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I got a lovely e-mail earlier today from someone who expressed interest in TheChocolateLife a couple of months ago:> I am sorry that it took so long to respond!>> I love your website! I looked into becoming a member but I am not a> chocolatier. Do you need to be to become a member?Here's how I [edited slightly] responded back:[T]:You don't need to be a chocolate maker, chocolatier, chocolate writer or critic, sell chocolate, or anything like that to become a member of TheChocolateLife. You just:a) have to like chocolateb) want to learn more about chocolatec) want to share what you know about chocolated) did I mention that you have to like chocolate?If you can answer "Yes!" to any one of those questions please join us on TheChocolateLife.'Nuff said.:: ClayPS. I want to thank the author of the e-mail for the enthusiastic (unsolicited) testimonial.

The swirling snow through Chicagos bare trees seemed a long way from the humid breezes and thick leaf canopies of chocolates growing regions. Yet when I arrived at the new Barry-Callebauts Chocolate Academy in Chicago, I found the fragrant bags of chocolate from Costa Rica and Tanzania and Mexico ready for action. I had heard that this facility was the best of all chocolate work labs in the country, and maybe even the world. Could it be true? This was no ordinary candy kitchen - the kind with a greasy copper kettle and a few cracked marble slabs around. And it was not quaint in the way you imagine a storied kitchen of a European boutique. No, this was a long, well-lit room with a state-of-the-art granite workspace the size of a basketball court (OK, I exaggerate, but you chocolate people have spent plenty of time in the corner of a too-hot kitchen with nothing more than a bowl and a broken tempering machine. Youd love this! It was huge!). We had induction burners, ganache frames, guitars, temperature and humidity control, sunshades, convection ovens, Robot-Coupes, heat guns, pallette knives and a wall of chocolate from which to choose our flavors. We worked with automatic enrobers, continuous enrobers, chocolate warmers, molds, racks and pans all specified to the precise needs of chocolate practioners. If you could take your eyes off all this gleaming equipment, you could ponder the views of Chicagos snowy rooftops and river traffic below. My chef/instructor, Derek Pho, is also the technical director for Barry-Callebaut, and he chose most of the equipment in the place. Ask him anything about the Chicago facility, water activity in ganache, sugar density, the Canadian facility, beta crystalsyou name it, this guy knows it. Plus he can explain it to you in any of the 6 languages he speaks. My chocolate biz & tech skills got a work out, my pastry chef skills got a work out, my student skills got a big work out becuase we were given lectures, hand-outs and detailed chemistry information along with our confectionary recipes. But now I have a problem. My tabletop tempering machines look like old vacuum cleaners to me now. Im just not living right. I need one of those $25,000 enrobers and a basketball court full of granite in my workspace. My aspirations may have a big price tag, but the inspiration from the Chocolate Academy was priceless. http://www.barry-callebaut.com/chocolate_academy or 866-443-0437

