Chocolate Milk: The Remix

It's birthday party time again and what mother doesn't get anxious over planning the menu? As for drinks, soda is a definite "no no" and juice boxes now irk the environmentalists and the health conscious. I even heard one mom saying that cold drinks are no good for kids. Who knew? At my son's next party, I'm going to go out on a limb and offer up an old drink with a new spin - Got Milk Chocolate Flavored Straws by the San Francisco Chocolate Factory.

To keep my party on the greener side, I'll give each kid a clear plastic cup (BPA free of course) filled with cold, organic skim milk. And then for the good stuff - a plastic straw filled with tiny chocolate beads. Insert into milk and watch it transform from white to brown. Et voila - chocolate milk! That's what my son calls a "special treat."

I must be a little bit picky and say that the taste is not as rich and chocolatey as premixed chocolate milk. (In April, the SF Chronicle Taster's Choice deemed Berkeley Farms chocolate milk the best of the bunch.) In fact, I'd suggest small cups of milk to be sure you'll taste enough chocolate. Admittedly, it's a gimmick, but a very cute one. Given the effort it will demand from preschoolers, it almost counts as an activity. Combine that with a bouncy house and you've got an instant party!

The Perfect Wine to Pair with Chocolate

Last Thursday I found myself with a tray of 18 different chocolates, ranging from a sweet milk truffle to an extra dark artisan bar. The task? To find the perfect wine to pair with chocolate. As an expert panelist at the Taste TV "Chocolate Seizure" event, I had to put aside my fussy concerns about the differences among the various chocolates that made the selection of one perfect wine impossible. And I needed to get over the fact that port was not an option - my favorite wine for chocolate pairings. Instead, I cast my vote for one of the three "pre-approved" red wines created at Crushpad: the merlot, the cabernet or the zinfandel. We were making history, since this is supposed to be the first red wine specifically designed for consuming with chocolate.

I applaud Taste TV for once more rallying together this city's chocophiles and oenophiles for another sold-out chocolate event. Unlike the SF International Chocolate Salon this spring, the guest list for Chocolate Seizure was limited and so there was a bit of breathing room. And the price for the general public was a very reasonable $40. Many of San Francisco's small time chocolatiers benefit from the exposure in Taste TV events. Present Thursday night were the usual suspects: Jade Chocolate, Amano, New Tree, Coco Delice, Saratoga and the Tea Room. Appearing for the first time was TCHO, drumming up support for their "beta" chocolate experience. The best piece of chocolate I tasted that night was the Jade Hawaiian sea salt bar. But back to the wine...

If you haven't been to Crushpad yet, make a beeline. Or at least make a beeline to the wealthiest person you know and get them to sponsor your creation. We're talking $5700 to $10,700 a barrel. Crushpad sources the best grapes from local Napa and Sonoma vineyards. They'll meet with you to determine what kind of a wine you want to make, and then you can be involved in the process (from grape-crushing to designing the bottle) as little or as much as you want. For the busy salaryman, the Crushpad web cam offers a live connection to your grapes. And it was through this process that the three options for the 08 "Domaine de Taste Amerique" were born.

It was a close call, but the Cabernet ultimately prevailed. It wasn't my vote; I just couldn't get past its almost effervescent quality, since Crushpad decided to pour the cab well before it was ready. And I'm told it could be at least another year! But when that time comes, a future reserve bottle of this "cult, boutique" wine should be making its way to my home. In the meantime, I'll be enjoying the wines we're pairing with chocolate on our new San Francisco Gourmet Chocolate and Wine Tour.

With all this talk about pairing wine and chocolate, I can't help but think of Chloe Doutre-Roussel, whose little pink book The Chocolate Connoisseur is a favorite among my tour guides. For her, warm water is what you drink with chocolate. At 6 am, when your taste buds are most fresh. Sorry Chloe, but the people have spoken.

