Chocolate Tasting
Busy and fun day yesterday. In the morning I took a friend to her follow-up doctor's appointment. She's on crutches and not able to put pressure on her foot, so needed a ride. She was a little worried when I told her I always get lost in hospitals, usually get lost in Decatur and occasionally misplace my car in hospital parking lots. Luckily she knew exactly where we were going.
Once home I needed to chop up chocolate into tasting size pieces. Last night was a joint meeting of The Culinary Historians of Atlanta (CHA) and Women Chefs and Restaurateurs (WCR) and the topic was chocolate. A friend from WCR sent me some chocolate that her company makes.
She works for Guittard in California and they make some delicious chocolate. She sent 5 different types for the tasting. Very exciting. All of the chocolate was 65% cacao to make the comparison more even.
We are fortunate in the Atlanta area that Deb Duchon started the CHA group. For those of you who watch the show Good Eats, you've probably seen her on the show. She is the culinary anthropologist. She's a great speaker, fun and knowledgeable. She started the meeting with a talk about the history of chocolate.
We learned about Columbus, the Mayans, the Aztecs and then some about Europe once the chocolate was taken back. For a long time it was consumed in liquid form only. One slide that I found interesting is the next one. Yes it is blurry since I shot while seated in the audience.
In case it's too blurry to read, it says that chocolate was consumed mainly by noblewomen, it was considered healthy and it was a good vehicle for poisoning someone. How multi purpose!
Once the talk was over and questions were answered it was time to taste. We had volunteers to serve the chocolate and a tasting wheel courtesy of Guittard. All chocolate was labeled and attendees had forms to write their comments on the chocolate. We had a total of 10 types.
So go, buy some chocolate, have a tasting. You can order the Guittard from the company, www.eguittard.com. It's a fun thing to do on a Friday night. Maybe make a pot of soup, invite some friends, taste chocolate, have a casual meal. My personal favorites were from Peru and Venezuela.
Once home I needed to chop up chocolate into tasting size pieces. Last night was a joint meeting of The Culinary Historians of Atlanta (CHA) and Women Chefs and Restaurateurs (WCR) and the topic was chocolate. A friend from WCR sent me some chocolate that her company makes.
She works for Guittard in California and they make some delicious chocolate. She sent 5 different types for the tasting. Very exciting. All of the chocolate was 65% cacao to make the comparison more even.
We are fortunate in the Atlanta area that Deb Duchon started the CHA group. For those of you who watch the show Good Eats, you've probably seen her on the show. She is the culinary anthropologist. She's a great speaker, fun and knowledgeable. She started the meeting with a talk about the history of chocolate.
We learned about Columbus, the Mayans, the Aztecs and then some about Europe once the chocolate was taken back. For a long time it was consumed in liquid form only. One slide that I found interesting is the next one. Yes it is blurry since I shot while seated in the audience.
In case it's too blurry to read, it says that chocolate was consumed mainly by noblewomen, it was considered healthy and it was a good vehicle for poisoning someone. How multi purpose!
Once the talk was over and questions were answered it was time to taste. We had volunteers to serve the chocolate and a tasting wheel courtesy of Guittard. All chocolate was labeled and attendees had forms to write their comments on the chocolate. We had a total of 10 types.
So go, buy some chocolate, have a tasting. You can order the Guittard from the company, www.eguittard.com. It's a fun thing to do on a Friday night. Maybe make a pot of soup, invite some friends, taste chocolate, have a casual meal. My personal favorites were from Peru and Venezuela.
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