20°N & 20°S

Where the heck have I been?

Quick post. I have been taking time off from writing because frankly speaking reviewing was starting to feel like a job. I didn't want to just keep blabbing to put content out there for quick views and to keep my blog at the top of any searches. It was getting annoying to think like that and blogging felt like work. It's chocolate. It's a hobby for me. It's was supposed to be fun. It wasn't feeling like that for a while.

In the middle of taking some time off, I got pregnant! I had a beautiful little girl named Charlie Jean. Love of my life.  Being pregnant was the best time of my life. I had a phenomenal pregnancy and it was a great joy. It's okay if you want to throw daggers at me because never once got morning sickness and I lost a ton of weight not gaining weight. I will completely understand. But during that time I lost my taste for dark chocolate. Enough where I couldn't reasonably write about it. I had to chop up my entire library of chocolate bars and sadly watch my husband eat it all. I was still able to enjoy some milk chocolate and chocolate desserts. I especially loved brownies and chocolate cake. But it was not the same. The aromas and flavors of dark chocolate became too intense for me. 

Thankfully I got it all back now. There were no lasting changes to my palate. None that I am aware of yet. Chocolate seems to be back on par. You still won't catch me writing ridiculous, overly wordy, flowery descriptions of my reviews. "The chocolate had an essence of dessert heat that reminded me of being Morocco with figs, dates, and hookas." That was never my style and it's never going to be. I taste more bluntly and more organically. I generally find wood, dirty earthy flavors, green earthy flavors, cereals and grains, and common fruit descriptors like berries. Common and repeats itself a lot I find. Also unique with me is pen ink. I mention this a lot because I taste this a lot. Certain regions, certain beans have a distinctive Bic Pen ink flavor. It might sound ridiculous, but it's there a lot for me. Plums, dark fruits, berries can all be fairly generic at times. If I note it when tasting, I will say something. But I don't plan to write or change myself to be a writer that makes up ridiculous things to say to sound like something I am not. 

I am mentioning all this stuff because I am going to change my blog around. Edit the layout, redesign maybe. Slowly but surely. I want to review more drinking chocolates. All the bars I end up buying to taste, end up melted down for drinking chocolate. I like it so much better sometimes. I prefer sampling and really savoring chocolate but in small doses. After that I want to drink it. So you will be seeing more of that. I am also toying with the idea of just talking about the chocolate instead of the classic reviews I give. Just give it a simple grade and move on. I haven't fully committed to that idea, but you might see that.  

Anyway, thank you for following me on Twitter and Facebook and thank you for having even the slightest interest in what I have to say about chocolate. It will be good to get back to it. 

 

Up next, Taste Fruition and Millcreek Cacao Roasters. 

I am back!

 

I have taken a short hiatus from writing about chocolate to reevaluate some things and to get my priorities in order. I have recently moved from Boston to Denver, Colorado. Very big change and uproot in my life. But well worth it. I am in Ritual Chocolate territory now. I am deciding what to do with my current rating system for chocolate. I may keep it, I may not. But for now I think I want to just write about products I find without scoring and just talk about the products more in depth.

New companies interested in my reviews or write ups about their products can contact me at [email protected].

Thanks for staying a fan and following me on twitter or facebook.

 

@ChocoAdvocate

 

Chocolate Advocate Facebook

Westvleteren 12 Truffles

 

 

As some of you may or may not know, I have just come back from a fabulous boat cruise through Amsterdam and Belgium. The trip was dedicated to beer. One of the prized locations we visited was the abbey of Sint Sixtus of Westvleteren in Belgium. Makers of one of the most sought after beers in the world, Westvleteren 12, a Belgian Quadruple ale that sits around 10% abv. Sint Sixtus is a Trappist monastery that makes beer to sustain their peaceful and quite lifestyles that they solely dedicate to God. 

The reason the beer is so coveted is because it is not sold in stores. There are rumors that this will be changing for a few places around Belgium, but out of respect for the monks, they ask that the beer is not sold outside of the monistary. Unfortunately their efforts have gone in vain for some who seek to exploit them. Ebay, greedy restaurants who happen to have a stock pile, and other selfish for-profit traders have shone a bad light on this coveted beer. Now, there is a limit from the Abbey as to how much you can buy, sometimes they don't even sell it to you at all. Their intentions were to make a beer that would sustain their lifestyles, not create greed and fervour. 

