Notes From the Underground Chocolate Salon

March 30, 2016

What do you get when you combine craft chocolate lovers with four interesting bars and a blind tasting? Last week’s Underground Chocolate Salon, of course.

I’ve always been jealous of Paris in the 1920s, when artistic and literary luminaries gathered at Gertrude Stein’s house to talk and hang out: Picasso, Cézanne, Joyce, Eliot, Cocteau. Only one thing would have made it better: chocolate. That’s why I started what I’m calling the Underground Chocolate Salon, for like-minded (or not so like-minded) people to get together and talk chocolate, as well as enjoy one another’s company.

Up until now it’s been pretty unannounced (hence the name “underground”). But now I’m opening it up to the whole community. Still FREE, still fun, still small. If you want a spot at the next one, in New York on APRIL 20 from 6:30 to 8 PM, email me immediately at megan@chocolatenoise.com to let me know and I’ll send you the details and location.

In the meantime here are some notes from last week’s salon:

Lindt 70% Cocoa Smooth Dark

Used as an introduction to dark chocolate. Tasted smooth and eatable on first try. After the whole tasting we circled back to try it again: All vanilla and sugar, with some cocoa butter for texture.

Bar au Chocolat 80% Trinidad

I’d tried several chocolates from Bar au Chocolat’s line and especially loved the Marañon. Red fruit notes, tannic and somewhat bitter. Texture a bit gritty (probably because it’s a two-ingredient bar: cacao and sugar). Still tasty.

Cacao Prieto 72% Dominican Republic

Passionfruit. Smooth, creamy. Tastes like it has a lot of cocoa butter, but that’s not listed as one of the ingredients on the label.

Fruition Marañon Dark Milk

Caramel, cooked milk. Condensed milk. “Tastes like Easter in a good way,” one attendee laughed.

Blind Tasting

I enlisted the salon to try three chocolates blindly: one from Mast Brothers, one from Sol Cacao, and one that I made for an upcoming story and a section in my book (thanks to Chocolate Alchemy and Raaka for dealing with my neuroticism). Here are the notes from all three. Can you guess which is which? Email me at megan@chocolatenoise.com or tell me on Facebook or Twitter and tell me, along with why, and I’ll include the results in the next Chocolate Today.

#1. Smelled sheetrock or something industrial. Gritty texture but smooths out. Flat. Strange aftertaste.

#2. Earthy. “Wet, dead fall.” Leaves, wood, but not in a bad way. Burny. Crumbly. More interesting. Enjoyed it and would pick this over #1 and #3.

#3. Peanuts. Boring, fine, flat. Nice texture.

Want to come to the next FREE Underground Chocolate Salon in New York? It will be APRIL 20 from 6:30 to 8 PM. Email me at megan@chocolatenoise.com.

What I'm Tasting Today

Chocolate Naive Porcini Bar

Pastry Chefs Need to Know Where Chocolate Comes From

March 28, 2016

Michael Laiskonis measuring the size of the particles in semi-refined chocolate. Photo courtesy Niko Triantafillou/Dessertbuzz — *Michael Laiskonis measuring the size of the particles in semi-refined chocolate. Photo courtesy Niko Triantafillou/Dessertbuzz*

Ask most pastry chefs where chocolate comes from and they’ll point to a bag of Valrhona. But like, before that? I don’t know, a plant or something.

For example, Fruition Chocolate's Bryan Graham recently told me that when he went to the CIA, making chocolate was limited to “one 15-minute part of one of the lectures.” He had to figure it all out on his own. Considering that chocolate is a main ingredient in, oh, I don’t know, MOST DESSERTS, that’s madness.

One school is changing that: The Institute of Culinary Education has built an impressive new educational bean-to-bar facility, with pastry chef Michael Laiskonis at its helm. Walk into the Chocolate Lab and you’ll find Michael toiling away day and night, making chocolate from scratch with a variety of machines. ICE’s pastry curriculum now requires students to walk through the bean-to-bar process with Michael, and they’re even offering classes to the public too.

This will change the face of pastry, since presumably when people know where an ingredient comes from and how to make it, they’ll understand how to work with it even better. Michael’s even had “play dates” with pastry chefs at other NYC restaurants, and some of them want to start making their chocolate from scratch in house!

