Thursday last week, it was ‘officially’ the moment to reopen the chocolate rediscovery season with Choqoa’s Tasting Events. From the very first time I organized such a chocolate tasting with a group of people, I realized it is a great setting for curious minds to join their senses, and enjoy sharing their experiences and sensations.
From all the past tastings, I gathered the constructive feedback and spontaneous suggestions that were given by enthusiasts aficionado’s. So I reworked the tasting concept a little bit to give it another vibe. Next to that, a lot of people subscribed, we were actually heading for a full house, first time! And amongst them, we had both a lot of totally new people joining Choqoa and some first-hour superfans who returned again for another Choqoa discovery. That felt absolutely awesome, thanks to all of you!
There were also some students from the C-MD project, twitter folks who got to Choqoa via my “1000th Tweet” contest, and even a young researcher from the CacaoLab at the Ghent University, how cool is that? So although it wasn’t the first time, I was a bit nervous though, really.
(foto by Choqoa fan Peter Pvw04 – Nettooor)
Lucky all those who were there, since my recent trip to the USA (a post on that soon) made me return with a lot of exclusive offerings from great chocolate makers like Amano, Taza, Patric, the Mast Brothers (who I met in person) and Rogue Chocolatier, my current “editor’s choice“. I put a lot of those fantastic american bars in the line-up, sure enough it made the whole evening a fun time to rediscover chocolate.
For extra fun I even opened the world’s infamous “Mo’s Bacon Bar” from Vosges chocolate. And yes: for those who dared, there was eventually on popular demand a piece of Cote d’Or “Noir de Noir” available. For those who were a bit skeptical on the differences… it convinced all that we are on a new level with Choqoa, oyé!
And that’s precisely what we all enjoyed: a great evening rediscovering chocolate, the wonderful world of premium cacao, a bit of its production, a touch of history and a twist of culture. And off course, all these wonderful aromas and flavors that you would never have believed to find in pure cacao. It was great to find all your positive reactions so swiftly on Twitter and Facebook, keep sharing the passion for Choqoa and help everybody to rediscover chocolate!
Every last Thursday of the month, that’s the day that I mostly try to schedule my tasting events on. So keep an eye on the events on the Choqoa Facebook FanPage or our event listing on EventBrite.
Here is the list of bars we had this time: (after the break)
- Bonnat “Trinité” 75%
deep chocolatey bar, the brand that started it for me
- Pacari “Esmeraldas” 60%
surprises you with its fresh, floral tones but also the dextrose feeling
- Patric “Madagascar – Sambirano” 67%
chewy and citric, great development
- El Ceibo 71%
the bar from Chloé, not too bad at all, a very nice discovery with a typical Bolivian touch
- François Pralus “Djakarta”
very unexpected, and therefore very good
- Taza Stone Ground 70%
almost everybody was in awe, and appreciated the unique taste beyond the typical ground grittiness
- Cote d’Or Noir de Noir (54% – what’s in a name)
yeah yeah, finally I am sure and (re)assured that eveybody tastes the difference!
- Mast Brothers “Ocumare de la Costa”
waw this is top-notch liquorice experience
- Rogue Chocolatier “Piura”
I love Colin’s bars and this very very exclusive Piura proves his passion and craftsmanship again. Wonderful.
- Amano “Dos Rios”
the Dos Rios is far beyond chocolate, the aromas you experience with this cacao change everything you think about chocolate
- Vosges “Mo’s Bacon Bar”
hilarious, food innovation awarded, just for fun!
- François Pralus “Le 100%”
the ultimate cacao experience; it was, is and will always be the last bar I will serve at my tasting events