Other reasons are it's intensely rich flavors and strong abv content. Seems like a lot of hardcore beer geeks covet the abv factor over drinkability at times, but that's not to slight Westvleteren 12. It is a delicious beer. Their blonde ale goes largely ignored by the geeks as does the bruin which is a fabulous and rich beer in it's own right. They rate highly, but are never talked about or traded as fiercely. 

 

Conditions Westvleteren Trappist is sold only to individual customers. Every customer agrees not to re-sell the beer to any third party.

In our case we were allowed to visit, buy beer in very generous portions, and even sit with the monks for a very special prayer service. This was most generous of them and a moment I will be forever grateful for. It was a Lou Reed-kind of moment with perfect weather, and a grateful group of tourists. 

 

When we arrived, we sat in the cafe, In De Vrede (In the Shadow of Sint-Sixtus Abbey), located at the abbey to enjoy a little lunch and some free flowing Westvleteren beers from draft. They had a small gift shop where I found the truffles. They sell a variety of items such as gingerbread, Westvleteren washed-rind cheese, and pates. 

We proceeded to have lunch and beers. 

 

Westvleteren 6 or Blond and Westvleteren 8 or Bruin. 

 

Pumpkin soup with fresh cream. 

 

Ham sandwich and chicken sandwich. Belgian-style! 

 

 

And of course the famed Westvleteren 12.

 

 

This beer has not been a particular favorite of mine. I have found the beer to be too big, too hot, and too sweet to be enjoyable. Maybe I have had improperly stored beers before. Now, I like it much better from the source. I always knew it would be different having it fresh at the source, but previous experiences with the beer haven't been that great. Today, I am happy to report it is a much better beer than I anticipated. It's much smoother and not at all hot like I had tasted before. Still not my favorite though. The blond is truly the underrated beer of Westvleteren. But the 12 is perfect for chocolate.

 

These were supposed to be opened and tasted on the beer boat cruise, but we had so much food and beers that no one really had room to eat it. I am reserving the post about the food served to us on the boat for my Pork Chops & Chicken blog. Unfortunately, while staying in Brussels at the end of the trip for one day, it ruined my Westvleteren Truffles. At least in appearance. The room we stayed in had no A/C and was overly hot. We couldn't even open windows to air the place out. It was miserable to even sleep in there let alone try and store chocolate. So the truffles melted a bit. I was able to recover them by putting them in the fridge as soon as I got home. They just aren't pretty anymore. 

 

I have almost no information about these truffles except that they were made at the cafe and with the Westy 12. I have no idea what kind of chocolate they used or it's percentage. 

The aroma on both is very boozy, sweet, malty from the beer. The plain or rolled in cocoa powder truffles have no characteristics of the chocolate except for some very slight nuttiness. Taste is like eating brownie batter with a bit of some heat behind it. Taste a little fruity too like some deep cherries hidden underneath the chocolate. Faint, but still there. Nice lingering beer taste on the finish. These are delicious and much like the beer, a very nice surprise in how different it tastes. I was expecting rich chocolate and overbearing beer tastes due to it's nose. It's quite the opposite. It's quite the surprise. 

The coconut ones have a sweet and light aroma of coconut as well as a big boozy aroma too. The coconut adds a nice, sweeter flavor and richer note. Same brownie batter like taste with some boozy heat. But much softer and better with the coconut. 

The texture has smooth chocolate for a the shell and a bit cake-y in the center which gave way to that brownie-like taste. 

These are pretty awesome and very different than I expected. They will make a fantastic gift if you ever get yourself to Belgium to visit the abbey. Just make sure you store them right until you get home to eat them. 

American Craft Beer (Fest) Dinner @ Green Street 6/16/10

Easily the best beer dinner I have ever hosted. Easily.

For those who are regular followers of this chocolate blog and may not realize, my day job is working for my husband Todd, who is the co-founder with his brother Jason, of BeerAdvocate.com. I manage and organize all the beer festivals we host in around Boston, and I set up tastings and dinners around the city as well.

The American Craft Beer festival was just last weekend. The week leading up to the festival was Boston Beer Week. Our official event was hosted on the Wednesday before the festival at Green Street in Cambridge with our good friend Dylan Black, the owner of Green Street.