Roasting beans. Photo courtesy Niko Triantafillou/Dessertbuzz — *Roasting beans. Photo courtesy Niko Triantafillou/Dessertbuzz*

But the most exciting part to me is that Michael is discovering and cataloguing information that big companies like Mars and Hershey’s have known for years and kept siloed. He’s keeping meticulous notes about every step of the process and how one tiny change alters everything. He’s experimenting with things like aging chocolate to see what in the heck happens, and he wants to partner with a lab to get analytics about all of the data he’s collected. “I’m looking at ingredients and preparations and trying to understand them on a scientific level,” he said. In other words, he’s chocolate’s big data scientist.

Winnowing. Photo courtesy Niko Triantafillou/Dessertbuzz — *Winnowing. Photo courtesy Niko Triantafillou/Dessertbuzz*

I think (I hope, at least) that Michael’s planning to share all of this with the craft industry. Historically he’s given this kind of knowledge away and collaborated with lots of people, so there’s a good chance.

But at the end of the day, no amount of money will buy you some of the best chocolate in New York. Of course, if you meet Michael in person, he’ll probably give you some for free.

Think Michael's doing something unique? Think I'm full of it? Tell me at megan@chocolatenoise.com or on Facebook or Twitter and I'll include your comments in the next Chocolate Today.

What I'm Tasting Today

Undone Chocolate Himalayan Pink Salt Bar

And the Most Ridiculous Chocolate of the Week Is….

March 25, 2016

Photo courtesy Flickr user MattysFlicks — *Photo courtesy* *Flickr user MattysFlicks*

Chocolate toothpaste. Theodent Kids is made with real cocoa beans and supposedly tastes like chocolate. Apparently you can swallow a ton of the stuff and still be fine, which I guess is good?

NOT. Chocolate toothpaste and products like it are dangerous. They're worse than regular old candy. They make us think that chocolate is a commodity product, a flat, easy taste, and they completely eclipse the deeply flawed sourcing methods of big cocoa. Everyone knows about blood diamonds, but blood chocolate? Not so much. Doesn't sound so appetizing after all, right?

Do you agree? Think I'm reading too much into a product for kids? Even better, do you have a ridiculous chocolate of your own to share? Email me at megan@chocolatenoise.com or tell me on Twitter or Facebook and I'll quote you in the next Chocolate Today.

What I'm Tasting Today

Soma Aleppo Pepper Bar

Butter You Up

March 24, 2016

There’s a reason we’re used to eating chocolate with added cocoa butter: It’s delicious. Call it European style, call it cheating, call it whatever you want: I call it some of my favorite chocolate out there.

For many years bean-to-bar makers wanted to distinguish themselves from the old guard by eschewing cocoa butter (and vanilla) to focus on “pure” ingredients: cacao and sugar. Art Pollard of Amano Chocolate says this attitude is all ego, and I tend to agree with him. If you’re making chocolate that way because that’s what you like to eat (like Dandelion), then more power to you.

But if it’s to showcase your talents and to be “pure,” then I’m not sure I buy it. What does “pure” in this context even mean? I think it’s related to our desire to get away from industrialization and capitalism to an idealized simpler time, when ingredients were whole and we were (supposedly) happier. Scott Craig of DFWFood.org said recently,

““If a well-capitalized company using state-of-the-art equipment makes better chocolate than a Oaxacan grandmother grinding it out on a metate, put it in my bag, please.””

— Scott Craig, DallasFood.org

I think he’d say the same about adding cocoa butter.

Of course, cocoa butter is also the main ingredient in the much-reviled white chocolate (and lots of skincare and beauty products, ha). Some makers like Askinosie and Fruition are starting to make white chocolate bars, but honestly, I still don't like them that much. Have you tried one you liked? And are you into added cocoa butter in your chocolate, or are you a purist?

Email me at megan@chocolatenoise.com or write me on Facebook or Twitter and tell me what you think and I'll include your comments in the next Chocolate Today.

