Pods for Christmas! & NYC Chocolate Show
November 12, 2005
So, I just got back from the NYC Chocolate Show. Lots of chocolate! And a lot of it not so good, however there were some amazing finds and several companies doing incredible new things. First, I was very excited to taste some new Felchlin products in their Cru Savage line of Brazilian wild-harvested cacao. Very unique and interesting flavors from the Amazon basin. Felchlin also is particular about how they roast and conche the liquer so as not to loose to much of the bright acid notes.
Another exciting product was a new chocolate made by Pralus that is not yet available for sale. It was a very unrefined single-origin chocolate that is conched for only a few hours leaving a very bright flavor and a more coarse texture. This very pure expression of natural cacao flavor is exactly what I love and exactly what I want Taza Chocolate to make available for our customers.
Just around the corner at the Michel Cluizel booth, one of the Cluizel managers was selling fresh harvested cacao pods! I couldn't believe he had goten them into the country without the customs dogs tearing his suitcases apart. Someone next to me asked how he got them to NYC and he just said with his little French accent "This is my secret!" He sold me a couple for $25 (nice profit for him!) and I took them home to enjoy that yummy white flesh and take some photos for the site.
Alex and the fresh cacao pods from the NYC Chocolate Show.
Another really exciting project I learned about was Le Chocolat du Planteur. The governement of the Ivory Coast, in an attempt to optimize "the income of the farmers while contributing to the promotion of Cote d'Ivoire's image through coffee and cocoa," has established a partnership between individual farmers and artisinal chocolate makers. Right now they are shipping cacao from some select farms to Pralus in France for production of single-farm chocolate bars. Though these chocolates are not yet for sale, we are hoping that sometime in the near future there will be a way to sell these sustainably produced chocolates.