We called it the American Craft Beer (Fest) Dinner not only because it was the official event for the American Craft Beer Festival, but because we included all aspects of American craft featuring beer, cheese, chocolate and cooking. All of which are in the same boat in this journey of making quality foods and drinks using the best ingredients all by fine American producers.

With chocolate being a passion of mine, and beer being the main event for the week we decided to host a beer and chocolate dinner including American craft cheese from New England. Emily Shartin, the chocolate buyer of Formaggio Kitchen, worked closely with me to help make this dinner come together. She helped bring in Jasper Hill Farm, one of my favorite cheese makers in the US and helped us secure our orders for the chocolate. She also regularly brings me chocolate to sample and try of some of her favorites and has been a hero to this blog.

We invited my good personal friend and founder of Sixpoint Craft Ales, Shane Welch to come be apart of the dinner. Sixpoint being from Brooklyn and working closely with artisan chocolate makers Rick and Michael Mast of the Mast Brothers Chocolate from Brooklyn, naturally we invited them to be paired together for the dinner.

I also invited a new friend to the Boston area, Alan McClure of Patric Chocolate in Columbia, Mo. to come and be apart of the dinner. He stayed for the whole weekend to check out the beer festival. Hopefully more beers on the market will be made with his products. Pairing beers for his chocolate was the tricky part. With the Mast and Sixpoint, they already have a good working relationship, Alan sells cocoa to Jolly Pumpkin Artisan Ales, but since Jolly Pumpkin hasn't been available to attend one of our beer festivals for a while, and Patric makes some very serious, and amazing chocolate, I had to find a brewery worthy of the match.

And then it came to me, Cambridge Brewing Co. Local and long time friends Will Meyers and Megan Parisi, both Head Brewer and brewer for CBC. I couldn't have been more right to have chosen them for this dinner and you will see why as I get into this dinner.

This dinner despite all the planning, discussions, and tastings with brewers, really belongs to head chef Greg Reeves. I worked with Greg once before to host the Ithaca Beer Dinner, Green Street's first beer dinner as well as hosting various tastings with Greg for special beer releases paired with Green Street's infamous tacos. Simply put Greg is masterful. If there is a beer he hasn't tried, he just needs a few key descriptors of the beer to knock it out of the park. Most chefs worth their salt can do this, but after having worked with a lot of amazing chefs, I don't think anyone is better at it than Greg Reeves. I do have to honorably mention Steve Brand from Upstairs on The Square who is also very masterful at beer pairings and truly loves beer.

I should preface that this had a very strange sounding menu. Things that sounded odd, and seemed strange ended up being some of the best pairings I have ever had.

I also have to preface that my old, outdated camera that has done me well for so long doesn't like beer apparently. It loves food and gets wonderful shots of food, but never seems to do me any justice on beer pictures. So please don't mind my shoddy photography on the beer.

Welcoming: The Audacity of Hops from Cambridge Brewing Co. A Belgian IPA. From Will's notes, Audacity of Hops (Belgian Double I.P.A., 8.8%): grass/fruit/floral nose, hints of phenol/sulphur yeast Belgian notes, funky. Quick pale malt notes and floral hop finish, medium hop bitterness.

We then opened with some of Green Street's famous tacos. We wanted to get the expected out of the way early. Molé is to be expected with chocolate pairings. Savory and classic. So we introduced a chicken molé taco and the Mast Brothers placed some cocoa nibs on each table which we loaded up inside the taco as well. It wasn't a deep brown mole taco, more of an essence to the taco. This ended up being the perfect match to the Audacity of Hops. It was a little spicy, and the hop flavors from the Belgian IPA interacted nicely. The chicken and the sweet malts enhanced one and other.

[The Audacity of Hops on the right in first pic.]



First Course: Cured & cooked hams with mint, basil, melon, cocoa nibs, and a chocolate aioli. Patric Chocolate Madagascar cocoa nibs, and Patric Chocolate 70% Madagascar Bar with nibs.

Beer: CBC's Spring Training IPA, (Will's Notes) American IPA, 6.3%: fruity/floral/grassy nose, low bitterness, clean malt palate.

[My bad pictures of the beer.]

