The Year in Chocolate: 2010

The Year in Chocolate
Bay Area 2010
1. Openings
Let’s start out with some happy news. Chuck Siegel no longer has a commute. Charles Chocolates opened a flagship shop in Westfield Mall this year, closing down all Emeryville operations. Even bigger news, Charles will soon be expanding into a 5000 square foot shop and kitchen that has even Mayor Newsom celebrating. On a smaller scale (a little bit grimy), fine chocolate made its way into the Tenderloin with the opening of Hooker’s Sweet Treats in June. All you salted caramel addicts, his version is among the best in the city. Suburban sidenote – Marin chocolate lovers will finally have somewhere worthy of a visit. Chocolatier Blue has leased space in Strawberry Village, with an opening slated for early 2011.

2. Closures
We were sad to say goodbye to the Maiden Lane location of Alegio Chocolate. Now it’s a trek to Berkeley for the avant garde Enrico Rovira chocolates and Claudio Corallo bars. (Tip: roommate Manika Jewelry is still open, and with Valentine’s Day just around the corner…) In June, Seneca Klassen announced the closure of its Fillmore Street Bittersweet shop, citing rent disputes. Though nothing beats a Bittersweet hot chocolate, Citizen Cake re-opening around the corner is yummy consolation. And finally, Mary Loomas of Saratoga Chocolates quietly closed her San Francisco location at the end of December (in the old and beloved Joseph Schmidt shop).

3. Comfort Chocolate
From the looks of the average Bay Area restaurant dessert menu, comfort desserts just never go out of style. High class donuts at the end of a meal – who can resist? There is a definite trend in comfort chocolate flavors, with toffee leading the way. Gourmet Walks guides are loving the Chocolat Moderne Kashmir Bar (55% dark with toffee, cardamom, cinnamon and cloves), Xocolatl de David 72% dark milk salted caramel bar and the Patric PB&J Bar (jelly flavor only comes from the fruity notes of the cacao beans). You’ll likely find all three at Fog City News. As for comfort truffles, consider the Norman Love Vanilla Cupcake truffle (Cocoa Bella) and Christopher Elbow’s new Maple Walnut (Elbow Hayes Valley).

4. Micro-batch
Smaller is pretty much always considered better in the world of chocolate, wine, beer and other artisan foods. The concept of micro-batch chocolate is not new. After Scharffen Berger paved the way, Steve DeVries took pride in being “100 Years Behind the Times” and creating micro-batches in 2005. Patric, Taza, Amano, Mast Brothers and Rogue soon followed. One tour guide’s favorite micro-batch chocolate from this year is Rogue Chocolatier’s Piura Bar – made from just 4 bags of cacao beans purchased from a small organic farm in Piura, Peru. Savor the taste….you might not find it again.

5. More of the Bizarre
While comfort chocolate flavors are big, we still haven’t seen the end of bizarre flavor combinations in both truffles and bars. Bacon is old news, though Vosges continues to milk the success of its Bacon Bar with even a bacon chocolate chip pancake mix! My top choice for weirdest flavor of the year was East Bay Michael Mischer’s barbeque truffle, often carried by Cocoa Bella. It tastes like a smoky barbeque sauce and chocolate. Try that one with a microbrew.

6. Extreme Pairings
Foodies once thought pairing chocolate with anything but port was a mistake. Local chocolate companies are now embracing unusual pairings and from our perspective, consumers love it (especially the young ones). This year Recchiuti launched boxes for Beer Pairings, Whisky Pairings and Spirits Pairings. His suggestion – a tarragon grapefruit ganache with absinthe. On the extreme side, TCHO even sponsored a tequila and chocolate pairing night. Ugh, I’ll pass on that one.

