GetRealNY's 2011 Belgian Festival took place July 8-9 at New York City's Altman Building.

Featuring brewed-in-Belgium and Belgian-style beers brewed in the US, the event attracted well over 2000 beer lovers during its four sessions.Nearly 80 beers of all styles were served from an innovative central cooler and dozens more were served at other locations around the venue, many of them paired with the food being served.

The cooler in the center of the venue.

Some of the nearly 80 taps labeled.

Each session also featured a series of four seminars on various topics related to beer, including a chocolate and beer pairing seminarsponsored by Godiva Chocolatier and Grand-Place Chocolateson the downstairs stage set up to present to 70 or more people with beer garden-style picnic bench seating.

Chocolate pairing sponsor banners.

The setup of the seminar space downstairs.

What makes an event like this a lot of fun is the ready availability of literally dozens of beers to choose from to make the pairings. In many ways, pairing beer with chocolate is easier than pairing wines, especially red wines. Beers share similar roast and fermentation flavors with chocolate and the creamy bubble structure of many beers is more "sympathetic" than the structure and texture of red wine that is imparted by the tannins present.

The two Friday sessions featured the Grand-Place 36% Classique Milk chocolate, the 75% Origine Dark and three selections from Godiva Chocolatier; their raspberry swirl, milk chocolate caramel, and classic milk chocolate ganache.

The first pairing of the two Friday sessions was the two Grand-Place chocolates - both strong examples of classic Belgian-style chocolate making - with Brooklyn Brewery's "Local #2" a bottle conditioned 9% ABV brew flavored with citrus peel, dark sugar syrup, and honey. The idea here was not necessarily to present pairings that "worked" but to show how flavors interacted with each other and changed in the presence of other flavors. In this particular case, the sugars in the beer (sugar syrup and honey) enhanced the sweetness of the milk chocolate and the bittering elements of the beer (including the citrus peels) brought out bitter notes in the dark chocolate that were not present when the chocolate was eaten on its own.

We then progressed to pairing the Godiva raspberry piece with the Half Maan Straffe Hendrik Quadruppel (11% ABV). This beer has some bright citrus notes on the nose and berry coupled with brown sugar notes on the tongue. The citrus and berry went very well with the raspberry and the brown sugar note mellowed the dark chocolate in the shell. The sole purpose of a pairing like this is to show just how pleasurable pairing chocolate with beer can be. The flavor combination was enhanced by the smooth creamy bubble structure of the beer.

The final formal pairing for the Friday sessions was the Leffe Blonde with the Godiva milk caramel. In this case we also returned to the Grand-Place milk chocolate to see how the cooked sugar notes of the caramel affected the perception of the flavor of the beer.

Setting up some of the more than 300, 3-piece Godiva tasting bags used.

We gave everyone who sat through the pairing seminar an assignment with the third Godiva piece, the classic milk ganache, which was to taste it with a selection of the other beers being poured upstairs - using what they had learned during the pairing seminar to evaluate the taste and texture combinations.

On Saturday, the two Grand-Place chocolates being presented were the 58% and 64% Classique darks; the Godiva selection was unchanged.

As with Friday, we started out with the two Grand-Place chocolates, but in this instance they were paired with Barrier Brewing Co's Dubbel Down, 7.4% ABV. Because the two chocolates are, on the surface, so close to each other, the idea was to see how the beer changed the perception of the two chocolates. The differences were subtle but definite. This was not necessarily a "good" match in the sense that the chocolates and beer improved each other but it was definitely a good tasting exercise that showed how seemingly small differences in the chocolates can be enhanced (or not) in the presence of another flavor.

We stayed with the pairing of the Godiva raspberry and the Half Maan Straffe Hendrik Quad, but took advantage of the presence of a case of Dubuisson Scaldis Amber refermente for the early session seminar. This is a phenomenal brew (my favorite of the entire weekend) with pleasant slightly sour top notes and rich, thick, round caramel notes in the body with a very creamy bubble structure. The refermente refers to the fact that the beer is first fermented outside the bottle and then a second fermentation takes place inside the bottle - much like the traditional methode Champenoise for Champagne. The sour top note added some very interesting complexity to the combination with the caramel in the piece.

The late session seminar featured another Dubuisson Scaldis, the Amber Trippel. This brew lacks the depth and complexity of the refermente, but it more than makes up for it with an amazingly creamy bubble structure.

