Why I Hate Marshmallows

When I was a kid at Boy Scout camp we used to sit around the campfire immolating Kraft puffed marshmallows on a stick. Everyone said they thought these smoldering lumps of puffy sugar were great—I didn’t and I don’t believe anyone else did either. The only good thing about a burnt Kraft marshmallow was that they usually fell off the skewer and I didn’t have to eat it. Now don’t get me wrong, I had a sweet tooth unparalleled to anyone. I loved sweets (still do), but hated those over-puffed, sickeningly sweet, machine-made, sticky, white, commercial marshmallows.

A marshmallow is a confection that, in its modern form, typically consists of sugar, high fructose corn syrup, water and gelatin. Commercial manufacturers add some artificial flavors and colors, then whip it into a sticky, spongy mass.

The original recipes for making marshmallow used an extract from the root of the (marsh) mallow plant, Althaea officinalis, instead of the gelatin used today. The Althaea officinalis is a pink-to-white flowering perennial herb, indigenous to the salt marshes and sea-bordering wetlands of Eastern Europe, North Africa and Asia. While not a native to North America, this member of the Hibiscus or mallow plant family was eventually brought to the Americas and became naturalized in the eastern portion of the continent.

Marshmallows were originally made from the stems of the marsh mallow plant (no kidding; that what it’s called). When peeled they reveal a soft and spongy pith with a texture similar to manufactured marshmallow. This pith was boiled in sugar syrup and dried to produce a soft, chewy concoction. This mucilage was used to soothe sore throats in the days when the Egyptians ruled the world around 2000 B.C.

In 1948 things changed (for the worse) when Alex Doumak got a patent on an extrusion process where marshmallows were extruded as soft cylinders, cut in sections and rolled in a mix of finely ground cornstarch and powdered sugar. This began the bastardization of the marshmallow.

Why I Love Marshmallows

At Choclatique, we make marshmallow better. Our artisanal, all-natural ingredient marshmallows are made the slow, old-fashioned way—one batch at a time. While we don’t use the pith of the Althaea officinalis, we carefully blend Hawaiian cane sugar, egg whites, gelatin, corn syrup and natural vanilla to create Choclatique’s fantastic artisanal marshmallows. While the sugars are being cooked, the egg whites are beaten. Then we slowly merge the hot and cold ingredients together and continue to blend and whip the mixture into a fluffy air-filled mass. The mixture is poured into trays and the marshmallows are set aside for 24 hours to cure before cutting, coating and drizzling with our rich, smooth and creamy Private Reserve Dark or Prestige Milk Chocolate. The marshmallows themselves more closely resemble what would have been made and eaten in the early 1900’s. And, that’s a really good thing.

We are always looking to develop new flavors of marshmallows. This holiday season we will introduce our new Candy Cane Marshmallow. For Valentine’s Day 2010 we will introduce our new Cinnamon Marshmallow and for Easter, our new Lemon Drop Marshmallow. If you have a great marshmallow flavor, let us know. We will name it after you (provided your name is not “Stinky”) and enroll you in the Club de Choclatique for a 3-month, free membership. Remember, free is a good thing.

So now you know that there’s no need to continue burning marshmallows over an open fire or dipping them in chocolate or anything else for that matter. Choclatique’s chocolate-enrobed artisanal marshmallows are great all by themselves.

About Ice Cream

I love ice cream! No ifs ands or buts about it. I am one of those “a pint is not enough” men. No matter what size the container, I can usually finish it in one serving. Okay, I have to admit, as I have gotten older, I do struggle a little with the gallon size. I also have to confess that it is a struggle to maintain my high school, athletic figure. Yeah, I’m sure you can imagine the guy who eats Choclatique chocolate all day has got to look like the “blob” that swallowed Hollywood. I digress…

I have been on the low carbohydrate Choclatique Q-91 diet since the beginning of summer. I haven’t had a “lick” of ice cream or much of anything else I love for over two months. I have lost about 16 badly needed pounds, but I still have another 12 to go. I get obsessive-compulsive about things like diets and nothing can even tempt me-even all of the great new luscious marshmallow flavors they are turning out of the Chocolate Studio this afternoon. If I can’t eat any ice cream at the moment, let me at least write about it.

THE BASE MIXTURE

Ice cream is a simple combination of dairy products, sweeteners, and flavorings. There are basically two kinds of ice cream: Philadelphia-style, which is made with various combinations of milk, cream, flavorings, and sugar; and custard-based, which is made with egg yolks, sugar, some milk, a lesser amount of cream, and similar flavorings. Custard ice creams, sometimes called French ice creams, are whipped before they are frozen. With the exception of the egg yolks in the custard ice cream, basically the ingredients for both are the same, although the proportions are different.

THE FAT’S WHERE THE FLAVOR AND TEXTURE ARE AT

We all love ice cream that is smooth and velvety. Ice cream has to contain a certain amount of butterfat to be so smooth and creamy. The butterfat in ice cream comes from the milk products in the mixture, and the higher the butterfat content, the richer the ice cream. The amount of butterfat in commercial ice cream is regulated by the FDA. For vanilla ice cream, the standard is at least 10 percent; for chocolate ice cream, it is at least 8 percent. Many ice creams that you buy in the store barely reach that minimum, while others reach 15 to 20 percent. When making your own ice cream, you can increase the butterfat content even more, resulting in the smoothest ice cream you’ll ever eat.

