Some chocolate experts say white chocolate is not chocolate at all, just a confectionery aimed at kids. But that’s not true.

Cacao fruit is the source of both cacao mass (you have probably learned to appreciate 75% of your bar being made of that) and also, cacao butter.

White chocolate bars are usually 35% pure cacao butter (in nice white chocolate bars it should be listed as the first of the ingredients), and have no cacao mass at all – which is why they are so pale a shade.

The other ingredients for making white chocolate are: Milk or cream powder, sugar, emulsifier (usually Soy Lecithin), and vanilla or other spices.

White chocolate would contain not less than 20% by weight of cacao fat, a minimum of 3.5% percent by weight of milk fat, and at least 14% by weight of total milk solids, and it may contain quite a bit of sugar – up to 55%.

Valrhona, the high-quality supplier for chocolate makers, provides a relatively low-sugar version of white chocolate. They accurately describe their Ivoire white chocolate “[it] reveals aromas of warm milk enhanced by delicate vanilla notes.” Their 40% cacao butter product claims to have “distinctive flavor, both mild and chocolate-y, unveils notes of caramel and vanilla enhanced with a touch of malt.”

A recent trend in artisanal chocolate is hand-crafted white chocolate bars with exciting additions like berries, coffee nibs, spices, pistachios and other nuts.

The inclusions add texture and flavours that make the experience of eating white chocolate much more interesting and pleasurable.

Mini white chocolate bar with coffee nibs, by IKA

Already in last October, The Chocolate Journalist AKA Sharon Terenzi has visited The London Chocolate Show, UK’s largest event dedicated to chocolate, and reported about the artisanal redemption of white chocolate:

“…white chocolate is slowly but steadily transitioning from a cheap candy to a fine food to be savored just like dark chocolate… it can be turned into an intriguing delicacy with the addition of crunchiness (nuts, cocoa nibs) and flavors (spices, teas).”

White chocolate is quite sweet, which is why snobs sneer, but we find it hard to see a problem here… are Financiers, Mille-Feuille, Macarons not sweet? Indulgence can be luxurious, too.

Speaking of patisserie pleasures, we take this opportunity to share Ika’s recipe for
White Chocolate & Strawberry Sablé Fingers.

This recipe was published also in cooperation with Pascale Perez- Rubin, one of Israel’s leading recipe book authors and food writers, who also styled and photographed this sumptuous picture.

This month she has agreed to follow another French tradition, by answering the Proust Questionnaire,
AKA the Bernard Pivot questions, made very popular also by Actors Guild host James Lipton.

Here is Ika spilling her beans:

1. What is your idea of perfect happiness?

Looking at the sunset on a lounger on a sandy beach, holding a glass of Sancerre wine.

2. What is your greatest fear?

Not making that trip around the world in 80 days. Or more.

3. What is the trait you most deplore in yourself?

Impatience.

4. What is the trait you most deplore in others?

Miserliness.

5. Which living person do you most admire?

My sister in law.

6. What is your greatest extravagance?

A trip to Hawaii when I was 18.

7. What is your current state of mind?

When will this August end already?

8. What do you consider the most overrated virtue?

Self-confidence.

9. On what occasion do you lie?

Can I lie as an answer to this question?

10. What do you most dislike about your appearance?

My hips.

11. Which living person do you most despise?

So many human-rights crushing-dictators out there these days… But Assad.

12. What is the quality you most like in a man?

Sense of Humor.

13. What is the quality you most like in a woman?

Creativity.

14. Which words or phrases do you most overuse?

What was I going to say??

15. What or who is the greatest love of your life?

Chocolate & The Sea.

16. When and where were you happiest?

The day I opened my shop. But diving in the ocean in Australia is also an extremely happy memory.

17. Which talent would you most like to have?

For languages. I would love to be fluent in 7 languages at least.

18. If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?

Be more patient.

19. What do you consider your greatest achievement?

Being included in the Le Club des Croqueurs de Chocolat guide, with gold tablette rating.

