There are many factors that affect the world’s supply of cacao beans: weather patterns, fungal infections, demand, cocoa prices, and production. Last month, another one was added to the mix for this important commodity: hedge funds. These are an investment partnership where the manager, typically the person who created it, gets paid a percentage of the profits. Armajaro, a progressive  London-based commodities and financial services company created a hedge fund and took physical control of 7% of the world’s annual cacao production. They paid a little over $1 billion for 240,100 metric tonnes (529,420,500 pounds), which comes out to about $2 per pound.  All these beans are now stored in undisclosed refrigerated locations across Europe and can stay there for up to 20 years. It’ll be interesting to see how this recent event will play out in the world of chocolate economics.

You know, all this talk about hedge funds got me thinking about chocolate hedge hogs- so I digress! Jaciva’s Chocolates in SE Portland is produces some of these sweet confections. So while the world’s commodity markets are keeping tabs on Armajaro, you can invest your time by taking a nibble at these delicious creations!

When we visited Portland in the late 1990’s, my husband and I have fond memories of going to The American Advertising Museum that was located in Old Town. Don’t know if it was because I thought Darren’s job as an ad designer on the television show Bewitched was fascinating (LOL), but I’ve always loved good advertising.

Opened in 1986, this museum was the brain child of Mick Scott and Leonard W. Lanfranco.  We had the good fortune of meeting Mr. Lanfranco because of his terrific daughter and family lived across the street from us. For 14 years the AAM was the only one of its kind in the world. It was even featured in a 1999 episode of PBS’s Antiques Roadshow. It is also interesting to note that Homer P. Groening, Matt Groening’s father, was one of the founding directors of the museum. Unfortunately this unique local resource closed its doors in 2004. However, their impressive collection of advertising exhibits from the 18^th century to the present was acquired by the Eisner Museum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

On the international advertising scene, some creative minds have in recent years given birth to some outlandish chocolate ads in the forms of bulletin boards and videos.

Several years ago brought what appears to be the first edible chocolate billboard. It was unveiled in London and created for Britain’s Thornton’s Chocolates.  It took 3 months to plan and 300 hours for a team of 10 to build. 860 pounds of chocolate was used and the sign measured 14/5 x 9.5 feet in size.  They thought it would last a week. Apparently all of the edible portions were gobbled up by the public in only 3 hours!  What the gamble- luckily it wasn’t presented during a warm spell.

Across the pond in Toronto, there was a huge Cadbury Milk bar complete with human figures ripping the wrapper off. Although not edible, you have to admit this bulletin board had more staying power!

A video released just last month, featuring Cadbury’s Flake chocolate bar, is a bit more dramatic. Before you view this video, it may helpful to know that the manufacturing technique to create its folds of delicately, texture is secretly guarded. The ad took three weeks to create and used 600 yards of fabric to mimic the folds of the chocolate bar.

In February of 2009, Cadbury also designed an interactive billboard built to respond to the Toronto’s local weather conditions. Called Release the Goo, it included a long teeter-tooter that had a giant (almost 5 foot tall) Cadbry Crème Egg on one end with a container on the other to collect Toronto’s rain, snow and hail. As this catch basin was lowered the egg went up and with a plan of encountering a fan that would break the egg open and de-goo it, so to speak. Not sure if the egg was ever actually de-gooed before the Easter deadline. They had a live webcam available so the Canadians could keep tabs on the progress.

This last ad campaign got me thinking. Toronto gets about 31 inches of precipitation a year and we here in the Portland, Oregon area gets over 37 inches. Maybe our famous, yet ill-fated Weather Machine (it was rammed by a city garbage truck a few years ago)  in Pioneer Courthouse Square just needs a touch of… chocolate pr  : )

It will be fun to see what the advertising minds of the world come up with in the years ahead! Happy Chocolating!

Chocolate festivals are very popular and there seems to be one in every community.  Luckily for us here in Portland, we have several to look forward to each year:

The Portland Chocolate Festival, held at the World Forestry Center in  January, grows by leaps and bounds each year. Ashland’s Oregon Chocolate Festival, held each March,  is in it’s 7th year.  Then the 3rd annual Seattle Luxury Chocolate Salon is coming up on Sunday, July 11th.

Traditionally held on Bastille Day weekend, this event is hosted by Taste TV, the same organization that puts on similar events in San Francisco, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Las Vegas. The venue is the Bell Harbor Conference Center, beautifully located on Pier 66 along the waterfront.

