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The Alluring World of Chocolate By Natalie Calkins
Chocolate Captivates the Senses
Watch melted chocolate move like molten gold, smell its intoxicating sweet aroma as it woos you like a love poem, taste the flavors and feel its texture grab hold of you like a kiss you never want to forget. Even if you are without gold, love poems and sweet kisses, you can bring some pleasure to your life by visiting the alluring world of chocolate.
Chocolate Tasting Basics
Fine chocolate is glossy and never blotchy, dull or powdery.
It should melt when you hold it for a few moments. While you'd rather eat it than hold it, between your fingers, the chocolate should feel smooth and silky.
The aroma of a given piece can incorporate many different scents of berries, jasmine, spices and more depending on where the beans were grown.
Take a bite and leave the chocolate on your tongue gently pressed against your palate. Take notice because cocoa has hundreds of flavors.
A Taste For Chocolate
atasteforchocolate.com
A Taste for Chocolate conjures up the inner chocolatier. You're inspired to melt, taste and make chocolates with their variety of quality chocolates from around the world. Create a conversation piece at your next party by hosting a tasting event. Go to chocolate.meetup.com and type in your zip code to find kindred spirits for the love of chocolate. You can also find other food events from www.localwineevents.com. This calendar of gourmet food and wine events is worldwide. You can even get a calendar for your area sent via e-mail.
An Occasional Chocolate
anoccasionalchocolate.com
This site has everything you need to set up a chocolate kitchen at home. An Occasional Chocolate sells just the right proportions for home chocolate making. The newsletter provides seasonal chocolate recipes and quality information about chocolate making at home. The site is frequently updated with new tips, recipes and chocolate making ingredients and tools. Learn chocolate making techniques from watching videos at epicurious.com. Click the Video link next to the Site Search.
Richart Chocolates
www.richart-chocolates.com
Chocolate making for the Richart family is an art form where shapes, colors and personalization identify each piece. Collections range in price; Richart offers collections for those who enjoy extravagance and for those who care about quality, beauty and taste but are on a budget.
Shop by collection, where you'll find items ranging from the Burlwood Chocolate Vault at $825 to the Petits Hearts Collection at only $23.50. Shop by specific occasion or by flavor. Richart provokes gift ideas with their simple yet sophisticated offerings.
While you might be more familiar with Godiva chocolate, which costs from $30 to $100, (www.godiva.com), you can expect to spend around $50 to $200 at www.richart-chocolates.com.
Another chocolatier who takes chocolate making seriously is Knipschildt. They offer sophistication and lots of taste at Chocopologie (www.knipschildt.com).
Top 5 Reasons to Eat Chocolate
- Lowers blood pressure
- Improves circulation
- Makes you happy
- Reduces cell damage
- And, most importantly, life's too short not to eat chocolate.
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