Tag Archive for 'Trinidad'

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’s First Whisky and Chocolate Pairing

Published on November 3, 2009 in On Chocolate & Cacao and Reviews. 1 Comment Tags: Balmenach, Brésil, Carn Mor, chocolate, Clynelish, Dominican Republic, Equateur, Glen Grant, Glengoyne, Glenn Ort, Indonésie, Madagascar, Michel Cluizel, pairing, Papouasie, Pralus, Trinidad, Vintage Collection, whisky, WIB, wine.

A couple of days ago on an afternoon I sat together with WIB, an importer of great fine whisky, to tryout some pairings with chocolate. So far I only did once a pairing with chocolate and wine, which was really fun, but whisky was really an unexplored space for me… and that had to change!

Bart is an exclusive importer and brought a fantastic Vintage Collection of 24 different small whisky bottles, and the first thing I have to say is that he made me (re)discover whisky! Just like I share my passion to help you discover great chocolate, this kind of whisky stands out from everything I had so far, because I just didn’t know better so far!

Given the idea that this pairing was new for both of us, we just started tasting some bars and bottles, all of them were wonderful, but off course finding a good match takes some more tasting along. The first thing to do to match alcoholic drinks and chocolate is to find the right tasting technique. I think enjoying chocolate with wine is very different from pairing it with whisky. With wine you’d melt a piece half in your mouth and sip in some wine, with whisky however it soon became clear we had to seek a different approach because of the strong character and the alcohol.
What did work was sipping the whisky first, swallow and only then join in the chocolate chunk. The melting chocolate then eagerly mixed with the evaporating flavours of the whisky that last long in your mouth, and that’s a ticket for some nice experience!

Before, I assumed whisky would need by definition a strong chocolate bar, high in cacao percentage like a Michel Cluizel Infini 99%, or a Pralus 100%. But it unexpectedly got a lot more interesting and pleasant to discover that with these particular bottles from a Carn Mor ‘Vintage Collection’, any chocolate had a chance to match. We sipped from exquisite single cask whisky distilled by Balmenach, Clynelish, Glenn Ort, Glengoyne, Glen Grant,… and munched mainly on Pralus with his bars from Trinidad, Equateur, Madagascar, Indonésie, Papouasie, a lovely Brésil and Dominican Republic!

Just as with wine some made war, some separated ways only halfway, and some made love from the start! But above all it was a great discovery to have this sensation of whisky and chocolate finding each other on a long adventure of flavours, and from both ways enrich each other’s aromas and sensations.

To our own pleasure, and because we were really enthusiast ourselves on this experience, our final winning pairings are going to be launched in a limited box, so let me know if you may be interested in this as well!

The London Collection feat. world’s best Amedei

Published on August 10, 2009 in On Chocolate & Cacao and Trips. 5 Comments Tags: Abinao, Amedei, Caraïbe, Caranero, Chuao, Ecuador, Grenada, Jamaica, Jivara, La Tavoletta, London, Madagsacar, Rio Caribe, Selfridges, Trinidad, Valrhona, Venezuela, Venezuelan Black.

Yesterday while I was spending the weekend in London I jumped in at the Selfridges Food department in Oxford St., where to my surprise I ran into a pile of Amedei bars! While a had planned to go for a chocolate tour listed with shops like Rococo, Hotel du Chocolat and others, I wasn’t expecting to find world’s best chocolate right here exactly! My London basket within minutes became definitely one of my most expensive ones ever, but happiness is priceless

From Amedei I bought the big black “I Cru Collection” box, containing 36 origin napolitan tasting squares from Madagascar, Trinidad, Ecuador, Grenada, Jamaica, Venezuela.I couldn’t resist buying 2 of the Porcelana bars, and buy the Porcelana napolitan box on top, were it for the beautiful packaging design along. Also the napolitan Chuao box had to be bought, though sadly Selfridges didn’t had the bar version. Getting into the ’shopping’ I eventually even was to weak to resist stocking a milk bar and white bar from the La Tavoletta series, on percentages of cacao which I had left aside since long to date And as an dessert I eventually also bought a Toscano Red, fruited bar.

From the same shelves I equally collected some long sought new Valrhona series (Caraïbe, Abinao and Jivara), with a very attractive new pack design. From the UK chocolate scene I also had the chance to collect and discover the Green & Black’s organic dark bar and get hands on the Venezuelan Black brand, aimed more at kitchen use, from which I bought the Rio Caribe and Caranero Superior.