Now Try This:A molded chocolate with wine jelly center covered by milk chocolate ganache in a milk chocolate shell.Id like to try to post something here once a week during the North American winter months but Im going to be on a driving vacation to Florida next week so thought Id get this posted on the blog before I leave this Saturday. (Ill be staying near Ft. Myers so hope to stop by Norman Loves store there.)Ive been getting some good feedback from friends on this molded chocolate piece because it is so rich but its kind of surprising too, it has an unexpected solid jelly mouth feel after you bite into it. Ive not seen or heard of a combination of spirits based jelly covered by wine ganache in a chocolate shell. Again, like the previous post: this may be strong to the taste of some people so they ought to be forewarned that its grown-up candy before they bite into it.The technique used here is basically the same as my previous post, except I used Madagascar Sambriano origin milk chocolate instead of New Guinea. It probably would have been better to use a milder bean for the milk chocolate because the wine involved has a hard time standing up to the strong red fruit(raspberry) flavor notes of the Madagascar. But that is what I had on hand at the time. And because of its strength, I chose a red wine rather than a white. Any quality milk chocolate could be used here and you could use a white wine if your chocolate is milder.This milk chocolate was about a 45 % cocoa with 10 % milk. That is what I call a dark milk chocolate.The wine jelly was a Merlot , nothing special. I used one half cup brought to a boil with one Tbsp pectin (Sure*Jell) but not gelatin (Knox) and one Tbsp cane sugar. Follow the directions on the Sure*Jell insert, exactly. Then chill and let it set overnight. That is 120ml wine, 15ml pectin and 15ml sugar. This should give you a wine jelly that is nice and firm. But it is difficult to prevent a part of it from being watery. What you dont want is a jelly that is so solid that you can cut it with a knife, then it just would not have much Merlot taste.This wine jelly is put in the shell (I prefer a thin shell as mentioned in the earlier post) and then is covered with a layer of the milk chocolate ganache made with the same technique and using Merlot wine and chocolate as described also in the earlier post. I think the thinner the ganache you can get the better. That means that Im going for the most jelly possible in the center. This ought to give you the maximum wine flavor possible. The ganache just doesnt carry very much wine flavor; the jelly much more. Then top it all off with a thin layer of milk chocolate shell.The ganache is going to make a nice seal over the jelly between it and the liquid chocolate shell when poured or piped. This will prevent any liquid jelly from floating through the chocolate and leaking. I know I said make the jelly near solid but even then there may be a slight liquid to it.What you get is a rich chocolate piece which has a creamy feel when you bite into it and then a nice fruity/jelly taste following. Try it. Youll like it!A friend of mine: April, and her husband Shane, over at Chocolat Branson:http://www.handcraftedchocolat.com/came up with a new one called Bee Sting using honey and cayenne . Really nice !So another friend, Al who owns a restaurant called Big Als Place and who makes mead (wine from honey) came up with a way to freeze his mead and drain off the high alcohol liquid which he calls Bee Squeezeins .My next Now Try This will be Bee Squeezeins in chocolate. Should be fun !! But this is no Kiddie Candy !!All the Best Tasting to You.Mr WineCandyBy the way: Have you seen these photos of the work done by James Gallo on this site? What a Master; check it out !!http://www.thechocolatelife.com/photo/photo/listForContributor?screenName=3a256r2yh0gj1

Now Try This:Um ! Yum! Dark Milk Chocolate Port Ganache in a Dark Chocolate ShellI used Papua New Guinea origin chocolate for this molded treat. The Dark Chocolate shell was a 66 % cocoa with half vanilla bean per 5 lbs of liquor. After pulling off 2 lbs of dark I added enough sugar and milk to give me a 60% dark milk at 15 % milk.If youve not worked with home roasted chocolate, just know this: I used a good rich dark chocolate that was not too bitter for the shell. Not a real spicy/fruity chocolate like a Madagascar but a nice bold one. For the milk chocolate ganache it was pretty dark , with not a whole lot of milk. Ie, a dark milk chocolate that again was not too spicy. I think these go together well with port as it is not spicy like Sauvignon Blanc wine or a Vignoles wine jelly.For the ganache I used 2 oz of dark milk chocolate, 3 table spoons of vintage Port and, boiled evaporated milk cup . Not heavy cream. (That would be about 60 gm chocolate, 45ml of Port, and 75ml of evaporated milk. ) Why not cream? Some Ports are oak aged. Ie, they have an oaky/caramelized flavor and I think (just my opinion) that evaporated milk in the ganache blends better in flavor than a plain heavy cream.I brought the evap. milk to a light boil, poured in melted milk chocolate and added the port. Stirring constantly until all the chocolate was well blended. This is Fonseca Guimaraens 1998 vintage port. It was a gift to me and I dont know anything about it, could be expensive or could be cheap but I used it with chocolate and it turned out real nice. Im supposed to know about this stuff , the details of Port, as I grow wine grapes commercially, but I confess ignorance about Port. Makes a good ganache though.From the warm sauce pan I poured the liquid ganache into a cool glass bowl and covered with saran wrap and refrigerated overnight. I like to make my dark chocolate shells very, very thin as they are powerful single origin chocolate and I dont want the shells to overpower the center filling. So I made the shells pouring the melted dark into molds, scooped the milk chocolate ganache in and covered with a layer of dark chocolate which I tried to keep as thin as possible. The ganache was not broken, no liquid floated up so the pieces sealed well. These I chilled before taking out of the molds. They came out easily and I just had to bite into one right away.This is great tasting stuff !! It is not kiddie candy. Think about the fact that there adult flavors going on here. Its important that a person trying these chocolates doesnt expect sweet, sugary, birthday cake confections. No , no. This is an adult treat and is strong to some people if they dont expect a serious, flavorful molded chocolateYou get a mouthful of rich chocolate and a Vintage Porto beverage tooAnd I love it.Next Time : the same, with wine jelly to boot.