Tickets are $20 with advanced purchase (until July 9th), and $25 at the door. This fee includes all chocolate & confection tastings, classes, and demonstrations.  There will be samples to savor from over 24 chocolatiers, confectioners, wineries, and other culinary artisans.  You can get more information and see footage from the 2009 salon here.

I attended the first annual back in 2008 and felt it was worth the trip. However, at an event like this here are a few suggestions to help insure a delicious and memorable experience:

*  It can get very crowded, so it is a good idea to get their early.
*  Pace yourself-there is no way a person can eat a sample from each of the vendors and not go into glycemic over-load. Bring a bottle of water, some crackers and a protein source like almonds to eat between treats.
*  Some folks, unfortunately, attend with the goal of getting their admission fee worth of chocolate. (It is the one feature of an event like this that can leave, well, a bad taste in your mouth). As a result, containers are not allowed in fear of this potential hording behavior. So I’d recommend bringing a discreet and sturdy baggie. That way you can nibble on a sample and save the remainder for later and to compare notes.
*  Since we’re ‘on the topic of containers, it is also good to have something to put any accumulated  literature or items you purchase.
*  Take breaks- especially if it is a nice day out. Just outside are amazing views of the Olympic Peninsula.
*  If you rather spend all your money on chocolate, you might consider bringing a lunch to enjoy either on the premises or outside along the waterfront.
*  Above all, I’d also encourage participants to ask the vendors questions. It will make your visit and their time more enjoyable.

There will be chocolate companies from the Puget Sound area, and some Portland companies have been represented in the past such as Alma Chocolates and Missionary Chocolates. Others may be from quite a distance away, such as Amano from Orem, Utah. Another chocolatier to keep your eye out for is William Dean Chocolates from Largo, Florida,  who has won awards at previous salons.

If you decide to make a day or weekend out of it, check out this blog post with other “chocolating” ideas in the Emerald City.

Please let us know your impressions if you do head up for this or any other chocolate event.

Hazelnuts and chocolate, strawberries and chocolate, coffee and chocolate. Some things just naturally go together. I recently gained a greater appreciation for another magical match made in heaven: chocolate and dulce de leche.

Dulce de leche is a rich and decadently thick sauce used in many pastries and desserts. Once you taste it, it’s probably easier to name the things it doesn’t go with! I first heard about it after my father remarried in 1983. Over the years I’ve learned so much from my Mama Maria, who is of Sicilian descent from Argentina, about cooking and baking, and some of her favorite items from South America like mate and dulce de Leche. But I didn’t quite embrace its true significance until we were recently in Santiago, Chile visiting my step sister Ana living there on a special FDA assignment.

I always thought dulce de leche was a Spanish version of caramel. Well, yes and no. Yes, in that it has a flavor similar to caramel and both sweets are made from a process called carmelization. This is when sugars in a food product, like milk, begin to turn brown when heated beginning at about 320 degrees F. No in that you achieve the end results in two totally different ways. Both recipes, though, require much patience.

In caramel, you slowly heat sugar, and then add water, milk, butter and vanilla flavor to make an assortment of goodies. For dulce de leche, you use condensed or sweetened milk. This is milk that has had almost half of its water removed and then sugar added. Personally, I find dulce de leche not to be as sweet as chewy caramel.

When you have a couple of hours where you can carefully and safely keep an eye on a boiling pot of water, you can make some of this decadent, silky sauce yourself. It is surprisingly simple, but you’ll need 2 hours for soft dulce de leche and about 3 hours for a firm sauce. Here’s a website that you can go to for instructions on how to make your own. Decorated and filled jars make wonderful gifts for friends and family with sweet teeth. Or you may want to bake a batch of some alfajores, traditional Argentine cookies that, when made properly, melt in your mouth.

As with many foods, dulce de leche evolved in other parts of the world, such as in Northern and Eastern Europe, the Philippines, and in other parts of South America. In Peru and Chile, for example, it is called manjar. Let’s hear it for convergent evolution!

Once you taste it, you’ll understand why its name means “milk honey or milk candy” in Spanish. I now know why Maria gets a sparkle in her eye whenever she hears those three little words: dulce de leche! Once you experience it, let me know if you do, too!

Kraft’s recent acquisition of Cadbury (which includes Green & Black’s) brings to mind other mergers that have occurred in recent history.

