November 2011 Blog Posts (9)

 

Emmanuel Hamon, French Pastry chef has just won the contest of "The most beautiful Chrismas Log cake 2011". contest organized by Macarons& Gourmandises (N°1 French media and online dedicated to pastry / chocolate high end). For this second edition, Emmanuel Hamon did…

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The 8^th time I visited Le Salon du Chocolat in Paris. To be honest: I love it and I hate it. It’s too big and too crowded. But I have to go because every year I find some very special things that makes the trip worth it. First I check which chocolatiers won the awards from Le Club Des Croqueurs de Chocolat. I mostly agree with their opinion. Five of the twelve best were at Le Salon: Pascal Le Gac, Vincent Guerlais, Jean-Paul Hévin, Sadaharu Aoki and ES Koyama.  The last one I had…

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This was the first year of the Single Origin Event in The Netherlands. Hopefully this will be a yearly event from now on. The location was Restaurant Merkelbach in Amsterdam. The event was organized by Erik Sauer of El Sauco, distributor of some very beautiful single origin chocolates (yes also Original Beans!) and Erik Spande, owner of Chocolátl chocolate shop in Amsterdam. They invited Santiago (Pacari), Mott (Grenada), Philipp (Original Beans) and Kees (Metropolitan Deli) to tell the…

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It took me some time to recover from my first Chocolate Triathlon in October. Fortunately I am in good shape again and I can tell you about my experiences. The three parts were: Chocolate Unwrapped in London, The Single Origin Event in Amsterdam and Le Salon du Chocolat in Paris. Now up to London!

This was my first visit to Chocolate Unwrapped. The event was held in Vinopolis near Borough Market, a beautiful location. I helped both days at the booth of Original Beans. A lot of people…

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Published by Max Felchlin AG, Schwyz, on the occasion of the 100th anniversary. (2008)

Since visiting Felchlin 2010 and 2011, I must admit I’m addicted to there chocolate and there philosophy.      This book is to interesting not to blog, so I must share this on my blog.

The Planter: From Gatherer to Large Landowner

The cacao tree is a delicate plant that needs special care and attention. Farmers often cultivate small…

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I'd never been to one of these gigs, so it was interesting.  The first aroma I encountered was that of tons of spices.  I thought they'd be related to some variety of chocolate bing made or sampled, but they were just spices being sold by a spice vendor.  A little odd, especially at the entrance.

I actually thought there would be more vendors, but perhaps I had more grandiose expectations.  Favorite was the Praus booth.  They were sampling every bar they had and they'd really speak at…

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Dear La Vida Coca fans;

As I sip my cafe moca (more Moca than Coffee) I was regailed in the local

New York Times (Helo Red Hook) with two health pieces on my favorite bean.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/30/health/30prevention.html?_r=1

 

Prevention: Evidence of Heart Benefits From…

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I found this text (source Nutrition Food), and after reading it I wasn't sure if it was correct, so I was thinking why dont I open a blogpage about it.

The Importance of Wild Cacao

Cacao is a native of the tropics, and has spread from its ancestral home of Central and South America to almost every rainforest ecosystem on the planet. Deep within the Indonesian jungle, a variety of cacao emerged from the rich volcanic soil in complete isolation, known only to natives of a…

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It is expected a good crop of Criollo Cacao Arriba has been working with rehabilitation of farms mediating recovery from pruning and native varieties of trees that have more than 100 years, I think that has been working well in the process of post-harvest and grain quality , we are entering actulamente change processes in the system of marketing, we are in search of buyers who value the traceability and quality, and organoleptic parameters of our cocoa, we have implemented process of Liquor,… Continue