Tag Archive for 'tasting'

Pairing Chocolate & Whisky at the Choqoa & WIB Masterclass

Published on July 7, 2010 in Tastings & Events. 0 Comments Tags: Balmenach, Bonnat, Braes of Glenlivet, Caol Ila, Carn Mór Vintage Collection, chocolate, Clynelish, combination, Cuba, Ecuador, Equateur, Francois Pralus, Glengoyne, Glenlossie, masterclass, Michel Cluizel, Pacari, pairing, Papouasie, Speyside, tasting, Trinidad, whisky.

Since Choqoa and WIB found each other, we recently had a third Whisky & Chocolate Masterclass, which was initiated ‘due to popular demand’. At regular Choqoa tasting events people are often inspired trying out the rich tasting chocolate they just discovered with other premium foods and drinks, and if I mention the whisky option, well it boosts the interest let’s say!
After the first Masterclass at The House of Marketing, we also had a private one for a global company Agile as the cherry on the cake for an intimate VIP event with their top clients and preferred partners. Our latest one welcomed both new people and those who even already attended a Choqoa tasting.

With Whisky Import Benelux we have an excellent offering that specifically works with pairings of the Carn Mór Vintage Collection. More than just putting some whisky and chocolate together, we have been specializing and having fun in taking the idea of whisky and chocolate a step further with carefully selected one-on-one pairings. Bart from WIB is a truly passionate whisky ambassador and has an excellent nose for matching aromas. We have been working on a list of wonderful whiskies that create an exciting combination with special selected origin chocolates.

On the list are chocolate from François Pralus, Bonnat, Michel Cluizel and even a superb Pacari pairing. So far my two favorite combinations are the fruity Pralus Papouasie with a single cask Balmenach 2001 and the iconic and incredibly sour “Le 100%” with a very wholesome Caol Ila 1983. It’s just wonderful to feel how both build upon each other in new dimensions.
The whiskies have enough power to give balance to these upfront tasting origin chocolates, and blending something edible with something aromatic fluid must be a key to give a delightful experience on the palate.

Though taste is always personal, it’s encouraging to surprise people to change their mind with this level of both chocolate and whisky. So you could never believe dark chocolate can taste like this? I didn’t know whisky can be so fine either . We learned from our first tasting, and now people really where enthusiast about the idea, the combinations and the way we present them. After all, great taste is something to share anytime!

If you ‘re inspired, we’ll continue our tastings after the summer break, so stay in touch with our blog, websites, and both our Facebook Fanpages (Choqoa – WIB)!

Report: The 2nd Choqoa Tasting Event

Published on December 11, 2009 in On Chocolate & Cacao and Tastings & Events. 0 Comments Tags: Amano, Austria, Bonnat, Bouga, Callebaut, Dominican Republic, Domori, Ecuador, event, Francois Pralus, Guanaja, Indonesia, Madagascar, Michel Cluizel, Nicaragua, Pacari, Pralus, tasting, Valrhona, Venezuela, Zotter.

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.

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!

Continue reading ‘Report: The 2nd Choqoa Tasting Event’

Report: The First Choqoa Tasting Event

Published on November 29, 2009 in Reviews and Tastings & Events. 0 Comments Tags: Akesson, Amano, Amedei, Bonnat, Carn Mor, Chuao, Colombia, Dominican Republic, event, Francois Pralus, Madagascar, Michel Cluizel, Ocumare, pairing, Pralus, Sambirano, SeventyPercent, tasting, Trinidad, Venezuela, whisky.

In Belgium, home of the world famous ‘Belgian Chocolates’, I’ve taken up the challenge to share and show people the path to real chocolate, fine origin artisan cacao.
After a long while I decided to do so starting with the now infamous Choqoa Sampler packs, and also by organizing chocolate tasting events to have the means and moments to personally inspire people with “the food of the gods”. My first event took place some days ago and here’s how people responded to chocolate:

We were with a nice group of about 10. After some earlier small informal tryouts I took some learnings with me and started off with a small introduction on the sexy cacao tree, pods and beans, and briefly explained the making process. We had some good questions then on the differences with industrial brands like Callebaut and I showed some pics of the Amano Chocolate factory.
Mosts really appreciated this introduction, because the cacao tree is funny, sexy and full of secrets, and how often do you wonder yourself about the source of your food?

