Amedei launch event

As you may recall, we've been fans of the Italian chocolatier Amedei for a while now, which is why we were so excited to be invited to the opening party for their first U.S. store, right here in New York City!

When we arrived, we were handed shot glasses of hot chocolate, which was excellent. Then we were introduced to Cecilia Tessieri, Amedei's founder and the only female maître chocolatier in the world, who was in town from Tuscany for the store's opening. In fact, it was her first time in New York City, but she politely turned down our offers of a tour.

Starting in 1990, Cecilia spent seven years traveling the world to find the finest cacao beans harvested at plantations held to stringent ethical and humanitarian standards. We had a great conversation while we were there about how important it is to support chocolatiers who make a point to steer clear of slave labor and are willing to pay a premium to do so.

To this day, Cecilia maintains complete supervision over the production process from bean to bar. She showed us around the room and told us about the various chocolates they had out for tasting. From our earlier post on Amedei, you know that they do single-origin bars very well, and those were prominently displayed. Here are some of the other goodies we tasted:





Incidentally, "nut brown" is milk chocolate, "Toscano black" is the dark chocolate, and "9" is a dark chocolate blend of nine plantations, and probably our favorite of the four.



Another of our favorite items was this Nutella-like spread, using hazelnut butter instead of actual dairy.  It was even richer than Nutella, if you can imagine.  Very highly recommended.



This was a fondue pot with melted chocolate, and you could dip vegetables into it, you know, for vitamins and health and stuff. This is a carrot bathed in chocolate, which is how all carrots should be.



There were delightful truffles with white, "black," and "nut brown" coatings. The store is open now, and it sells these truffles and bars and the single-origin napolitains, as well as chocolate spreads and hot chocolate mix.

BOTTOM LINE: Go to the Amedei Store. Welcome them to the neighborhood. Eat some chocolate. That's what we did!

Food Emporium Chocolate Shop: featuring Niederegger Marzipan"Classic" bar, Amedei 70% Venezuela, and Christpher Michael 61% Cacao Nib Bar

Food emporium has a chocolate shop.  It's sort of built into the store on 69th and 3rd.  It used to be more standalone, and the selection was deeper then.  But it's still there, and there are still interesting options.  Observe:

None of these three bars totally blew me away.  The Christopher Michael and Amedei were totally adequate.  Remember that the Venezuela origin was my favorite of the Amedei Cru chocolates, but nonetheless, there are better options.  It's got the flavor notes you'd expect, but they're not as powerful as in some other bars, nor is it as chocolatey.  The same can be said for the Christopher Michael, which -- despite being lower percentage (61% to 70%), I slightly preferred.  The nibs helped.  The nibs always help.

I also got a Niederegger marzipan bar.  Leila loves Niederegger, and I like it too, but I honestly prefer the Rittersport version of this bar.  I think maybe the marzipan is fresher in the Rittersport bars?  They are both German companies, so I'm not sure why that would be.  But it's how it tastes to me.  I also prefer the chocolate in the Rittersport bar.  The only advantage to the Niederegger is the chocolate-to-marzipan ratio is slightly higher.

Bottom Line: While this may not have been the best haul, the Food Emporium chocolate shop has a big enough selection to give you a diverse, new experience each time.  Definitely recommended, and possibly the best bet for a broad pick of bars on the Upper East Side.

Amedei I Cru Napolitains

This was a gift from picture book author extraordinaire, Ame Dyckman. Ame is a generous soul with extremely good taste in chocolate.

But what is inside that box? you want to know. Well, let's take a peek.

It contains little boxes of single-origin 70% napolitains! There are six little boxes total, and each one contains six little pieces of chocolate.

I conducted a taste test with David and another friend-of-chocolate, Austin. We all agreed that our favorite was the Venezuelan bar. That is often David and my favorite. David says that Venezuelan chocolate has a certain brightness to it, and that's why we like it so much.

For those in the know, you will see a rare origin here -- Jamaica! We were all excited to try it, but we quickly discovered why it's so rarely seen -- all three of us agreed that it was standards of deviation worse than any of the other origins. (Austin's reaction was best.  After David and I expressed our displeasure, he uttered the following: "I kind of like this one! Oh.... oh no... then I swallowed. It was okay; then it wasn't okay.")

But we were very glad foe thr Jamaica bar's presence, because it was a truly educational experience for us all. And that is what we are all about here at Chocolate NYC -- education. You know. For the children.

The Madagascar origin provided the most dissent, as it often does between David and me.  I love it, like Austin and most normal humans, but David finds it too raisen-y or cherry-like or something.  (He can never make up his mind.)

Each of the varieties was unique, though. It's extraordinary how much of an impact beans' origins can have. All of these bars are 70%, but they are incredibly easy to distinguish, even blind. In any case, if you've never sat down with six single-origin bars and appreciated the range of chocolate tastes that are out there, I highly recommend this Amedei box.

Also, if you like opening up little colorful boxes to discover what is inside.

BOTTOM LINE: A great way to explore the range of tastes that are available at 70%.