Blogs

In the past few months I have visited with a few bean to bar chocolate makers and one thing that impresses me is the care and dedication shown throughout the entire process.Last week, I was visiting with Art Pollard of Amano Chocolates and I could not believe the personal touch he added to every step of the chocolate making process. I was with him while he roasted beans, winnowed them, added them in the melangeur and was refining them also. Each step of the way was so exacting. The beans had to be roasted to just the right degree and when that was achieved it was a mad dash to get them out and cooled so they were just perfect. Then in the winnowing step making sure that it was excellent with almost no husk.After this we walked to the area where the real magic happens. When I walked into the room, the aroma of the Madagascar bean that he was processing at the time was amazing. Art recently got a new melangeur that is very large and when he added the nibs it was fun to see how easily it turned it to liquor. Then when he was refining the chocolate, it was the same, they reached the precise point and he turned off the machine, content that he had just achieved the exact level he was looking for.It was also fun to see that, even though he does this every day, he still loves making chocolate. It is a science, an art and, most importantly, a passion.

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I participated in the Holiday Specials offering a free chocolate bar with any hot cocoa mix ordered. I wanted to extend this offer in some way. If you now visit my website, you will notice I'm offering a free piece of chocolate with any hot cocoa order. It may be a truffle, chocolate bar, a chocolate buckeye, who knows! Visit my website: http://www.laurieschocolates.com

Hi,I'm Reverend R. M. Peluso. I'm an interfaith and nondenominational minister and I lead Chocolate Tasting Meditations of CM (tm). My meditations have been featured at the Chocolate Salon in San Francisco and The Community of Peace & Spirituality (now disbanded) in NYC.I am quite happy to take my meditations where ever invited.You can read more about what I do at Http://ministry.rmpeluso.comclick on Meditation.My experience is that truly tasting chocolate requires a smilar focus to meditation and can help people who think they cannot meditate to begin to do so. It is also my experience that true tasting is so mentally involving that you soon realize you cannot overconsume without being soemwhat unconscious. So I believe this skill can help people enjoy chocolate while actually losing weight. I've done this myself and have realized that if I'm consuming more than a few pieces a day, I'm probably unconscious during the rest of it. While focusing on quality rather than quantity, we also avoid the more stimulating effects (unless that interests you!) and reduce stress. (Unless the stimulation ultimately leads to a release of stress!)I am wondering if others who are serious chocolate tasters also meditate. If so ,did you meditate before becoming serious tasters or after and what observations you might share about the relationship of tasting to meditation. I should add that I feel it is the goal to bring the consciouseness we learn in meditation to everyday activities. It's about bringing into our lives a state of being present, nonreactive, and compassionate. So my work involves not only working with chocolate, but helping people discover these states within moments "off the cushion" so to speak, in the activities of daily life.

I was feeling like maybe I needed to go to the Nerd Zone to chat because I'm creating an exhibit "The Journey of The Pod" and immersed in books about the history of chocolate, people who made history in chocolate and environmental concerns about cacoa. Maybe I'd fit in. I want to have fun with all this information I have swimming around in my head so I can keep learning new things and share with other Nerd, Starting, Swapping, Brewing people.O.K. I got overwhelmed with the choices. I realized that all of those are great choices from me if I can blend them. I'm truly a chocolate Muse-I love all of those things and then some. I want to be part of the pulse of the future by watching our culture filled with both:then and now. I'm proud to be a Muse and use my energy to build the Bucks County Chocolate Show holding onto history and making it too. A little geeky? oh well, it's ok with me.

Hi there and happy holidays everyone! I am excited to announce the launch of my brand new website, purechocolatetruffles.com.

I've been creating my own handmade truffles for a few years now, but I never had time to get a website up and running. Well it finally happened and I've already received some orders from it! I make handmade dark chocolate truffles in flavors such as Valencia, Coffee, and everyone's favorite French Bittersweet, and fresh homemade fudge, too. Customers can choose 6 or 15 count boxes of my truffles, which are made from scratch when I receive the order - my products don't sit on the shelf!