If you’re making your own ice cream, here are the ratios you need to follow. There are three cups of heavy cream and one cup of half-and-half in most Philadelphia-style ice cream recipes. There are two cups of heavy cream, one cup of half-and-half, and four egg yolks in most custard-style ice cream recipes. These standards yield ice cream that far surpasses any of the commercial brands, some of which substitute chemical additives, gelatin, and other stabilizers to provide smoothness and body. We don’t believe in better living through chemistry.

Smoothness in ice cream is achieved only with some sacrifice. That same butterfat that makes the ice cream so tasty can also be a problem for people with high cholesterol levels. You could reduce the amount of butterfat in the ice cream by substituting half-and-half for the cream and milk for the half-and-half. The problem is that you’ll get an icier ice cream. The ice cream just won’t be as smooth. It tends, especially in home ice cream freezers, to become icy and granular when there’s too much water and not enough fat in the mixture. If you want smoothness, the only solution is to eat very, very good ice cream—and only eat a little bit of it. Ice cream that’s well made (or anything else, for that matter) need not be eaten to excess to be satisfying. In France they serve ice cream in tiny cones. The cones are perhaps an inch and a half in diameter at the widest point. They are perfectly satisfying.

OVERRUN—IS THAT JUST A LOT OF HOT AIR?

If you simply mixed up a batch of cream, sugar, and flavoring and then froze it, you would get a solid block that you’d have to chip at with a chisel. The mixture has to have some air added as it freezes. This is the second most important factor in making good ice cream. The air lightens the mixture and increases its volume while keeping the cream soft. Too little air makes a solid ice cream; too much results in frozen foam.

Some commercial ice cream makers use an air pump, which pumps air into the mixture as it is being frozen. Home ice cream machines do a similar process mechanically by stirring a small amount of air into the mixture with the beater as it freezes. To some extent you can control the amount of air being incorporated and thus control the density of your ice cream.

The percentage of air that is whipped into ice cream is referred to as “overrun.” The FDA has standards for the weight of ice cream, and these weights are a direct reflection of overrun. A gallon of commercial ice cream must weigh at least 4.5 pounds. The ice cream you make at home will weigh twice that. Some popular brands of ice cream advertise a low overrun—for example a 20% overrun. That means for every 100 ounces of cream mixture, they beat in enough air to produce 120 ounces of frozen ice cream. Try testing this yourself. Hold up two different containers of ice cream at once and notice which is heavier. The heavier one has the lower overrun, which means you’re getting more ice cream and less air for your buck.

INGREDIENTS—ONLY THE BEST WILL DO

It pays to use only the best ingredients. Why spend all that time and effort to make something that is second rate? If you want second-rate ice cream, you can find that easily at the store. Go that route and along with second-rate taste, you’ll get junk like homogenizers, stabilizers, and emulsifiers; corn syrups instead of sugar; and artificial flavors instead of real flavors. The freezing process tends to bring out all the imperfections in ingredients. If you compromise on quality here, you’ll taste it later.

FOOD SAFE & FLAVOR

Remember that in making ice cream, you are working with dairy products (milk, half and half and cream) and eggs that when not totally fresh, can have higher counts of bacteria and possibly get you sick.

If you are going to use the freshest cream, half-and-half, and eggs, you should be using only real vanilla or vanilla extract. Vanilla reinforces the flavor of the cream and gives the ice cream its characteristic dairy taste. Vanilla also enhances the flavor of chocolate ice cream. Phony vanilla just doesn’t cut it and it leaves a metallic aftertaste.

If you’re using chocolate, it should be the best. We recommend using Choclatique Private Reserve Dark Chocolate (64%); Choclatique Prestige Milk Chocolate (32%); or Choclatique Snowy White Chocolate (33%). For cocoa, use Choclatique Red Cocoa Powder. It is a light, Dutch-process cocoa that still gives a nice, warm brown color and enhance the chocolate flavor.

ORTS, CHIPS, BITS, PIECES, TEXTURIZERS AS INCLUSIONS

Inclusions are those things (fruits, nuts and chips) that you can add to ice cream to give it that Ben & Jerry’s texture. I prefer to only add frozen inclusions. Adding room temperature inclusion may develop ice crystal in the ice cream and delay the freezing process. At the very least make sure anything you add is well refrigerated. And always start with the coldest mixture of dairy products.

You can add in unsalted nuts, dried fruit, chocolate Choclatique chocolate chips, fresh candy or crisp cookie pieces. These are added just before the ice cream is packed for hardening in the freezer.

THEM NEW-FANGLED MACHINES

Ice cream is made by stirring the cream mixture while it freezes. The mixture has to be cold, stirred constantly and not too quickly, but at a pace that allows the cream to freeze without becoming solid and without separating. For the home, there are basically only a three kinds of machines.

The old-fashioned hand- or motor-cranked machine is essentially a canister that is held within a larger bucket. By turning the crank, you are able to turn the canister, which has a beater, or dasher, inside it to stir the cream. Between the canister and the bucket, you pack in layers of crushed ice and salt. The salt keeps the ice cold. Salt lowers the temperature of the ice while melting it, thus making a very cold casing around the canister to help freeze the cream.

If you don’t want to make a production out of it at the 4th of July picnic and mess with all the salt and ice, then the frozen core machine is just what the doctor ordered. The core is pre-frozen in your freezer. Then just fill the bowl with the cream mixture and turn it on. It will yield between a pint and a quart in about 20 minutes.

