A Trip to the Vere factory!

So I finally got around to going to one of the Vere Chocolate's Factory Days. After walking through the wholesale district and nearly getting lost, I came to the building where Vere is located. You might mistake it for an office building or wholesale storefront, but when you take the elevator upstairs to the factory you are greeted by lime green walls and pictures of chocolate dust. The store feels very upscale and the factory itself is very clean and shiny.





I buzzed the doorbell, maybe too impatiently and I a woman came out from the back of the factory. It turned out to be the head chef, Erika Erskine. She's in charge of designing recipes for the chocolates, and I have to bow down to her because this chocolate is incredible. And all of this is after going into this being very skeptical about "healthy chocolate." But they brought me around to their way of thinking because their chocolate tastes so good. We ended up talking shop about chocolate. She was so nice and walked me through their free samples. She also gave me a bunch of free things to take with me, like little bars of their chocolates and a set of mint & nibs brownies. I really recommend going to one of their Factory Days and trying out what they have.



Some things I learned about their chocolates:

-They only use dark chocolate only because of the high sugar content of milk chocolate. The true benefits of chocolate comes from chocolate with high cocoa content (Ie 70% and above)

-They use arriba beans from Ecuador. Their organic bars are made in Ecuador and brought here. The rest of the chocolates are made in their factory.

-They have a series of chocolates that are "diabetic friendly." Unlike other "sugar free" chocolates, they don't use sugar alcohols and other sweeteners that can be unhealthy for you

The most important thing, though is that their chocolate tastes great. I went home and ate chocolate all night, making notes of course. Granted you're supposed to taste chocolate in the morning when your palate is fresh, but I couldn't wait.

Some notes from my tasting.
-My favorite bar of chocolate was their mint and nibs bar. The mint tasted cool and popped out at you like a peppermint candy. Unlike other mint chocolates the mint doesn't get lost in the dark chocolate.
-Each caramel in the purist box kept getting better. My favorites were the lavender and rose caramels. The flavors are not overpowering and blend very well with the caramels. These give Vosges' caramels a run for the money.
-The crispy coconut clusters I got reminded me of the chocolate covered cornflakes from Jaques Torres, only what they should taste like. I only wish they were a little smaller and not so crumbly.

Vere chocolate ranks up there on my new favorite chocolates list. I really like their clean polished image and delicious dark chocolates. I secretly wish they'd make a milk chocolate version of their caramel box, but hey I'll take what I can get.

Their factory is located at 12 W. 27th street (6th floor). Factory days are M-Th 12pm-5pm and Fri 12-6pm.

A look at things to come (Vere chocolate)

I'm always looking for something new when it comes to chocolate. Vere chocolate actually came up in one of those little google advertisements that are tailored to your emails. Well of course I get tons of email about chocolate, so every now and then something shows up that I actually want to click.

Anyhow Vere chocolate (pronounced "very") advertises itself as "chocolate with benefits." They tout the health and mental benefits of chocolate. From what I know you have to eat a mountain of chocolate to get the health effects of chocolate (since the antioxidant content isn't that high), but hey if they can prove me wrong more power to them. And certainly chocolate makes me feel good when I'm down, but whether that just comes from the satisfaction of something tasty and emotional eating (which I have been known to do), or if it comes from the chocolate itself is something I'm not sure of.

At its worst, the whole campaign seems like another marketing ploy: Ooh chocolate is good for me, so I can eat a lot of it. They do warn that since chocolate is high fat it should be eaten "as part of a balanced diet" or something like that. I'm just not so sure I want chocolate, which has always been a succinctly guilty pleasure for me, up there on a health food pedestal even if there are great things in it.

They also make low sugar/no sugar candies which I am interested in trying. Clearly they are trying to bring health conscious people into the world of gourmet chocolate. And I can't fault them for trying. They also have gorgeous looking chocolate. I haven't tasted any yet, but hopefully that will soon be amended.

In any case I am making plans to go to their chocolate factory. Either tomorrow or Friday. They have a factory right here in Midtown and I was thinking of stopping by for a tasting and to ask a few questions. If all goes well I may find another favorite chocolate.

Their website can be found here.

Starbucks Chocolate

After the last two posts anyone reading this blog must think that I'm a snob when it comes to chocolate. Well I am, but I can also be pleasantly surprised by things. Starbuck's chocolate happens to be one of them.

