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Clay Gordon is leading a small group of us throughout Europe upon a 5-star quest for the best chocolate in Switzerland, France & Belgium in July.CALLING ALL CHOCOLATE LOVERS to join us inside the salons, factories and kitchens of Felchlin, Bonnat, Pralus and Bernachon. We will be personally introduced to world-class master chocolatiers and sample a good deal of chocolate throughout this spectacular and once-in-a-lifetime journey!Enjoy sumptuous multi-course dinners on Lake Lucerne and the Seine River, wine receptions, a guided tour through the Chocolate Museum in Brugges - all at an incredible savings at group rates (save $500/night at the Four Seasons George V in Paris - double occupancy - chocolate spa treatment included!).CLTC's deadline is 3/25/08 - to lock in at these prices (Euro has gone up significantly since we locked in our group rates).Reservations are coming in so visit: www.ChocolateLoversTravelClub.com for more details and reserve your space today!

"Since its foundation, the United Nations system has been collecting statistical information from member states on a variety of topics. The information thus collected constitutes a considerable information asset of the organization. However, these statistical data are often stored in proprietary databases, each with unique dissemination and access policies. As a result, users are often unaware of the full array of statistical information that the UN system has in its data libraries. The current arrangement also means that users are required to move from one database to another to access different types of information. UNdata addresses this problem by pooling major UN databases and those of several other international organizations into one single Internet environment. The innovative design allows a user to access a large number of UN databases either by browsing the data series or through a keyword search." - from a press announcement Searching through UNdata is a great way to waste a lot of time looking for what my father calls, "very important information not worth knowing." It's really quite a silly name when you think about it un-data. Not data? What's not-data?A search on cacao results in no results, while a search for cocoa returns 11. Among the results is a table that displays the quantity and value of the trade of "Cocoa and cocoa preparations." This reveals that the US, in 2006 (I suppose the last year for which figures are available), imported about 473,650 metric tons of "Cocoa beans, whole or broken, raw or roasted" with a total value (in 2006 US$) of about $780 million. In 2006, the US also imported about 33,800 metric tons of cocoa liquor, about 96,450 metric tons of cocoa butter, and about 104,760 metric tons of unsweetened cocoa powder.I have no idea what this really means except that it's a very large number: about 708,660,000 kilograms, more than 2kg or about 5 pounds per man woman and child. Keep in mind that this figure does not include what the US imported in the way of finished chocolate products.I also have no idea what I am going to do with this information. However, I do know that I possess an instinctive ability to remember things in inverse proportion to their importance, so I know that in 5 years I am going to be able to recite at least the "5 pounds" figure while I will have trouble remembering what time to pick up my daughter from piano practice after school that day.

Local press coverage of the 6th Annual Death by Chocolate Festival at Copia can be found here .Copia bills itself as the American Center for Wine, Food, and the Arts and on February 23rd they should have added chocolate into that title somewhere - at least for the day. California and Ziad Kurjie of the US operations of Patchi Chocolates (who are headquartered in Lebanon).I had the pleasure and the privilege to deliver the keynote tasting session as well as moderate the keynote panel on sustainability.Several Chocolate Life members were there including Tracey Downey of Downey Chocolates in Laguna Niguel,The most interesting chocolates I tasted all weekend were:Downey Chocolates' Caramel with fig and walnuts (most decadent);Michael Mischer's Root Beer barrel (most likely to transport you to childhood); andJade Chocolates' dark bar with sesame, chili, and lapsang souchong tea (most sophisticated).Up and coming chocolatiers include Raffine and Ginger Elizabeth and chocolate makers Tcho and Askinosie.Copia is a great venue and if you ever find yourself in the Napa Valley taking in the wine you should plan to visit. And, just across the parking lot is the new Oxbow Market, modeled on the Ferry Plaza market in San Francisco. Check out the wine and cheese merchant as well as the Fatted Calf (great butcher and charcuterie). My only beef (pun intended) is that there's no soul to the Market. Everything seems artfully arranged and just so-so. Maybe that will change as it ages, I certainly hope so.I've already posted a couple of photos from my trip (including a stop in Central Point, OR) and there are more to come.