Finally, if you thought chocolate flavor wheels were complicated, below is a photo of a beer style chart. The flavor wheel builds on top of this!

Now you can shop for chocolate on-line anywhere in the world and support TheChocolateLife at the same time.

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Happy shopping this Holiday season - and throughout the year.

Regards,

:: Clay

PS. I will be highlighting special offers throughout the year on TheChocolateLife (as comments to this post), on Twitter (@DiscoverChoc), and on Facebook (facebook.com/TheChocolateLife). Follow (on Twitter) and favorite/like (Facebook) to be notified of these offers as they are posted.

At The Chocolate Experience in Mexico City I was presented what has to be the most unusual cacao pod I have ever seen. This pod was on the stand of CACEP, a co-operative in the Tabasco area of Chiapas and was described to me as "cacao prehispanico." Or, a type of cacao pod that existed before the Spanish arrived in Mesoamerica. The person who showed this to me is the manager of marketing and eco-tourism for CACEP and he explained that the pod came from the Hacienda Jesus Maria (in Tabasco), and is quite common.

Sometime in 2006 in the oppressive summer heat that invades Phoenix, AZ, I was introduced to a new chocolate - Cru Sauvage ; the newest entry in Felchlin's Grand Cru line and made from "wild" beans harvested in the middle of absolutely nowhere in Eastern Bolivia.The story of their making it to market is quite remarkable and is testament to the patience of my host on my trip, Volker Lehmann. Convinced the beans he had were something special Volker traveled around the world trying to get chocolate makers interested in making chocolate from them. One of the main complaints he got about the beans was that they were too small to make chocolate economically.Entranced by the story, I was astonished when I saw where the trees were growing and what they looked like. The trees (which are technically feral, not wild, because they were planted - over 500 years ago even though they have not been tended in hundreds of years), grow on islands in the middle of a seemingly endless savannah. Amazingly, the savannah (some 70,000 acres) AND the islands are all man-made. The multi-trunked trees also amaze; they are unlike any other trees I have seen.

Ever since that day in 2006 I have wanted to visit this place - the Hacienda Tranquilidad and meet with the gentleman who persevered to sell the beans to Felchlin. In my opinion (and that of others), the 2006 harvest especially made one of the great chocolates produced anywhere in the past decade or more.

So, it is with great delight that within about 12 hours I am going to be boarding a plane at LaGuardia airport in NYC headed to Miami where I will catch a red-eye to Santa Cruz de la Sierra. There I will be met by Mr Lehmann and after spending the day in Santa Cruz Volker and I will board the overnight bus for Trinidad where we will catch a plane to Baures , a little more than 100km from the border with Brasil and near the Itenez Forest Reserve. There we will take a jeep the last few miles to the Hacienda Tranquilidad.It is the peak harvest season in this part of Bolivia and even though the weather forecast calls for a greater than 50% chance of thundershowers for my entire trip, I will do everything that I possibly can to make my way to one of those islands to stand among those remarkable trees, open a pod, and suck the sweet pulp off perfectly fresh-ripe cacao seeds.I apologize for the dearth of pictures (these were taken from Felchlin's web site), but I do hope to have many more to share in the coming days. Stay tuned ...

