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Choqoa introduces the finest origins to Barry-Callebaut

By on April 8, 2010 in Tastings & Events

Who would have ever thought of this scenario? I could have dreamed about it,… but it actually happened! This week I gave a Choqoa Tasting workshop for the European team at Barry Callebaut HQ in Wieze, and introduced them to ‘my world’ of premium origin chocolates.

Both my curiosity to their reactions and above all what I could learn from them myself, overruled any reason of being nervous. In the end this was not about pleasing them with good chocolates, it was about sitting together and explore the amazing varieties great cacao has to offer us.

We started our session with a Pacari, and I also brought Francois Pralus, Bonnat, Michel Cluizel, Domori, and Akesson’s. Especially for this Callebaut team I equally shared a nutty TCHO bar from the US and opened an extraordinary fine Criollo ‘Porcelana’ bar from Domori.
With every bar I gave some inspiring background on the brand, the region and bean type, shared a personal memory from my youth or revealed a very particular process that creates signature tastes for a passionate chocolate maker.
We talked about the idea and relevance of percentages, complex genetics of cacao, the ‘myth’ of Belgian chocolate, and consumer preferences across countries as well.

It was just great to discover together with such a team how different cacao flavors can develop, even within a single small geographical area. There were several Venezuela’s on the table and most of the participants were astonished how very different these cacao bars did taste! Whether it was wonderfully fruity or way too sour, very balanced aromas or flavors jumping around, all together we rediscovered the incredible variety fine origin cacao brings to our palate.

The personal Top 3 from the participating Vice President?

  1. Michel Cluizel “Vila Gracinda”
  2. Bonnat “Hacienda El Rosario”
  3. Domori Criollo “Porcelana”

Let’s hope this saga continues, for there is so much more we can learn from each other, when a passionate guy meets and innovative leading company. A big thanks to Barry Callebaut for inviting me to share my obsession!
Once more it confirmed that chocolate is one of the most inspiring, intriguing and passionate products in the world :)

Continue reading for details on the tasted bars…

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Report: Choqoa Tasting Event 10.2

By on March 3, 2010 in Reviews, Tastings & Events

Wrapping up our second tasting this year, again it’s an evening to which I can look back loaded with sensations and discoveries that are changing people’s mind on dark origin chocolate. In our beautiful loft-lounge style setting I introduced the cacao harvest & production process, to show people how careful this pretty sexy tree needs to be treated to give us such fine chocolate. Every tasting session is somewhat different and the Q&A was focused around Belgium not being ‘The Promised Land’ of chocolate (anymore), the scary variety of substances in chocolate bars, en tips to keep and store chocolate.

Choqoa Chocolate Tasting Events
Chocolate and its plethora of surrounding topics always make a great conversation starter, so pretty soon we had a good vibe, getting us open to enter the tasting part. After 4 bars only, people were amazed already by my broad offering and the variety in tasting sensations, even ‘less appreciated aroma’s’ were adding to overall discovery experience. :)
Noteworthy where also organic Pacari, the recent Akesson’s and absolutely the handcrafted Amano Jembrana, which I exclusively got from the USA directly from founder Art Pollard, with a big help from Martin at SeventyPercent as well in London.
These treasures aside I also showed a bloomed bar of Willie’s (don’t know how that happened actually), and wowed them with the Michel Cluizel ‘Grand Lait 45% milk bar’ (‘Is this milk chocolate?!’), shared unroasted and roasted cacao beans I received from Pralus, and put the cherry on the cake with the Pralus 100% as the usual über chocolate experience!

You can tell it was fun if people say they would come back for another tasting session, hope to see you next time as well!

Continue reading for details on the tasted bars…

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Report: Choqoa Tasting Event 10.1

By on February 10, 2010 in Tastings & Events

The first Choqoa Tasting Event this year was again very different from the previous editions, and not only for the reason that people came from across the country to attend our Antwerp session!

Choqoa Chocolate Tastings

Among the attending chocolate explorers we had Gunther, one of the founders of a chocolate brand (Baru, Diepenbeek), eager to learn about making his own chocolate in some future; Geert, a dedicated chocolatier & patissier who passionately cares about his base Valrhona couverture (Patisserie Vercruysse, Kortijk); and Mo, who runs an inspiring lunch bar and is a former winner of the Best Sandwich competition!

I found it pretty intriguing given their background they often did heard of several of the top chocolate brands we tasted, but hadn’t take the effort or had the chance to taste every variety that they could get their hands on? On the other side also some US brands like Taza and TCHO were not unknown and I was happy to have a TCHO ‘Fruity’ bar on the tasting table (thanks to @ActiveLife). And with brands like Zotter and Pacari, I had something new to offer even for these professionals :)

It was utmost pleasant and charming to see how participants discovered variations in freshness, color, melting patterns and lingering aftertastes by themselves. Even to the detail where they felt one bar more coming up in front or gathering in the back of their tongues and palates. All added their views and knowledge on chocolate and food so we got some lenghty talks along the tasting session as well.

Eventually, again this gourmet chocolate tasting event was full of fun, sharing tasting impressions and notes, discovering the immersive world of real fine chocolate, and brainstorming on future possibilities!