7. Revamped Packaging
Vosges is the queen of sexy packaging and, until this year, the only chocolate maker I know of with a picture of the owner/creator on the back. Patric Chocolate, based in Missouri, said farewell to its nondescript small brown bars and launched a splashy new wave-ish design with his photo on the cover. Yes, he has a purple face but I think that was the idea. And the titles of his bars almost sound like a teenager’s text message, as in “PBJ OMG.” I also want to point out Rococo’s beautiful new packaging, even though founder Chantal Coady neglected to include the name of the company on front of the bar!

8. Pies, etc.
Are you tired yet of hearing predictions on what will be the next cupcake? The 2010 consensus is the pie and chocolate will most definitely play a role. Mission Pie (so ahead of this trend) makes a yummy chocolate cream pie. But my favorite pie variation is the whoopie pie, the dense New England treat that is finally making its way to California. Susie Cakes is serving whoopie pies for birthday parties and even (believe it) weddings. When summer rolls in, be sure to check out Michael Recchiuti’s unique whoopie pies, laced with candied orange peel, coated in dark chocolate and filled with burnt caramel buttercream.

9. An Education
More and more local chocolate makers are opening their doors and kitchens for chocolate making classes. It’s not enough that we consume lots of gourmet chocolate; we want to learn how to make it! Coco-luxe charges $160/pp for a “Build Your Own Chocolate Bar” class and you’ll take home 6 tasty bars. (Birthday party blues? Kids 10 and up welcome) Saratoga Chocolates, Cocoa Delice and Charles Chocolate have all offered different types of classes in the past. At Gourmet Walks, you can combine a Chocolate Tour with a chocolate truffle making class from SOMA based Baking Arts. A full day of indulgence!

10. Newsworthy
The big story of 2010 is that the price of chocolate is expected to go up, way up. This will primarily affect candy bar companies who shall remain nameless – not the good stuff we regularly sample on our tours! And it is a reminder why it’s important to support small batch chocolate makers who are paying cacao workers fair wages or even sharing the profits. Closer to home, John Scharffenberger took a position as CEO of Hodo Soy’s gourmet organic tofu company, based in Oakland. (Psst…that is some good tofu!) And finally, TCHO is stirring up a battle vs. Guittard for a starring role on fine dessert menus around San Francisco and beyond.

To taste some of these trends, take a Chocolate Tour with Gourmet Walks! Offered Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays year round.

Talking Chocolate with Mary Loomas

Last Friday Mary Loomas of Saratoga Chocolates joined Gourmet Walks on our third Celebrity Chocolate Tour in San Francisco. Our guests have had a great time on these special summer tours. (If you missed them, there are still spots on our last Celebrity Tour with Chuck Siegel of Charles Chocolates on September 4th!) Mary brought some of her own tasty samples and chimed in with feedback as we visited seven different downtown chocolate boutiques. Mary's kitchen and original location is, of course, in Saratoga on Big Basin Way but she also has a quaint shop in the Castro.

I caught up with Mary before the tour to get a feeling for her position on some classic chocolate topics. And I also discovered a wonderful recipe for those who want to enjoy chocolate without loading up on cream and sugar.

1. Chocolate and bacon - where do you stand?
Okay with me. Not my favorite. I make a smoked almond caramel that’ll knock your socks off. Something about the sweet, smokey and dark chocolate.

2. Wine and chocolate - do you mix and what are your favorite combos?
We have a line of chocolates made to pair with reds. We hold classes on wine and chocolate pairing. Many favorites but wine needs to be specifically paired.

3. Madagascar or Venezuala - what are your favorite origins when it comes to dark chocolate?
St. Dominique by Cocoa Barry is my favorite: beans are from Dominican Republic.

4. Guittard or TCHO - who is now the local bean to bar chocolate maker of choice?
E. Guittard is great. TCHO is getting there. I’m working with them on a custom blend but they have some work to do to really be there. Try Amano (Utah’s not that far away) for something amazing.