This article was written for and originally appeared in the Top Chef for Foodies blogs sometime in late 2007 or early 2008. BravoTV/NBC Universal in their infinite wisdom saw fit to remove all references to it when I stopped writing for them. As I was nearing the final draft deadline for my book, Discover Chocolate, my editors asked me to rethink the content of the fourth major chapter of the book. Originally it was going to be a section on the health benefits of chocolate but as we got closer and closer to finishing the rest of the book, that topic began to seem less and less appropriate.Since probably forever there has been a connection in people's minds between chocolate and wine. From personal experience I knew that the conventional wisdom about pairing chocolate and wine (dark chocolate goes with red wine) was just about as useful as the advice about pairing wine and flesh (red wine goes with meat, white wine goes with fish). There are enough exceptions to that rule to fill a very large book.So, the fourth chapter ended up being all about pairing various kinds of chocolates with various kinds of wines and spirits.The first rule about pairing wine and chocolate is that there are no hard and fast rules.Anyone who knows anything about wine can tell you that there is no one single flavor description for Syrah/Shiraz wines. Depending on where the grapes are grown, the weather in any particular year prior to harvest, and the individual sensibilities of the winemaker there are huge differences between wines that are produced from grapes grown just a few miles apart.Similarly, anyone who knows anything about chocolate can tell you that there is no one single flavor description for chocolate made from Trinitario beans, or Porcelana. Extrapolating that to a general descriptor (e.g., dark chocolate) and a percentage cacao (e.g., 70%) is so vague as to be meaningless.But that's just what some chocolate companies try to do. One very public example of this can be found online at the San Francisco Chocolate Factory ( www.sfchocolate.com ). They produce something called "The Wine Lover's Collection." This set is comprised of six, 3.5oz tins of chocolate each matched with a particular style of wine. The 54% is said to be good with Ports (Which kind? Ruby? Tawny?) while the 72% should be paired with Zins. There are percentage matches between Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinot Noir, Merlot, Syrah - 31%, 38%, 55% [sic], 58%, and 61%.These kinds of pairing recommendations are simply wrong in most cases.One place I did not spend enough time thinking about was in pairing chocolate and beer; in fact I mentioned that I preferred to put the chocolate in chili and eat that with beer.What, you say? Ick? Chocolate and beer? Well, then, you probably haven't tasted any good pairings. And neither had I, even though I had been thoroughly introduced to the concept by Pete Slosberg, the creator of Wicked Pete's Ale and the founder of Cocoa Pete's ( www.cocoapetes.com , currently undergoing renovation), a gourmet chocolate brand. Obviously, Pete sees the connection and in fact spends quite a bit of time promoting his chocolates at chocolate and beer tastings around the country, but especially in the San Francisco Bay Area.SO, I was very intrigued when chocolate-maker Shawn Askinosie of Askinosie Chocolate ( www.askinosie.com ) sent me an e-mail asking me what I knew about a chocolate, cheese, and beer tasting event in NYC and whether or not he should try to get involved in it.I contacted the organizers of the event, the New York City Degustation Advisory Team ( www.nycdat.com ), to see if I could get myself a seat at the next tasting (I did), not really knowing what to expect.NYCDAT founders Chris Cuzme and Mary Izett are both huge fans of and hugely knowledgeable about craft beers and have been parlaying that interest into a series of hugely fun tasting events at Jimmy's #43 ( www.jimmysno43.com ) on Manhattan's lower east side.Mary makes the case, very early on in her introduction to pairing, that because both chocolate and beer are made using ingredients that are roasted, it makes sense that they contain complementary flavors and aromas. Wines contain few if any of these compounds (and only if they are aged in wooden barrels that have been charred by fire) and for this, as well as many other reasons, it's harder to pair wines with chocolates than beers with chocolates.Makes sense when you think about it that way, no? Furthermore, there is a preoccupation with pairing wines with solid chocolates and pairing beers with filled chocolates, especially when you add the dimension of the cheese opens up a broad panorama of taste possibilities. However, as both Mary and Chris point out, while it's fairly easy to find pairings that work with any combination of two elements, finding ones that work with all three is a challenge that requires much eating of chocolate and cheese and drinking beer.Sounds tough - not.I hosted a chocolate, cheese, and beer tasting for a group I organize on Meetup (chocolate.meetup.com/44/) that was attended by about 25 people; a mix of chocolate fans and beer fans with only a small handful that were both. The beers were all chosen from the selection at Jimmy's, the cheeses were provided by Saxelby Cheese Mongers in the Essex Street Market, and the truffles were provided by Roni-Sue, also in the Essex Street Market).Perhaps the most interesting pairing of the evening was the combination of a seasonal Belgian beer - Winterkoninskske (Winter King) 8.3% alcohol by volume with a Mecox Bay Dairy (Long Island, New York) Sigit (made from raw cow's milk and aged a minimum of 18 months) with a dark chocolate truffle flavored with ginger.The tasting notes say that this aged cheese, "has a unique taste characteristic of alpine-type cheeses." I don't know what this means really, but the cheese did have a sort of piney freshness to it. The Winter King beer is made with seven different types of malt and two types of hops with, "a pure, sugary flavor and a long, bitter aftertaste." All the hops in the beer, however, created for me a sort of resin-y scented aroma and taste and when the cheese and the beer were in the mouth at the same time, this sensation of piney, almost minty, freshness was quite pronounced. Crystallized ginger not only has heat but it has a sharp clear taste that magnified the sensation even more while the depth of the dark chocolate and the fat in the chocolate and cheese counterbalanced the bitterness of the beer and its alcoholic bite.Other pairings included Rogue Brewery's Shakespeare Stout with a Pecan Pie truffle and a raw cow's milk blue cheese (Bayley Hazen) from Vermont's Jasper Hill Farm; Sam Smith's Taddy Porter with a Port and Fig truffle and a raw cow's milk cheese (Dorset) from Vermont's Consider Bardwell Farm; Original Sin Apple Cider with a Pistachio truffle and another Jasper Hill Farm raw cow's milk cheese (Constant Bliss).Finally we did pair beers with straight dark chocolates. The most interesting pairing here was two beers (Troubador Obscura and Chimay Triple (Cinq Cents)) with Amano's Madagascar 70%. What was remarkable here was how vastly different the chocolate tasted with each of the beers and how the chocolate influenced the taste of the beers - which is to be expected but was nonetheless surprising.Even thought most of the beers we tried were high-alcohol (over 8% by volume) this is still significantly less than most wines. So even though seven beers were poured during the tasting itself and we shared around of pale ale to start (to "calibrate our palates"), I was noticeably less affected than I would be if I was tasting with the same number of wines.A word to the wise, however. As a general rule, when you pair beers with chocolates and cheese, you will want to stick with the darker, higher-alcohol beers. The three-two (3.2%) beer you can get in Utah, plus light and n-a beers are ones you should probably steer clear of. Stick to beers with a good deal of body and lots of taste (and calories), and you'll find pairing easier.Salut!PS. IMO, the most versatile wine for pairing with chocolates I have found is the Italian sparkling wine, Prosecco. One of the reasons Prosecco works (and many Spanish Cavas, but not French Champagnes) is that it has a tendency to be less alcoholic and less sharp than Champagne and the texture of the bubbles tends to be very creamy. It is the creaminess of the texture of Prosecco, I am convinced, that is the key reason why it pairs so well with chocolate, which has a related textural quality in the mouth.