Reactions

“Ah-ha! I agree with the sentiment re: adding cocoa butter, vanilla, but just yesterday I was trying some chocolate that had that waxy taste to it. I had the same experience the day prior. Both times I was disappointed and just wanted something more, shall I call it, pure? So, I ate as a satisfying “chaser” some Peru Lamas chocolate I made a couple of months ago. No judge would score my chocolate higher for obvious reasons. My chocolate is just not “there” yet and I am still struggling with “to add or not to add” cocoa butter, and also with “to buy or not to buy” professional tempering equipment. To up my game, both are probably necessities.

Back to the butter: some makers seem to add a lot more cocoa butter than others. The problem is: there is no way to know! I understand the addition is important to viscosity and thus molding, and mouth feel, but here’s my final sentiment: the less butter the better AND please tell us what % is added to the cocoa mass (-:
”

— Heather Hughes, email

“While I’m sure there are some out there, I’ve never spoken to a chocolate maker who (like myself) makes 2-ingredient chocolate who said it was to showcase their talents. All that I’ve ever spoken to have expressed similar thoughts to my own, which are that I make 2-ingredient chocolate because that’s what I generally most enjoy eating and because I feel that, for me, I can best highlight the flavors of the cacao this way.

This, of course, doesn’t mean that I don’t love chocolate with added cocoa butter.

On a side note, I’d suggest that some of the dry mouthfeel of some 2-ingredient chocolate could be coming from improper processing for that particular cacao. I think that several bars made from Camino Verde cacao (which is notoriously low-fat) show that you can make excellent 2-ingredient chocolate with a low-fat cacao. The ones that come to mind are Rogue Chocolatier’s, Ritual Chocolate’s, and Dick Taylor Craft Chocolate’s.”

— Ben Rasmussen, Potomac Chocolate, Facebook

“The fat content of the beans themselves fluctuates depending on climate and of course distance from the equator. But harvest fluctuations can be pretty dramatic. Our philosophy is pretty simple - if the beans have enough fat, we can do the bar as a 2-ingredient bar. If not, we’ll add butter. There are too many makers sticking with two ingredients with beans that don’t have enough fat, resulting in an extremely dry mouthfeel.”

— David Menkes, LetterPress Chocolate, Facebook

What I’m Tasting Today

French Broad's Limited Edition Panama Bar With Nibs

You Are a Supertaster

March 22, 2016

Photo courtesy Flickr user Linus Bohman — *Photo courtesy* *Flickr user Linus Bohman*

You might not have the years of training to judge a chocolate competition or the taste buds to discern the flavors of raspberry from blackberry in a 70 percent Madagascar bar, but rest assured, you are a supertaster.

That’s because you know what you like to eat best of all. People can tell you that one type of cacao is better than another or one brand is better than another, but at the end of the day, you like what you like.

Too often with high-end foods we’re told what tastes good and what tastes bad, or we’re ashamed when we don’t taste the flavor nuances that someone else describes. I’ve had this experience time and time again: For example, I like Fine & Raw’s salty bar, even though many experts will say it’s not great chocolate. I call it an “eating bar.” I might not sit around and discuss the nuanced flavors in it, but I could happily munch on it after dinner. I’ve also tried tons of chocolate bars and been dismayed that I didn’t taste the notes of starfruit or rye bread or whatever else I “should” have tasted.

Part of that is because we’re all still learning the language to describe what we taste. Translating the experience from our tongues into talk is tricky. Recently I sat in on Whole Foods’ tasting panel, a group of people who have been trained to identify different flavors in food, like the distinction between the taste of brown sugar and caramelized sugar in a milk chocolate. It was fascinating, and proved that anyone can be a supertaster.

In all practicality, though, most of us aren’t going to study 20 types of sugar, 50 types of cacao, and so on. That doesn’t mean we’re disqualified from liking what we like, though. Trust your intuition. Taste freely, and when you find something you like, eat it with abandon.

Do you agree? Disagree? I want to hear from you! Email me at megan@chocolatenoise.com or write me on Facebook or Twitter and tell me what you think and I'll include your comments in the next Chocolate Today.

Reactions

On "Eating Bars"

“Nice to know other people have an ‘eating bar.’ I buy giant 125g bars of dark chocolate from Aldi. They’re nothing special, but it satisfies the sweet craving.

Like what you like!”