5. Flavonoids and antioxidants - do you believe the hype about chocolate and health benefits?
I’m living proof. Dropped my cholesterol by leaps with chocolate, wine and exercise. I work with the Cardio department at El Camino Hospital and teach classes with them on heart healthy diets…it’s true…..

Mary's Guilt-free Chocolate Recipe: Le Jardin de Couers

1/2 cup Chopped Dried Apricots
1/4 cup Chopped Candied Ginger
1/2 cup Chopped Candied Orange Peel
1/2 cup Whole Roasted Almonds (no salt)
1/2 cup Whole Shelled Roasted Pistachio Nuts (no salt)
1 pound Dark Chocolate (your favorite to eat, preferably 70% cacao or more)
Using tempered chocolate. Pipe chocolate directly into heart shaped molds or pipe chocolate onto waxed or parchment paper, 2-4 rows at a time. Jiggle to remove bubbles.

Decorate w/ 1 each of the fruits and nuts Let set in cool location. Store in airtight container at room temperature and product can be enjoyed over several weeks.

Note: Tempering or precrystallizing is to get the cocoa butter and chocolate in the most stable form - known in the industry as V form. This produces the characteristic "snap" when you bite into it and a shiny (molded) or satin (enrobed) finish. Well tempered chocolate also does not immediately melt in your fingers. Unstable or untempered chocolate has a melting point of 65F. Tempered chocolate has a melting point of 95F. Generally the process of tempering is melting the chocolate including all of its fatty acid crystals by heating the chocolate to 110-131F. Next we form seed crystals by cooling the chocolate to between 79-84F while continuously stirring (to ensure even temperature). Lastly, we warm the chocolate back up to melt unwanted crystals and hold temper. This is between 89-90F for dark chocolate and 86-87F for white and milk.

Pipe chocolate directly into heart shaped molds or pipe chocolate onto waxed or parchment paper, 2-4 rows at a time. Jiggle to remove bubbles.

Decorate w/ 1 each of the fruits and nuts. Let set in cool location. Store in airtight container at room temperature. Will last several months.

The Xocolate Bar

If Mexican artist Frida Kahlo owned a chocolate shop, it would probably look something like this. Vermillion walls, gold trim, a crystal chandelier. Chocolate medallions painted with luster dust sit next to hand crafted jewelry in a glass case. Multi-colored "frisky housewife" aprons lie next to long strips of chocolate banana jerky. All of this on Berkeley's Solano Avenue, an adorable 26 block stretch of restaurants and shops in between Albany and downtown Berkeley.

Malena Lopez-Maggi opened The Xocolate Bar with partner Clive Brown in July of 2008, after making chocolates in a San Rafael kitchen since 2006. The Xocolate Bar has been a regular at the San Francisco Chocolate Salons, picking up many awards including "Best in Show." They use organic, local and seasonal ingredients whenever possible, including rangpur lime grown by a neighbor and coffee beans from Ritual Coffee Roasters. They change flavors from week to week, and when I visited at the beginning of summer, rhubarb was just coming out of the kitchen. For vegans, there are many options, which makes sense in a neighborhood where there is even a new vegan fast food spot.

The Xocolate Bar plays with the notion of chocolate as an aphrodisiac, from their Make Out Truffle (with aphrodisiac ingredients) to their molded pieces in the shape of women's breasts and booties. It's a clever niche for them to fill, since the average Union Square chocolate shop is well buttoned up. Women planning a slightly naughty bachelorette party would have a blast picking erotic chocolates from the shop, or working with Malena on custom creations. For example, when SATC2 came out Malena created the "Sex and the Titty" truffle - dark chocolate breasts filled with organic cranberry-lime ganache inspired by Carrie's cosmos. I'd take one of those over the movie any day!