If you want to spend about a zillion dollars, there is yet another type of machine available—the self-freezing variety, with a canister inside the machine and with the freezing coils wrapped around the canister. It is a mini electric freezer with a small compressor and everything. The cream mixture is stirred inside the canister as it is frozen, without need for salt or ice. The big advantage of the self-freezing machines is that they are quick, easy to clean and virtually foolproof. Most people can’t make a mistake.

PACKING IT IN

Some people like to eat the ice cream fresh, right from the bucket. Others like to chill it to make it quite hard. When ice cream comes from the ice cream making machine, regardless of the type of equipment, it is light and fluffy and at about 17ºF. When you pack it in containers to store in the freezer, it hardens (if your recipe is good, the ice cream should remain creamy and smooth). The best storage for ice cream is about 0º to -10F°. Pack it tightly in airtight containers and top the ice cream with a layer of food film, tapping it down to cover the surface. Place the cover on top of the container on to seal. Label, date and rotate. Just because it is kept in the freezer doesn’t give it the shelf life of plutonium.

When ready to serve, take your ice cream container out of the freezer and place it in the refrigerator for about 15 minutes to slightly soften. If you can’t wait, put it in the microwave for about 15 seconds at 50% power.

So here we have presented some simple tips to eat healthfully, stay fit and above all have fun in your kitchen.

Congress Is Out for the Summer

Not A Moment To Soon

After months of debates over the Wall Street bailouts, the stimulus bill, the government take-over of the automobile industry, cash for clunkers and health care reform, Congress finally adjourned for their summer recess. Just in the nick of time. I’m not sure if they needed a vacation from all the long hours at work or we needed a vacation from them.

While I like to think I’m well informed (compared to the people I see on Jaywalking on the old Leno “Tonight Show”), I am not a particularly political person. I have never had the urge to run for any elected office. After all, in today’s world who would ever want to put themselves or their families through that tortuous process? I was once appointed as a County Commissioner overseeing the botanical gardens, parks and arboretums in Los Angeles; not a particularly challenging position. I have been in the media spotlight with my “10 minutes of fame” on ABC both in the news and entertainment divisions, the latter with a series of food shows—not exactly controversial. I am not anywhere near as glib as Bill O’Reilly, as good looking as Keith Olbermann, or as wise as the late Walter Cronkite.

I am fairly well-educated; I keep up on current affairs; I work my butt off in both of my small businesses where we still believe in the strength of the American work ethic. I have voted for both Republicans and Democrats if I thought they made sense and shared my views on America. I have written a letter to every incoming president (since I could vote) Republican and Democrat—wishing them the best of luck and offering them my prayers for success. After all, whether or not I voted for them they are my president. If I don’t seem to be anyone special, you’re right; I’m not. I’m a lot like you—a middle of the road, moderate American.

I am quite disturbed over many of the events going on in Washington and in other like-minded Western European capitals today with proposed legislation leading us down the path of a “Nanny State” where the government is all-knowing, all-ruling and where we citizens take virtually no responsibility for our own actions.

I saw an article from London this week where Parliament is trying to regulate the size of soda cans and candy bars. I don’t see any reason to reduce the size of a chocolate bar from 58 grams to 50 grams all in the name of obesity and weight control. If one is so inclined to eat chocolate (which I hope most of you are), what’s to keep you from eating a second, third or fourth bar or drink a second can of pop? Government has a place in our lives, but it should be limited—not in our business, doctor’s office, bedrooms or our kitchens.

Over our 233 year history, government hasn’t run the most successful of enterprises. Most have failed to be cost effective or have neglected to deliver the programs as promised—are all fraught with fraud and abuse hurting the very citizens they were created to help.

After listening to the congressional debates this week, I read a “New York Times” article about Venezuela’s President Hugo Chávez and his continuing interference in the commerce of his nation’s cacao industry (cacao from which chocolate is made). A great example why governments should stick to those powers granted to them by their constitutions.

The article, In Venezuela, Plantations of Cacao Stir Bitterness by Simon Romero, talks about Kai Rosenberg who owns a cacao plantation in Venezuela. In the years since President Chávez has come to office, he has for all intents and purposes, nationalized the cacao growers. In that time, squatters have tried to control Rosenberg’s plantation, a fungus nearly wiped out his entire crop, government inspectors and export officials have solicited bribes and officials have created a mountain of red tape and the requirement for endless permits.

Cacao from Venezuela is so desirable that European chocolate makers sometimes engage in cut-throat competition to gain access to it. Chocolatiers talk of the unique factors on the Caribbean’s edge in a way that resembles the goût de terroir, or taste of the earth, so crucial to fine wines.

My friend and quality California chocolate maker, Gary Guittard, says, “Venezuela is in a league of its own [when it comes to chocolate]. It takes years to develop the uniqueness of the best cacao, maybe 20 or 30 years, maybe 100.” It is a Venezuelan natural treasure and shouldn’t be wasted.

President Chávez, usually obsessed with selling his country’s oil reserves and making derogatory comments about the United States, recently challenged the reasons why chocolate made from Venezuelan cacao should fetch such high sums in United State and Europe. He singled out cacao grower William Harcourt-Cooze, a plantation owner for particularly harsh comments.

President Chávez said after listening to residents’ complaints about Mr. Harcourt-Cooze’s farm. “…that he is getting rich while the workers are living in poverty.” Following these comments government inspectors began an investigation into Harcourt-Cooze’s alleged labor and land violations. While later vindicated, it was a distraction from the commerce of Venezuelan cacao.

Other growers have not been so fortunate. After partnering with Chávez and the government in a cacao venture in Barinas, the El Rey Chocolate Company, one of the leading companies in Venezuela’s gourmet chocolate industry, is still unable to stop squatters who invaded the farm earlier this decade and who inhibit the successful growing of cacao.