Please visit when you get a chance and let me know what you think!
Thanks! Dawn

This rainy December day marks the end of my first year back in the chocolate production business after a few years off teaching baking & writing. Some things have changed! Many, many more artisans going bean to bar. I don't work bean to bar myself - I'm all about confections - but I've sampled some very delicious products from companies like AMANO in Utah. More chocolate shows. More health news, more "spin", more single origins and high percentages, more daring flavor combinations and certainly more expertise with transfer sheets and colored cocoa butter techniques amongst us chocolatiers. My break through this year was in new packaging (food safe gift boxes with see-through lids which are easy to ship), new techniques (air brushing & cocoa butter spraying! Fun!) and more internet marketing (very hard to do with chocolate on your hands). I'm attending a workshop at the Barry-Callebaut Academy in January for technique, research and passion - those things which seem to motivate so many of us. Happy Holidays to all who read this and may they bring you much chocolate. Susie @ HAPPY CHOCOLATES www.happychocolates.com

To enrich this community I've been asked to bring over some of the content we've published on our chocolatier "diary" . To give a bit more about who we are what a better place to begin than the beginning. We're having a lot of fun in the Charlotte, NC area and we hope this inspires you to either participate more locally, or try your own thing.

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Where do we begin on this epic tale of homemade chocolate insanity. Do we start at the very beginning where Bill Dietz learned his skills, or later raising his family on the greatest vats of chocolate mousse and truffles. No let's continue on through the hotels, through his own bakery, and executive pastry chef duties.....closer to present time where we find him at markets and surrounded by people fascinated by his chocolate gifts.You see Bill has been working hard to make something of his own. It started by bringing some of his favorite desserts, infused chocolate truffles, to a cafe named Cupps in Rock Hill.The wonderful Lell Trogdon had a sign out for guests to read: It is highly recommended that whilst enjoying these truffles, women should be seated and men should at least be braced against a stable surface. We cannot be responsible for any wild or out of character behavior. We would like to kindly request that you not name your future offspring after us...... --Lell Trogdon
No one knew who they were from. It must be the Secret Chocolatier. Lightning had to have crackled as foreshadowing was felt by all. What a splendid idea, what happy people were made.It's been months since then and The Secret Chocolatier has quickly become a favorite of the Charlotte market community. Bill and Karen have been popping up near everywhere around town at events and dinners alike.We encourage you to follow along as we share our stories, progression, and entry into the foray of homemade chocolates for you.We're always interested to know what kind of chocolate you are!

Happy to have received my "sample box" from SF corporate offices of TCHO this week, I could not WAIT to do an early morning tasting. I broker our new gift collections, just released this month, and it was like an early Christmas for me -- opening the express-delivered box and pulling out all the little brown paper squares and the slick-packaged new formulations. What JOY!! OH, and the smell of chocolate from a freshly opened shipping box!! Dreamy.But on with it..there's tasting to be done.For those unaware of the TCHO approach to our chocolate launch, the flavors were each released in beta versions to a public taster's circle that provided feedback until the formulation peaked in flavor. About a year ago I tried our first incarnation called "Chocolatey". I remember thinking it was like eating my mom's chocolate layer cake with loads of frosting, deep and rich in chocolate flavor. But that's the thing about tasting -- you need a comparison.So here they are, lined up in front of me, the four siblings of TCHO - - chocolatey, fruity, citrus, and nutty.First, I tear open each package, sticking my nose inside to breathe deeply. My first recording of differences starts here, with scent. The strong first impression fades quickly, so I write my notes immediately as the words come...FRUITY - flowery, sweet, light roastNUTTY - roasted, sourCITRUS - sweet, sharp, chocolateyCHOCOLATEY - grassy, tobacco, burnt caramelOnce the sharp smells dissipate, it's time to taste. I love to do my tastings first thing in the morning. It is such a pure experience. Four small squares later, here is what I recorded...FRUITY - marshmallow, toasted marshmallow, vanilla, toasted banana, mellow sweetness, slight artificial sweet aftertasteNUTTY - light smoke, antiseptic, dryCITRUS - immediate tang, amazing tang, acidic but sweet, no smoke or roasted flavor, very clean and lightCHOCOLATEY - dried mixed fruit with spices, fruitcake (Collin Street Bakery, specifically!), sweet dried tobacco leavesCITRUS was my session favorite, nutty was the only frown. In my sensory language, the label descriptions didn't match my first results, but what the hey, everybody's "taster" is different based on our realm of experience.Was I channeling fruitcake because of holiday associations?Marshmallows due to the need for accompanying graham crackers and chocolate over a fire?Dunno. But I do know that I now have 4 opened packages of lovely TCHO chocolate...right here in front of me, and none of them will last long.

I've been looking for the actual difference in flavor in red cocoa by looking at how it's processed. I'm not sure if there is one or if it's just dark cocoa that has the red hue? Do you have any favorites that I could try out and see that it is different?