I sampled The Xocolate Bar's incredibly rich sipping chocolate, made simply with bittersweet chocolate and water, $2.75 for one potent 4 ounce shot. I then chose the prettiest of the fresh truffles, from the organic coconut to the Aztec Amor to the passionfruit heart. It's almost a shame to eat them because the truffle molds used by the Xocolate Bar are so unique. My favorite was the salted honey, which came right from the small working kitchen behind the shop's counter. Malena uses Marin Wildflower Honey from Marshall's Honey Farm, and just two other ingredients: sea salt and dark chocolate. Another sweet option is the rangpur lime, not overly tangy since the rangpur lime is actually a mix between a lemon and a mandarin orange. For budding amateur chocolatiers, Malena actually posts most of her recipes on her blog, idreamofchocolate.com.

Want to learn more about Malena and the Xocolate Bar? Gourmet Walks is planning our second Celebrity Chocolate Tour on Saturday, July 17 at 1pm. Malena will be accompanying the tour and sharing her thoughts on the art of making gourmet chocolate and making it a business. If you're very good, she'll be sharing her own samples too! Click here to purchase tickets for the July 17th Tour.

Afternoon Pick-Me-Up

Hooker's Sweet Treats. It looks like Martha Stewart has ventured into the TenderNob and transformed 442 Hyde into a farmhouse chic coffee and chocolate bar. Cobalt blue walls, antique wooden tables, a tiny open kitchen and shelves with curious flea market finds (like Cracker Jack Boxes from before I was born). Caramels come loose in brown waxed paper bags or wrapped in heavy brown paper and twine. The design elements are spot on, and the caramels are even better.

I've complained about this before...poor Gourmet Walks tour guides try a lot of salted caramels. Many of them are just so so, and there are only a few that absolutely must be sampled. Hooker's is one of them. We love that David "Hooker" Williams uses intense dark chocolate (72%) since so many salt caramels are milk. And the salt he uses is flaked right on top - Welsch lightly smoked sea salt. Ingredients are also Michael Pollan approved: agave nectar for sweetener, organic locally sourced fair trade chocolate. At $2 a piece, I'd spring for the 20 for $10 and invite friends over. They won't last long.

Gourmet Walks will come here for the caramels, but coffee fans won't be disappointed by the fresh roasted Sightglass Coffee. Started by Blue Bottle alums, Sightglass is the place to go when you find yourself in the outer limits of SOMA, and now, the TenderNob. The Hooker's Mocha is a beautiful partnership. And then there are the bread puddings, inspired by Williams's childhood in Lousiana. But why fill up on bread puddings when there are luscious caramels to devour?

Hooker's Sweet Treats is at 442 Hyde Street, open from 8-5 Monday through Friday and 10-2 on Saturdays.

Perfect Afternoon in the Haight

1. Denim shopping at Villains Vault
2. Summer Sale at Behind the Post Office
3. Dinner and a cocktail at the Alembic
4. Chocolate and wine pairings at Coco-luxe

Let’s talk about #4…my tour guides and I gathered at Coco-luxe last Thursday to sample their chocolate pairings with 122 West Wines. San Francisco industry folks may wonder - how can a chocolate shop serve wine? It involved some crafty maneuvering. Stephanie Marcon, chief chocolatier behind Coco-luxe, married Stan Bradbury, who decided to create a winery. The two worked the funky San Francisco system to get approved for a Tasting Room license in the Haight. The result is delightful, and something that no other chocolate shop can offer right now!

Longitude 122 West marks the home of Napa and Sonoma counties, where all the wine’s grapes are sourced. 122 West currently bottles 5 different wines, all available at Coco-luxe for tasting. We began with a light Napa sangiovese, followed by a food-friendly Napa zinfandel. We then sampled a Russian River syrah and a durif, and finished with a Sonoma port style wine.