“[Venezuela] could be a world leader with cacao, what beef is for Argentina or rice for Thailand,” said Jorge Redmond, Chocolates El Rey’s chief executive, reflecting on the industry’s upheaval. “Instead we’re faced with 52 different permits to export a single container of our chocolate, compared with four steps to export before Mr. Chávez came to power.”

This is exactly what happens when uninformed and/or greedy politicians interfere in areas that they know little about. The government bureaucrats have created a monopoly over the industry which has eroded incentives to produce high-quality cacao. Yields have continued drop. Today, Venezuela only produces about the same amount of cacao as it did three centuries ago: 15,000 tons a year, less than 1 percent of global cacao output.

Venezuela, once a thriving democracy, rich in oil, cacao and people resources has become one of the most difficult places to do business due to government interference in commerce. Cacao yields have languished; even though cooperatives employ triple the number of workers it would if owned by a private company.

But Venezuela still produces what most chocolate makers consider the world’s best cacao. When the Venezuelan oil reserves are depleted and the current oppressive government is replaced with a more democratic bureaucracy, they’ll be doing what they have done for centuries; relying on cacao for their survival.

If you want to taste this special Venezualan Cacao before it disappears from the marketplace entirely, go to www.choclatique.com. Choclatique is having a special sale on our single-origin, Growers-Reserve Venezuelan Chocolate 100 g bar. Choclatique’s Venezuelan single-origin is rich in chocolate aroma with complex chocolate notes accented by subtle hints of red berry fruit. The cacao beans are sourced and harvested from trees of Criollo and Trinitario heritage in Venezuela’s Sur del Lago region. Here in these lush tropical forests in the shade of the giant trees, pink cocoa pods ripen ready for the next harvest in early November. Other Choclatique single origin chocolates are from Columbia, Ecuador, Peru, and Madagascar and are also on special sale.

The Chicago Dog

I usually don’t write about other foods or food companies as this blog is supposed to be all about Choclatique and chocolate. As much as I would like to think it does, the world does not only revolve around Choclatique and chocolate. There are other great American food companies that make really fantastic foods. So this week, let’s take a peek at the center of the plate.

Vienna Beef of Chicago makes American hot dogs and beef products to exacting standards just the way many other American artisans make their American-made foods.

I spent a day in Chicago last week with the people at Vienna Beef. If you travel to Chicago often you will know them as the Chicago Dog company. They make the best hot dogs I have ever tasted. So much so, that my first day in Chicago must consist of at least one Chicago Dog—a true Chicago institution. And, it’s got to be a Vienna.

The Chicago-Style hot dog got its start from street cart hot dog vendors during the hard times of the Great Depression. Money was scarce, but business was booming for these entrepreneurs who offered a delicious hot meal on a bun for only a nickel. The famous Chicago Style Hot Dog was born!

For those of you who have been deprived in life and have never partaken of this culinary masterpiece, start with a Vienna Beef hot dog, nestle it in a steamed poppy seed bun and cover it with a wonderful combination of toppings: yellow mustard; bright green (glow-in-the-dark) relish; fresh, chopped onions; juicy red tomato wedges; a kosher-style pickle spear; a couple of spicy sport peppers; and finally, a dash of celery salt. This unique hot dog creation with a “salad on top” and its memorable interplay of hot and cold, crisp and soft, sharp and smooth may very well be America’s original fast food.

I had a chance to take a plant tour and discover many of their “secrets.” Well, not so much secrets, but points of difference from other hot dog makers. First of all they use fresh meat, not frozen boxed beef like most hot dog makers—expensive cuts of brisket (lean and fat)—blended with lean bull meat at pre-determined ratios to give the meat the right mix of meat-to-fat and the right “bite.” The meat is then ground and blended with their 116 year old secret blend of spices which is completely true to the original recipe brought over from Europe years ago. It is then stuffed into a natural casing which gives this hot dog its distinctive, crisp bite.

At the end of the tour I tasted Hot Dogs, Polish Sausages, Fire Dogs and Chili—really great chili. There were also soups, corned beef and pastrami, rare roast beef, salami and kosher-style pickles… oh, and some really great, whole-muscle, smoked turkey slices.

If you’re looking for more great American foods you can find them on the Vienna’s new website and catalogue store, Foods Across America, featuring regional American foods of like-minded manufacturers. Here, on one website, you can find the world’s greatest Chicago “Dawg” kit (I know it supposed to be spelled ‘DOG,” but I just like the way that sounds), the very best key lime pie, hand-crafted root beers and believe it or not, cheesecake on a stick. I bought some of the goodies on the site and found the packaging to be great for shipping and the delivery to be excellent. So I wanted to say some good things to help every one of our readers know that there is something really neat and new that they need to try.

By the way, I did put in a pitch for them to include some Choclatique chocolate… regionally speaking I thought the new Choclatique Napa Valley Wine Chocolates would be a perfect addition to their offerings. So if you decide to go to their site and buy one of their really unique All-American Kits, think about going over to choclatique.com for Authentically American Chocolates.

Going to the Dark Side

I was asked to do an interview this morning with Professional Candy Buyer Magazine to discuss dark chocolate. Ask anyone—dark chocolate is the “feel-good” food of the decade. What could be better? It tastes great and has enough serotonin and caffeine to lift your mood, spirits and attitude any time of the day.