20. If you were to die and come back as a person or a thing, what would it be?

Jack Sparrow – Pirate of the Caribbean.

21. Where would you most like to live?

Manhattan, Paris, London, Tokyo, Sydney, and many other places.

22. What is your most treasured possession?

My chocolate Tempering machine. It’s possible that I am still paying for it.

23. What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?

Losing someone close to you.

24. What is your favorite occupation?

Chit-chatting over plates of food.

25. What is your most marked characteristic?

Determination.

26. What do you most value in your friends?

Them being there when needed.

27. Who are your favorite writers?

Ian McEwan, Meir Shalev.

28. Who is your hero of fiction?

Peter Pan.

29. Which historical figure do you most identify with?

Lou Andreas-Salomé, a Russian-born psychoanalyst and author, who had close relationships with Rilke, Freud, and Nietzsche (quite a complicated one, with the latter).

30. Who are your heroes in real life?

Breakthrough entrepreneurs.

31. What are your favorite names?

Inbar, Offri.

32. What is it that you most dislike?

Malice.

33. What is your greatest regret?

Quitting piano lessons.

34. How would you like to die?

In my sleep, following a three-star rated Michelin dinner.

35. What is your motto?

Chocolate is the soul’s super-food.

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Get into the Tu B’Av spirit: Shimmy in white & have some chocolate.

Image: OSU Special Collections & Archives

Tu B’Av was a joyous holiday in the days of the Temple in Jerusalem, marking the beginning of the grape harvest. In modern times, it has become a romantic Jewish holiday, often compared to Valentine’s Day, and has been said to be a “great day for weddings, commitment ceremonies, renewal of vows, or proposing”. Also, “It is a day for romance, explored through singing, dancing, giving flowers…”

And giving chocolate, too, obviously.

If you are celebrating love this week, or courting a Hebrew speaking lady like myself, consider these gift options:

Perfume: A Classic Choice, With Added Cacao Notes

Leading Brands such as Missoni, Valentino have created perfumes based on cacao aroma notes.

Natural, artisanal perfumiers such as Demeter are using cocoa butter and essence to make some lovely seductive scents.

“The scent of dark chocolate is full, warm and slightly spicy” – Jo Malone.

You can also find scented candles that spread calm and the cacao aroma at home. Let the sweet aroma spread in your room, to inspire a mood for love.

Chocolate Massage

Inside the cacao fruit (pod), there are almond-like nuclei from which chocolate is produced – those cocoa solids you see consisting 70% or more of good quality chocolate. But around the seeds there is a soft white material, from which the cacao butter is produced. Cacao butter has few flavor residues, but mainly has qualities, similar to coconut oil. It is used in natural care products such as body lotion and bath oil. Cacao contains natural nutrients and antioxidants that can infuse the skin with all their beneficial properties. Some therapists add ground cacao nibs to add an element of cleansing body scrub.

With a Chocolate Massage you can indulge yourself with as much as you like, guilt-free. Therapists claim it reinvigorates the body and mind.

You can Do It Yourself, and get a kit for chocolate massage, that includes scented candles or incense sticks, and a cacao body butter. This combination will help you to create a true massage atmosphere for your significant other.

Can you imagine your loved one laying smothered in chocolate-y concoction from neck to foot?

Create a chocolate-y atmosphere

A Sweet Morning Treat

The Aztec emperor Montezuma II would drink enormous quantities of chocolate before visiting one of his many women. The Aztec women would not be given anything containing cacao, ever.

So why not use another ancient ritual – Tu B’Av – to rectify this historical injustice?

After a night of dancing in a vineyard, wearing her white dress, pamper your personal empress by bringing her a nice cup of cocoa to bed.

A chocolate macaroon = “Je t’aime”

A Ticket to Paris

Paris is the perfect place for both Love and Chocolate. Follow Ika’s address book to visit award-winning chocolatiers in Paris – in the Marais, Montmartre and Saint Germain.