Each taste of wine is accompanied by a small piece of dark chocolate and a truffle. The truffles are trademark Coco-luxe, inspired by Stephanie’s nostalgic desserts from childhood: german chocolate, malted milk, devil’s food, shoo-fly caramel and gingerbread. A favorite was the shoo-fly caramel. We taste salted caramels at least once a week on our tours (poor Gourmet Walks tour guides!), so the addition of molasses for the shoo-fly flavor is a refreshing change. The double cherry with the syrah was another excellent pairing, with the cherry truffle flavors drawing out the black cherry and cassis notes in the wine.

The Haight may not be at the top of a foodie's list for gourmet experiences, but the Coco-luxe boutique is a chic but warm haven away from the panhandlers and the fog. Bright orange sherbert walls, shiny white countertops, the smell of drinking chocolate and wine. It’s the perfect end to a well planned afternoon in the Haight. We’re happy to include the Coco-luxe wine tasting experience on our Limo Tours and private events. Please contact us to learn more at info@gourmetwalks.com

Tour Guides Take on Tempering

This past Superbowl Sunday, rather than tending a chili and shopping for beer, I took my tour guides to a chocolate cooking class with Richard Festen of Baking Arts. Chocolate thermometers in hand, we stirred and dipped and re-heated and stirred again to create some delectable dark chocolate truffles and cocoa logs. Richard teaches his baking classes out of a small and stylish kitchen/loft in SOMA and keeps the groups small enough so you'll get plenty of attention and experience. Lucky for us, Richard had recently studied at Chicago's Callebaut Chocolate Academy to further expand his chocolate offerings. Other classes include pies, croissants, eclairs, cream puffs and the ubiquitous French Macaron. Take one look at his web site and the fabulous cakes he has created and you'll know you are in good hands.

It's been said that the Type A personality is a pre-requisite for mastering the precise art of baking. I hire my tour guides for their effervescent enthusiasm for chocolate and their vibrant personalities - not necessarily for their patience. As we tried to get our bowls of chocolate to that magical sweet spot of 88 to 91 degrees, mumbled curses louder and louder. A chocolate thermometer reads in 1 degree increments since a small difference in degree makes a big difference in the final result. Why not just melt chocolate and pop a strawberry in it, like you do with most home baking recipes? We learned by experience that untempered chocolate will bloom quickly and lack shine. It will be messy to serve and won't snap sharply the way a good chocolate bar does. Most large scale chocolate producers have tempering machines, but for the home baker, there is no choice but to learn how to temper.

When the chocolate at last reached the right temperature, we took our balls of ganache and dipped them in with a chocolate dipping fork, taking care to tap the bowl and remove the excess so our truffles did not develop "hips." After dipping, we rolled each truffle in shaved dark chocolate or white chocolate, an easy way to hide mistakes for the amateur chocolate maker. We used the same method for cocoa logs, also rolling each in powdered sugar and then laying to rest. We found that after making just about 4 or 5 chocolates, the temperature dipped too low and we were back to re-heating and stirring and tempering once more.

As chocolate tour guides, we are always curious about the type of chocolate bakers choose to use. For Richard, it is Guittard's 72% chocolate wafers. Although he had made the ganache in advance for us (since it needs a day to rest), he demonstrated his method at the end and let us try our hands at piping what would become the cocoa logs. Again, precision was key. Richard used his chocolate thermometer and his digital scale to ensure that the ganache was smooth, creamy and lump-free. That didn't stop us from pushing too hard with the piping or not hard enough so that our logs resembled lumpy caterpillars.

In the end we all graduated from Chocolate 1 with a box of slightly imperfect chocolates to take home and show off. But to bring to a Superbowl Party? Doubtful, we know by now not to waste fine chocolate! We also previewed the techniques learned in Chocolate 2 and Chocolate 3, from molding chocolate to using intricate transfer sheets to decorate the tops. Something to aspire to, but for now we will return to talking about chocolate and eating it as Gourmet Walks tour guides - letting the masters do the hard work.

