My Chocolate Journal - Blog

Jacques Torres

2008-12-05T10:14:00.000-08:00

I just returned from New York City this week after a week long trip for the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade (in which my lovely wife Stephanie marched for the Second Time Arounders Marching Band). While there, we visited two of Jacques Torres' locations: his new location on Amsterdam and Chocolate Haven.

The new location, just west of Central Park and just off Broadway is a small boutique shop with all the JS stock you would expect including his awesome bon bons (I bought a 25 piece box, yum!), toffee mac nuts, corn flakes & Cheerios, and his hot chocolate mix. There is also a small hot drink bar serving up coffee and chocolate drinks.

Later in the week we visited Jacques Torres Chocolate Haven in SoHo and we sitting around enjoying yet another classic hot chocolate drink. We were not expecting to see Jacques at the shop considering it was only an hour till closing time, but all of a sudden he popped out of the back to talk to one of his employees.

Yea! He is here!

I purchased a copy of his new A Year In Chocolate books and asked if he could come out and sign it for me. Jacques came out a few minutes later and actually remembered Stephanie and I from our week long visit with him on an Alaska cruise he did through Holland America Line in 2006! We talked for a few minutes and he signed my book!

Thanks Jacques and heres to your continued chocolatey success!

By the way, the book is great and includes some great new recipes, including his out of this would chocolate chip cookies. I highly recommend you pick on up, you can get it on Amazon.com.

Jacques Torres' A Year in Chocolate

2008-10-27T09:41:00.000-07:00

My favorite chocolatier, Jacques Torres has a new book out and if it is anything like his other releases, I think ware are in for a treat!

Let your New Year’s resolution be “Eat more chocolate.” With Jacques Torres’ A Year in Chocolate as your guide, you won’t have any difficulty sticking with it from January right on through December.

From the elegant Poached Pears with Chocolate Fondue to serve on New Year’s Day and a festive Bûche de Noël filled with chocolate cream and ornamented with meringue mushrooms, to homemade Easter eggs and autumnal Pumpkin Seed Brittle, the world-renowned pastry chef and chocolatier presents us with a calendar’s worth of treats sure to make every celebration more luscious.

Oh man, I can't wait!

OK, so I have been bad...

2008-10-03T13:31:00.000-07:00

I know, not very many new reviews on MyChocolateJournal.com lately. Well, it's not all my fault. Sure, the best chocolate bar I have had in the past couple weeks was a Snickers (one of my favorite everyday bars), but you guys could be adding a review or two every now and then right?

The last good bars I had were from Amedei. I finally had a Chuao bar and also a Number 9 bar. After all the hype, it was still a really good bar.

With any luck, I will have something new to post after this weekend. We are off to Orlando (the long arduous 90 minute trip from St Petersburg) for the Epcot International Food & Wine Festival. We have seen Fredrick Schilling of Dagoba there last year and someone from Callebaut a couple years back. Maybe we will luck out and fall into some chocolate.

But for now, share the love! Post a quick review about a bar you have recently tried. And if you have any problems, let me know.

Patrick

Loss of a chocolate hero: Scharffen Berger's Robert Steinberg dies

2008-09-19T13:34:00.000-07:00

I was very sad to hear today that one of the founders of Scharffen Berger Chocolate, Robert Steinberg, died yesterday.

If you have not read the book "The Essence of Chocolate" by Steinburg and his partner at SB, John Scharffenberger you should take a look. Through the pages you will get an understanding of how and why SB chocolates came into being and how we were blessed with these exception chocolate bars over the years.

Scharffen Berger's website homepage has been replaced with this tribute to Steinburg. To read more about this loss, you can read this statement from Scharffen Berger or read one of the many articles on Google.

If you are not familiar with Scharffen Berger chocolates, you can get more information and read some reviews on mychocolatejournal.com.

Chili & Chocolate...

2008-08-16T09:16:00.000-07:00

My first taste of the chili and chocolate combo came several years ago when Vosges Chocolatier released their first set of uniquely (at that time) flavored chocolate bars & truffles. The first taste, hmm, not stealer.

A couple months ago, I had another chance to embrace the combo. My friend Chris, returning from a trip to Oregon, shared a bit of Dagoba's chili bar. Again, not my favorite. Part of it is the texture of the smooth chocolate with the gritty chili powder added in. I am not sure if it is possible, but could they not conch the chili power in with the chocolate for a smother mouth feel?