Enter the beautiful havens of creativity and luxurious indulgence, then take a stroll along the river Seine, to get some fresh air. Look at the water and the trees and savour the memories of your sensual adventures at the Paris chocolateries. Then, head back again into the bustling streets for some more sumptuous pralines, until the moment you really must go back home.

For thousands of years, cacao has been considered a sacred food.

Kakaw for The Maya people was a gift from The Gods. A creature called The Plumed Serpent gave cacao to the Maya, so their mythic scriptures say. An annual spring festival celebration was dedicated to honor their cacao god, Ek Chuah, with gifts, sacrifices and what you might call today ‘cacao face painting’ – ear lobes in particular.

Depiction of the Cacao myths, from a Mayan painted ceramic vessel, Guatemala City Museum

Another version of the cacao creation story was offered by The Aztec civilization:

God Quetzalcoatl discovered cacao (cacahuatl: “bitter water”) in a mountain.

The Aztecs had cacao priests taking care of rituals, including some awful ones we won’t mention here… As long as there is constant supply of cacao, sure… By the way, the cacao beverage used for their ritual was only allowed for men, as it was believed to be toxic for women and children. This meant there was more cacao for the men, then.

The Spanish explorer Cortés and his entourage were curious to see the vast quantities of the cacao beverage the Aztec emperor consumed, when they arrived in the Aztec capital Moctezuma in 1519. They brought back to Europe some samples of cacao beans, along with other agricultural products, but it seems that the use of cacao in Spain started only in 1544, thanks to a visit of some senior Kekchi Maya nobles.

This introduction was the beginning of our own addiction.

These poor souls were brought from the New World to Spain by Dominican friars to meet Prince Philip; Later on, their native people would be humbled and exploited.

Being so good (as you well know), chocolate had spread to France, and to other countries in Europe. Demand for chocolate had to be satisfied.

The desire for chocolate led to establishing cacao plantations in the Caribbean colonies (by the French), while Spain developed cacao plantations in the Venezuelan and Philippine colonies.

Let’s stop here to look at why things happened that way, and the consequences of supplying huge amounts of cacao globally:

Six key fact to know about cacao trees:

1. Theobroma Cacao, which is the cacao tree’s botanical name, means “Food of The Gods” in Greek.
2. Theobromine is the ‘cacao’s caffeine’ – the name given to an organic compound that is found in cacao, affecting us humans for the better (yes!).
3. A cacao tree can grow only in a narrow band 20 degrees either side of the equator; it needs high humidity lots of rain to thrive.
4. Cacao tree will start to bear fruit at the age of 5, and usually live to age 100. The average cacao tree will retire from fruit growing when it’s about 60-70 years old.
5. The cacao tree needs the shade so it is often grown beneath other trees such as papaya, rubber, and mango trees.
6. Typically, a cacao tree produces about 1 – 1.5 lbs (~ 0.5 kg) of dried cacao beans annually, over two harvesting periods.

A Colombian farmer picking cacao fruit

Sticking with (and for) the trees, and moving in closer, to cacao trees,
can become a life changing experience,
and it has happened to Ika ten years ago.

Bathing in a rainforest is good for you

If you haven’t yet heard about “Shinrin-yoku”, the latest Japanese wellness trend, here is the gist of it:

Shinrin-yoku means ‘taking in the forest atmosphere’, or Forest Bathing. It is about the therapeutic effect of forests and trees in general. According to Wikipedia, there are over 60 Forest Therapy Camps in Japan today.

Some lovely books about Forest Therapy and Nature Healing came out recently, following the popularity of a positive new data: studies suggest that visiting nature parks has therapeutic effect. Spending time with trees seems to raise levels of white blood cells, which equals to a better immune system. Scientists found that “being among plants produced lower concentrations of cortisol, lower pulse rate, and lower blood pressure.”

Just like the compound in chocolate being good for your health (releasing the “happy hormones” serotonin and dopamine), so are the phytoncides that trees emit into the air.

So let us suggest a visit to a cacao plantation!
This would be a most invigorating trip for the senses, surely.