I saw this article on Cadbury and it made me cringe.Are customers really so silly that they need this? or is this another manifestation of the nanny state?Of course allergies are very serious but still... What next? Warning on chocolate contains...cocoa?Milk in chocolates warningBritain's most famous milk chocolate maker has decided to warn milk chocolate lovers that Britain's most famous milk chocolate contains - milk.The latest Cadbury Dairy Milk wrappers feature a logo showing a glass and a half of milk being poured into a chocolate chunk, put milk first in a list of ingredients and explains that there is "The equivalent of three quarters of a pint of milk of fresh liquid milk in every half pound of milk chocolate".But Cadbury says it is also necessary to print warnings in capital letters in yellow boxes saying "CONTAINS: MILK" in case people who are allergic to milk do not realise that there is milk in Cadbury Dairy Milk bars.

Aloha and welcome to my blog/profile/page.I am the owner of Sweet Paradise Chocolatier- I am "artisan" chocolate maker in Hawaii and have a small bohemian confection shop with a full grown replica of a cacao tree inside. Its in the windward town of Kailua on Oahu. ( the town Barack Obama and family vacation in ) All my chocolates are made fresh in small batches using my own recipes and focus on tropical fruit, nut and spice flavors since thats what is most readily available here. I love to embellish my creations with a variety of decoration tecniques from cocoa butters to texture sheets, natural fruit or spice pieces and edible flowers. The perfect chocolate box for me is a visual treat of color, texture form and aroma, afull sensory experience inviting one to step inside and discover the flavors within.I enjoy making chocolate recipes that reflect the cultural diversity found in Hawaii- primarily a fusion of Asian and Polynesian cultures, hence you will find fruits like Yuzu in my creations, Japanese Plum, ( Ume) firey Hawaiian Chili Pepper or various local harvested sea salts. We grow coffee, macadamia nuts, bananas, vanilla, cloves, nutmeg,lemongrass, ginger, kafir lime, jabong, rambutan, mangosteen, wasabe, poha, surinam cherry , green tea, and ohelo berry...the list of fun ingredients to work with here is endless!! A fun afternoon is heading out on a drive across the southern part of the Big Island and picking wild strawberry guavas.They are so fragrant and sweet you can't even ride in the car with them!In addition to my passion for chocolate I own a small lodging property ( www.visitthevolcano.com) outside Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, and build timber "kit" homes from cedar I bring down from British Columbia (www.mahanahomes.com) . leisure activities (is there such a thing or did I dream about them?)include walking on the beach with my golden retriever, checking out the farmers markets, riding horses, hiking Hawaii Volcanoes National Park or one of Oahu;s spectacular ridges,reading,internet surfing and listening to jazz and sipping some Red Zinfandel.Thanks for stopping by,Melanie Boudarwww.sweetparadisechocolate.com