When I first began offering chocolate tasting programs in Berkeley, California in the early 1980’s, I fondly recall that there were still family members on the board of Ghirardelli Chocolate. Times have definitely changed. Today this historic American manufacturer it is owned by the Swiss chocolate maker Lindt.

After 40 years of ownership, the Campbell Soup Company sold Godiva Chocolates in December 2007 to the Turkish company Yildiz Holding of Turkey for $850 million. The Godiva managers I speak with in Portland seem very happy with this change of guard. It is as if they finally feel like they are being given the attention and resources they deserve by their parent company.

Nestlé’s owns Perugina, the chocolate company that originated in the Etruscan town of Perugia, Italy and is famous for their Baci confections.

Then there is Hershey that now owns the originally Berkeley, California based Scharffenberger Chocolates.

In the fall of 2006, I had the good fortune to attend a class at Draegers in San Mateo, California with Dr. Robert Steinberg, one of the co-founders of Scharffenberger Chocolates. Personally I remember the excitement of the emergence of Scharffenberger back in the mid-1990’s- what was at the time the first chocolate manufacturer in 50 years. Anyone who has ever gone on one of their factory tours might recall the tour guide proudly announcing that they make in one year what Hershey makes in a day. So, like many, I was very disappointed at the 2005 merger of this giant American manufacturer with this small American artisan one that helped bring chocolate to an entirely new level. A year later Hershey bought Ashland, Oregon based Dagoba.

I realize that loyal customers of companies can be upset by such changes. So at the end of class I asked Dr. Steinberg how he felt about it all. I can still recall his big smile and sparkling eyes, as he stated that he actually disliked all the marketing and the other business aspects of running the company. He was now free to do what he really loves- once again concentrating on the chocolate itself. Coming directly from him, those words made me feel somewhat better.

I somehow feel that he would have been disapppointed to see the eventual close of his Berkeley factory which would move to Illinois. It’s hard to imagine that those personally selected Old World pieces of chocolate machinery by himself and John Scharffenberger are still cranking out all that chocolate that is being marketed across the country. It is fortunate, perhaps, that this phase of the merger happened after Dr. Steinberg passed on in 2009.

Yes, there are positives and negatives to mergers. Yet, it bothers me how the “genealogy” of the chocolate industry seems to have far fewer branches in it these days. Let’s see how this all plays out in the coming years.

Who makes your favorite chocolate bars? How have you felt about these mergers?

Someone put a “chocolate” spin on a tale that has been floating around the internet for some time now. Check out our slightly modified version here.

A group of graduates, well established in their careers, were discussing their lives at a class reunion. The holidays were coming up and they decided to go visit their old university professor, now retired, who was always an inspiration to them. During their visit, the conversation turned to complaints about stress in their work, lives and relationships.

Offering his guests a warm beverage, the professor went into the kitchen and returned with a large pot of hot chocolate and an assortment of cups. Some cups were porcelain, glass, crystal, some plain looking, some expensive, some exquisite. He invited his guests to help themselves. When they all had a cup of hot chocolate in hand, the professor shared his thoughts.

“Notice that all the nice-looking, expensive cups were taken, leaving behind the plain and cheap ones. While it is normal for you to want only the best for yourselves, that is the source of your problems and stress. The cup that you are drinking from adds nothing to the quality of the hot chocolate. In most cases it is just more expensive and in some cases even hides what we drink. What each of you really wanted was hot chocolate. You did not want the cup…but you consciously went for the best cups. And soon, you began to eye one another’s cups.”

“Now friends, the professor continued, please consider this: Life is the hot chocolate. Your job, money and position in society make up the cup. It is just a tool to hold and contain life. The cup you have does not define, nor does it change, the quality of life you are living. Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the hot chocolate that has been given to us.”

This holiday season, we hope that you spend more time savoring life and less time worrying about what is surrounding it. So next time you have some hot chocolate, be sure to savor every drop and watch your stress melt away!

Happy Holidays from Chocolate Tasting & More!

My first encounter with Gareth Mark was at Williams-Sonoma across from Pioneer Courthouse Square while doing research for my Downtown Portland Chocolate Walk. Upon meeting him one immediately senses that he is in his element surrounded by all the wonderful culinary products and when he talks about food, especially chocolate, you know that he truly loves his work.