If you are up for a once-in-a-lifetime journey, search for a meditation retreat, or a mindful exploration of cacao tree forests, to see how they are grown and harvested. Busk in the shade together with them.

Go to one of the “Cacao Belt” counties, such as Mexico, or Indonesia.

These special retreats offer unique ways to research the bean-to-bar chocolate trend, explore nature, and yourself, if you wish.

Maybe a place where the programme also offers chocolate tasting, making, cacao growing tours, and of course, meditation sessions under the trees. Perhaps even where an ancient cacao ritual is performed.

Until you go there, why not take some good quality chocolate to the nearest park, and sit under a big old tree? Perhaps bring a book, too.

Have a relaxing summer,

Ika

Interestingly, the most important chocolate terms start with the letter C!

Here are the 7 most useful terms you need to know in order to speak like a chocolate expert:

1. Conching

Chocolate’s smooth texture and refined flavours, are achieved thanks to the conching machine, where the chocolate paste is heated, stirred, and sort of kneaded, for as much as four days!

A minimum of 12 hours is standard in the chocolate industry.

The Swiss manufacturer Rodolphe Lindt invented this technique in 1879 (In French: Lissage).

The ground beans are stirred and blended together with sugar and other ingredients, until a smooth, homogeneous paste is ready to be poured into molds.

Conching combines all the ingredients into a unified mass, and eliminates volatile flavours, unpleasant odors, and bitterness.

Tasting the paste straight right out of the conching machine, at a chocolate factory, is an unforgettable experience, that we very much recommend trying if you get the chance.

Photo: Simon Pearson via Flickr

2. Cacao Belt

Cacao trees can only grow within 20° north and south of the Equator.

This geographical area can be imagined as a belt circling our planet.

Within this area are the original cacao growing countries like Brazil, Mexico and Venezuela; and thanks to globalization cacao now grows also in Africa and Asia – mainly in Ghana, the Cote D’Ivoire, Madagascar, and Sri Lanka.

3. Criollo

Criollo is a type of cacao tree that grows mainly in Venezuela. Most chocolate experts consider it to produce the best quality beans, with the most delicate flavour.

Criollo trees are quite rare, also because they are very vulnerable to disease.

Therefore, Criollo beans are more expensive, but we believe it is worth the investment when making top quality chocolate.

Photo: 3 types of cacao pods (=trees): Criollo, Trinitario & Forastero. Source: Wikipedia

4. Couverture

For dipping and coating pralines and other confectioneries, like candied fruit, it’s best to use chocolate with a higher minimum fat content, of around 35% cocoa butter.

This thin glossy mass is called Couvertour.

When your teeth encounter a thinly-covered praline, made by hand, you immediately feel the difference, and can better enjoy the right balance of flavours in your mouth.

5. Tempering

There is something magical about tempering – like watching a science experiment – seeing how cacao butter is transformed into a stable crystal form.

The process happens through alternate heating and cooling in very specific timing, to a point where cacao butter sets at its most stable point.

Tempering helps make the chocolate look smooth and glossy, and brings the chocolate to the exact stability, so it would break by your teeth in the most pleasurable way.

6. Gianduja

A paste made of chocolate blended with finely ground hazelnuts, it was said to be invented by 19th-century producers to cut cost of chocolate candy.

But no one can deny that cocoa and hazelnuts are a match made in heaven; Gianduja pralines tend to be best sellers.

7. Cru

The word Cru comes from the wine world, close in meaning to the word Terroir = the environment in which the plant is grown.

When talking about cacao, Cru is used to indicate beans from trees from specific areas. For example, Valrhona uses “Cru” with Caraïbe (Caribbean), Manjari (Madagascar), and Jivara (South America), to tell consumers where the beans were grown.

Expert tasters can learn and feel the characteristics of different Cru’s, and identify acidity, ripeness, and traces of charcoal and fruit, just like wine connoisseurs.

Photo: Papua New Guinea Praline by IKA Chocolate, made out of single origin Papuan cocoa beans.