One thing the reporter should have been told prior to our meeting is, “Don’t ask Ed any open-ended questions about chocolate.” And, of course her first question was, “What do you think about ‘dark chocolate’?” Wow… off I went.

First of all, I love great dark chocolate. More to the point, I love Choclatique dark chocolate. We have several choices of the deep, dark goodness… they include:

• Private Reserve Dark Chocolate (64%)
• Ebony Dark Chocolate (72%)
• Elephant—Seriously Strong Chocolate (76%)
• Q-91 (91%)
• Single Origin Dark Chocolates from, Peru, Ecuador, Venezuela, Madagascar, Columbian and real American Hawaiian Dark Chocolate (all at 65%)

What’s the difference? Where do I begin?

• Private Reserve Dark Chocolate (64%) is “reserved” for our terrific couverture for our boxed chocolate and for Ingots, Tablets and Tapestries. Private Reserve is made from 17 equatorial beans grown from the Tropic of Cancer to the Tropic of Capricorn. They are fermented, dried and roasted to perfection. This chocolate is conched (blended) to an ultra-smooth texture for 72 hours at precise temperatures to bring out the natural, dark, fruity flavor of the cacao bean.
• Ebony Dark Chocolate (72%) is a very intense, bittersweet chocolate used primarily for making pastry—very intense chocolate cakes, pies and puddings. It is much sharper than our Private Reserve Dark Chocolate and is not particularly suited for making truffles and other confections. It is the ultimate chocolate-lovers’ baking chocolate.
• Elephant—Seriously Strong Dark Chocolate (76%) is mind-blowing in its complexity, rivaling all of the high percentage cacao chocolates from the European legacy chocolate makers. Elephant Chocolate is a harmonious mélange of Criollo and Trinitario beans, bringing out the light floral aromas of ripe cherry and the essence of raisin top notes. There are deep chocolate layers punctuated by the complex flavors of tart citrus, red fruit and roasted walnut and almond notes. The mild but complex aroma gives way to the intense flavor of Elephant Chocolate. This full-bodied, very intense chocolate is smooth on the palate with a long, bittersweet finish. The elephant-shaped chocolate is a deep, dark red-brown, with an incredibly perfect glossy finish, so that the chocolate appears to glow. This is a chocolate for eating, not for baking. It has flavors and textures you won’t soon forget.
• Choclatique Q-91 is our super-dark, bittersweet premium chocolate high in cacao mass. One of the most pleasant effects of eating Q-91 chocolate is the “euphoric feeling” that many people experience after indulging. Q-91 chocolate contains more than 300 known beneficial compounds. Scientists can’t yet explain some of the pleasurable effects of consuming chocolate, but they’re working on it.

Recent medical research has linked the antioxidants found in cacao—the fruit from which dark chocolate is made—to decreases in blood pressure and reductions of “bad” cholesterol levels. Chocolate is a known stimulant and is also thought to be an aphrodisiac. The darker the chocolate the richer it is in flavanols which many physicians and nutritionists say are beneficial to your health.

The small amount of caffeine found in chocolate (1.4 oz of chocolate = 1 cup of decaf coffee) combined with Theobromine, a weak stimulant also present in chocolate, provides the “lift” that chocolate eaters experience. Although no conclusive proof exists yet, Phenylethylamine is reputed to be a mood elevator and an anti-depressant.

Scientists are still developing their opinions on the health benefits of dark chocolate. It is probably not a good idea to replace your daily intake of fruits and vegetables with a 6-layer frosted chocolate cake—whether dark or milk chocolate, but the research has certainly reduced the stigma of a moderate daily chocolate habit.

How can you judge chocolatier and the quality of their chocolate? Savor the flavor of their chocolate; no fillings, just chocolate. Trying a bag of our Assorted Ingots is a great way to get to know our chocolate. Give them a try and let us know what you think.

The “Fancy Pants” of Food Shows

The New York Summer Fancy Foods Show

Since 1955, the Fancy Food Shows, produced by the NASFT (The National Association for the Specialty Food Trade) in both New York (summer) and California (winter) are North America’s largest specialty food and beverage marketplaces.

This is where roughly 24,000 attendees go to taste and consider new products including confections, cheese, coffee, snacks, spices, ethnic, natural, organic and, of course, chocolate. This year, in New York, there were over 2,300 exhibitors—including Choclatique—from about 80 countries.

It is a place that retailers go to discover what’s new and innovative in the world of food and beverage products. These attendees come to see thousands of exhibitors from all over the globe. Most are passionate entrepreneurs like Joan and me who have created their own recipes and started their own companies. At this show you can learn about these trend-setting businesses and watch them sell to decision-makers as they showcase more than 250,000 innovative products.

The International Pavilions are very exciting, presenting exotic new specialty foods from all over the world—some seldom seen in the U.S. There are also dozens of seminars, workshops, tours, tastings, cooking classes and special events at each show.

This year Choclatique released 8 new products for consideration to the retail trade.

