as well as widespread abuse by marketers of the name Arriba. The loss of the Arriba flavor profile would mean increasing homogeneity of fine chocolate, and all chocolates for that matter. The Arriba flavor is an important one, recognized for its unique floral aroma, deep chocolate flavor, and lack of bitterness.Arriba Vs. CCN-51The Nacional bean, from which Arriba chocolate originates, is decreasing in production, while production of the more popular CCN-51 variety is increasing. Due to the Nacional variety's higher vulnerability to disease, particularly Monilla and Witch's Broom, either of which can severely affect or even destroy an entire cocoa plantation, the cultivation of the Nacional variety of bean is decreasing in Ecuador. The CCN-51 variety is being planted more frequently due to its disease resistance and higher yields, at least double that of the Nacional variety on a per hectare basis.The CCN-51 variety does not have the same flavor profile as Nacional beans, and while a very good quality chocolate can be made from CCN-51, it requires different fermentation and post-harvest treatment from Nacional beans. However, CCN-51 and Nacional beans are often mixed together either pre or post-fermentation. This common practice in Ecuador debases both the value and flavor of the resulting chocolate. This practice is a major, ongoing controversy in the Ecuadorian chocolate industry.Growers do not have any financial incentive to separate beans post-harvest, nor to ferment and treat them differently. Nor do most buyers of beans have any incentive to distinguish between Arriba, Nacional, or CCN-51, as most chocolate lovers have had little, if any information, about the industry practices discussed here, and are unaware of these issues until just recently. Furthermore, there is no recognition such as a denomination of origin for the Arriba bean. Thus, beans from the north coast, the Amazon, and other parts of Ecuador not recognized for the Arriba flavor are nonetheless frequently labeled Arriba, as well as the chocolates made from these beans, for marketing purposes.Support for Nacional and Arriba BeansFortunately, ANECACAO and other governmental and non-governmental organizations are, through education, training, and publications, encouraging both small and large producers of cacao to practice and maintain separation of CCN-51 variety and Nacional variety beans. However, these efforts are not enough. Because most commodity brokers, local buyers of beans (aka "patios" in Ecuador-local cacao merchants who buy from local farms, then consolidate large amounts of cacao for brokers, commodity houses, and large muli-nationals such as ADM or Kraft) of cacao in Ecuador's cocoa growing regions, and cacao traders do not pay a premium for Nacional beans, mixing is still a frequent and common occurrence. The current lack of transparency and standards in Ecuador make preventing the mixing of bean varieties difficult, if not impossible, to stop.A recently implemented practice by some farms and cacao buyers in Ecuador is helping to preserve the Arriba profile. Some farms are growing only the Nacional variety of bean and selling it as such-though, because of the absence of a price premium, these beans may be ultimately mixed with CCN-51. Other farms grow only CCN-51 and clearly label it as such. Finally, some buyer's patios and even commodity houses (namely-Transmar) have recently begun to buy beans "en baba", or freshly harvested and unfermented, or even in the pod, allowing them to know the variety of the bean and control the fermentation process. A newspaper piece was recently done on this practice and is discussed here.With this knowledge, what can you do to support Arriba chocolate? First, buy chocolate labeled Arriba only if the manufacturer can provide traceability of both the bean variety used in the chocolate and geographical origin for the beans used in that chocolate. For example, a chocolate labeled "Esmeraldas" from Ecuador or "Manab" from Ecuador is not an Arriba chocolate. Ask your favorite Ecuadorian chocolate companies, or those selling Ecuadorian single origin chocolates if they are aware of the use of CCN-51 beans in the what is commonly labeled Nacional or Arriba chocolate. Now that you know the distinctions, use your wallet to vote for the support of Arriba beans and chocolate. Ultimately, the establishment of a denomination of origin for Arriba beans and chocolates would benefit growers in Ecuador by granting them a premium price for their beans, help chocolate makers by allowing them to certify the origin and quality of their beans, and increase choice and traceability of the final product for consumers.