So many factors influence the piece of chocolate you taste:

The type of trees from which the beans came, and their level of ripeness, the harvest, fermentation technique, drying, roasting, refining, conching and tempering, and then, the recipe and skills of the chocolatier.

Understanding how truly fabulous chocolate is made is a journey, one that is never too late to embark on.

Feeling all set to join a chocolate tasting club? Or want to start sharing fine chocolate reviews?

How about visiting an international chocolate industry event? Choose out of dozens of 2018 chocolate events listed here.

It seems like there is no place on the globe where people don’t love and celebrate chocolate.

Even if you just feel like browsing festivals’ photos online, we’ve created a long list of chocolate events worldwide,
that are worthy of entering your bucket list.

The obvious place to start a trip is Europe, but as we’ll find later, the natural starting point is actually a small island in Venezuela. We’ll get there, too for a visit at the Church of Cacao.

Travel from classic bonbons to bean-to-bar trade fairs in 2018!

Europe

Our first stop is:

Perugia, Italy

October 2018

Eurochoclate is the largest chocolate festival in Europe, held since 1993.

It attracts tens of thousands visitors each year, usually during October.

Besides many free tasting opportunities, Eurochoclate is also famous for its chocolate sculptures.

Amsterdam, The Netherlands

24 – 25 February, 2018

Chocoa is 4 days of chocolate celebration, that puts an emphasis on the ‘bean to bar’ trend.
This means that you can participate in many lectures about sustainable cacao growing, and single origin chocolate making.

You can also expect a lot of the usual chocolate tasting, and trust the Dutch that beer tasting and drinking are also on the agenda.

Budapest, Hungary

16-18 September, 2018

Sweet Days festival celebrates chocolate, and candies in general. It’s more of a family and fun event. You can enjoy street food bars, live concerts, and kid-friendly programs. It sounds a bit like a Christmas market, only in better weather.

Brussels, Belgium

2-4 March, 2018

Belgium is an important destination to chocolate lovers all year round.

You can find over two thousand chocolate shops, and several chocolate museums.

The Salon du Chocolat is an international chocolate festival, that takes place in Brussels, as well as other major cities (we’ll get there, too).

Over 150 world renowned chocolatiers and pastry chefs from over 15 countries exhibit their exquisite creations.

You can spend a full day strolling around stalls, tastings, participating in workshops and lectures.

Special works of art made ​​of chocolate are created exclusively for the exhibition.

London, UK

October 2018

London’s Chocolate Show is a huge chocolate festival held in London every October.

It is a major event for professionals – a great place to learn about the most innovative techniques and industry trends.

The Show is part of the Salon du Chocolat organisation, so in a way you have a choice:

Go to London, Brussels, Paris, or many other places on the Salon’s calendar;
it’s a traveling festival that passes through 15 cities around the world but its annual highlight is in Paris.

Paris!

October 2018

Salon du Chocolat, Paris, France – has been taking place since 1994.

Over 500 exhibitors present at this conference. The agenda is full of lectures, workshops, tastings and even recipes.

And the best thing – it’s in Paris!

Which also means that a fashion show is held for the world’s haute couturiers and chocolatiers.

Asia

The Michelin guide has published a fascinating article about “The Rise of Southeast Asian Chocolatiers”.

It gives you a better perspective about the way Asian consume and produce (yes!) chocolate.

Tokyo has also been hosting the Salon du Chocolat in the past seven years:

Japanese culture has a very high esteem of the art of chocolate, and they manifest know-how and connoisseurship.

Japanese chocolatiers like Sadaharu Aoki have won the most prestigious international awards, and opened their own boutiques in Paris, too.

So if you’re up to some serious travelling, and tasting exotic flavours in your chocolate,
head straight to Tokyo Salon du Chocolat during 20 – 28 January, 2018.

Australia

August 2018

Ika fell in love with chocolate making in Sidney, Australia, of all places.

Aussies are massive chocolate lovers and are quite knowledgeable when it comes to artisanal chocolate.

Smooth festival is a great event for professionals and tourists alike, offering a Lindt Lounge, and a Callebaut Test Kitchen.

