https://forums.thechocolatelife.com/vera-hofman Sat, 09 May 2026 14:53:43 -0600 https://forums.thechocolatelife.com/vera-hofman/blog/707/annual-best-chocolate-bars-list-my-favorites-in-2015 https://forums.thechocolatelife.com/vera-hofman/blog/707
Last year I wrote: ‘Every year it’s getting better and better’. This year I should say: ‘It becomes more and more…but unfortunately not necessarily better’. Especially starting chocolate makers do not allow themselves enough time to practice and do sell their creations too quickly. Several times I paid about 8-10 Euros or Dollars (sometimes even more) for stuff that turned out to be not good (to say it nicely). In my opinion you should not sell poor “artisan” chocolate and certainly not at those prices. It is also wrong to force upon innocent people that this is good chocolate. So be careful what you are doing. Next year when I taste something inappropriate, I will ask my money back. So watch out! ;-)
I should stop complaining now. Life is too short to focus on the bad stuff, let’s go to the amazing, wonderful, delicious and gorgeous chocolates.
The best new bean-to-bar brands I have tasted this year: Sirene (Madagascar 73%, Ecuador 73% and 100%)
Franceschi (Canoabo, Choroni and Ocumare)
Manufaktura Czekolady (Porcelana, Dominican Republic, Ecuador and an excellent Ghana!)
Other bars I liked very much (in a random order): Soma: Porcelana 75% and CBS Chama 70%
Dick Taylor: Bolivia Alto Beni 70%
Chocolate Tree: Peru Marañón 69%
Luisa Abram: Wild Cocoa Brazilian Amazon 70%
Lonohana: The Néné 71%
Bar au Chocolat: Montserrat Hills Trinidad 80%
Parliament: Guatemalan Q'Eqchi 70% and Dominican Republic Öko Caribe 70%
Dandelion: San Francisco de Macoris DR 70%
Catronovo Chocolate: Colombia Sierra Nevada 72%
Fresco: Madagascar 89% and Five 70%
A. Morin: Cuba, Panama and Toumi
Cacao Hunters: Arhuaco 72%
Rogue: Jamaica 75% and Porcelana 80%
Georgia Ramon: Ghana 70% and 90%
Oialla: Bolivia Beniano 78% and 100%
Chocablog (now Damson): Madagascar Menakao 70% and Akesson 70%
Middlebury: Dominican Republic Eden O 70%
The new recipes of Hoja Verde
Have I forgotten to mention something?
Oh yes, a lot of good chocolate made of Belizean cocoa: TAZA, Choco del Sol, Belyzium, Videri, Charm School, Georgia Ramon…
Who creates more new bars in a year other than Tibor Szántó? His Santo Domingo Heima, Sao Tomé, Cuba 88%, Chuno, Nicaliso, Tumbes, Arriba Amazonas, are all great. And his chocolate covered Hispaniola beans are marvellous.
What a fantastic year! Thank you so much for pleasing my taste buds J
You make my life delicious! Happy new chocolate year!
PS 1: Looking forward to meet you at Chocoa, February 4-7th in Amsterdam. http://www.chocoa.nl/
PS 2: Original Beans just launched their web shop: http://shop.originalbeans.com/en/
Original Beans will definitely introduce new products in 2016. Hopefully these will make your life delicious too J


 
 
 
]]> Wed, 30 Dec 2015 13:30:46 -0700 https://forums.thechocolatelife.com/vera-hofman/blog/602/every-year-its-getting-better-and-better https://forums.thechocolatelife.com/vera-hofman/blog/602
My favourite new-coming chocolate makers: Pump Street Bakery (especially: Grenada 70% and Ecuador 75%)
It’s Chocolate (especially: Chuao and Belize). New name: Brasstown Chocolate.
Cacao Hunters (everything!)
Other new ones that I like: Metiisto, Doble & Bignall, Erithaj, Solstice and Cacaosuyo.
New bars from existing chocolate makers that are really awesome:  Idilio: Trinchera 74%
Soma: La Dalia, Blend 82%, Peru Nacional, Little Big Man, Dancing in your head, Old School Nicaragua
Tibor Szántó: Carenero Superior, Ben Tre, Ambolikapiky, Cuba
Bar au Chocolat: Maranon
Marou: Dak Lak
French Broad: Matagalpa
Ritual: Belize and Maranon
My most memorable experience was the production of the new Original Beans bars at Felchlin in July.  I will never forget that. It was very exciting to create new recipes together with Felchlin and the Original Beans team. I’m  so happy with the results! And I heard I’m not the only one :-) May I say that these bars are my 2014’s favourites? Or will I be disqualified? Although it’s not weird to be in love with your own babies, right? ;-) 
Other chocolate highlights:   Chocoa Trade Fair and Festival, March in Amsterdam
Origin Chocolate Event, October in Amsterdam 
What will happen in 2015? I’m looking forward to:  The bean (or tree?) -to-bars by Alexandre!
The start of a Chocolate Academy in The Netherlands!
Chocoa Trade Fair, Conferences and Festival 5-9th March in Amsterdam. Be there!
Georg Bernardini’s new chocolate book September 2015
And maybe some gorgeous new Original Beans products? 
Wish you all a delicious new chocolate year!