Artisan Chocolate Maker Roundtable

So you think you wanna become a bean-to-bar artisanal chocolate maker? I’d have second thoughts after listening to five chocolate manufacturers share their struggles at an event sponsored by Slow Food Nation on Labor Day. Present was the criminal lawyer turned chocolate maker Shawn Askinosie, the laid-back Art Pollard of Amano Chocolate, the articulate Mexicanophile Alex Whitmore of Taza Chocolate, ex-glassmaker Steve De Vries of De Vries Chocolate and the ultimate perfectionist Alan McClure of Patric Chocolate. With only a few jokes made in the almost 3 hour long panel discussion, these guys take their chocolate very seriously. The panel was moderated by Alexander Morozoff, publisher of the glossy Cocoaroma Magazine.

What’s so hard about making your own chocolate? You get the best leftovers, you’re loved by all the women and you’re raking in the dough given the recent surge in dark chocolate sales. Ask Shawn Askinosie just how challenging it is to source cacao, especially from farmers who are certified organic. He once wired $28,000 to a Venezualan pastor and not a single cacao bean made its way back to his Missouri factory. And then there is the tempering; many of these guys still have burns on their hands from mistakes made with this grueling aspect of the cacao production process. There are also very few resources out there to guide young chocolate entrepreneurs. Art Pollard’s “new” antique conching machine came with a simple 1 page “instruction manual.” Steve De Vries tried to learn about making chocolate from library books; they all started with the phrase “melt chocolate.”

These chocolate artisans are proud of what they make, but there was a fair amount of frustration in the air. For one, why is every major chocolate company latching onto the term “artisan” in the hopes it will buffet their sales? Most panelists agreed that in order to be called artisan, a company must have one expert who manages the entire process of making chocolate. In that case, it is a bit of a Catch 22. Artisan chocolate makers need to make money by selling more chocolate; if they sell a lot of chocolate, they’ll need to hire more help and perhaps sacrifice the quality of their beans. At some point, they won’t truly be artisan but they will be profitable. And there is the problem that the American public, raised on sweet milk chocolate bars, will never truly appreciate what they do and still aren’t ready to fork over $10 for a chocolate bar.

Some panelists made light of the concern that artisan chocolate may be perceived as an elite food, like arugula and other foods that plague Democratic presidential candidates. According to De Vries, anyone should be able to afford a $10 chocolate bar. And as I say on my Chocolate Tours, the very best chocolate bar costs far, far less than the very best bottle of wine. But that doesn’t really address the problem. Americans are used to buying $1 candy bars. If artisan donuts suddenly cost $10 apiece, only a real food snob is going to think the cost is worth it. Shawn Askinosie expressly wants to stay away from chocolate snobs, instead aiming at “chocolate geeks.” For that reason, he decided to make a white chocolate bar, even with added nuts. For the rest of the chocolate purists on the panel, many of whom eschew soy lecithin, vanilla and even cocoa butter, that is taking things a little too far.

The real reason chocolate bars should cost $10 (or even more) is not to put money in the pockets of “elite” chocolate makers. Rather, it is to fairly reward the farmers who grow the beans that are essential to quality cacao. The panelists all make an effort to pay the cacao farmers they partner with prices that are above fair trade, with Askinosie even giving his farmers a “stake in the outcome.” And this is what Slow Food is all about – recognizing the agricultural ties inherent in everything we eat, including a chocolate bar.

So while listening to these artisan chocolate makers reaffirmed my own career choice, it seems I’m not the only woman choosing to enjoy fine chocolate rather than make it. It’s an observation I’ve made before, but why are there so few women in the bean-to-bar chocolate world? These guys talked about the importance of understanding science and engineering, so maybe the lack of female representation in these fields is part of the problem. Or maybe, like me, women are just too busy feeding the kids to make weekly trips to plantations from Africa to Equador. Alex Whitmore said that if they have another Artisan Chocolate Roundtable next year, there will be 5 times the number of participants. I hope so, and I hope at least one of them is a woman!

Coco-luxe Chocolate Opens on Haight

John Scharffenberger, Michael Recchiuti, Joseph Schmidt, Charles Siegel...The Bay Area chocolate scene has more than its fair share of the X chromosome. But there is a lovely new lady on the chocolate scene, Stephanie Marcon, who recently opened a chic little shop in the Upper Haight named Coco-luxe.