To make itself attractive to locals, the organisers make a point of offering many vegan options.

New York and other cities around the USA

The Chocolate Expo is held annually in NYC and then travels throughout the United States – visit their website to check out 2018 exact dates.

San Francisco, CA

8-9 September, 2018

In the bay area, an annual festival held in Ghirardelli Square is very popular with locals.

The veteran chocolate manufacturer Ghirardelli takes over its surroundings, offering demonstrations, tastings and many live events.

It’s not a major crossing for international industry professionals, but hundreds of local artisanal makers and chef-patissiers from California exhibit what we’re sure is both yummy and cool.

Continue your trip and go down south to Latin America – a very important source for the chocolate industry.

The land of cacao growing

As you are probably quite aware, chocolate is made from cacao beans, that grow inside cacao pods, in very few countries.

In Peru, producers try to infuse more meaningful connection with manufacturers and chocolate makers, through the Salon del Cacao Lima.

It has been held since 2010, offering chocolate making demonstrations, business roundtables, and many other events relating to single-origin chocolate.

Other chocolate festival in Latin America:

Equador, September 2018

Mexico, October 2018

Venezuela, November 2018

It is said that the best quality cacao beans grow in Venezuela.

Cacao Venezuela is held in cooperation with the Italian commerce ministry.

The major attraction is a bean-to-bar laboratory, alongside the usual tasting bars and lounges.

The Chocolate Church in Chuao

We recommend visiting the village of Chuao, a small village located in the northern coastal range of Venezuela.

The beautiful church in the town square hold a special thanks ceremony to San Juan for a good cacao harvest.

According to Wikipedia, experts agree that the high quality of the cacao beans of Chuao is not only because the genetic varietal that exists in the plantation but because the intense work of La Empresa Campesina of Chuao during the pre harvest, harvest and post harvest.

Photos: Wikimedia, by Flickr users Electrolito & Veronidae

It’s important to get to these places and truly understand how chocolate tastes, and how it is made.

There is so much you can learn in trips to cacao farms, watching the production process, tasting the mass that comes out of the conching machine – it’s nothing like the chocolate you buy at the shop.

Another reason to go is to learn more about the people Seth Godin has named

“those who are creating the raw material for the magic we consume daily.”

“Worldwide, tons of cacao is grown, millions of bars are sold… But one number is astonishingly small: the amount the typical farmer makes in income. For many, it’s only $3 a day. They are among some of the poorest and least respected workers in the world.”
Seth Godin, Meaningful work

They certainly deserve our interest and respect.

I was very much inspired by this video, created by my favorite chocolate manufacturer Valrhona
– documenting a trip to a plantation in the Dominican Republic:

I am definitely looking forward to a year of flavourful new adventures.

Would you devote an entire year for travelling to chocolate festivals around the world?

Wishing you the sweetest year ever!

Ika

This month, while working towards the 2017 International Chocolate Awards winners ceremony, we share some tips and behind-the-scenes insight, to help you judge the quality of chocolate, just like the jury members of international competitions, and writers of guides like Le Club des Croqueurs de Chocolat.

Professional Chocolate Tasting Experts

From these guides you can learn which chocolate ateliers around the world make the best pralines and chocolate desserts.
You can also go kinda crazy, and obviously very hungry, from reading the wonderfully crafted reviews.
These reviews can teach you the key judgment criteria  – because taste is just one element of quality chocolate (yes indeed!).

Le Club des Croqueurs de Chocolat, publishes the leading guide to the most remarkable chocolate in the world.
They rate the top chocolatiers in France, Belgium and globally (ÉTRANGER category).
The Club is over 30 years old, and has 150 members, most of them pastry chefs, restaurateurs, journalists. Some are experts in other feields, like historians and photographers. What they all share is a demonstrable passion for chocolate. It is a close-knit organisation that take itself – and chocolate – very seriously.
They gather for tasting every other month, each time they focus on a different theme, such as chocolates flavored with tea, fruit and alcohol pralines, etc.