— Jason Warner, email

@MeganGiller @chocolatecodex I do. I describe what chocolate is good for if it’s not highly rated. Baking, eating, thinking chocolate.
— ChocolateAdvocate (@ChocoAdvocate) March 22, 2016

@MeganGiller @comconnoisseur Freedom to like what one wants, recognizing that liking a thing doesn't necessarily mean it's good.
— Scott DFW (@dallasfoodorg) March 23, 2016

On "Supertasters"

“Quick comment about your assertion that anyone can be a super taster. Based on what I was taught, that isn’t actually true. Years ago I took an oenology class at UC Davis. One of the things we were being shown was how to identify certain off flavors in wine. The message that came through loudly from the instructors was that yes, anyone can improve their ability to identify flavors and aromas with practice. But not everyone can be a super taster. Tasting is a physical skill and, like most other physical skills, we all don’t have the same natural abilities. Like great athletes, super tasters were born with more natural potential in their flavor receptors. But they need to be developed too or else the potential is never realized.

So this means that an average person, with practice, can indeed get much better at identifying what they are tasting. They can even be better than someone with more natural abilities who has never developed their skills. But they can’t be a super taster unless they have the ingoing natural equipment AND work to develop it.

I understand your desire to empower people to own their tastes. It’s a laudable goal. Too many people eat or drink what they think they “should” like and they waste a lot of money on products whose properties or subtleties they can’t or don’t really appreciate - especially with items that have a perceived sophistication about them like wine or liquor, and maybe chocolate too. I’m not sure where it sits on the sophistication scale but I’m a daily nibbler of Green & Black 85% dark. I’ll own that.”

— Donald Wright, email

“I agree that whatever each person likes is the best to them, but supertaster has a specific definition, so, unless each person fits that specific definition, I don’t think supertaster is the right word. I wouldn’t call people who like and appreciate colors tetrachromats, if they don’t have the ability to see extra colors. It’s the same with supertaster.

I don’t know if just eating chocolate requires a label. If it’s something you love and spend time researching and investigating, maybe aficionado or connoisseur.”

— George Gensler, Facebook

“But who wants to be a supertaster?

The problem with chocolate, as with coffee, tea, cheese, wine, etc. is that the supertasters whilst they can identify the finest nuances, they forget that the product has to appeal to a large group of people to be successful.”

— Julie Fisher, Facebook

Read more reactions on Facebook and Twitter!

What I'm Tasting Today

Guittard's Clair de Lune 85% Bar

"We Were Doing Bean to Bar Before Bean to Bar Was Born"

March 19, 2016

When the Kitchn asked me recently to write a short story defining “bean to bar,” I thought it was going to be a piece of (chocolate) cake.

“All chocolate is technically bean to bar,” I started. Wait, no.

“Bean-to-bar chocolate is better,” I wrote. Scratch that.

I eventually settled on this: “Artisans have started making their own chocolate and overseeing the entire process…to bring out intense flavor notes.”

It’s strange, but there aren't standard definitions for basic terms like “bean to bar,” “artisan,” and “craft," legally and in common parlance.

This only got more confusing when I visited Valrhona recently. “Do you consider us bean to bar?” COO Anthony Valla asked me over a beautiful chocolate cake and a plate of chocolate cupcakes (my, how it’s dangerous to work in their offices!).

“Well, yeah,” I replied. “Of course.”

I’m sure y’all are already familiar with Valrhona, but in case you’re not, the French company has been around since the 1920s, and it’s become the gold standard for high-quality chocolate, in bar form but mostly for pastry chefs and chocolatiers. If they’re using Valrhona, you can almost guarantee that they know what they’re doing. The company even owns a few of its own plantations, so they can control every part of the process and make fabulous chocolate.

*Famous chefs like Lincoln Carson with their hands dipped in chocolate, on the wall at Valrhona in Brooklyn*

Anthony and I went back and forth and then forth and back about the differences between bean-to-bar companies and industrial companies. At what point is a company big enough to stop being considered “bean to bar”? Or does size have anything to do with it?

He had the last word, though, with this definitive statement: “We were doing bean to bar before bean to bar was born.”

Do you think he’s right? What does “bean to bar” mean to you?