This pairing came together on one request, that we definitely use Patric's Madagascar cocoa nibs. It was the first thing I sat down with Will Meyers and Megan Parisi to taste. Interestingly enough it worked out really well with the Spring Training IPA. Normally I wouldn't have gone this route haven't had little or no success with pairing chocolate and IPA's together. But with these nibs from Madagascar and the hallmark flavor profiles being woody, cedar wood, cherries, and a tart base, it ended up being a natural fit for the grassy and fresh IPA which isn't hop heavy.

Chocolate aioli? What? When Greg mentioned he wanted to make this, I think all of us at the planning meeting were a little curious. It sounded weird, and being paired with melons and ham it really didn't sounds like it would work. I have learned to trust Greg, and I went with it. Mainly because I was curious as to how we would pull this off. It more than worked.

The Sambirano Delta River Valley at the top Northwest of this map. Just barely inside the parallel of 20N and 20S. This is where Patric sources his Madagascar beans. Read my original reviews for the 70% with nibs to get a full understanding of this chocolate.

70% with Nibs review.



The flavors were all in perfect balance. The light floral, grassy IPA being balanced with the salty hams and sweet melons. The basil added the right herbal pop to the dish. The chocolate aioli made with the melted down 70% Madagascar bar with nibs was salty, buttery, rich with roasted cocoa, and savory adding more of a balance in bringing out the ham's flavors and more of a sweetness to the IPA. This course was fresh, light, and extremely flavorful. A great way to get started.



Second Course: Warm handmade pretzels sandwiches with melted Cabot clothbound cheddar (aged at Jasper Hill Farm cellars) with Mast Brothers Patanemo Grand Cru bar 75% (Ocumare de la Costa, Venezuela) melted for dipping.

Beer: Sixpoint's Righteous Ale, 7.2% Rye Ale

Handmade pretzels with kosher salt, and salty cheddar cheese balanced by sweet malty rye beer, and an amazing new grand cru chocolate from the Mast Brothers. This is the one course I couldn't stop dipping my finger in the chocolate until it was all gone.


A new bar for the Mast Bros. from the Ocumare de la Costa region of Venezuela. This is going back to their roots a bit. Originally the base for their bars was made with Venezuelan beans. Not the same region, but still Venezuelan. They have switched to Madagascar, but I didn't think was entirely the right move. While their Madagascar bars taste good, it tastes a bit unbalanced to me. I found their Venezuelan bars more more balanced and refined.

[Source: travelmarcelo.com]

Ocumare de la Costa is in the northern coastal region in the Aragua State of Venezuela.

Via: The Nibble

•Criollo & Trinitario •Darker, robust •Cashews, peanuts •Spice, pepper

Ocumare 67. Originally from the Ocumare de la Costa valley, a Criollo and Trinitario hybridized blend. Interesting flavors of cashews, peanuts, spice, pepper, and sometimes dairy. The tone is a little darker than Ocumare 61 and it does not possess 61’s sharpness. It is more robust than 61 in overall character, with a heavier body.

The salty pretzel and salty cheddar were nearly too dominating, until you dipped it into the chocolate and took a sip of the rye beer. Then it was magic. Originally I thought the chocolate would be melted into the pretzel together with the sandwich, but the chocolate was so rich, it was better to have dipped each bit in the chocolate.

The chocolate was rich, fruity, and bold. Awesome roasted cocoa flavors which helped soften the cheese and pretzel. I wasn't able to fully get the range of this chocolate with everything going on for this pairing, but the rye was a spot on match for the chocolate. The rye actually stood out on the beer and the sweet malts softened the bitter edges of the chocolate allowing more robust fruity notes to come out and helped tame the salt and bitterness of the cheddar.

Once again something no one quite expected and wasn't sure how would be based on the way it sounded. Salty, big, robust cheddar on a pretzel with melted chocolate. And of all things paired with a rye beer. This dinner just kept getting better and better.


Third Course: Pan Roasted Duck breast, Patric Chocolates Rio Caribe (Venezuelan) 70% Chocolate Rissotto, Cherries, chocolate gastrique.

Beer: CBC's The Colonel. Will's notes: Tart barrel aged Porter with Brettanomyces, 6.5%. Complex fruity nose, tart bright acidity, a little funk/barnyard. palate hits tart and fruity first, then roast characters come out with mellow American oak - hints of vanilla and char - in the finish.

