Crazy for Cacao

[Adina P]

A couple pics from my chocolate tasting party yesterday.  We had a total of 9 of us at my house while my fabulous hubby took the kids for a trip to a Dr. Suess day event in town.  

It was super fun and I highly recommend hosting a chocolate tasting party.  I did it because I'm a chocoholic (or does chocophile sound better?) and because I'm really interested in mindful eating practices and thought this would be an awesome mindful eating exercise.  A dab of education and lots of yum!

Looking back I would say we (I?) got carried away and 16 different varieties might be too much (I got a bit of a cacao induced hangover I think...lol). We tried everything from milk chocolate to 72% dark, though the majority were some kind of dark. Flavors included mint, spicy, cardamom, currant, beet and more. The last one we tried was a plain milk chocolate Hershey's and although I suspected it would be less exciting after all the nuanced varieties we'd tried, I was surprised it smelled like spoiled crayon.  And the taste wasn't much better: sugar with chocolate flavor.   But as one of my friends noted, it will still be great for S'mores!

We did the tasting blinded.  I had each chocolate numbered and the variety listed inside the little card.  At first I was all school-like about it and had note cards for everyone so they could write down what they saw, smelled, tasted.  But about 1-2 chocolates in we realized it was a party with nobody talking so we scrapped that plan and decided we'd each taste the same chocolates together and discuss.  Much better.

If anyone wants to try this at home, let me know and I'll give you some tips! (Though the internet is full of them too).

P.S. the dogs were amazingly very quiet the whole time...didn't hear a peep out of them back in the mud room until Daddy and kids came in the front door while the party was winding down.

[BG and Gavin]

I would take cheese over chocolate any day.  Looks great!

[F, Calla & Luca]

These cheeses look simply delicious.

[Amy, Cubbie & Ollie]

Adina, good to see that chocolate was still represented at this event :)

[Adina P]

The CHEESE party happened!
There were even some goat cheese-quinoa brownies.  Really good actually!
And F---I tried Stilton Bleu and I LIKED it!

[Stella]

Hmmm Chocolate!! I love chocolate. Did you try any British chocolate? (Actual imported stuff, not the North American versions of Cadburys!!). I miss English chocolate and come back here with my suitcase full whenever I visit over there! It is very different to other European or North American chocolate!

[Amy, Cubbie & Ollie]

I went to a cheese making class in January and we each made bleu and mozzarella.  The bleu cheese is still aging in my fridge.  yummm...can't wait until it is ready!

[F, Calla & Luca]

How pretty Karen. Adina, I love all the moldy cheeses. but it try to buy domestic ones due to mad cow disease. Stilton is simply wonderful.We all have our hang ups.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

But the green in this cheese is from sage, not mold, lol.

And there are cheeses that have deep red coloring in them from wine...yummy.

Of course, I love bleu cheese, too.

[Adina P]

See....cheese with colors other than white, yellow or orange...scary to me!  LOL  I don't do bleu cheese either.  Mold...ewww.  But yes it would fit both parties.  I'll have to try a teensy taste for you.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Here you go Adina, this will work for your Green Foods potluck and the cheese party. One of my absolute favorites, Sage Derby cheese.