An evening of chocolate

Chocolate at the Waltz-Astoria.

I just had a night full of chocolate. I'm getting ready for my performance on Saturday, an instrumental night, and went out to the Waltz open mic. They were advertising their new frozen hot chocolates, my favorite contradiction in terms. I had that and everyone started asking me about it. It doesn't make any sense. Frozen hot chocolate you say? Why yes, it is delicious.

I had a great time tonight (though my songs need work). To top it off, a chocolate cheesecake.

I've been avoiding chocolate these days. How could I? Because chocolate and my waistline don't get along, but chocolate and my soul do. I'll split the difference.

Anyhow that is to say that more is coming. I have more chocolate adventures to come. Old backed up stuff but good stuff.

Later.

Adieu

I don’t think people realize how much chocolate can effect the emotions. I love chocolate because it provides me a quick visceral pleasure. I get the best rush from eating my favorite pieces of chocolate. Every time, it’s like returning to a familiar friend, someone who can comfort you in your time of need. I know it can seem weird to some who don’t have a passion for chocolate like I do, to imagine crying over lost chocolate, knowing that you may never get the chance to meet one of your long lost friends, knowing that for some reason the people you used to depend on for your chocolate have let you down. But that’s’ how I feel about losing Pierre Marcolini’s amazing chocolate.

I went into the Bourne Confections store (which actually used to just be the “Pierre Marcolini” store) on 59th st and Park Avenue. I was there looking for chocolate for my valentine's day chocolate party. I asked them were the Pierre Marcolini truffles were, and found out that they were not going to be selling them anymore.

Gone. I couldn't believe it. I think I went through the entire mourning process right there in front of the counter.

This store and the chocolate inside was one of the first places I fell in love with in New York. The chocolate and the decor were understated and the chocolate stood on it’s own without any fancy packaging or gimmicks. The tasting boxes were a great hit at my chocolate party, and I used them as discussion pieces to talk about how chocolate really works.

I discovered my favorite chocolate there, little raspberry hearts with soft white and milk chocolate centers. As soon as you bit into them the raspberry melted out onto your tongue and left it’s soft sting. I normally don’t like fruit and chocolate together, but this combination was amazing. I came back to this chocolate again and again. Every chocolate party I’ve had featured these hearts and some other kind of Pierre Marcolini chocolate. Because it has always been my favorite chocolate in the city.

This was the place I would tell everyone to go. The place I would always go to for tea and chocolate when the mood struck me. It’s a testament to what I thought would be it’s longitivtiy that I haven’t actually written much about it on my blog. You never believe that one day things will end. You never believe that one day your friend might not be there.

What happened is Nestle has a controlling amount of stock in the Pierre Marcolini brand. Effectively they own the company. After they installed a new CEO, the CEO pulled Pierre Marcolini’s chocolates from the Bourne Confections store (which always owned the store on 59th st). As the cashier explained it to me “they decided to go in a different direction.” And now Pierre Marcolini chocolates are no longer sold in the US. There will be a way to buy it online, but I have issues with buying online chocolate so I probably won’t be buying from them any time soon.

It’s funny, I’ve actually teared up and cried over this. People might think that’s strange. I mean it isn’t like anyone died right? But in a way this represents the end of an era. Other things are ending for me in my life too right now, so that might also be having some effect on my soul. But for me this is a really sad day in chocolate. I have what’s left of their last shipment. But when that’s gone, it’s gone forever.

All of this is to say, don’t take anything for granted.

Salutations Pierre, you’ll be missed!

A video from the site

Filipino Hot Chocolate

So I stayed over at a friend's house a couple of nights ago. He lives in the part of Queens that is essentially Long Island so rather than going home on the train at 3am I simply spent the night. And was happily surprised in the morning.

My friend's mom is wonderfully caring and made us a Filipino breakfast. We had eggs, rice and sausage and the best part was the hot chocolate. Mama Violago gets special chocolate wafers from a Filipino grocery store and uses this to make the hot chocolate with.

The chocolate is thick and grainy like the stone ground chocolate you can get in Mexico. It makes sense that Filipino hot chocolate would be like Mexican hot chocolate since they were both influenced by Spanish cusine. The hot chocolate was thick and Mama Violago suggested I add a lot of milk. I'm glad I got a chance to try some hot chocolate from another country.