These included:

• Moon Rocks Chocolate—celebrating the 40th anniversary of man’s first walk on the moon. With galactic flavors such as Apollo Almond and Cosmic Caramel Crunch, these delicious confections boldly go where no chocolate has gone before.
• The Jewel Box Collection—rare and beautiful confections designed to represent the finely-crafted precious and semi-precious birthstones that have engaged mankind from the beginning of time.
• Napa Valley Wine Chocolates—available in eight amazing varieties including Late Harvest Cabernet Chocolate, Fall Vineyard Merlot Chocolate, Estate Chardonnay Chocolate, Sparkling Blanc Chocolate, Old Oak Barrel-Aged Port Chocolate, First-Crush Fume Blanc Chocolate, Zinfandel Cuvée Chocolate, and Pretty in Pink “Blush” Chocolate.
• Elephant—Seriously Strong Chocolate (76%)—mind-blowing in its complexity, rivaling many of the high percentage cacao chocolates from the European legacy chocolate makers. It’s comparable to chocolates with higher cacao content. Elephant Chocolate shows off Choclatique’s mastery of chocolate blending. It is a harmonious mélange of Criollo and Trinitario beans that brings out the light floral aromas of ripe cherry and the essence of raisin top notes. There are deep chocolate layers punctuated by the complex flavors of tart citrus, red fruit and roasted walnut and almond notes.
• Peanut Brittle Bites—an abundance of U.S. grown, Spanish-style red-skin peanuts and a perfectly-cooked buttery sugar brittle.
• Chocolate-Covered Peanut Brittle Bites—a twist on the original, with the addition of Choclatique’s Prestige Milk Chocolate (32%) coating, and crushed peanuts for a texture that is as great as the taste.
• Chocolate-Almond Butter Toffee Bites—a blend of pure Hawaiian cane sugar, dairy-fresh butter and real vanilla all covered in our Choclatique Private Reserve Dark Chocolate (64%), and sprinkled with ground, oven-roasted California almonds, toasted cocoa nibs and Saigon cinnamon.
• Pure Power—100% Gluten-Free Power Bar—a delicious, high protein (9.5g) peanut bar that is chock-full of U.S.A. grown Virginia peanuts and all natural ingredients that are commonly found in your own pantry.

Joan Vieweger and Ed Engoron at the New York Summer Fancy Food Show 2009

We handed out nearly 5,000 pieces of chocolate over 3 days and talked to over 400 key retailer buyers, brokers and distributors, many of whom will now begin to carry Choclatique products.

So, now is the time to start planning your personal and corporate Christmas gifts—all the retail buyers are!

A Tribute to Grandmother Fanny and Her Almond Butter Toffee Crunch

After writing about Grandpa Max a few weeks back my bother Roy suggested that I write about my mother’s mother.

Grandmother Fanny lived on the top floor of a 5-story walk-up in Brooklyn, New York.  She was a tiny lady, not even 5 feet tall, but she was a wonderful cook, baker and candy maker who made the most delicious butter toffee crunch that you ever tasted.  Nobody could do it better.  It seemed like she was able to squeeze 5 pounds of butter into a 1 pound slab of her ever-popular butter toffee crunch.  The way it crunched between your teeth and melted in your mouth was a taste of ecstasy.

The only one who had a copy of the recipe was my cousin Elliot who had hovered over Fanny and copied everything she did one afternoon while she was making her magic concoction.

Elliot was kind enough to share this recipe with me when we decided to make butter toffee crunch at Choclatique. We faithfully use Fanny’s original old-fashioned butter toffee crunch recipe as a base for our Chocolate-Almond Butter Toffee Bites.

We start with Hawaiian-grown pure cane sugar, double score dairy-fresh butter and rich, pure, extra-strong real vanilla.  We use our signature dark chocolate—Choclatique Private Reserve (64%), fresh oven-roasted California almonds, roasted cocoa nibs and just a touch of Saigon cinnamon to cover our rich, butter toffee crunch.  Nothing has changed since Fanny first made her first batch back in the 1930’s.

Our traditional Chocolate-Almond Butter Toffee Bites are packaged in a chocolate brown ballotin box and double sealed for freshness.  They make the perfect melt-in-you-mouth gift or party favor and they’re a wonderful delicious treat any time of day.

Here’s a cheer to you Grandmother Fanny.

How To Taste Chocolate

I was recently asked to give a simple answer on how to taste chocolate.  There is no simple answer. I have been working with chocolate for 35 years and have found there is no right or wrong way to eat chocolate. The most important thing is to use all of your senses.

The first part of the “eating experience” is the “nose.” Smell the chocolate. I am always disappointed when I walk into a chocolate shop and don’t smell the wonderful aroma of melted chocolate wafting throughout the store.

The next thing is the “look.” If the chocolate looks amazing you can pretty well count on it tasting special.  It’s as if you’re looking into the soul of the chocolatier.  If a chocolatier takes the time to make his or her chocolate look beautiful you can pretty well be assured that the flavor will be as amazing.  That’s not to say that the chocolate will necessarily agree with your tastes, but the quality will reflect the combined body of the chocolatier’s work.

What do you “hear” when you bite into a beautiful truffle or bonbon? Do you hear the snap of well-tempered dark chocolate?  If the couverture doesn’t have the right break or snap, the chocolate may have been poorly tempered, heat distressed or of lesser quality.

What is the “texture” like?  It is smooth and unctuous?  Is it creamy and velvety?  If the answer is “yes,” you’ve discovered the hallmark of good/great chocolate.  That means the chocolate has been properly conched—where all of the ingredients (hopefully a limited number of ingredients) are intermingled and completely merged.  Conching is like blending but a lot more thorough.  It is the marriage of the molecules of the chocolate liquor, cocoa butter, sugar and vanilla (and milk, in the case of milk chocolate).  Choclatique chocolate is conched for 72 hours.  It will always be smooth on the tongue.

And finally, what does it “taste” like?  Do you taste fresh rain-foresty flavors or are the cocoa notes dull and over-roasted?  Does the milk chocolate give off burnt, overly caramelized dairy notes or is there the flavor of fresh cream and/or milk?  How does the chocolate make you feel as you are tasting it?  Are you satisfied with just one taste or is your mind coaxing you to eat more.