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Report: The 2nd Choqoa Tasting Event

By on December 11, 2009 in On Chocolate & Cacao, Tastings & Events

The second ‘official’ Choqoa Tasting event yesterday in Antwerp was a great fun chocolate celebration. We were with a group of 16 enthusiast people; friends bringing their own friends, and even an older couple who got the Tasting Event as a birthday gift from their daughter: what a great surprise! And also my chocolate buddy Sofie ‘Chocolaterie’ from Barry Callebaut, happily joined this event.

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Learnings from previous sessions made me make a selection with bigger care and offer a broader variety of cacao experiences. I also therefore bought some Domori and found myself a bunch of bars I hadn’t taste myself yet: Zotter, Pacari, and Bouga.
I started with a small introduction into cacao trees and pods, the bean-to-bar process, and to all delight Sofie from Callebaut passionately helped explain into detail the various steps, with good interaction from the crowd.

Off to the tasting! I projected the Amano tasting wheel in the screen to give guidance to the tasting, and people really enjoyed discovering such a chocolate sensations. This time I had a good variety that really added value to the tasting experience and was more than appreciated. It was pleasurable to see people taking chocolate to the next level! Everybody shared his impressions so the atmosphere was pretty comfortable. Halfway already people giggled and said they started to feel the chocolate raising to their brain, giving them the cacao ‘high’ :) Yes it’s positive magic.

All in all we had 10 different chocolates, list & details are below, and everybody really said to have enjoyed, and even would return another time! Everybody happily took their 2 included bars home, bought some more even to continue sharing the passion.
I’m already looking forward to the next event, you’re all invited to join Choqoa!

Read on for details of all the tasted bars!

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Visiting the Salon du Chocolat 2009

By on October 20, 2009 in On Chocolate & Cacao, Trips

As you may have noticed, this year I’ve been eagerly looking forward to my 2nd visit to the Salon du Chocolat, and it surely was a long day full of inspiring encounters. And though this celebration of chocolate is primarily a consumer fair, I went much less for touristy reasons than last year…

Before entering the expo, I was impatiently looking forward a meetup with Clay Gordon. Clay is the author of Discover Chocolate, runs the community The Chocolate Life, and is a standing evangelist of fine chocolate. The rather funny thing is that both Clay and I got hooked on luxurious origin chocolate bars about the same time in the early 90’s, by the same brand, being the French chocolate maker Stéphane Bonnat.
We had a long lovely talk about our shared passion, I was certainly impressed with Clay’s dedication to the food of the gods, and to him, chocolate ultimately is “his lens to look at and understand everything in the world”.
Our initial ‘couple of minutes’ was round up only an hour and a half later, and I ended up with me taking my first video interview ever – armed with my Press badge :) . So soon on Choqoa.com, a passionate video talk with Clay, one to watch!

Pralus

Over at Pralus, it was a warm encounter again with Valerie the export manager, who really encouraged me last year to ‘do something’.  This year I also talked with Francois Pralus himself about his passion and vision, and it was wonderful to hear him explaining his angle on the quest for particular cacao beans and developing its characteristics. Also with him, I have a nice video interview to post soon.

Visiting the Salon du Chocolat 2009, Paris

Bonnat

In these competitive times it was heartwarming to learn that Bonnat and Pralus really get along with each other. Both boots were only a few steps from each other. I felt really charmed by the fact that Bonnat’s sales agent remembered me from last year, being “that guy that bought almost all of our bars”.  Stéphane turned out to be a very accompanying man, who proudly boasts a 125 years old family tradition. Watch the coming video interview here too, and enjoy Bonnat sharing chocolate memories from his childhood.

AMMA

One of the last persons I met was no less than Frederick Schilling, former founder of US based Dagoba Chocolates, a famous organic cacao company which he recently sold. With the new AMMA Chocolates brand, Frederick launched another spark from the vibrant US chocolate scene, though his adventure is now based in the Amazon region in Brazil, where his partner Diego owns 3 cacao plantations.
Frederick contributed a good twist on the earlier video interviews, and gave a good point on the differences amongst the more traditional European scene and the fresh initiatives in Northern America.

Visiting the Salon du Chocolat 2009, Paris

The Domori sales rep unfortunately wasn’t there though, and I also missed the French artist Carol Gillot, which I got to know through ParisBreakfasts.
A quick hello at Michel Cluizel returned made the friendly rep offer me bags of unroasted beans from their various single plantation beans, great to discover a taste.

The only real ‘downside’ of my visit was to find out that none of the brands were eventually prepared to meet my Choqoa Sampler orders: they simply were not able to sell me my large amount of orders – even on their stock for this mass fair! Being a little bit a victim of your overwhelming demand, I however settled some well worthy arrangements with them, opening up a lot of exciting future possibilities, and contributing a lot of learnings on distribution particularities.

With love from …

This year’s salon was full of superb moments meeting my chocolate heroes. Interviewing Francois Pralus, Stéphane Bonnat and Frederick Shilling gave thrilling sensations being so close on the chocolate scene. Especially the time spent with Clay Gordon left a lasting impression on me, all synthesized in some great footage to share with you soon!

Your Sampler is on its way and I’m hoping your little bit of extra patience will be rewarded with you finding –and sharing- new pleasures in chocolate sensations…

Visiting the Salon du Chocolat 2009, Paris