 

This is the chocolate I reviewed like a beer geek might review a lambic or a guezue. Very funky, deep, rich chocolate from the North Eastern coastal region of Venezuela. I ended my review of this chocolate with "I am not even sure if I really like this chocolate, I think I just like how raw and aggressive it is. This is not a beginners chocolate."

Rio Caribe 70% review.


Of course both Greg Reeves and Will Meyers loved it as it isn't even remotely close to what you might expect chocolate to taste like. The funkier and more different it is, the bigger the challenge and the more fun it is to pair is how they both looked at it.

The duck breast was cooked perfectly. Soft and game-y and a little steel-y tasting which I happened to love. The cherries and cherry gastrique added the right pop of sweetness to the dish and interacted extremely well with the beer. The sour Brett notes of the beer along with it's roasted porter notes worked so well with the chocolate risotto.

The chocolate risotto was expected to be slightly bitter due to the chocolate, but ended up being amazing. There was no bitterness, only rich, savory, roasted chocolate notes. Lovely chicken stock added a glossy shine to the perfectly cooked rice, and a hint of a spicy character to the risotto.

The beer was something I was slightly concerned about as I am not personally a big fan of Brettanomyces beers. But this was fantastic. The tartness, was not overbearing and the oak flavors added a lovely richness to the steel-y game taste of the duck breast. Naturally the cherries and the the roasted porter notes were a hit. It was extremely drinkable and delicious.

I have never had anything as odd as this before, yet so right.


Fourth Course: Bayley Hazen blue cheese on toasted brioche with a Mast Brothers Madagascar 72% chocolate-strawberry confiture with Mast Brothers Nibs.

Beer: Sixpoint's Old Krusher, 9.8% Barleywine made with farmed Amish Maple Syrup.

A huge way to end the already super-flavorful night. Sixpoint's new barleywine made with Amish maple syrup and Bayley Hazen blue cheese was a big hit.

This blue cheese is a personal favorite of mine with big Earthy notes, salty, bold, and big steel notes from the blue veins. This can be considered a more rustic blue cheese, but don't let anyone fool you and say it's mild. I usually pair this cheese with Double IPA's for the same reasons behind pairing it with an American-style barleywine. Lot's of hops with alpha acids to cut through the cheese, and sweet malts to help mingle with the steel-y blue veins. It's a no-brainer, natural, and amazing pairing.

The strawberries added the right balance of tart to the course with the sweet brioche that had the consistency of an English muffin and it helped round everything out. I didn't notice much of the cocoa except for a few hints with the nibs. I think the cheese was frankly too big to notice the subtitles of the chocolate, but it still managed to work incredibly well with the beer.

Sadly, I didn't get a picture of the beer and I didn't do the right thing by taking a sip of the beer first to try and get an understanding of it before the pairing. I do know I liked it a lot with this course and am anxiously looking forward to finding more of it. 

We finished our night with more beer from CBC and samples of Mast Brothers bars and Patric Chocolate bars. I was able to taste that Patanemo Grand Cru from the Mast Brothers in bar form. All I can say is that I can't wait to review it.

It only took 3 cocktails after the dinner to tone down the effects of the chocolate. I heard from several people that it took a long time to finally unwind and sleep after that dinner.

I had a wonderful time meeting the Rick and Michael Mast of Mast Brothers Chocolate and Alan McClure of Patric Chocolate. It was a very big deal to me that they would travel all that way to come to my beer dinner. And of course it was great to hang out with Will and Megan both of whom I have known for years and absolutely love. And I can't forget my close friend Shane Welch, whom helped me convince those hipsters at Mast that coming up for one of my events would be more than worth it. Dylan Black of Green Street really did a great job of hosting this event and making it all possible for us.

A big thank you to Valerie Conyngham of Vianne Chocolat for coming to attend the dinner and David Goldstein of Boston Chocolate Tours for attending as well. Also on hand were the chocolate makers of Taza Chocolate. 

I am sure a lot of this dinner sounds interesting, bizarre, weird, strange, amazing, fantastic. It was all of the above. If you missed it, I can't say I feel sorry for you unless you live out of town. It was truly an amazing dinner and Greg Reeves is amazing. Everyone had a lot of fun and left very happy and full.