A rising force in the chocolate world is George Bernardini, who publishes The Chocolate Tester – The Reference Standard.

Bernardini writes personal reviews of over 4,000 chocolates, made by 550 brands from over 70 countries.
He ranks chocolatiers from all over the world, awarding them with “Cocoa Pods”
–  from 1 to 6 Pods, like Michelin Guide awards ‘Stars’ restaurants internationally.

The “Eurovision” Contest of The Chocolate World

A major event for the chocolate business is The International Chocolate Awards.
The organisation is based in London, where the annual Chocolate Show takes place every autumn.

The competition has started taking place also in France, Peru, and Japan, as more and more people gain knowledge in the art of chocolate, and the significance of terroir.

The organisation Founder and Judging Director is Martin Christy, also Founder and Editor of fine chocolate review website Seventy%. His purpose and life’s work is to raise awareness of the quality and sourcing of chocolate, being “a complex, ancient, beneficial and spiritual food”.

Christy was joined by Dr. Maricel E. Presilla, a culinary historian, author and chef specializing in the cuisines of Latin America and Spain. Her book The New Taste of Chocolate: A Cultural and Natural History of Cacao with Recipes is treasured by all leading chocolatiers.

Monica Meschini, the celebrated Italian chocolate/tea taster and Sommelier, completes the founding trio of the Internbational Chocolate Awards.

What judges are mainly looking for is subtlety of taste and textures.

The Grand Jury members taste the competing chocolates anonymously. They are served pralines in small cups, with the description of the sample.

They do a lot of tasting in a very short time, of hundreds of chocolates from all over the world.

According to the press, there were more than 1,000 products registered for the event, including more than 650 chocolate bars.
They won’t get an ounce of pity from us, though.

After they taste, they give a score from 1 to 5 in four areas:

1. Quality of the ingredients
2. Preparation and technique
3. Creativity (and innovation)
4. Taste.

Judges give positive and negative comments considering those categories. Then they count the scores and determine the winning chocolates in each category.

Chocolate tasting and rating – how to judge chocolate like a pro?

With your eyes, your nose, and then your tongue.

First, look attentively:

Is the shape perfect? Too perfect to be hand-made?
Investigate further – is the decoration elegant, clean, and does it dispense some clues about the filling?
Can you see the lightness of the chocolate artist’s hand on this praline?

Before taking it into your mouth, stop over at the tip of your nose: bring the chocolate close to your nose, and smell it (yes, just like you start with wine). Quality chocolate have hints of flavours, that originate in the ground where the cocoa was grown (like fruit, and even smoky Papua New Guinea dried lava), and from the manufacturing process.

Finally, place the chocolate on the tongue, and let it melt slowly, naturally. While it melts on your tongue, try to recognize all the flavours you feel.
Search for flavour nuances.

Pralines Tasting

When tasting a chocolate praline, take only half a bite and look at the filling of the half that’s left on your finger.
Look at the layers, the textures of the filling.
Pay special attention to the thickness of the praline’s coating layer. If it’s slender, you can be sure you are tasting a superior quality praline.

Between different bites, it’s good to drink some water and even eat something neutral like bread, to refresh your taste buds (like some people do when they eat Sushi).

Low quality industrial chocolate and pralines will have familiar candy-like chemical flavors. You might recognize the taste of commercial vanilla extract, or feel there is too much sugar added.

The International Awards and winners are presented before a huge audience at the London Chocolate Show. This year it will take place under the beautiful art-deco glass arched ceiling at Olympia, 13-15 October.

In next month’s post Ika will share stories from the London show, as well as photos from the world’s most fabulous chocolate event – Le Salon du Chocolat 2017 in Paris (of course).

The entire city is a perfect blend of culture and entertainment. With beautiful parks, ancient temples, stylish shops, and an unbelievable selection of restaurants and cafes, in which even the simplest food is a feast for the eyes.

French Technique + Japanese Ingredients = Unforgettable Bliss
The leading Japanese chocolate artists employ the techniques of the French. They create handmade thin layers that cover delicately flavoured ganaches.
The famous Japanese knack for innovation, manifests itself in local flavours (exotic for us) of ganache.