Yes, Coco-luxe has been around since 2006, giving Stephanie ample time to perfect her brand image before opening up a retail location. And her brand (Think Juicy Couture goes vintage) is much more at home in the trendy Haight than stuffy downtown San Francisco. The tiny shop is painted tangerine and brown to match her sleek packaging. The obligatory brown t-shirt is for sale for the Coco-luxe slogan, "Chocolate to Share...Or Not." My Gourmet Walks tour guide and I were happy to share hot chocolate, truffles and a chocolate bar while the super-friendly saleswoman answered all our questions.

Like the Christopher Elbow shop which opened earlier in the year, Coco-luxe has a small "chocolate bar" with drinks to suit a variety of tastes. We tried the "pudding" ($4) - a thick blend of dark chocolate with very little sugar. If you'd just like a little liquid to wash down your chocolate, Coco-luxe sells Boylan, Bubble Up and Virgil's Root Beer, all in retro glass bottles. Next to the bar rests a shiny white espresso machine, from which Coco-luxe creates coffee drinks using Bay Area favorite, Blue Bottle. And of course, there is the option of delicious homemade marshmallows to add to any drink.

Marcom says her chocolates are inspired by classic dessert flavors of her childhood. And it's true, reading off the list of truffle flavors made me smile, thinking back to old-school diners where the meal was just a prelude to dessert: after dinner mint, angel food, banana split, german chocolate. If you're an exotic chocolate fan, you won't be finding garden herbs, chiles and pork products in Coco-luxe chocolate! These are sweet creations, and make wonderful gifts. I especially like the baby themed truffle collection, with illustrations of safety pins and baby bottles. I've never seen that before, maybe because of the x chromosome issue? After having my third baby, I'd definitely choose chocolate over yet another monogrammed baby blanket!

Coco-luxe also sells three unique varieties of chocolate bars, in eye-catching wrappers. I tried the "Monkeyin Around" bar, milk chocolate with banana chips, cacao nibs and sea salt ($4.95 for 2.5 oz). It was a yummy bar, but I really didn't taste any banana. It seemed like the nibs and banana chips were there more for texture than flavor. Her "Happy Trails" bar is dark chocolate with trail mix and her "Good Fortune" bar has candied ginger and fortune cookie. Clever flavor combinations, with fantastic package design.

The best thing I sampled at Coco-luxe was the German Chocolate truffle. I am nuts for coconut, and this just about matched my other favorite coconut treat: Fran's Coconut Gold Bar. I also liked the gingerbread truffle, coated in white chocolate.

I hope Coco-luxe does well in this Haight location. The area is a magnet for vintage clothing shoppers, music lovers and of course panhandlers - but fine chocolate lovers? We'll see...

The Whiter the Chocolate

There are chocolate snobs who won't eat anything under 85%, aficionados who turn down their noses at milk chocolate and purists who scoff at exotic fillings. So where does that leave white chocolate? I'd say at the bottom of the heap. Many don't even consider white chocolate to be chocolate because it's pure cocoa butter and not one bit of cacao. White chocolate is never a popular option on our chocolate tours. But walk into any Swiss or Belgian chocolate shop, and you will find white chocolate galore - not just at Easter.

But what about the white chocolate bar? If you've traveled to England, you've no doubt tried a Milky Bar, but far better alternatives exist. In fact, small batch artisan chocolate makers, like Askinosie, are tackling white chocolate with the same rigorous attention to ingredients and methods shown in their dark chocolate bars. Last week I assembled a tasting panel of sleep-deprived mothers to sample some of the best. Here are our favorites:

1) Amedei Cioccolato al Latte Bianco, $11.95
If you crave pure, unadorned white chocolate, then the pricey Amedei bar cannot be beat. It is rich, silky and creamy - all things that pure white chocolate should be. I first learned of the sibling pair (Cecilia and Alessio Tessieri) who own Amedei in Mort Rosenblum's excellent book, Chocolate: A Bittersweet Saga Of Dark and Light. Unlike most chocolate companies, they are involved in the entire chocolate making process, from drying and fermenting beans on the plantation to conching and tempering in their Tuscany factory. We preferred Amedei to other plain white chocolate bars like Green & Blacks and Chocovic.


2) Askinosie, $7.50
In June, Shawn Askinosie (whose company is based in Springfield, Missouri) unveiled three artisan white chocolate bars. They are unique in that the cocoa butter used all comes from one particular plantation - meaning that it can actually be called "single origin" white chocolate. Since the taste of cocoa butter really doesn't vary as much as the taste of cacao from region to region, I'm not all that impressed by his single origin concept. But I do like some of the flavor combinations he's developed. And we can all feel good about enjoying Askinosie because they give cacao farmers a "stake in the outcome."

