3 posts tagged “chocolate”

Fantastic essay in October 29 edition of New Yorker, by Bill Buford. He tracks back to 2001 and follows the lives of founders Frederik Schilling and Holderman, a girlfriend-boyfriend team who created Dagoba, an organic-chocolate company. It’s a fantastic introduction to the history of chocolates, its seeds and the characters in the chocolate industry. Wonderful stuff.

Here’s a taster, Schilling answering the question “…what do I want from a chocolate?…a beginning and an end… I start with the breast of a woman on her back… that’s my flavour curve …you start with the belly … you then move up her body, slowly climbing, rising up the flattened breast, gently, and the nipple pops out .. then you slide down, an elegant finish … it always comes down to sex for me…”.

“Schilling also makes tinctures: “Clarity” for mornings, “Moon Cycle” for a woman’s period, and “Eros,” a constellation of every tribal moonbeam fringe aphrodisiac he could find."

http://mysocalledblog.vox.com/library/post/chocolate-espresso-tart-with-chocolate-sweet-dough.html

Passionate about chocolate. No, not the sweet, sugary manufactured stuff. But the ‘food of the Gods’ – fine chocolate.

What a dream corporate hospitality invitation. I said yes, before I’d even checked-out my own availability. It beats Wimbledon, Cheltenham (horse racing) and I am sure I had more adrenaline pumping through the veins last night than during Go-Kart racing!

What a clever idea. Less complex than wine tasting and more freedom in one’s use of adjectives and similes in describing the tastes and aromas.

There is a guide. You go about sniffing the stuff first. Fruit notes, perhaps tobacco. I heard “condensed milk”, almonds and even wine undertones offered up as descriptors. At one point, the chocolate smelt of babies!

We were given Valrhona, Michel Cluizel and Amano.

First up – we smelt undergrowth and then a coy sounding voice from across my table expressed notes of ‘rubber’ (Michel Cluziel 1^st Cru).

Told then to break it and listen for the snap – it should have a clean snap.

Then pop it into the mouth. The silence was hilarious. Eyes wide open, within seconds we heard murmurs of “ummmmm”, or some “... not for me”. Describe the taste, melt and length.

I distinctly heard “Oxo cubes” associated with Valrhona (Manjari). The tobacco, hints of spices and alcohol undertones were more prevalent on tasting Amano. The taste of peanut butter (Valrhona Palmira vintage 2006) was unanimous.

The combination of spices, tobacco, cream and “cheese in a nice way” emanated from the discussions about Amano – Ocumare (70%).

The flavours linger for quite a while. We were told that for some the length can last for upto 30 minutes.

Pralus was my favourite. There was a resounding echo of bitter. I could not detect the apparent ‘smoked leather’ taste; but, I found the flavours evolved in the mouth and gradually detected more subtle notes and a creaminess which I liked.

We sipped water between chocolate tasting. I enquired whether the choice of water over alcohol was to aid detection of the flavours. No, not at all. Water was a tactical move. The speaker feared he may not be heard if they had laid out bottles of wine. Apparently, the audience tends to get a little boisterous.

We had it on good authority that full-bodied reds, rum and whiskey (single malt) were highly complementary with fine chocolate. Champagne and fizzy wines worked well with truffles and praline chocolate.

The event spilled over into the nearest wine bar. Armed with our goodie bags we set about putting this theory to the test.