Look for more events of this nature from me through BeerAdvocate as I launch a new series of beer dinners called "Things We Love." I have no doubt chocolate will come up again.

2010 MSPCA Walk For Animals

 

Taking time out from chocolate to talk about Team BeerAdvocate for the MSPCA Walk For Animals.

BeerAdvocate.com and now my newest adventure 20°N & 20°S, generally focuses charity efforts towards one cause, animals. We are animals lovers and we care deeply about what happens to them. This is the focus we want to aim our efforts towards. It doesn't mean we do not support other causes. It just means that our general focus is towards animal charities.

For the past two years, Team BeerAdvocate has been the number one team donating in all of the Boston area. We keep getting better and better thanks to die hard beer lovers, friends and families, and animal lovers in general.

In our first walk, I only found out about it with one month before the walk. We managed to bring in about $1500. The next year we set the goal at $3,000. We ended up with just over $6,000. And then there was last year's effort. We set the bar at $6,000 and ended up with over $9,000. And of all things, we managed to raise that monster number during an economic crisis.

We had a lot of help from our friends who joined the team and businesses who contributed to our efforts. It has been truly unbelievable for to be able to manage this kind of fundraising. The folks at the MSPCA have said no one has rocked it like that before. The usual top teams before us managed around $3,000. Granted they don't have access to our huge network around New England or the country for that matter. But I am egotistical and want nothing more than to win and generate money for animals, so I feel no shame about my connections to a vast number of people.

This year we decided that if we could raise as much money as we did last year in an economic crisis, then we should be able to go even bigger this year. We set the goal at $15,000.

This means we are going to need all the help we can get. Small or large donations, we don't care as long as you can help in some way. I am asking that all my readers pitch in and help out to donate to Team BeerAdvocate. You can join our team or just make a donation to our teams effort.

The walk will take place on Sunday, Sept. 12th on the Boston Commons.

For businesses, breweries, restaurants, stores, chocolate makers, or any other business who wishes to contribute to our team, we are offering a deal for your company's name to be on our team shirts. For donations of $150 dollars or more, you will get your company name printed on the back of our shirts as supporters.




[Click to enlarge images.]


Our team shirts are donated by qrsts.com, the wonderful people who print all of our BeerAdvocate shirts. Whatever extra shirts we have left over from the walk, we take to the next beer festival we throw, and sell them to add to the next years walk team total. Last year we sold $200 worth of extra shirts. We will be adding that total to the team this year. Every single dime we raise in effort to the MSPCA, goes directly to the MSPCA.

To join our team follow this link and the password is beerlovers. Make a donation of $25 dollars and you will be apart of our team. You can also help us fundraise by getting your own friends and family to donate to your efforts and you customize your own donation page with images of your pets. I have Miss Chicken Von Waffles and Pork Chops Applesauce on my individual page.

Or you can simply send a donation to benefit the team effort without actually having to join the team.

If you care about animals as much as we do, please help us reach our massive goal and help us be the number one team donating for a 3rd year in a row. Do it because you love beer, do it because you love animals.

British Chocolate Invasion

 

A few weeks ago, I contacted a good friend of mine named Angelo, who lives in London, to "pretty please, with sprinkles on top" bring me back a collection of chocolate from some of the shops in London. He was coming out to visit Boston for our BeerAdvocate Extreme Beer Festival. I figured it would be a great way to save myself individual ordering and shipping costs.

Well, he certainly completed the mission and now I really don't know what to do with myself. I already have about 25 bars of chocolate in a queue up for review. I can't say my life is hard. I won't allow anyone to pity me. No, don't. Do not feel bad for me.

Long chocolate Bar from CocoMaya.

 

Chocolate stiring cubes and chocolate bars from Melt.

 

Melange Chocolate flavored chocolate strips. Not even bars, but rather delicate, thin straps of chocolate.

 

Paul A. Young chocolate bars.

 


Willie's World Class Cacao chocolate bars.

 

William Curley chocolate bars.

Demarquette chocolate bars.


 

 
 



Montezuma's Organic chocolate bars.

Rococo chocolate bars.

A single bar from The Grenada Chocolate Company.

Theobroma Cacao Single Origin buttons.

And this is going in the garbage because this household supports Tottenham Hotspur!