* The White Chocolate bar - Not as sweet, luscious and creamy as the Amedei bar. The pale golden color is unlike any other white chocolate I've tasted. This was not a huge hit.
* The Nibble Bar - This was a big favorite. The crunchiness of the cacao nibs (and of course the chocolate flavor) is a perfect contrast next to the smooth white chocolate.
* The Pistachio Bar - We liked the addition of organic, salted pistachios to white chocolate. The flavor of a pistachio is quite mild so it does not overpower the taste of the white chocolate. But we preferred the crunchier texture of the Nibble Bar.


3) Vosges D'Oliva Exotic Bar, $7.50
Katrina Markoff's contribution to the white chocolate world is this kalamata olive and white chocolate bar. Olives and chocolate - we all expected to hate this! But it was surprisingly good. The salty, subtle taste of olives was a nice counterpart to the creamy white chocolate. We feel very good about eating Vosges chocolate because, in a sea of male-owned chocolate companies, Markoff is one of the only women. And we appreciate Vosges' dedication to being a "green" business.


4) Chocolat Weiss White Chocolate with Red-Fruit Bar, $5.25
One can only eat so much pure white chocolate. That's why we were happiest with the bars that combined white chocolate with another tasty ingredient, in this case raspberries, strawberries and cherries. We thought the tart red fruits were an ideal match with sweet white chocolate. A bit of lemon provides a little more acid. And Weiss takes the award for most elegant packaging; this slim silver and pink bar would make an excellent gift. Weiss is a French company that has been around since 1882. Chocosphere carries a wide selection of Weiss bars.

Starbucks Milk Chocolate: maybe stick to lattes

I love Starbucks. I know I should be supporting those mom and pop neighborhood coffee shops, but there is something about the green siren logo that just draws me in. When I spent a sleepless semester studying theater in London, Starbucks was my savior. Something familiar, a cozy place to juice up before hitting another 4 hour long Shakespearean production. After having my first child, walking to Starbucks for a nonfat latte was the best part of my day (provided he didn't wake up screaming the moment it was served!). And when I taught high school English, the Mill Valley Starbucks shop gave me the courage and energy to get through another day of cajoling freshmen into reading Great Expectations.

And so I was not opposed to Starbucks entering the world of fine chocolate. Would I eat chocolate with my coffee? Most definitely not. But if I'm wandering the Tenderloin before an ACT production, desperate for a sweet treat, Starbucks chocolate could be just the answer.

I was not surprised to find that most of the Starbucks chocolate sold at my local Safeway (and not my Starbucks!) contains coffee. There is a mocha bar and packages of truffles with flavors like milk chocolate mocha, dark chocolate espresso, and milk chocolate chai. I decided to taste the milk chocolate bar first, while comparing it to some other milk chocolate bars I had in my chocolate stash. The objects of comparison? Green and Black milk chocolate and Scharffen Berger milk chocolate. Since Artisan Confections (Hershey's high end line, which includes Scharffen Berger) actually makes Starbucks chocolate, I had somewhat high expectations. I had also heard rumors that the Starbucks milk tastes exactly like the Scharffen Berger milk.

That rumor couldn't be further from the truth. We found the Starbucks chocolate surprisingly flat, with a sickly sweet aftertaste reminiscent of a candy bar. It was nothing like the mellow tones of caramel and honey I enjoy in the Scharffen Berger milk. I even preferred the sweet Green and Blacks milk to Starbucks. And of course, there are other milk bars out there (like the Michel Cluizel Mangaro ) with a much richer flavor, with fruity notes and high cacao percentages that even appeal to dark chocolate lovers. Starbucks does not publish information on cacao percentage or bean origin on the labels of their chocolate bars. Clearly, they're not focusing on a high end market.

When I'm in the mood for some sweet filled chocolate and need an energy boost, maybe I'll pick up some of the Starbucks truffles. (Too bad they don't sell them by the piece in their coffee shops.) But when it comes to bars, I'll stick to my old favorites and stick to lattes at Starbucks.