I tried their coffee and chocolate bar. They sell them right at the front where you pay, and I figured why not? It was just three bites worth of chocolate, but the chocolate was very good. It had a subtle berry flavor at first. It took a little while for the full flavor of the dark chocolate and coffee beans to come through, but when it did the flavor was warm and lasted for a very long time. My only small problem with the chocolate was that I wished it could have been a little thinner. I found the chocolate a bit hard to bite into at first but very much worth it.

I can actually now say that Starbucks has good quality chocolate. I was a little worried at first, but I definitely think I will be buying from them again!

Why I hate Hershey's Chocolate part 1

From what I hear, it was Hershey’s that proposed and pushed a petition to the FDA to allow for the re-formulation of chocolate to allow for using any vegetable oil rather than the cocoa butter naturally found in chocolate. (From Chocolate News)

Chocolate is supposed to have only cocoa butter as fat. Otherwise it can't be called chocolate. As far as oils go, good quality cocoa butter is expensive. Hershey is proposing to make their chocolate even crappier by taking the chocolate out of it. Pretty soon, if Hershey has their way their chocolate will only be artificially chocolate flavored pieces of processed junk. The laundry list of ingredients in a Hershey bar already includes artificial flavoring (vanillin) and coloring. There is almost nothing that isn't artificial in a Hershey bar except the cocoa solids, and even those are low quality.

Which is funny because their commercials advertise them as being 'pure.' This ad actually makes me sick to my stomach when I watch it, but I'll post it to prove its irony.



Guess that's the same as the Wendy's ads that claim they're "not fast food."

Valentine's Day Poser Chocolate

So I was in the Duane Reade earlier, and against my better judgment I went ahead and looked in the Valentine's Day chocolate section. I had a box of Russel Stover's chocolate that a student had given me earlier in the day, so already I was in for a "treat," but then I found this little box of wonders.



So Russel Stover has jumped on the "origin chocolates" bandwagon. They don't evenclaim to have origin chocolate in their truffles but added "taste" making it "origin chocolate tastes." Origin chocolates are chocolates where all the beans come from one place. Plantation bars are even more specific and can trace all the beans in their chocolates to one specific plantation, making it more likely that the beans will have a uniform flavor. Origin chocolate is the new buzzword in gourmet chocolates, and I guess people can be fooled into thinking that this actually means something. Usually it does, but all of this is totally lost in these Russel Stover's pieces.


I got really hopeful for a second and thought this might be good chocolate, but after looking at the ingredients I realized I was probably already aware of how this was going to go. First of all, the best chocolate uses as few ingredients as possible. This box had artificial flavoring listed on the extensive list of crap stuff that they put in it. This was a clue to what would happen next.

As soon as I bit in I knew I had made a mistake. The caramels were exactly the same consistency and almost worse than the valentine's heart box I had before. The fillings did not go well with the chocolates and the artificial flavors were intolerable. I had to spit it out. I mean I really really tried not to, but I couldn't do it.



Sorry guys, but crap wrapped up in a pretty box with a pretty label on it is still crap.

Barack Obama chocolates

Barackolate

Now if only they could spell soya lecithin correctly. Then I might be able to take them seriously

Caramel goodness

Went shopping for chocolate today for a very belated birthday present for this guy I like. (and apparently he reads this blog so I guess I've been outted) Went to Vosges in Soho. I really enjoyed walking in Soho on a nice day like today. The place just reeks of trendiness. I always tell myself that even if I had the money to go into those stores and buy jeans, they're made for skinny twiggy tall girls, which I, sadly, am not. But the stores are nice to look at and everything feels fresh and unique. The day was beautiful and I was on my way to buy chocolate. What more can you ask for.


If I am going to buy caramels I always go to Vosges first. Their Wink of the Rabbit caramels are simply amazing. The caramel is the perfect smooth texture. They go down easy. Each bite is the perfect combination of chocolate and caramel, neither one overpowers the other. I'm not exactly a fan of the crunchiness of the nut on top of the dark chocolate one, but other than that the taste is perfect in texture and flavor. They're a little pricey, but since they're made with all organic ingredients it's worth it. I haven't tried the exotic caramels I got yet, but I'm sure they're also delectable.