Try to articulate the flavors you’re tasting, i.e., big chocolate, roasted coffee notes, wine, berry, cherry, tropical-banana, nutty cashew, etc.  When comparing different chocolate varieties or flavors back-to-back, you should drink a little room temperature water with a touch lemon to clear the palate.  Then swish that water out of your mouth with just plain room temperature water and go on to the next piece. Keep your tasting down to about 4 flavors/varieties at a time. You can always go back for more when you are being less critical and just want to eat chocolate.

All that said, here is how we taste chocolate at Choclatique.  When tasting different types of chocolate, we start with low fat varieties and work our way through to higher fat varieties.  In other words, start with the dark chocolate, then milk chocolate and then white chocolate.  Fat coats the surface of your mouth and can mask some of the more subtle flavors found in good dark chocolate, so if you start with milk or white, you may miss the subtleties of the dark.

We begin by looking at the chocolate to see if it is clean, clear of blemishes, air bubbles and bloom; when chocolate is heat distressed it has a tendency to turn grey-white as the fats separate from the rest of the ingredients. We then rub the chocolate with our fingers to bring it to a warmer surface temperature; this brings out the full value of the chocolate aroma as we inhale.  By the way, you should smell the warmed chocolate, not your fingers.

Some of our tasters are “bite and chewers”; I am a “melt-in-your-mouth” kind of guy who enjoys “savoring the flavor.”  Chocolate should always be smooth on the tongue and coat the inside of your mouth thoroughly.  You want to be sure that it covers all of the sensory taste buds throughout your mouth to get the full impact of the chocolate flavor.  Then swallow… it is a waste to spit out good chocolate.

Chocolate is food from the gods.  It is a mood elevator and, some believe, an aphrodisiac.  Treat it as the gift that it is and enjoy it thoroughly.  As we have discovered at Choclatique, chocolate is a lot like sex.  It’s never really bad; some is just much better than others.

Want to experience your own chocolate tasting?  Order our Traditional 4-bar Tablet Sampler—Private Reserve Dark Chocolate (64%); Prestige Milk Chocolate 33%; Azteca Mexican Spiced Chocolate 33%; Snowy-White Chocolate (32%)… just $21, plus shipping.

Grandpa Max’s Peanut Brittle

At a Memorial Day barbecue a few weeks back a bunch of us were talking about our parents and families and the passing of generations.  The discussion centered on which generation in American history was the greatest.  After a long debate, we came to a friendly consensus that each generation since the founding of this union shared in the greatness of America.  Our family included.

After my father passed away, I found a box of his “little treasures” that he had kept for years.  I never had looked through the box of his personal letters and mementos; they were just there sitting on the top shelf of my closet.  I don’t know why, but after the party and after all the talk, I felt compelled to search through his box of little treasures. 

As I lifted the lid, I found some tiny baby booties.  I’m not sure if they were mine, my brother’s or maybe even my father’s.  It’s hard to believe that my feet were ever that small.  I found an old autograph book—a collection of long-forgotten boxers, baseball players and a wrestler or two.  A Brooklyn Dodgers’ Ebbets Field seat cushion autographed by Gil Hodges, Pee Wee Reese and Duke Snyder from the 1955 World Series.  I guess way back then you didn’t have to fork over $1000 for an All-Star Athlete’s signature.

And then I stumbled onto some hand-written, seemingly secret “code” on a back page of the New York Times from 1904.  There, scribbled in his own hand, over a picture of my Grandfather Max and none other than my presidential idol, Theodore Roosevelt, was a secret message.  Max and TR?  Was this story about Max being named an ambassador to some exotic foreign country or to a cabinet post?  Was he returning from some secret spy mission?  No, it was all about peanut brittle… not just any peanut brittle, but Max’s crunchy peanut brittle that was pictured with Max handing it to TR himself. 

I had heard that old Max owned a moving company way back when the “vans” were pulled by horses.  I heard the legend of how he had grabbed onto a rope that had broken away from a safe that his workers were hauling up to the 5th floor by block and tackle; he saved a half dozen kids below.  I remember he used to tell us his heroic story showing us the burn scars on his hands.  I also heard that he was a gentlemen’s banker, a stock broker, even a tax collector.  But now, looking through my dad’s treasured keepsakes, I found out that Max made peanut brittle—not just any peanut brittle, but brittle fit for a President. 

As I read on, I discovered the recipe dated back to the 1870s or ‘80s when Max first perfected his peanut “packin’” stuffed peanut brittle.  Everyone, TR included, proclaimed that it was the best on earth.  After a few calls to relatives, I found out that Max started delivering his fresh peanut brittle to the Roosevelt family when they lived in New York City.  When T.R. became president, Max was asked to deliver his peanut brittle to Sagamore Hill in Oyster Bay.  In fact, rumor has it that his peanut brittle even made to the White House in Washington. 

The cryptic, hand-written code turned out to be the recipe—Max’s secret peanut brittle recipe.  I couldn’t wait to get to the Chocolate Studio on Tuesday and try it for myself.  I started up the fire pot, added the sugars, syrups and butter—just plain honest ingredients—and turned it into a steaming caldron of molten goo.  Wow!  At 305º I stirred in the Spanish-style peanuts, added the vanilla and then shut off the gas.  I got a little help to pour the magic mixture out on to the cooling slab.  After a suitable cooling time, everyone agreed I had duplicated Max’s perfect peanut brittle recipe on the first try.  Hey, Grandpa, I aced it the first time.  Was this good enough to add to the Choclatique Collection?  You bet. 