Chocolate for Mother's Day: Think Pink!

Just as newborn girls are given mounds of pink dresses and onesies, on Mother's Day we moms are treated to pink cards, pink flowers and yes, even pink chocolate. I've spent the last couple days searching online for the best Mother's Day chocolate gifts (aside from the SF Gourmet Chocolate Tour, of course!). For the past two weeks, I've been getting emails from local and national chocolate companies touting new products or special offers or just simply reminding me why chocolate is the perfect gift for Mom. When I visited most of these web sites, I was a little disappointed by the lack of creativity. After all, this is Chocolate's last big holiday before a long, long summer of quiet sales.

For example, visit a See's right now and you'll be assaulted by Pink. Their Mother's Day Keepsake Box ($14.95) is shiny pink, wrapped in pink ribbon and topped with a giant pink and purple flower. The chocolate assortment includes 4 pink foil covered milk chocolates. Perfect for grandma maybe, but not for the modern Mom.

Here are my three favorite chocolate Mother's Day gifts, followed by a couple honorable mentions.
1) The Chuao ChocoPod Purse
I love this gift because it involves a fashion accessory no woman can get enough of and chocolate. Did I mention the purse is not even pink? Chuao says the mini purse is inspired by the Louis Vuitton Multicolore Murakami design, and indeed it looks stylish enough for a Gossip Girl episode. The purse is filled with 3 "ChocoPods" in banana, passion fruit and strawberry. I've never tried Chuao "ChocoPods" and as an adamant non-dieter, am wary of their description: "slim, 60 calorie, 11-gram bars." But it's very clever marketing that I'm guessing would be successful in Southern California. At $4.75 the ChocoPod Purse is a bargain, and deserves to be combined with something else, like their "ChocolateSmarts" cards or their "Elegancia Jewelry Box."
Chuao (pronounced chew-WOW) is a chocolate company founded in 2002 by two Venezuelan brothers in San Diego. The name comes from the renowned cacao-producing region in central Venezuela. Here in the Bay Area you can find their chocolates at Cost Plus, Whole Foods, Bristol Foods and even Safeway.

2) Vosges Mother's Day Hat Box
Given Katrina Markoff's penchant for purple, I can't expect her Mother's Day offerings to take leave entirely of the pastel world. With a fun nod to an old fashioned ideal of motherhood, Vosges takes a beautiful hat box and fills it with sweet chocolates whose names are meant to appeal to women. (No wasabi or bacon in this one!) For $95, Mom will enjoy Caramel Toffee and an Exotic Caramel box, plus Bianca Couture Cocoa (white chocolate with lemon myrtle and lavender). The hatbox also includes the new Les Fleurs du Chocolat Collection, which will save you money on flowers too. Each truffle is topped with an organic flower petal: marigold, nasturtium, rose and orchid.

Katrina's description of her inspiration is worth repeating simply for her colorful adjectives:
"I had conjured up an image of a free-spirited lady who traveled the globe seeking out the avant-garde, obscure, traditional and elegant. She would embody a classy-yet-edgy style all of her own, a little quirky yet polished at the same time. Then I saw a pile of vintage hatboxes at the Broadway Antique Mart and thought: ah, perfect. The Vosges Haut-Chocolat boîte à chapeau is meant to evoke this lovely lady, her luxury, her travels, her individuality."


3) Recchiuti Burnt Caramels
The product itself is nothing new. Michael Recchiuti has been making his signature burnt caramels for a long time, and they get re-packaged nearly every holiday season with new designs. But this is one design I love! The colors are stylish yet understated - pale green, white and brown. There is a modern silhouette of a flower on one, but no curlicues or ruffles, thank you. The 8 piece collection sells for $19.00.

If you're still not satisfied, I'd also recommend the Charles Chocolate Mother's Day Collection. This $60 edible chocolate box is filled with peanut butterflies, fleur de sels and Poire Williams caramel - many topped with a tasteful pink flower motif. Each Mother's Day gift comes with a free letterpress greeting card. For a more traditional chocolate gift, Joseph Schmidt offers the Floral Vase Box for $35. It's shaped like a bouquet and has some flavors that would make the French faint: peanut butter & jelly, orange sherbert and double latte.