Hi everyone,First blog and a hot potato one!!!Some of you, chocolatiers in the US, may be considering entering the above awards in the UK.Well, we have participated successfully to them for the last 3 years but this yearmade the unpopular decision not to as we feel that the Academy has to address a number of issuesto run these awards professionally.If you want to read more, check out our reasons and suggestions athttp://www.artisanduchocolat.com/ArtisanduChocolatSite/cm/Plainchocolateblog.htmOr read belowGerard Coleman,DirectorArtisan du chocolat This year we are not participating to the annual Chocolate Academy Awards. This may be an unpopular decision and a mildly commercially suicidal one but we make chocolates, not politics. And politics has come in the way of celebrating fine chocolate. The Academy has done much to raise the profile of fine chocolate in the UK but needs now to seriously address several issues if it is to represent this growing industry professionally.The Academy membership should be open and enlarged in order to remain impartial and to limit the potential conflicts of interest. We would like to call for an independent body with no commercial interest in chocolate to be formed and oversee the organisation of the awards.In recent years, most of the award winners were also members of the Academy. This could raise question of personal preferment and partiality. While we hope this is not the case, it is important that the Academy substantiates its position by putting in place the right people and processes to ensure that the Awards are truly representative of the industry as a whole and are truly impartial. For example, is it acceptable that one of the key organisers of the awards is also be the PR person of some of the brands participating?Clarity and transparency need to be achieved in all stages of the awards from sample collection (to avoid "special" batches being created only for the awards), to aggregating scores into awards, to deciding for awards not based on scores and creating new awards.In addition we think fewer awards would be beneficial to avoid dilution of their impact and confusion. Last year more than 100 awards were given.How many do you remember? There should be fewer awards categories, fewer awards given in each category and a smaller geographic spread of the participants. Wouldn't it be better to judge UK products perfectly rather than take on the world?Finally, we encourage the Academy in continuing to enforce clear guidelines as how the awards should be referred to by the winning brands. Should we mention some overjoyed winners in the past who extended their awards to "World awards" or did not to mention what their awards was for?Overall we cannot continue to participate until the Academy addresses the above issues professionally. We know there are several other chocolatiers who share our point of view but prefer to remain silent for commercial reasons. We prefer to say exactly what we think regardless of commercial and political caution. That's what this plain chocolate blog is about.

Goodbye to a pioneering location for American artisan chocolate....or as the guys at SFist put it: -- Scharffen Berger Soon To Suck --Apparently production will move to a Hershey plant in Illinois. Sad, and disappointing. Here is the text from the SFGate.com article (I can't get the hyperlink to work, sorry) --(01-27) 18:28 PST -- The Hershey Co. said Tuesday it plans to close Scharffen Berger's West Berkeley manufacturing plant as well as the San Francisco factory that makes Joseph Schmidt chocolates and consolidate production at other facilities.Hershey, which in 2005 bought both Scharffen Berger, which specializes in premium dark chocolates, and trufflemaker Joseph Schmidt, will continue to produce those brands, but the chocolates will no longer be locally made.<<Database: Notices of planned layoffs in California>>Hershey already makes the majority of its Scharffen Berger products in its newly upgraded plant in Robinson, Ill., said spokesman Kirk Saville from the chocolate giant's headquarters in Hershey, Pa. He said the plant closures will affect a total of about 150 employees from both facilities.Saville said Hershey intends to maintain the quality of the brands, which make up the company's wholly owned subsidiary, Artisan Confections Co."We will continue to source the world's best cacao to create our rich and distinct chocolate," he said. "We will maintain the highest quality standard for all our artisan productions."That provided little solace to Bay Area fans of the chocolate-makers. Both brands have created a strong legacy and helped increased the popularity of high-end, gourmet chocolates around the country.Scharffen Berger was founded in 1996 by Robert Steinberg, a family-practice physician in San Francisco and Ukiah, along with a former patient, winemaker John Scharffenberger.The pair experimented in Steinberg's kitchen, using everything from a mortar and pestle to a hair dryer to create their chocolate. Production started in a South San Francisco plant but was moved to the larger, 27,000-square-foot Berkeley factory in 2001."It was home grown. They really changed the way people regarded chocolate in this country," said Deborah Kwan, a public relations consultant for the company from the time it opened until 2003.Steinberg died in September after a long battle with lymphoma. "I'm glad Robert is not alive to see this," Kwan said. "If the lymphoma hadn't taken him, this would have."Hershey released fourth-quarter earnings Tuesday that were above analyst expectations and projected growth of up to 3 percent for 2009. The company said it earned $82.2 million, or 36 cents a share, in the quarter ending in December, compared with $54.3 million, or 24 cents a share, it earned for the same period last year.At the same time it announced the solid results, the company said it will consolidate the plants that make the high-end artisan brands.Hershey's Saville gave little information on the timing of the plant closures, other than to say they will occur this year. He said he expects Cafe Cacao, the restaurant at the Scharffen Berger factory, and the on-site retail store to continue to operate until further notice."We are committed to communicating details to our employees first," he said, adding that Hershey is offering laid-off employees "very competitive" severance packages. He declined to provide details.E-mail Victoria Colliver at vcolliver@sfchronicle.com.http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/01/28/BU2F15I9DV.DTL

