by Valerie Beck, chocolate expert

Do you remember the first time you tasted chocolate?

I remember being 4 years old and letting my mom know that non-chocolate milk just wasn’t working for me.

 

And I remember being 19 and tasting my first piece of truly fine chocolate, in Paris, and knowing that this was going to change my life.

Tasting new chocolate can connect us to happy memories, and open the door to new adventures.

Below are a very few of my favorite chocolate creations that I tasted for the first time in 2015, narrowed down with enormous difficulty to:

* one chocolate bar,
* one hot chocolate, and
* one chocolate truffle.

I could have done the top 10 of each, and added pastries and confections and done the top 10 of each of those, and would still have had an outrageously difficult time narrowing it down from all of the amazing chocolate I’ve had the pleasure of tasting this year, in many different cities.

 

Indeed, at one single event, World of Chocolate earlier this month, I tasted over 27 new chocolate creations as a judge!

The craft chocolate revolution continues, and talented and hard working chocolate makers, chocolatiers, and chefs continue to innovate, which means a lot of fabulous chocolate to taste and enjoy.

But this is a brief post on New Year’s Eve, typed on my phone, and so I’m sharing just a few favorite items here.

For more chocolate that I loved in 2015, see my instagram!

Meanwhile, here we go:

 

 

Chocolate Bar: Sirene Chocolate

Crafted from just two ingredients – cacao and sugar – Sirene Chocolate epitomizes the purity of bean-to-bar chocolate.

Smooth texture and fabulous flavor, depending on the cacao origin, fermentation, roasting process, and grinding time, reveal the story that each cacao origin can tell, and reveal the artistry of chocolate maker Taylor Kennedy, from his chocolate kitchen in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada.

I sampled Sirene for the first time this past year, at the Northwest Chocolate Festival in Seattle, and was instantly impressed. I then sampled Sirene to a group at one of my Chocolate Wellness talks, in Chicago, and it is no exaggeration to say that “the crowd went wild.” After the group tasted the fleur de sel chocolate bar by Sirene, they asked for seconds, and bought out the rest of my stock.

When one audience member’s bars accidentally came home with me in my bag, I offered to drop them off to her the next day, but she preferred to come to my place and get them that same night. I would have done the same thing!

 

 

Hot Chocolate: Undone Chocolate

This is a personal mini list, so here’s my personal view on hot chocolate: it should be rich, chocolatey, and simultaneously comforting and exciting.

If it’s also single-origin, and made with just two ingredients (cacao and sugar), and tastes amazing in a vegan version made with water instead of milk (the traditional or ancient way to make chocolate is of course with water, not dairy), then it is truly special.

The hot chocolate by Undone Chocolate is all of those things. I already loved Undone’s chocolate bars when I visited owner Adam Kavalier and team member Merrill Dagg at Undone’s kitchen in Washington, DC, this year. What a treat to see their chocolate-making equipment in action, with sacks and sacks of Dominican Republic cacao awaiting their turn to shine.

When Adam sent me home with a tin of Undone hot chocolate mix I was grateful, and as soon as I tried it I was ecstatic.

The flavor and texture are rich and luscious with water – no milk required – so that the hot chocolate tastes not like milk but like chocolate. Call me a purist because that for me is what hot chocolate should be.

 

Truffles: Batch PDX

When I bit into a French truffle in Paris at age 19, I knew it was something exquisite.

When I bit into a Batch PDX truffle earlier this year (see my June 2015 blog post), I knew it had the same level of precision, flavor, and magic that had captivated me in Paris, only this time the truffles were made in Portland, Oregon.

Chocolatier Jeremy Karp sees himself as a craftsman, and indeed crafts bonbons of beauty and balance.

I also see him as an artist, because he sculpts with flavors and textures, telling a story of contrast and compatibility with spice and passion fruit, for example, enrobed in white chocolate for additional magic.

These glimpses of magical chocolate experiences energize me for amazing chocolate experiences in the new year and beyond.

I wish you a delicious new year and more, as you “keep eating real chocolate!”

Your friend in chocolate,
Valerie

 

Valerie Beck
CEO/Founder Chocolate Uplift
Chocolate Consultant and Broker, Sweet Speaker
www.valeriebeckchocolateuplift.com
chocolateuplift@gmail.com
social media @chocolateuplift

“Uplift Through Chocolate!”