I want to start a wiki here on Chocolate Noise where we can hammer out the definitions of these terms. It will all be under a Creative Commons license so that anyone who wants to can use the agreed-upon definitions, and I'll plan to publish them in my upcoming book, so that it represents everyone. But first I want to gauge interest. Tell me your definition of "bean to bar" on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram!

Would You Eat Tortilla Chip Chocolate?

March 17, 2016

Photo courtesy Flickr user Martin Kleppe — *Photo courtesy* *Flickr user Martin Kleppe*

Ritter Sports’ new chocolate bar is…crispy tortilla chip! My first reaction was, What is the world coming to? And then I remembered that chocolate has been paired with corn since it was invented.

The Premesoamericans, the Aztecs, and the Mayans drank their cacao with corn, achiote, chilis, and spices like cinnamon, and in fact, the people of Mexico today still drink chocolate this way. It’s kind of like a nutritious porridge, and it isn't all too sweet. The Europeans added sugar to cacao and, eventually, milk, and Ritter Sport’s milk chocolate with tortilla chips follows that tradition to a T (pun intended).

@MeganGiller Sure. Chocolate was paired with corn for a couple of millennia before it was paired with sugar or milk. It's a classic.
— Scott DFW (@dallasfoodorg) March 2, 2016

@ChocoAdvocate @dallasfoodorg @MeganGiller and the crunch! Could be a deadly bar. Corn. Salt. Crunch. Imagine that with *great* chocolate?!
— The Chocolate Garage (@chocolategarage) March 2, 2016

We’re used to drinking hot chocolate and eating sweet chocolate desserts with flour in them, but corn and cacao aren’t that familiar. That’s why I’m including a recipe for a traditional beverage called champurrado in my upcoming book: Think a thick, almost nutty water-based drink with plenty of chocolate, corn, and spices. Who knows: It might be your new favorite way to enjoy chocolate.

The Life and Times of CHOCOLATE, Part 2

March 15, 2016

If you missed it, check out Part 1, How Chocolate Is Born

Unroasted cocoa beans taste nothing like chocolate. I know, it’s weird. I guess if you squint your eyes and really pretend, you can kind of taste what will turn into chocolate.

The process of creating chocolate from raw cocoa beans is long and complicated, which is why Ecole Chocolat and I have partnered to put together a four-part series about where the heck chocolate comes from called "The Life and Times of Chocolate." Last month we cartoonized how chocolate is born, and this month we’re tackling how cocoa beans become chocolate. We hope to tell the story as simply as possible, and while we may not capture all of the nuances of the bean-to-bar process, we hope people remember the image.

So without further ado, here it is! First our little cocoa beans get toasted brown and chocolatey in the roaster. Then the beans are cracked and their outer shell winnowed away, getting naked for all the world to see (in an SFW kind of way). The part of the bean that's left is called the nibs. After that it's a trip to the grinder with sugar and sometimes extra cocoa butter for sweetness and flavor. Then the chocolate is tempered, a process that uses temperature and motion to make sure the chocolate hardens shiny and stable. And last but not least, the chocolate is molded into bars! (Thanks to Fernanda Frick for the awesome illustration.) Stay tuned for Part 3 next month!

How to Pair Chocolate With Anything and Everything, According to L.A. Burdick

March 10, 2016

Recently I caught up with Michael Klug from chocolatier L.A. Burdick to talk — what else — chocolate. Beyond working at Michelin-starred restaurants all over the world, he’s a master chocolatier whose bonbons are some of the best in the country.

“Try this one!” he said, pushing a hazelnut bonbon toward me. “Now this one!” A Kenyan milk chocolate with coffee grinds. Then the Richelieu, a dark chocolate cherry truffle with vanilla and a hint of cumin, garnished with a dried red cherry “cap” like the French cardinal likely wore. We continued like that for a while, with me stuffing my face and Michael giving some great advice:

On Cocoa Percentage

“Would you choose wine based on the percentage of alcohol?” Nope, that’s why 85% cacao or 70% cacao doesn’t mean that much in the scheme of things: Balance is everything.

On Tasting Bonbons

“Eat a bonbon slowly. Let it aerate. Cocoa butter melts at body temperature. It’s more interesting when you can discover the subtleties.”

On Making Ice Cream

“Add chocolate at the end, after you’ve made the base.” That way you won’t get frozen chunks of chocolate but a nice creamy frozen treat.