Of all the things I expected to learn on my trip, learning where to get the best coffee and gelato in Rome never entered my plans. But there I was in Rome with an expert local guide (Vanessa Barg of Gnosis Chocolate) and that is exactly what I discovered. The New York Times recently also bestowed the best coffee on this place - saying that it might just be the most expensive in the world - when you add in the cost of the flight - and it would be worth it.Near the Pantheon on the Piazza Sant'Eustachio is il Caffe Sant'Eustachio. There you will find what many believe to be the best coffee (espresso) in all of Rome. What makes it so? First - you are in Rome. Second is the presentation. Third is the price (only 1 Euro - about $1.50). Finally there is the coffee itself - deep, rich, and fragrant without being bitter with a crema that has to be experienced to be believed. Light and airy and a lot of it. They "regular" way of serving is with sugar and that is how I recommend you take yours first. Later you may try without sugar, but first try it the way they recommend you drink it.The other important thing to know about ordering coffee at Sant'Eustachio (and, in fact, ordering just about any food or beverage in any location other than a sit-down restaurant) is that you queue up to pay first, and then present your receipt at the counter where they will make up your order.

The entrance signs for Sant'Eustachio lighted at night

The presentation of the coffee at Sant'Eustachio

Now because I was with a local guide whose family frequented the place regularly, I was invited to have one of those wonderful experiences that make any trip extra special. We were invited into the back to see the roaster - a wood-fired roaster. No roasting was going on that day but we got to see the roaster and some of the beans up close.

Two shots of the wood-fired roaster at Sant'Eustachio  View Google Map for location of Sant'Eustachio

This is the obligatory tourist shot of me in front of the Pantheon

It turns out that the best gelato in Rome is also not far from the Pantheon. Now, while I can tell you how to get from the Pantheon to il caffe Sant Eustachio, I can't tell you how to get to Giolitti. It is very close to the Pantheon and if we were to meet out front I would be able to guide you there. (Anyone who is interested in having me personally escort them in Rome for this culinary adventure - contact me privately.)What makes Giolitti so special? Everything, actually. Not just the gelatao - which is phenomenal. The shop itself is inviting and warm, the selection of flavors tremendous, the price is affordable, and did I mention the creme chantilly? Wow. You can select from several sizes of cones and cups and to eat in or take out. All but the smallest cone allows you to select two or more different flavors. This is the hardest part of going to Giolitti - selecting flavors. The best approach seems to be themed - there are several different nut flavors (including gianduja/hazelnut, noccio/walnut), several different chocolates, at least two different coffees, and dozens of fruits. I chose gianduja, dark chocolate fondente, and espresso. This was topped with a dense yet ethereally light cloud of whipped cream unlike any other I have ever tasted. The only disappointment was the cone itself. I had the medium size (three flavors) and the cone was pedestrian and covered in a chocolate-like substance that was almost certainly a compound coating. Don't eat the medium cone dipped in "chocolate." The small cone was very good, however.