Off to the tasting then! I learned from Martin Christy, founder of SeventyPercent.com, to make a program instead of just grabbing for some bars, so I made small plates with chunks from all the bars to hand out. I also distributed some sheets to take notes and a tasting wheel to have some reference to our taste buds. All this helpst to take the clutter of the table and focus on tasting chocolate. The Amedei was a great opener to ‘set the bar’and we then moved on to plenty of other bars, the full list is below this post.

Time after time most were pretty intrigued by the variety of aromas and sensations, though they suggested getting some more guidance in what flavors they should detect. A good point to work on! I would also have put some more variety in the selection, I still had too many options, but off course it also depends on your stock as well.

One of the participants, Johan, is doing a great job in sharing the message for me and he brought me a fresh Amano Ocumare milk from San Fransisco. All of us were really surprised by this very untypical milk sensation; it’s a superb bar that gives a whole new level to milk chocolate. I’m leaving the idea of ‘percentages’ more and more and this bar proves it’s very very possible.

As a special for this evening I also served a double fine whisky and chocolate pairing: but you can read all about this tantalizing pairing experience in my previous blog post.

Those true discoveries were the better moments, and most likely everybody said to have had a very nice tasting experience and gladly returned home with their own chocolate bars.

Check out the next Choqoa tastings en events on my EventBrite page, see you soon!

Read on for details of all the tasted bars!

Continue reading ‘Report: The First Choqoa Tasting Event’

Choqoa goes tasting in London, meeting up in Paris next

Published on September 10, 2009 in On Chocolate & Cacao and Trips. 2 Comments Tags: Academy of Chocolate, Callebaut, London, Paris, Salon du Chocolat, tasting.

It’s going to be exciting times the coming weeks with 2 special chocolate events marked in my agenda. While I’m putting all the pieces of the Choqoa puzzle together, these 2 activities will surely bring a lot of further inspiration.

First of all I’m going to London end of the month to participate in a chocolate tasting event, organised by the people behind SeventyPercent.com. It is one of my favorite websites about cacao, with a great forum that had me learn a lot. Editor Martin Christy is also founding member of the UK Academy of Chocolate (and just like me he’s also working in the Web industry), so I’m looking forward to be in good company

Second milestone event will be the 2009 Salon du Chocolat in Paris. One year ago, going to this Mekka for chocolate lovers made me really start exploring how I could turn my passion into a passion driven ‘business’. One year later, I’m going again, but with a different attitude, and much more knowledge and focused plans.
My friends from Callebaut will also be there, I’m looking forward to confirm contacts I’m currently networking with, and maybe my Choqoa Twitter activity even can also result in a TweetUp at the Salon. The only question will be wether US brands will fly over too…

A lot of stories to bring back soon, for sure, and more than probably it will be a very yummy edible story for a lot of you too!

Feel free to follow me on Twitter.com/Choqoa too and join the Choqoa Facebook FanPage.

Cacao Chemistry. Films by TCHO pt.3

Published on July 4, 2009 in Marketing and On Chocolate & Cacao. 0 Comments Tags: cacao, cigar, origin, tasting, TCHO, wine, Wired.

This eventually is the 3th and final video documenting TCHO chocolates. After introducing processing cacao, and going behind the scenes in the TCHO labs, this one ends up with the BoignBoing team eventually tasting TCHO chocolate.
You’ll learn about the tasting universe, just as with wines, and see them discovering the true essence of cacao and its characteristics. “Hey, It tastes like a cigar”…Enjoy!

(via BoingBoing)