Now, there is another new chili bar. I was flipping through the August 2008 Candy Industry and found a the new Lindt & Sprungli Chili bar made with red chili pepper.

Third times a charm? I will let you know next time I venture by a Lindt shop.

Chocolate Shop Review: Choxotica

2008-05-10T09:08:00.000-07:00

We visited a new chocolate shop in Tampa, FL today, Choxotica. From their website, you would swear it was some type of porn shop, but this is a great little chocolate bar and drink shop!
They have a unique chocolate display showing all their available chocolate bars. Find the bar you want and take the little card next to it to the front and they will pull your bars from thier temperature controlled chocolate storage room.

We bought a bar of Michael Cluzel Madagascar 65% (review coming later).
We also tried one of thier hot chocolate drinks. Dark chocolate with Cardamom. Very tasty stuff indeed!

If you are ever in the Tampa Bay area, you will have to put Choxotica on your list.

Interview with Dagoba's Frederick Schilling

2008-03-05T09:07:00.000-08:00

The website Organic Guide has posted a very interesting article with Dagoba Chocolate's Frederick Schilling.

I met Mr Schilling during a chocolate tasting at Disney's Epcot park last year during the Food & Wine Festival, and all I can say is that he is a very dynamic man and passionate about chocolate.
Read the interview at Organic Guide

Site Updates

2007-10-25T09:09:00.000-07:00

We just loaded some new updates to the site. These have been a long time coming as they have been sitting on my laptop for since the middle of the summer.
Most of the updates are to the site backend and will allow some new features we will be working on in the next few months.

The one new visable feature is our new 1-5 "cocoa pod" rating images. Here is a sample of the new rating images.

Colorado Chocolate

2007-07-02T09:10:00.000-07:00

I am visiting Colorado for the first time since moving to Florida last year. As you would expect, things have change. Fort Collins is a bustling college town and residents, however sometimes skittish, like a bit of change.

Chocolate has changed here too. Since leaving here and closing down our chocolate company P.S. I Love You Fine Chocolates, one of my competitors and customers, Simply Chocolate, has stepped up their game. They pursued a lot of our wholesale accounts and moved from just a simple storefront to a city wide name. Good for them!

Also it seems that some of the bars that we could never find to try her are now popping up at the Whole Foods Market. Michael Cluizel and Theo Chocolates are a couple you used to never see.
Someone once told me the only constant is change, I am glad to see is still holds true.

Jacques Torres Secret Chocolate Chip Cookies

2007-05-16T09:11:00.000-07:00

On yesterday's Martha Stewart show, she picked Jacques Torres Secret Chocol ate Chip Cookies as her #1 cookie for National Chocolate Chip Day.
Today, Stephanie whipped up a batch of these not so little treats while I was at work. They are much thicker and chewier and all around better than the traditional Toll House Cookie recipe.

Since we do not have a ready supply of Jacques' Blend chocolate on hand she used Ghiradelli 60% Bittersweet Chips with great success.

Review of the Week - Scharffenberger Kumasi Sambirano

2007-04-18T09:14:00.000-07:00

Our first weekly review is of Scharffenberger's limited edition Kumasi Sambirano bar.

The Kumasi Sambirano bar is blend of Forastero and Trinitario beans from Ghana and Madagascar. The bar has a great snap and incredible earthy aroma that hits you as you open the deep green wrapper. The earthiness transforms in your mouth with flavors including citrus and a hint of red fruit after the initial acidic tang on the sides of your tongue.

I really enjoyed this bar and would recommend picking one or two up for your tasting pleasure. Give it a try and add you thoughts at MyChocolateJournal.com on the Kumasi Sambirano review page.

FDA & Chocolate Standards??

2007-04-03T09:13:00.000-07:00

I read an interesting topic over at http://www.egullet.com/ today (http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=101043).

The FDA is talking about changing the definition for "chocolate" to include "confectionery coatings" where the manufacture replaces up to 100% of the cocoa butter with other fats including vegetable oils.

This scares me. Without cocoa butter, chocolate just isn't chocolate! Cocoa butter is responsible for that smooth melt right as a great piece of couverture hits your tongue. Vegetable oil formulas just don't have that and should not be called chocolate!

Visit http://dontmesswithourchocolate.guittard.com/whatsthisabout.asp to tell the FDA not to mess with our chocolate!