I am a friend of Clay's. He helped me get my start in the chocolate industry. A lot has happened since he gave me my first advice 5 years ago! Everything from Food Network to Newsweek, opening and closing my first chocolate shop and now writing a book that will be released nationwide in September of 2008. Life is exciting and delicious!I have a lot of successes and some failures that will be great food for thought for some of you. Feel free to post questions on my blog and I will answer as I can.Chocolate Love,Bethany

The Academy of Chocolates has announces the winners of the Chocolate Awards for 2008 . I think many of you will be pleased with the results.I, for one, feel tickled that I'm familiar with most of the names and bars, but also that I've been lucky enough to taste some of them too. If nothing else, this list will work as a good starting point for my next chocolate order.

Here's a question for any seriously informed chocolate people. What's the story with the Smith (aka W.C. Smith) company? The used enrober market is peppered with Smith machines, and a quick search turns up enrober patents listed under a W Smith & Sons Inc. My search for info on the company that makes/made these machines has been fruitless, however. Are they closed? Were they bought out? Is the Smith line currently made/supported by another company? Is it some kind of national secret?

I ask because sooner or later (probably sooner) one has to repair such a machine. Hilliards, for example, has a good reputation for product support and ease of repair, important considerations when one is spending money on new equipment. If I get a Smith and something needs replacing...then what?

I've noticed a trend that disturbs me. There are enough misconceptions and unjustified biases in the chocolate world already; it's time this one was laid to rest. I've seen it time and again, in news features and in company literature. I saw it just now. As interest in fine chocolate rises and the number of domestic bean-to-bar manufacturers rises (thank goodness), I see it more often.

"We don't just melt other people's chocolates."

The sentiment is a fair one, but it's so often expressed poorly. There are certainly professionals who "just" melt other peoples' chocolates. These are not the fondeurs; they are the bad fondeurs. The lazy, the opportunistic, or simply the rustic and innocent. Ma & pa candy shops in seaside resort towns "just" melt down other peoples' chocolates; so do large companies that fall over themselves to tell you how refined they are. We've probably all amused ourselves with the story of Noka. Bad fondeurs.

To lump all chocolatiers together as people who just make candy with other people's chocolate is unfair. Do you put Robert Linxe in the same class as Lake Champlain? Jacques Genin and Godiva? There is definitely a difference. Starting with fine chocolate is key; starting with a variety of fine chocolates is equally important. The bigger the palette, the more room for expression. Even leaving out the rest of the process, these two provisions are enough to separate a handful of good chocolatiers from the mediocre majority. Curious that an artisan chocolate maker will go to such lengths to differentiate their process--sourcing directly from small growers, manufacturing small batches in a hands-on fashion to preserve flavor, etc.--and then fail to make the same distinctions for their colleagues on the other side of the fence. It's like a small chocolatier saying "unlike those larger bean-to-bar operations, who only make chocolate-flavored chocolate, we put a dozen flavors in every box". Pretty weak argument.

A good fondeur's work is the same as that of a good chocolate maker, or for that matter, a good chef: create surpassing flavors and textures; create a sensory experience to delight the consumer. A fondeur doesn't make his own couverture, a chef doesn't raise his own cattle, and (in most cases) a chocolate maker doesn't grow his own beans. Having spent some time on both sides of the chocolate industry, I'll vouch that making chocolate is no more or less difficult than making chocolate bonbons. In both fields, it's much easier to make a passable product than to make one that excels. If the artisan chooses to settle for nothing less than the best; s/he is charged with synthesizing numerous base ingredients into something profound and unique. The chocolate maker handles ingredients with larger equipment, and needs a certain understanding of how to employ complex machinery to get very specific results. The chocolatier works with smaller, simpler tools, and employs a certain physical coordination to get very specific results. Both require a deep knowledge of the chemistry and physics at work, and an intuitive understanding of the raw materials and their potential.

