The chocolate test!

I had a great time judging chocolate the other night.  There were about 10 of us there, each with different chocolate backgrounds and interests.  One woman was blind and did all kinds of baking recipes with chocolate.  There was a high school kid there who was a foreign exchange student from Switzerland.  And two women there apparently did alot of shopping at local chocolate shops.

So we got in there and they had us sit in the “war room”, which was where the editor and staff meet when they are going over the layout and stuff for the next day’s paper.  They had set out placemats with 8 numbered circles on them and two “candies” in each circle.  The “candies” were kinda like the chocolate you would get in a box of chocolate, gooey centers and stuff.  They were from 8 local shops.  One dark, one milk from each shop.  16 pieces.  So about a pound.
So we tasted them and rated them all based on appearance, texture, and taste.  Some were good, some were awful.  I seemed to get alot of cherry cordials which I HATE.

Only two of us ate them all.  Everyone else was polite and took one little bite of each.  I wasn’t sure what the point of that was.

The only one that stuck out in my mind was the Tropical Storm by The Chocolate Gecko (scroll down the page a bit).   Its this dark chocolate coating on kind of a half egg shaped molded truffle.  The “dome” part of the truffle is filled with a creamy cool key lime mousse.  The bottom half is like this thick dark chocolate fudgy chocolate.  BUT.  In the fudgy part are chipotle (sp?) peppers!  So you eat this thing and you are all happy and its cool and chocolatey and then in the back of your mouth and throat it just gets hotter and hotter and hotter.  I was reaching for water for the first time at that point.  I was kind of exciting to eat, like going on a roller coaster, the torture somehow was exciting.  I’m not sure I would buy it again though, knowing how it ends up.  Try it.  See how you like it.  By the way, I only had HALF of one.

The only other comment I had was about a discussion I was having with one woman there.  I had mentioned that I had tried Omanhene chocolate which I found to be horrible.  Then I said that I understood it to be the only chocolate manufacturer in Ghana (which is the second largest producer of cocoa beans in the world next to Ivory Coast).   Well, they were ALL OVER THAT!  “Oh no!  Divine Chocolate is from Ghana!  Isn’t that right (turning to the woman next to her)?”  “Oh yes, Diving is.  Yup, yup.  Definately.”  “Yes.  They sell it in the mall.”

The mall.  They bought it in the mall.

Ok, so I go back home and begin digging it up on the web.  Divine Chocolate.  Divine chocolate is fair trade chocolate that is produced under fair conditions for cacoa growers so they can make a fair profit that supports their families.  And YES, the growers are all in Ghana.  HOWEVER, Divine chocolate is NOT made in Ghana (scroll to the last question).

Turns out that the chocolate is made in the UK (I think) because the UK is their main market and the UK folks prefer milk chocolate.  Well, milk chocolate would be too expensive to make in Ghana so they just ship the beans out.  Divine chocolate is not made in Ghana.  Did you hear me ladies?  ITS NOT MADE IN GHANA!

I know that sounds petty and childish but they were just so adamant about it and it turns out they just read the label and saw Ghana.  I have their email addresses too.  I sooooo wanted to send them an I-told-you-so email.  Smarty-pants chocolate hogging women.  Bah!

So anyway, we had a great time (despite those old grumpies).  Shannon from the paper was our host and she was very cool.  I think I met her before during a tour of the paper.  Not sure.  I sent her a thankyou note the next day.  Maybe she’ll remember me next time chocolate is on the menu.  :)

This entry was posted on Friday, February 2nd, 2007 at 8:56 am and is filed under Childish Rants, Chocolate Friday. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.