He also brought out some amazing new bonbons that L.A. Burdick will feature in April: Hand-cut elephants with Marcona almond ears. They’re just about the cutest things I’ve ever seen.

The milk chocolate is filled with orange ganache, but it’s the dark chocolate that steals the show: They’re filled with passionfruit and amarula ganache. Turns out elephants in Africa love marula fruit and eat as much of it as they can get their trunks on (it actually makes them lose their balance and act drunk — even though they’re not!). Amarula liqueur is made from the marula fruit, and Michael thought it was the perfect way to honor the elephant. Five percent of the proceeds from the sales will go toward the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust to protect African elephants.

As I ate more chocolate bonbons than I thought possible, Michael and I started commiserating about the whole chocolate and red wine pairing thing, and after trying his truffle with MacAllan whiskey and pistachio marzipan, I had a revelation: Why do we keep trying to pair things that don’t go together? In Michael’s words, the acidity of wine and chocolate fight each other rather than harmonize.

That’s why he’s helping me put together a comprehensive pairing guide for my book that will include some pretty nifty and new pairings: tea, coffee, and more, as well as new-school classics like whiskey.

Askinosie Chocolate paired with a delicious-looking latte

I’m super excited about this, since it won’t be the same tired combinations you’ve seen a thousand times.

What other foods and beverages would you like to see paired? Tell me on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram!

Dandelion Chocolate Opens in TOKYO

March 6, 2016

Dandelion Chocolate is about as San Francisco as they come, with its founders’ tech startup roots and an adorable café and factory in the Mission District, but in early February, the amazing chocolate maker opened its first INTERNATIONAL store, in Tokyo. I don’t usually post news here, but this is epic.

There was a line around the block, and apparently by Valentine’s Day they were completely sold out of bars (plus about 650 pastries and 350 drinks per day).

Dandelion sent me some EXCLUSIVE photos from the Tokyo store to show y’all exactly what’s happening over there on the other side of the world.

Pretty soon the Tokyo store will start making their chocolate in-house with the same recipes as in San Francisco, and they’re offering the same crazy-good treats like single-origin brownies and s’mores. Plus they’re teaching classes on chocolate (and how to make it), just like in the States.

And to top it off, Dandelion is working on a much bigger space down the street in the Mission. Stay tuned for more information about that.

In other words, bean-to-bar revolution, folks. Bean-to-bar revolution.

The Molten Lava Cake Wars

February 29, 2016

Photo courtesy Flickr user tzejen — *Photo courtesy Flickr user* *tzejen*

Chocolate lava cake: timeless or tired? Recently I came face-to-face with this (moral?) dilemma at Jean-Georges, where my boyfriend had splurged on a Valentine's Day dinner. The four-part chocolate dessert tasting included the molten mixture — not surprising, since Jean-Georges Vongerichten has served the same prix fixe menu since the restaurant opened, in 1997.

Back then lava cake was all the rage. Chocolatier Jacques Torres claims to have invented the dish, but Jean-Georges Vongerichten disputes him vehemently, saying that he accidentally pulled a chocolate sponge cake out of the oven before it was finished and discovered a runny center. It was so delicious that he decided to invent a cake that was intentionally molten in the center. Voila! The famed lava cake. (It's worth noting that Lucky Peach's history of the dish says that it dates back to a 1966 Pillsbury bake-off in which the second-place winner was called the Tunnel of Fudge Cake.)

These days molten lava cake will make most people think not of high-end cuisine but of Chili’s. As I I cut into the soft chocolate exterior of the dense chocolate cake, and beautiful, rich chocolate spilled out onto the plate (and quickly made its way to my mouth), I couldn’t help but think of that movie Chef. A food critic has written that he’d “much rather have the chef sit on his face on a warm day after a brisk walk in the park than have to take another bite of his uninspired chocolate lava cake.” The chef then completely loses his sh*t on the critic in a full-fledged meltdown.

So what do you think: Does molten lava cake pass the test of time, or would you rather eat your chocolate cake in a more experimental form?

I'm Writing a BOOK!