Tea and Chocolate: La Maison Du Chocolat

So my family was in town this past week and they know I'm a chocoloholic. Usually I find yummy places to take my sister to eat. We were walking through Rockefeller Center and decided that we must have a cup of tea! So we walked past NBC studios and around the corner to find, tucked away on a side street a La Maison Du Chocolat!

My sister got creative and got a hot chocolate with a shot of espresso. (Really really rich and dark) I got jasmine tea and a small little truffle that they paired with it. The truffle was milk chocolate with a praline crunch. The floral notes of the chocolate and the floral notes of the tea blended well together. The chocolate gave off a lemon essence that was perfect for the tea.

La Maison also has chocolate tastings for around $70 dollars. As far as tastings go, this is a steal. For the chocolate you get to eat and learn about it's really worth it...I plan on going to one in the near future and reporting back. For now, go and have a spot of tea and chocolate. The Maison has great parings and you won't be disappointed.

cultural chocolate connection

Here's another great blog about chocolate. These guys are based out of London so they have a good perspective on international chocolate. This article is a tasting of the Milo bar which, like Milky Way and other chocolates taste a bit different all over the world. I've never had a Milo bar but it looks good!


Chocoblog reviews the Milo Bar

The Mars Bar mystery

I was in the airport coming home from Jamaica. After waiting in a long line at the airport and getting there two hours too early, I got hungry and wanted a snack. Of course I went for something chocolaty. I saw a bar I had never tried before called a Bounty bar. I bit in thinking that this might be something really new with chocolate and a coconut filling... but no it was exactly like a Mounds bar. At first I thought Bounty was just a different name for the Mounds bar in countries other than the US...as it turns out the two candies are not even made by the same company. Bounty is by Mars and is only sold outside of the US market, and Mounds are made by Hershey. But you could have had me fooled.

Which leads me to the slightly confusing difference between the European Mars bar and the US Mars Bar and Milky Way bars. Ok so according to Wikipedia the original Mars bar was a European invention, designed to be a sweeter version of the American Milky Way bar. Ok so far so good. Yet somewhere along the line we get the American Mars bar (discontinued in 2002!) Which is slightly different than the European one. And apparently what goes for a Milky Way here in the States is called a 3 Musketeer over there.

I'm not even sure I was able to decipher all or any of that, but needless to say the chocolate world is full of things that get lost in the cross-cultural translation.

-Chocolette

Chocolate Party

So this September (yes it is almost November and I have not written about this) I had a chocolate party.

What, pray tell, is a chocolate party? You might ask.

I give chocolate parties to fight the evil Hershey's empire! Well really, it's to introduce people to the fascinating variety of chocolate there is in the world and to give them a taste of the history of chocolate. I usually end up getting a ton of chocolate and having tons of leftovers. Which is fine by me. I try to get a variety, milk, dark different textures and flavors just to give people an idea of what kind of stuff they might like to try again in the future.

Anything is fair game. This time around we had chocolate beer. We also got to taste Vosges' bacon and chocolate bars. These were the hit of the last party I had, and most people thought they were "interesting." Even for me that one is an acquired taste.

Other things we do
-I use a Pierre Marcolini origin's box to throw a tasting. The idea behind the tasting is to show people that the only real difference in the flavor of chocolate comes from where the beans come from. Marcolini makes his truffles exactly the same way but uses different beans from different countries. There is a clear palatable difference between the truffles and I try to draw attention to that. This time I actually sat people down and walked them through how to taste the chocolate. Like a fine wine, there's an art to tasting chocolate.

-Play chocolate smarts. This trivia game has a lot about the history of chocolate. I like to pull this one out because it contains a lot of information about chocolate and can be a fun ice breaker. The only disadvantage is that now that I've had this party four times a lot of people already know the answers :)

-drink wine and eat some snacks and enjoy each other's company. This is the most important part of the chocolate party for me. I get to have friends meet friends, and share my love of chocolate with them.

I suggest trying to throw a party of your own. Just take a few of your favorites and share them with someone you love. Chances are they'll thank you for it later.