]]> Sun, 28 Dec 2014 12:27:24 -0700 https://forums.thechocolatelife.com/vera-hofman/blog/601/crowdfunding-for-georg-bernardinis-new-book https://forums.thechocolatelife.com/vera-hofman/blog/601 2012. This book contains more than 700 pages with reviews and information about
chocolate. He won a Gourmand Award for best chocolate book in the world!
Now he is working on a new version (also in English!) that will be even better!
550 brands from 70 countries with almost 5.000 product reviews!
(I think he eats more chocolate at the moment than I do).
And many, many other informations will give a huge overview about chocolate and
chocolate market.

Support him and make reservations for the book:
https://www.startnext.de/derschokoladentester
https://twitter.com/GBernardini





]]> Wed, 24 Dec 2014 10:12:01 -0700 https://forums.thechocolatelife.com/vera-hofman/blog/507/my-favourite-dark-catches-in-2013 https://forums.thechocolatelife.com/vera-hofman/blog/507 Mon, 16 Dec 2013 15:08:44 -0700 https://forums.thechocolatelife.com/vera-hofman/blog/499/my-top-3-chocolates-at-le-salon-du-chocolat-in-london-2013 https://forums.thechocolatelife.com/vera-hofman/blog/499 Mon, 21 Oct 2013 10:14:15 -0600 https://forums.thechocolatelife.com/vera-hofman/blog/448/origin-chocolate-event-amsterdam-october-16th-and-17th-2012 https://forums.thechocolatelife.com/vera-hofman/blog/448 Sun, 18 Nov 2012 15:29:52 -0700 https://forums.thechocolatelife.com/vera-hofman/blog/445/chocolate-unwrapped-london-october-13th-14th-2012 https://forums.thechocolatelife.com/vera-hofman/blog/445 Sun, 04 Nov 2012 09:49:43 -0700 https://forums.thechocolatelife.com/vera-hofman/blog/397/visiting-turin-the-chocolate-capital-of-italy-and-the-cioccola-to-festival-march-1-5-2012 https://forums.thechocolatelife.com/vera-hofman/blog/397 Tue, 06 Mar 2012 15:06:10 -0700 https://forums.thechocolatelife.com/vera-hofman/blog/365/chocolate-triathlon-third-part-le-salon-du-chocolat-paris-oct-21st https://forums.thechocolatelife.com/vera-hofman/blog/365 Tue, 22 Nov 2011 10:50:16 -0700 https://forums.thechocolatelife.com/vera-hofman/blog/364/chocolate-triathlon-second-part-single-origin-event-amsterdam-oct-18th https://forums.thechocolatelife.com/vera-hofman/blog/364 Mon, 21 Nov 2011 10:25:21 -0700 https://forums.thechocolatelife.com/vera-hofman/blog/363/chocolate-triathlon-first-part-london-chocolate-unwrapped-oct-15-16th https://forums.thechocolatelife.com/vera-hofman/blog/363 Sun, 20 Nov 2011 13:18:44 -0700 https://forums.thechocolatelife.com/vera-hofman/blog/337/part-two-developing-the-new-organic-grand-cru-piura-from-original-beans https://forums.thechocolatelife.com/vera-hofman/blog/337 Thu, 11 Aug 2011 11:11:07 -0600 https://forums.thechocolatelife.com/vera-hofman/blog/335/my-dream-came-true-a-visit-to-felchlin https://forums.thechocolatelife.com/vera-hofman/blog/335 Tue, 02 Aug 2011 11:01:56 -0600 https://forums.thechocolatelife.com/vera-hofman/blog/328/fijian-summer-in-holland https://forums.thechocolatelife.com/vera-hofman/blog/328 Tue, 12 Jul 2011 15:07:25 -0600 https://forums.thechocolatelife.com/vera-hofman/blog/318/my-visit-to-de-bondt-in-pisa https://forums.thechocolatelife.com/vera-hofman/blog/318 Sat, 14 May 2011 15:35:25 -0600 https://forums.thechocolatelife.com/vera-hofman/blog/315/the-chocolate-festival-at-south-bank-london https://forums.thechocolatelife.com/vera-hofman/blog/315 Sun, 24 Apr 2011 14:26:02 -0600 https://forums.thechocolatelife.com/vera-hofman/blog/298/my-latest-discovery-danta-chocolate https://forums.thechocolatelife.com/vera-hofman/blog/298 Sat, 05 Mar 2011 13:04:35 -0700 https://forums.thechocolatelife.com/vera-hofman/blog/291/where-to-go-in-belgium-kortrijk https://forums.thechocolatelife.com/vera-hofman/blog/291
What a beautiful shop he has! Pastries, homemade chocolates and a fine selection of bars. Original Beans' had just arrived and were already displayed on the counter. First I had to taste some delicious pastries and chocolates. My favourite was a chocolate with a Pacari Raw ganache. Geert makes everything on his own, unbelievable! After that there was some work to do: making chocolate cakes with a mousse of Valrhona's Tanariva and a mousse of Amano's Madagascar, see photos below. Gorgeous!At last I did some research in the shop. Could I find a bar I didn't taste so far? Yes! Bouga Cacao and the Heritage Limited Edition of El Ceibo.

February 14th is my birthday. I will treat my colleagues on Geert's fine chocolates. I'm sure they'll love it!

Thank you Geert for your warm welcome. I had a wonderful time!]]> Mon, 14 Feb 2011 08:53:02 -0700 https://forums.thechocolatelife.com/vera-hofman/blog/279/theres-something-going-on-in-amsterdam https://forums.thechocolatelife.com/vera-hofman/blog/279 Sat, 22 Jan 2011 11:44:25 -0700