Today I attended one of his free, Sunday technique classes. The topic: All About Ice Cream. Need I say more?! There were about 15 people in attendance on this unusually warm and humid overcast day to get “the scoop on the scoops. “

His Xocoatl Sorbet was truly amazing with its intriguing combination of dark chocolate, cinnamon, vanilla, chiles and sea salt. These ingredients all mingle together in a way that is hard to believe that the resulting creation contains no dairy. Way to go if you’re watching the fat or calorie meters.

The second sample was an even more surprising. Upon receiving my little paper soufflé cup with the light caramel colored ice cream, I immediately caught the wafting aroma of maple syrup. It tasted as good as it smelled. Then the shock came when he told us the ingredients. No maple syrup was mentioned. Did I hear him correctly? Yes, this was Candy Cap Gelato. Candy Cap is the common name of an orange colored fungus that grows in forests of western North America. I soon discovered that Candy Cap was this year’s challenge ingredient for this annual ice cream class. You can find both of these recipes on his blog: www.stumptownsavoury.com

Mark your calendar for next year’s ice cream class (No pun intended, Chef Mark!) to see what the next challenge ingredient will be. If you don’t want to wait until then to attend one of these weekly technique classes, check out the Williams-Sonoma website for upcoming topics at: http://www.williams-sonoma.com/cust/techniqueclass_popup/content.cfm

Just so you know, Gareth is known to offer a chocolate class every once in a while. So be sure to check back often.

Last fall I had an email interview with James from www.Tasting.com, a new website that was being developed in the UK. Unfortunately, for all of us, it seems the website never made it off the ground. You might want to check back periodically and see if it ever gets launched. In the meantime, here’s the interview. Thanks, James, for the opportunity and I wish Tasting.com all the best.

1. What is most revealing to you on your tours?
I’m continually amazed that even long time residents discover new shops and places during our tours.  Isn’t that human nature? We all tend to have our favorite routes and places. And everyone is quite surprised at all the chocolate we find. So it gives me great satisfaction in helping people look at a neighborhood in a slightly different way.

2. Do you pair chocolate with anything else, like wine and whiskey, when people taste during the tour?
Each tour may vary in regards to the different stops we make. We generally have 5 or 6 main stops. We’ve explored chocolate martinis and pairing chocolate with coffee, wine and beer.

3. Do you start with low cocoa and end with high cocoa content during a single session?
I realize that this is the preferred sequence, however, during our walking tours this can be a challenge. It’s also interesting because when I first started giving chocolate tasting programs in the early 80’s it was recommended to start with the higher cocoa content (less sweet) since it was believed back then that sugar would dull your sense of taste.

4. Do you cover chocolate products made with more specific types of chocolate, like single origin?
Some of the chocolate products we sample have contained more specific kinds of chocolate, like single origin. We explore a little of everything on our walks- bars, confections, drinks, desserts- you name it. You can think of our programs as neighborhood searches for ALL things chocolate.

5. A bit about you – how did you get introduced to chocolate or how did it become such a passion?
There is the saying, “First you eat chocolate and then chocolate consumes you!” Well, in some ways that saying could apply to me. I’ve always loved chocolate. I have fond memories of my grandmother baking Sicilian cookies that had wonderful chunks of dark chocolate in them. I also grew up in San Francisco not far from the Ghirardelli Chocolate Factory. As an adult I became an educator, and my main interests have revolved around natural and human history, science, and food, so chocolate was a natural topic for me.

6. What does it cost? Is there a minimum group size? What is the best time of year? How far or how short in distance? Do you do just walking tours? Can walks be made shorter or longer?
The public walking tours are geared for adults, are 3 1/2 hours in length, and cost $37 – 42. The minimum group size is three and maximum is 10. I feel it is important keeping the group size small to make it more personal and so people can ask questions. For me, anytime is a good time for chocolate! However, our programs are held seasonally from March through November. We cover 1-2.5 miles per walk depending on the route.  Private walking tours are also available for groups and are $28 for a minimum of 6 participants.  All of our programs can be tailored to meet a group’s specific needs.

7. What other tours do you do?
We currently have three walking tours in the Portland Metro Area: Downtown Portland, Pearl District and Lake Oswego. Right now all my programs have to do with chocolate.  I also offer a 6 week interdisciplinary, hands-on class called Chocolate Creations for 3rd-5th Graders, Arm Chair Chocolate Tastings, and an Immerse Yourself in Chocolate program that includes drinking and eating chocolate tastings, and making truffles. We’re also in the middle of planning two new routes and our first Mobile Tasting Tour.