Recipe: Baking Arts Cocoa Logs
yields approximately 30 pieces
2 oz bittersweet chocolate 64%, chopped
3 oz semisweet chocolate 55%, chopped
3 1/4 oz heavy cream (6 T)
1/2 oz light corn syrup (2 tsp)
1/2 oz butter, unsalted, room temp (1 T)
1 lb chocolate, tempered
2 cups powdered sugar, sifted

For the ganache: Place chopped chocolate in a medium sized bowl. Set aside.
Bring cream and corn syrup just to the boil while stirring. Pour over chopped chocolate and allow to sit for 2 minutes. Slowly stir with a whisk to begin creating the emulsion. Stir thoroughly to ensure the ganache is well mixed and emulsified.
Check the temperature. When the ganache reaches 95F, mix in the softened butter, stirring well. Let the ganache cool at room temperature undisturbed for about an hour or until it has cooled to below 74F.

Line a baking sheet with parchment. Scrape ganache into a large piping bag fitted with an Ateco #806 round tip. Pipe out even parallel lines of ganache. Set aside to dry overnight at room temperature. Cut into 1 1/4 inch lengths with a paring knife. Dip in tempered chocolate and roll in powdered sugar. Allow chocolate to set before storing cocoa logs at cool room temperature.

Aged Sake & Chocolate

Chocolate & beer? Sake & cheese? Innovative pairings are all the rage. Today's foodie has no patience for rules that once gave us very little choice when dining. As in, if you're ordering fish, then only a glass of chardonnay will do. When I invited some neighbors over last week for sake and chocolate, they were intrigued. My objective was to gather reactions to a bottle of Hanahato Kijoshu, an aged dessert sake, that I picked up at True Sake on a recent Gourmet on Hayes Tour. (And make amends for the giant construction zone our street has become, thanks to our remodeling project.)

I had never tasted a dessert sake before, and neither had anyone at the party. When we poured it into mini sake glasses, we were surprised by the dark amber color. This can be explained by the fact that it is aged for 8 years, which is actually quite unusual for sake. According to sake expert John Gauntner in a recent SF Chronicle article, sake was commonly aged beginning in the 1600s in Japan but this changed in the Meiji era (1868) when brewers became taxed on what they brewed, not what they sold. It was to their advantage to sell quickly. He estimates that aged sakes are now less than 1% of the marketplace. Beau Timken, owner of True Sake, says "Look at the color. The darker the sake, the more expressive and full-bodied it will be."

At 17% alcohol, just a little of Hanahato Kijoshu will do. It can be served at room temperature or chilled, and I opted for chilled since as parties go on, a room temperature beverage becomes unpleasantly warm. I had an array of chocolates available for pairing from Recchiuti, Scharffen Berger and Christopher Elbow. (And for those who could stomach only a bit of the sake, I also offered a port and my favorite Dashe late harvest zinfandel.) As I always say on my tours, when you can get fine chocolate, putting a party together could not be simpler!

Many expected light floral or fruity notes to the sake, which would would have paired nicely with some of the lighter Recchiuti chocolates - like the lavender vanilla. But this sake is much more robust and complex, with a distinct caramel nutty taste that makes it an ideal match with dark, intense chocolates. It is sweet, but not anywhere near as sweet as the late harvest zinfandel. Some likened it more to a whiskey or a scotch. We thought it worked well with the Recchiuti burnt caramel, force noir, kona coffee and even the rose caramel. When paired with the Scharffen Berger single origin dark chocolate bars, like the 68% Camahogne from Grenada, this sake took on more of the dried fruit notes. Urbansake.com writes that the Hanahato Kijoshu would be excellent served over vanilla ice cream. No takers here! Overall, the sake was well received but 3/4 of the bottle still remains in my refrigerator, while the other wines were emptied quickly.

Hanahato Kijoshu is available at True Sake, which will also ship anywhere in California. A 500 ML bottle sells for $34. Give them a call at 415-355-9555. Scharffen Berger single origin bars are available for a limited time only at the Ferry Building Store.