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.

2 Beans again: featuring Pacari 85%, Aeschbach "Special" 80%, SPAGnVOLA 70%, Aesbach "Amer" 60%, Venchi 56%, Domori Javagrey milk chocolate, and Aeschbach Hazelnut

It was a friend's birthday, which seemed like a good excuse to go nuts at 2 Beans.  Hint: Anything is a good excuse to go nuts at 2 Beans.

So this is a lot of chocolate, and all of it was good.  I didn't try the Domori Javagrey milk bar or the Aeschbach hazelnut bar, but they were probably great, because those companies are great.

Of the other five bars, the lowest percentage was actually my favorite.  But that's not really fair -- the Vench 56% has long been my favorite low-percentage (under 60%) dark chocolate bar on the market.

Other than the Venchi, the two Aeschbach bars were expectedly amazing.  I especially liked the less fancy, 80% bar, though I am not sure if it is due to the less-fanciness or due to the higher percentage.

The SPAGnVOLA bar, though, was surprisingly excellent.  I had never heard of the company before, and they stacked up well with Aeschbach, which were one of my favorite companies from Zurich.  Pacari was bringing up the rear this time, likely because it was slightly fruitier than the others, but all four bars come recommended.

Bottom Line: Sometimes you hit the jackpot.  Most of those times are at 2 Beans.

The Chocolate Show: Recap #2

Picking up where we left off: here is part 2 (of 4) of our recap of the sights, sounds, and tastes of the 2012 NYC Chocolate Show!

ECUADOR TRADE OFFICE

They sold Pacari chocolates here, which we quite like.

FLEUR DE XOCOATL

These are from their special "art" truffle collection. They also have an "NYC" collection, where the truffles are painted with, like, taxis and the Statue of Liberty. They did not offer samples, so I can't speak to the chocolates' taste, but trust me when I say that their appearance was pure art.

Each mold is hand-painted, with chocolate then poured in.  Once the chocolate making magic is complete, and the bon bons are removed from the mold, the paint, through chocolate art science, is transferred (beautifully) onto the chocolate.  Does this make the chocolate taste better?  I don't know.  As I said, they didn't have samples.  But this definitely indicates a level of seriousness and attention to detail that we here at the hastily cobbled-together blog known as Chocolate NYC can barely even fathom.

We should also note that this Chocolate Artist expressed to us an interest in moving to New York permanently, if she could find proper investors.  So, to all you extraordinarily rich readers out there... give us money.  And then, if you have any left over, help bring Fleur de Xocoatl to NYC!  Even if you never get a free sample out of it, simply having such a serious chocolate devotee around can only bring joy to us all.

H.S. CHOCOLATE CO.

In H.S. Chocolate Co's personal description, they said, "We put a modern twist on old-fashioned classics like candy bars, filled chocolates, and caramels by using fresh, high-quality ingredients and utilizing local purveyors whenever possible." So obviously I'm very into this place-- if there's one thing better than a Reese's peanut butter cup, it's an artisanal peanut butter cup.

JER'S CHOCOLATES

Delicious peanut butter chocolates!  David would never approve, but David is also a Mets fan, so he clearly prefers disappointment to fun.