The gelato selection at Giolitti - do not order the chocolate-covered cones: it's compound.

From a dining perspective I can also recommend the restaurant Giogetto in the old Jewish quarter of Rome, just next to the Tiber river. One of the specialties of Giogetto is artichokes, and our dinner included stuffed squash blossoms (with fresh mozzarella and anchovy), a whole artichoke deep fried, and pasta with - you guessed it, artichokes in an olive oil and garlic sauce. A little salad and a bottle of the house red. Heaven.

My dinner setting at Giogetto - artichoke, squash blossom, plate, and wine glass

The first time I traveled to Europe for an extended period of time (six weeks in 1986 - way before my interest in chocolate) I managed to lose quite a bit of weight.One of the reasons why was that I spent the first two weeks in Germany (a culture not known for gourmet cuisine) and another was that I was working a nine-day trade fair (Photokina) and so was on my feet from 9am to 8pm every day with few options for eating. For the remaining four weeks I was eating at most two meals a day (skipping lunch) and walking at least five miles a day. So, even though I was in places like Venice, Florence, Nice, Barcelona, and Paris, I was really only eating a light breakfast, no lunch (with the aid of a few light snacks when I got peckish), and only indulging in dinner and trying to be reasonable even then.During my most recent European Chocolate Road Trip I had a similar experience, though I did some backsliding the second week because I was treated to some phenomenal dinners (and other temptations) and despite the fact that I was consuming quite a bit of chocolate every day.Here are the secrets to my New New European Chocolate Weight Loss Diet:1) You have to be in Europe - away from your normal routine. This won't work in Cleveland. Nothing against Cleveland, just see #2.2) You have to be at least five time zones from your home time. Your body clock needs to be out of sync.3) You have to get up early and stay out late and be really busy in between (in other words, burn the candle at both ends and in the middle).4) Have nothing but coffee (espresso, not American) in the morning until at least 10 am. Three or four cups of good, strong coffee. No sugar or milk. You want to get your heart pumping in high gear. It's okay to have one small slice of pastry as long as it's really, really special - like the Pralus' Praluline - but only one small slice and not before 10am.5) Eat small amounts of chocolate at regular intervals throughout the day. You may have as much coffee as you like (two more espressos is about right), and you should drink at least a liter of water as well.6) Do not eat dinner before 8pm.7) When you do finally have dinner, make sure you're with lots of friends and that you spend at least three hours at the table. The point is to enjoy the meal and the experience, not just consume food. You may have wine with dinner (not too much as you have to be up early in the morning) and you should make sure to have at least one more glass of water. When you choose your meal, make sure to have a salad and try to avoid dishes with heavy cream sauces. Coffee is always okay (you do have to stay awake until you reach your hotel) - but skip the dessert as nothing will compare with the chocolate you've been eating all day. Do not go to bed before midnight and do not watch CNN or BBC News in your room. Some popular Hollywood film dubbed into a foreign language without subtitles is perfect.8) Make sure to walk at least three miles every day.By following this plan you can reasonably expect to shed 5 pounds the first week.The only things that can set you back is lunch, dinner, and ignoring the morning coffee rule, so try to stay away from any or all of the following:a) Having dinner at Michelin 3-star restaurants (my downfall was Le Troigros in Roanne)b) Ordering a tasting menu for dinner where you ask the chef to "make what he feels like" (at Htel - Le chteau de Champlong in Villerest)c) Having extended lunches with the managing director (Francois Pralus) of the company you're visiting, andd) Pulling fresh vanilla macarons and florentins off a speed rack and running them through the warm milk-chocolate waterfall of the tempering machine where the addicting barre infernale is being made.Too much of these kinds of experiences will set your European weight loss goals off-track. But then you didn't really travel to Europe to lose weight? Did you?