Well, I huge pile of exquisite acquisitions to discover here, and I won’t reveal how much cash I pleasantly burnt, but the aim is to prepare a small intimate event for which one these bars certainly spawn lots of fun on our palates. I’ll post tasty reviews of the London bars soon for sure!

Spreading the Passion

Published on October 20, 2008 in On Chocolate & Cacao and Reviews. 0 Comments Tags: Arriba, Colombia, Coppeneur, Domori, Hussel, Madagascar, Mangaro, Michel Cluizel, Neuhaus, Ocumare, Pralus, Sur del Lago, Trinidad, Valrhona, Venezuela.

Lately I’ve been ’sacrificing’ quite a lot of my premium bars to my friends and family to invite them into the world of chocolate, or better the world of ‘my’ chocolate. Because the only way to really enjoy your passion is to share it with others and listen to their input. From the Dusseldorf Collection I already briefly reviewed the Hussel Madagascar, Pralus Venezuela, and the Neuhaus Ocumare, origin bars I had taste at several visits. I wrote a story about my nephew with the Michel Cluizel 1er Cru ‘Mangaro’ and also with a bunch of various people shared a Pralus Colombia, Domori’s Sur Del Lago Classificado and their Arriba, a Coppeneur Trinidad bar and finally also unwrapped a Valrhona Ampamakia 2007 vintage.

The Pralus Colombia was mild and fudgy but came with original flavours, again a typically dark roasted Pralus bar that tempts you to discover its terroir aromas. The first Coppeneur I tasted was a Trinidad, and though the first impression wasn’t delivering a lot of ‘wow’, it seemed to taste distinctively better the day after; is it because the cacao had had the time to acclimatize after being sealed in so long in its plastic foil? The Ampamakia 2007 was a known friend from Madagascar, whose mild fruity character and gentle texture pleases to many. Both the Domori’s were a big discovery, since they manage to create indulgent, well-tempered smooth bars that taste far from ‘chocolate’, and with their very expressive hyper-aromatic characters they are definitely an hate-love challenger brand to introduce to people.

Armed with a short introduction into origin chocolate, people were all curious to expect and experience something different, and tasted the chocolate chunks with patience. Almost all of them spontaneously started talking about the taste of cacao on other terms than good or bad, and put aside the ‘bitter’ cliché. I never pushed them into a certain feedback or direction, but on every moment I had offered a tasting, people were into describing various flavours and textures rather than nag on the bitterness of bars.
It works better if you immediately showcase more than one origin bar, so people can nibble from various aromas and experience the differences and character varieties instantly, which always brought the taste discussion on a higher level.

Spread the passion!

Neuhaus Venezuala Ocumare 71%

Published on October 15, 2008 in Marketing and Reviews. 0 Comments Tags: Africa, Neuhaus, Ocumare, Sao Tomé, Trinidad, Venezuela.

A while ago I passed by a local Neuhaus branch and for fun decided to jump in and have a look around. I noticed they had a bar collection of origin flavours I wouldn’t expect at this typical ‘pralinier’ brand, so off course I was rather curious to get their story. It turns out Neuhaus is offering an origin range with also a Sao Tomé, a West Africa and a Trinidad. They do so since 2005 at least but I hadn’t noticed them yet, then again the visibility is rather low at Neuhaus.

(more packaging photos on Flickr)

What is well done on this bar is the packaging: it opens like a booklet, and comes tied in with branded ribbon. Once unwrapped the packing reveals a bar foiled in yellowish paper. It’s one that clearly stand out from its competitors.
Ocumare de la Costa, a town near the Venezuelan “chocolate coast”, is a spot that delivers well-fermented Criollo with lots of delicate high notes. Local family-run cooperatives are harvesting some of the finest organic cacao in the world and the ‘Ocumare’ is the type of cocoa bean that gave Criollo its reputation they say.

For the bar itself, that is designed in bite size chunks, the texture is thick, smooth but not creamy, with a soft & munchy bite character that complements the luscious nature of the cacao. Aromas come one after another and hints nuts and cream, strawberries and has a clear ending that closes a modest but decently complex profile. This unobtrusive tasting experience makes this bar addictively easy to eat. Neuhaus (had) created a mild and very accessible origin flavour that doesn’t come too bitter at all, maybe some might discuss on the aftertaste.

All in all, I think this first Neuhaus origin bar was a nice discovery, and when the Ocumare wasn’t an immediate punch in the face, I surely may check out Neuhaus’ other flavours and buy some bars next time I walk by their store.