Chocolate makers, of course, use fewer ingredients. Many are fond of pointing out the "purity" of their product and its flavor. They like to point out all the things they don't add. Well, of course fine chocolate really shouldn't contain cocoa butter substitutes or vanillin, so more power to you there. But the notion of "pure" chocolate is artificial. Pure chocolate doesn't exist, as chocolate is not found in nature. Once a cacao bean has been fermented, it's essentially a product of human technology. Everything that happens from then on is craftsmanship, and adding soy lecithin or vanilla beans is as valid a choice as drying and roasting. I've had very "pure" chocolate bars that I wouldn't wish on anyone--the only meaningful standard is how a chocolate feels and tastes in your mouth. Everything else is just marketing.

Marketing. I certainly understand why a company needs to differentiate itself from others in their field. Even on a very broad level, however, a chocolate makers' competitors are other chocolate makers, not the chocolatiers. Dismissing the craft of the fondeur in half a sentence is unnecessary and is, in fact, a thinly veiled insult to the chocolate masters of the world. The two sides of artisanal chocolate really have a great deal in common, yet they are frequently treated as different worlds. Surely we would benefit from a little more unity.

I am spending the year in Israel with the goal of interviewing every chocolatier in the country. So far I'm about halfway through. If you have questions about choc in Israel or kosher chocolate, I'm your woman. My blog, Chocolatespeak is also a great resource.

Last November Canadian Competition Bureau began investigating Canadian divisions of Hershey, Cadbury, Nestle, and Mars on suspicion of price fixing. Last week, the German Federal Cartel office raided the offices and seized documents from the German headquarters of Nestle, Kraft, and Mars, for the same reason.Read more on BBC and ABC News Cross posted from Chocolate Note

Review: Chocolate tour of Paris with David Lebovitz
http://www.davidlebovitz.com/tours.html
(note that he is not currently giving private tours but he is doing aweek-long, small group "Paris Chocolate Adventure")

In 2003 my wife and I made our own chocolate wedding cake from a recipe from David's book "Room for Dessert." In 2005 I had an exhibition in Paris and in our research on where to go we came across his tour so wedecided to splurge.

We opted for a half day tour and my mom joined us. I had been in the catacombs literally all night long so I was less than fully lucid but Imanaged to power through with the help of some theobromine. My wife wasactually 2 weeks pregnant at the time so she was also not feeling 100%.We could have been grumpy and tired but instead it was a real highlightof our trip.

Overall we loved it. David is very knowledgeable. The tour basically leads from store to store where most of out purchases were for later. Asis common in Paris there are few free samples and the focus was not onleading us through tastings themselves. Perhaps he could do that too ifasked - he was very flexible and modified the tour as we went along andhe learned our experience and preferences. We saw more than we expectedin terms of the number of sites we were able to visit. David was veryconsiderate and well organised. A couple times he took us on buses(safer and cleaner than the subway) which allowed him to discuss pointsof interest on the streets along the way. He often peppered the historyand cultural information about chocolate with fun gossip about thepolitics behind some of the personalities involved - especially with thesmaller stores. David is not shy about sharing insider industry news andhe had stories about many cookbooks or chefs we chatted about.

I can't remember all the places we visited but here's a few highlights.

We started at Ladure and learned a bit about its long history. Then we visited Debauve & Gallais - the oldest chocolate store in paris (since1800) where we bought a few dark bars that became our favorite. Byfavorite I mean all-time-five-star-I'd-even-pay-ten-bucks-for-this favorite.

Jean-Charles Rochoux is a friend of his so we got some samples out of his store.

Sadaharu Aoki - added based on our conversation - great matcha chocolate.

We stopped at a kitchen supply store with chocolate preparation equipment.

We omitted a couple key tour places we had been before such as Jean-Paul Hevin and Pierre Herme.

We had some important discussions about chocolate croissants and David pointed us to a few to try. Ladure's featured hazelnut and became ourfavorite. Fachoun was great too.

I was also interested in cheese so we ended our tour at Le Bon Marche. I embarrassed him by asking him to get cheese samples which is not oftendone in Paris. But he came through for me. He left us there with apointer to the chocolate tarts upstairs in their cafe. Over tarts andtea I pleasantly fell into an exhausted, overcaffinated andsleep-deprived happy stupor.