Carymax LLC has announced the faculty for the 2009 World Pastry Forum on their new website .The World Pastry Forum offers two different instruction tracks - the Hands-On track and the Demonstration track.The Hands-On track offers students just that, a hands-on opportunity to do a deep dive into specific topics with world-class instructors in order to hone their skills. Enrollment in these classes is strictly limited to ensure that everyone has an opportunity to benefit from the instruction. Hands-On classes are team taught. Each class consists of 2, 2-1/2 day sessions with each instructor. At the end of the first session, students switch classrooms and instructors.The Demonstration track offers students exposure to a broad range of topics in a lecture format prepared and delivered by a world-class faculty. In all, there are 10, half-day classes. In addition to the class lectures, most instructors provide class notes complete with all of the recipes demonstrated in the classes. At the beginning of the forum, all Demonstration students receive (among other things) a binder and all of the class notes as well as detailed chef-instructor bios.This year, the Hands-On track reprises last year's topics: Chocolate and Wedding Cakes. Teaching the Chocolate class are Stephane Treand and Jean-Michel Perruchon. Teaching the Wedding Cakes class are Nicholas Lodge and Bronwen Weber.This year the Demonstration Track instructors include (two instructors are yet to be announced):Albert AdriaStephen DurfeeCiril HitzLaurent Le DanielColette PetersVincent PilonGilles RenussonRudi Van VeenIn addition there will be a number of evening classes offered. I am working with Carymax on several different projects and have proposed teaching one of those evening classes. My idea was to teach a class on writing about pastry and chocolate. Let me know what you'd like to see by replying to this blog post.

If the World Pastry Forum site looks familiar it is because I designed and am moderating it as well as TheChocolateLife. Because they are both running on the same software you can join the World Pastry Forum site using the same user id and password as TheChocolateLife.

Just as I was reminding Alex that we're six days out to City Bakery's month-long Hot Chocolate Festival, I got a message from Maury: the festival not only starts a day early, but is staying open late to celebrate.The 17th annual festival kicks off this Saturday, the 31st, at the normal opening hour of 7:30 a.m. But just in case you're too busy shopping sales, catching the Oscar nominations , taking in Marlene Dumas at Moma, or sleeping off Friday night's soires, City Bakery will remain open until midnight in celebration of the festival. Thats 16 hours of decadent hot cocoa, followed by a month of experimental flavors like banana peel, beer, ginger, caramel and, Maury's favorites, bourbon and vanilla bean. What's more, they're introducing "Lights Out Hot Chocolate" this year. Every day at 3 o'clock, the mezzanine lights go off and the candles get lit creating not only a moody way to sip your cocoa, but also a sweet way to save energy. How do you like that, Mr. President ?3 West 18th Street between Fifth and Sixth Aves212.366.1414