February 23, 2016

Decadent chocolate liquor at Dandelion Chocolate

I am BEYOND EXCITED to announce that I’m writing a book about the American craft chocolate movement! As my publisher, Storey, described it this morning on Publisher’s Marketplace, it’s a luscious bean-to-bar celebration of the process and craft of American chocolate and the artisans fueling its rise.

In other words, it’s everything you need to know about bean-to-bar chocolate, from the chocolate-making process to profiles of the best makers in the country to mouthwatering recipes from chefs and chocolate makers like chocolate cups with balsamic strawberries and salted brown butter pecan caramel brownies, with gorgeous photos to boot. It will be published in 2017, and look out for pre-ordering coming soon!

Thanks to Clay Gordon for the mouthwatering recipe!

Get an inside look at the sometimes inadvertently hilarious process of writing a book, recipe testing, and eating chocolate day in and day out here on the Musings section of Chocolate Noise. Now, guys and gals, get back to tasting your regularly scheduled breakfast chocolate bar!

Jungle M&Ms, and Other Adventures

February 19, 2016

Our tour guide, Cuthbert Monroque, at Hotel Chocolat. Photo by Jenny Sathngam. — *Our tour guide, Cuthbert Monroque, at Hotel Chocolat. Photo by Jenny Sathngam.*

In the lush jungle of Saint Lucia, cacao grows everywhere. I visited the island in June with my photographer friend Jenny Sathngam, and we ate more than our fair share of chocolate, cacao nibs, and cacao fruit, which tastes kind of like a mangosteen or lychee. The Dallas Morning News has just published a big feature on our trip. Here's a short excerpt and a few of Jenny's gorgeous photos.

"Our tour guide, Cuthbert Monroque, practically shouts through his three remaining teeth, “Do you know what type of cocoa tree this is from?” He’s holding a vibrant purple pod about the size of a Nerf football as we stand next to a cluster of trees, all of which are different.

"Monroque has just plucked a pod from a Trinitario tree, so that’s what each of us starts guessing, ever eager to be good students. Turns out it’s criollo, one of the rare trees that grows delicate-tasting cacao considered to be the best in the world. He hacks it open with a machete and lo and behold, it’s not filled with liquid chocolate but instead a fruity white pulp encasing about 50 cocoa beans. With frenetic energy, he passes it around, and we each pluck one bean from the cone and suck on the pulp.

“'Jungle M&M’S,'” he says with a charming grin."

Workers care for tiny cacao plants at Hotel Chocolat's nursery, convincing them to grow into tall trees. Photo by Jenny Sathngam.

*At plantation Fond Doux, cacao beans dry in the sun in these giant racks. When it rains, workers slide the racks back under cover to protect the beans. Photo by Jenny Sathngam*

Everything relates back to chocolate at Hotel Chocolat, even the burger. The bun is shaped like a cacao pod, and the burger is made with cacao nibs and served with a cacao nib vinaigrette on the side. Meanwhile the porter is made with cacao shells. … — Everything relates back to chocolate at Hotel Chocolat, even the burger. The bun is shaped like a cacao pod, and the burger is made with cacao nibs and served with a cacao nib vinaigrette on the side. Meanwhile the porter is made with cacao shells. Photo by Jenny Sathngam

Read the full story here.

The Life and Times of CHOCOLATE, Part 1

February 15, 2016

Despite what most of us think, chocolate doesn’t appear fully formed out of thin air, a gift of the flavor gods to us gluttons. Instead, it starts as a cacao flower and pod on a TREE. (While this has convinced some people that chocolate is technically salad, this isn’t quite the case.) The process of creating chocolate from that tree pod is long and complicated, which is why Ecole Chocolat and I have partnered to put together a four-part series about where the heck chocolate comes from. We hope to tell the story as simply as possible, and while we may not capture all of the nuances of post-harvest and factory processes, we hope people remember the image.

Here’s the first stage of the process, before the chocolate maker even gets his or her hands on the beans. First the ripe cacao pods are cracked open and the beans are harvested. Then our friend the cacao bean gets chocolate-wasted off fermented cacao-pulp martinis and tans in the sun until he’s all dried out. (Thanks to Fernanda Frick for the awesome illustration.) Stay tuned for Part 2 next month!

Blind Tasting

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On Cocoa Percentage

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