 

Thank you Angelo, for spending a lot of pounds to keep me busy for a while! 20°N & 20°S fans thank you too!

When Bad Things Happen To Good Chocolate

Saturday night I met with a bunch of BeerAdvocates for a staff meeting at The Publick House in Brookline. These are the fine folks who volunteer for me for the BeerAdvocate beer festivals thrown here in Boston. We have the Extreme Beer Festival happening this weekend and an I needed to go over some information and talk about what was to be expected for the festival.

I happened to bring with me samples of chocolate that have been sitting around and needed to be eaten. Some of it was already reviewed, but some of it was chocolate I couldn't review.

Some of the chocolate I had, was not reviewable, but still edible. Some of it had bloom, and one of them I dropped and broke into a million pieces. The conditions in my apartment haven't been to favorable for storing chocolate. It gets either way too cold or way too hot. Mostly it's too hot. Especially in the winter when the heat is turned on full which I have no control over. Or if the heat doesn't come on and I have left my windows open in the wintertime to combat the heat, the house is frozen. Needless to say this has wreaked havoc on some the chocolate I wanted to review. Luckily, I am getting them replaced to give them all a fair shot.

This is why I didn't review some of these chocolates. It's my fault or rather my apartment's fault that there is an unstable environment for storage. I felt it was unfair to review these chocolates in the state they were in despite still being perfectly fine to eat.

But having bloom on chocolate does not make the chocolate inedible. And chocolate also has a very long shelf life. I brought the chocolate to the meeting and let the staff have at it. I was able to talk to them about bloom and let them experience some real chocolate for a change.

I am currently sitting on 25 bars of chocolate up for review. With new ones that just came in from my husband for Valentine's day, a friend from England who has been on a mission in London rounding up chocolate from all over the city, and my good friend Shane Welch of Sixpoint Craft Ales, bringing me more Mast Brothers to review, you can see why I had to get rid of this chocolate. I already reviewed a lot of it, and I didn't want to see if just go to waste.

What we tasted:

Amano: Madagascar 70% (reviewed)
Amedei 9 (reviewed)
Amedei La Tavolette
Mast Brothers:
    Sea Salt + Pepper 75%
    Fleur de Sel 75% (reviewed)
    Dried cranberries 75%
    Sea Salt + Almonds 75%
    Cocoa Nibs 75%
Villars L'Ancienne (reviewed)
Villars Noir 72% (reviewed)
Chocolat Olivier Selection 85% (reviewed)
Pralus 100% Criollo
Chocolat Olivier Ghana 70% (reviewed)
Michel Cluizel Mangaro 65% (reviewed)
Michel Cluizel Maralumi 64% (reviewed)
Fine & Raw Mesquite Bar (reviewed)




 

We drank Brooklyn Cookie Jar Porter, Dogfish Head World Wide Stout, and Great Divide's Yeti. The Cookie jar was fairly flat but still tasted excellent, the WWS was too sweet, and but the Yeti was just right for the more bitter chocolates.

It was a Saturday night at the Publick House. A lot of other people who were not part of the BA meeting were standing around curious about what we were doing. It looked like I was teaching a class on crack. Everyone had a major caffeine buzz going on and all of the sample were in plastic baggies.

The Cluizel went over well for texture. The Mast Brothers Salt and Pepper was voted best over all. And the very harsh Pralus was a bigger hit than I expected. Unsweetened 100% bitter chocolate.

 

Valentine's Day Haul

 

Yep, my husband knows what I like. I had been recommending L.A. Burdick's all week on Twitter as a great recommendation for others on Valentine's Day. My Husband followed my advice. I got a nice full package of goodies.

L.A. Burdick's makes handmade truffles and chocolates. They have three cafes with an actual restaurant located in Walpole, New Hampshire. The other two cafes are in the Flatiron district of New York City, and Harvard Sq. in Cambridge, Ma. At the Harvard Sq. location, you can get a beautiful cup of hot tea, coffee drinks, or one of their fabulous hot chocolates. They also have small pastries. The Harvard Sq. pastry comes highly recommended by me personally.

First thing I pulled out was a bag of chocolate intended for hot chocolate. It came with a whisk too. If anyone is familiar with L.A. Burdick's, they make simply the best cup of hot chocolate. It's so rich and delicious. So to have the ability to make my own at home is a great gift.