While traditional peanut brittles tend to be a bit hard on the teeth (filling-pullers) and somewhat difficult to eat, Max’s secret recipe combines an abundance of Spanish, red-skin, US-grown peanuts into a perfectly-cooked, buttery, sugar brittle.  The result is a much lighter bite that leaves a long-lasting, wonderful all-natural flavor you’ll never forget. 

If you truly appreciate great peanut brittle, you will understand why Max’s customers said it is the very best they ever tasted.  We are confident you will feel the same way when you take your first bite of our new Peanut Brittle Bites. 

Now you might ask, how do you improve on perfection?  Add a little chocolate, of course.  Grandpa Max’s peanut brittle has been enhanced with a wonderful, light coating of Choclatique’s Prestige Milk Chocolate (32%) and dusted with crushed peanuts. 

Our peanut brittle bites make wonderful gifts for family and friends, not to mention a terrific “personal stash.”  They’re also a terrific thank-you or corporate gift.  What was once a family secret is now available every day in the original 1870’s recipe and milk chocolate covered, too. 

Max’s (and now Choclatique’s) old-fashioned Peanut Brittle Bites are now available all year round at Choclatique.com.

Napa Valley Wine Chocolates

Cakebread Cellars had been around for about 15 years when Joan and I first met Dolores and Jack Cakebread and their son Dennis on the “Big Island of Hawaii for the first Cuisines of the Sun cooking event. At that time, Choclatique® was not even a glimmer of an idea. Joan and I were completely tied up with The Food Show (ABC) and our consulting company, PERSPECTIVES/The Consulting Group, Inc.

While we were not yet making chocolate, Joan and I were certainly consuming a lot of it (and we still are, of course). During his afternoon cooking demonstration, Jack was trying to convince all that would listen that wine and chocolate was the perfect paring of nature’s finest foods. I made a comment to one of the other attendees that I had always enjoyed my wine with dinner and my chocolate dessert with a respectful interval of time in between. I was proved to be very wrong. Jack and Dolores changed my mind when I tasted their great Cabernet and Chardonnay with shards of dark, milk and white chocolate.

It was no surprise when we released Box of Bubbly—Dom Perignon Champagne Truffles—last year and they immediately became our second highest selling assortment in the Choclatique line. This popular flavor pairing of chocolate and wine opened the rest of the country’s eyes to wine chocolates.

Wine Chocolate Varieties

California’s wine country is an array of microclimates ideal for growing fine wine grapes and the source of wines used in the making of our Napa Valley Wine Chocolate assortments. We are pleased to offer:

Late Harvest Cabernet (Dark Chocolate)
A full-bodied Cabernet Sauvignon ganache with the flavors of concentrated berry and plum notes layered with a hint of herbs and green peppers with sparks of smoky oak surrounded by our 64% intense Private Reserve Bitter Sweet Chocolate.

Fall Vineyard Merlot (Dark Chocolate)
A medium-body Merlot ganache with delicate hints of berry, plum, red cherry and currant, with a soft fleshiness of perfectly ripened vines, covered with our 64% Private Reserve Dark Chocolate.

Estate Chardonnay Chocolate (Milk Chocolate)
With the faint aromas of apple, lemon, peach and tropical fruits, the overall flavor is a delicately crisp, flinty flavor with overriding flavors of ripe, fleshy grapes with a buttery quality accented by the flavor of new oak. This full-bodied ganache delicacy takes on many of the qualities of sparkling California wines.

Sparkling Blanc de Chocolate (White Chocolate)
Blanc de chocolate is a dry and crisp white chocolate ganache (33%) made from California “Champagne” with barrel-fermented flavors for added complexity. The wine has aged notes and carries vibrant, fruitful and crisp natural flavors of the sparkling wine from which it is made.

Old Oak Barrel-Aged Port Chocolate (Dark Chocolate)
A big, rich Port wine flavor that is fuller, sweeter and a bit heavier than our other wine ganache. Made from fortified wine it is heavy-bodied, sweet and smoky and holds remembrance of the past and the dreams of the future.

First-Crush Fume Blanc Chocolate (Milk Chocolate)
In memory of an old friend, Robert Mondavi, we dedicate our milk chocolate ganache to the wine he made famous. The flavors of our Fume Blanc ganache are a bit tarter in natural fruit flavors such as gooseberry, honey citrus and green apple, with subtle hints of vanilla and tropical fruits like melon and pineapple and the tell-tale smoky finish.

Zinfandel Cuvée Chocolate (Dark Chocolate)
This elegant Zinfandel ganache has a good fruit concentration of mid-palate dark fruits including raspberry, black currant and subtle pomegranate flavors with white chocolate undertones. The subtle aromas of black raspberry and earthy minerals with a hint of purple violet are evident.

Pretty in Pink “Blush” Chocolate (White Chocolate)
A flirty, yet shy pink rose chocolate ganache with the fruity flavors of ripe strawberry, juicy peach and nectarine. The aroma is a delicate balance of raspberry and black cherry, plus hints of flint and slightly tart cranberry.

Choclatique Napa Valley Wine Chocolates were “un-corked” for the first time the last week in May at the Wine and Hospitality Network event at The Hess Collection Winery in Napa, California and the Wine Country Hilton, Santa Rosa, California for the Chaîne des Rôtisseurs—the world’s oldest and largest gastronomic society, founded in 1248.