Chocolate Party!!

As many of you know, our first birthday party was last week.  It looked like this:

We had nine tasting tables set up, including percentages:

origins:

mint, milk:

baking supplies:

local chocolates:

chocolate-covered products:

bars with stuff-in-them:

and truffles and bonbons:

 There was even a raffle!:

People stocked up pretty nicely:

And subsequently made themselves a little sick, chocolate-drunk, or both.

Looking at the surveys, some of the most popular items were the Zoe barks and bonbons, the Li-Lac marzipan acorns and hazelnut truffles, all the Kopali chocolate-covered items, the Christopher Elbow Honey Spice bonbon (bought at 2Beans), the Beschle 88% dark chocolate bar (bought at 2Beans), the Fine & Raw Truffle Chunky bar, and the Equal Exchange Lemon Ginger Black Pepper bar.

The most controversial items (lots of lovers and skeptics), somewhat unsurprisingly, were the Pacari Raw 100% chocolate bar and the Al Nassma Camel's Milk bar (bought at 2Beans).

Alyssa Tanchajja took all these amazing photos for us, including this one of a great friend of the blog sampling the fan-favorite Li-Lac marzipan acorns:

We had a great time, and we hope you did too!

Thanks so much to our sponsors!

Bottom Line: Stick with us.

Li-Lac

Li-Lac is a well-known, New York-based chocolatier that completely deserves its reputation.  While they have a West Village location, I generally shop at the Grand Central store out of convenience (it's in the Market on the main level).  I work in Midtown, and being able to get high quality, old fashioned chocolates is something I do not take for granted.

I had just eaten about 3 chocolate bars, so I was able to get it all home  in tact.

Li-Lac does a lot of things well.  On this trip I got a delicious marzipan acorn, a hazelnut roll, and three chunks of chocolate breakaway.

Everything Li-Lac sells is really excellent, and -- as I love to hammer home as a plus -- their chocolate chunks are super chocolatey.  But the real standout is surprisingly the hazelnut roll (also available in bar form).

Generally, I don't like nuts in chocolate, because I think they screw up the texture.  I hate the combination of peanut butter and chocolate.  But the hazelnut-chocolate combination, when a uniform texture, I admit to being a guilty pleasure.  I might not be as obsessed with Nutella as the rest of the world, but it's great, and I am probably more obsessed with those Guylian shells than anyone.  These hazelnut rolls taste like high class Guylians.  They are just delicious, blending chocolate and hazelnut perfectly.

Bottom Line:  A must for Nutella/hazelnut/ferraro lovers, and very highly recommended for everyone else.