I pulled these out of the bag next. A collection of single origin dark chocolate bars Burdick's is making now. I am very happy to see these bars, but I am thinking about all the chocolate I have to review. Over 25 bars in the queue, with more on the way from London, England, and Brooklyn, New York.

Venezuela 72%
Grenada 75%
Madagascar 64%





  

An assortment of chocolates. The picky side of me wishes they came in the wooden box collection they have for truffles, but what I am going to do, complain that I got truffles anyway? Pfft.

These are Burdick's famous Mice and Penguin Truffles. Delicious and cute. They also have other specialty truffles they offer through out the holidays. Like ghosts for Halloween and bunnies for Easter.

And finally, one last little assortment of chocolates.

Now that Valentine's Day is over, that doesn't mean you can't still go over there and pick up a nice steaming hot chocolate. Don't miss their Lunar New Year collection as well. It's the Chinese New Year, Year of the Tiger. They ship for those not lucky enough to live close to one of their locations.

Burdick's also offers a 4 day, in-depth Chocolate Cooking School at their facilities in Walpole. 

Burdick Chocolate offers a four day, hands-on workshop teaching the basics of fine chocolate making. This is a rare opportunity to build a familiarity with the ins and outs of preparing chocolate bonbons and confections and to gain a basic command of this complex food. We cover the practical arts of cooking ganache fillings, tempering chocolate, hand-cutting and dipping of bonbons, truffle making, the creation of distinctive chocolate confections, and more. The workshop offers an all-round education into the connoisseurship of high quality chocolate – from its history, to the sourcing, preparation and preservation of it in the home kitchen.

Each participant will go home with a course handbook covering what they learned in the class; plus all of your “kitchen” results will be packed up at the end of the work week and shipped home for your family to enjoy!

The Grading Scale

[Image via Concurring Opinions]

How this will all work for the next 30 reviews or so, I will be posting reviews from chocolates I have been taking notes on for over a year. Certain chocolates I have have bin numbers on them, but they were reviewed when received. Each review will explain where they came from and around the time they were reviewed.

There will also be a Grading Scale for each review. A standard A-F scale but with a little bit of a twist. There will be five categories that can earn a maximum of 100 points.

Appearance
Aroma
Snap
Texture
Taste

The average total of all five scores will be tallied up to give a final score. The totals will be reflected with a letter grade.

A+ 98-100
A 95-97
A- 93-94

B+ 90-92
B 87-89
B- 85-86

C+ 82-84
C 79-81
C- 77-78

D+ 74-76
D 72-73
D- 70-71

F 0-69

Standard high school grading system.

A note for the readers. Taste is a subjective thing. What I might like or notes I taste in chocolate maybe completely different from you. Everyone has a unique and individual palate. It's best to remember that when imbibing on glorious things such as chocolate. The point is, there are no right or wrong answer when it comes to individual tastes. There are big generalizations about specific regions, but each palate has a number of reasons or variances which may drastically change the way one person smells or tastes something compared to another.

Welcome To 20°N & 20°S

[Image via Telegraph.co.uk]

Welcome to my chocolate adventure. I am a novice in the world of chocolate, but this blog has been developed to help me track my progress as I grow and  learn more about chocolate.

Why is it called 20°N & 20°S? That is the parallel of latitude that chocolate grows in. As will chocolate grow, so will my knowledge and palate for tasting chocolate.

Mostly you will see reviews of chocolate as I taste them and learn about their complexities. The differences between blended bars and single origin bars. I will also be tasting truffles and other various confections. 

I welcome you to my newest adventure in the world of chocolate. My real life work is involved with BeerAdvocate. I am married to Todd Alström the co-founder and co-owner of BeerAdvocate.com. I manage and organize the BA Beer Festivals thrown in Boston each year. I also organize all of the volunteers for the festivals. I have been published in the BA Magazine. I write another amateur food blog where I talk about recipes I experiment with or invent, beer pairings, beer dinners and other various things involved with food. I also host beer dinners where I teach people how to pair beer properly with food around the city of Boston.

I hope you all enjoy this new adventure. I hope you seek out the chocolates and confections discussed here on this site and form your own opinions and learn more as well as seeking out to expand your palates just as I am doing here. It's a wonderful ride and let's face it, it's chocolate!!!