Try these: saké, green tea, yuzu (local citrus fruit), sesame, wasabi, sansho (Japanese pepper), and matcha.

Le Temp Compensé
In 2003 Sofia Coppola filmed Scarlett Johansson and Bill Murray getting lost in Tokyo’s coolest neighborhoods – Ginza and Shibuya.

If this happens to you too – savour the experience. Let yourself get lost and feel overwhelmed by the city.

Compensate yourself later with award-winning desserts, by following Ika’s itinerary that makes the most of what Japan has to offer to chocolate lovers.

Where to go for the finest chocolate and pastries:

Mouthwatering delicacies await on the streets of the ‘big three’ districts: Ginza and Shibuya, Shibuya, Harajuku and Shinjuku.

Tip: If you want to focus on desserts, and have a low-key lunch, buy a bento lunch from the konbini (convenience store) and have a picnic in Yoyogi Park.

Palais à Tokyo – Mitsukoshi Isaten
For Ika, the Mitsukoshi department store is the first and most important stop, to stock up on Japanese chocolates and other delicacies.

Mitsukoshi (also Isetan Mitsukoshi) is an international department store that was founded in Japan in 1673 (wow!).

This giant palace full of designer items holds everything a stylish tourist might look for.

Head to the food hall at the 2nd Basement floor, and good luck to you in being able to get out of there.
4-6-16 Ginza, Chuo-ku

Sadaharu Aoki

The most revered Japanese pastry chef is Sadaharu Aoki.
He already has several locations in Paris, and four in Tokyo. Aoki have received the most prestigious International Chocolate Awards, and the highest ranking in the Guide des Croqueurs de Chocolat, the leading authority for true chocolate connoisseurs.

You absolutely must visit them, and don’t miss the Matcha macaron.

Chocolat De H.
Master Chocolatier Hironobu Tsujiguchi creates the most exquisite pralines. The extraordinary precision of the pralines makes it hard to believe they were made by hand. But they are, and they are wonderful.

We recommend tasting the Bananier, Arabique, Hibiscus, and the Japonais Yuzu.

Bean to Bar by Minimal Chocolate

This shop near Yoyogi Park is the perfect place to fully understand the Bean To Bar trend the Japanese are so into.

Minimal‘s mission is to bring us closer to cacao bean growers and terroir.

The chocolate bars’ labels include all the information about the beans they were made of: origin, crop year, variety, note (such as fruity, tangy). Buy a pack of samples with multiple samples from many origins.

Feast your eyes also on the minimalistic, tasteful design. This level of exquisite design seems to be possible to exist only in Japan.

6 More Addresses For Your Trip to Tokyo:

1. The perfect breakfast: Croissants the Black Buddha bakery, inside Sawamura Hiroo, 5-1-6 Minami Azabu, Minato-ku.

2. The perfect Tokyo dinner: Masudaya, 2-9 Kagurazaka, Shinjuku.

3. Ginza Six: Luxurious shopping and dining center.
Tip: Skip the Starbucks and head to Ginza-Sembikiya for an unforgettable fruit sandwich and other fruity concoctions.

4. Dominique Ansel Bakery: Buy and pop their balloon, to eat a lighter-than-air honey vanilla chiffon cake inside it.

5. Glaciel Ice Cream: Go for their artisanal milk flavoured ice cream. Or Avocado, if you’re adventurous.

6. The Gourmet Shop by Mandarin Oriental offers artisanal sweets and savouries, beautifully presented and packaged. With your heavy load of shopping, take the hotel elevator to the 38th floor (where the gym is) for mesmerizing city views.

Before you go back home:
A very popular gift at the Narita airport duty free shop is the Matcha Chocolate, by Royce.

For the kids (or your inner child), stock up with some Japanese Kit Kats, offered in weird flavours and colours, like purple sweet potato.

1. Terroir isn’t just about wine making

In some ways, chocolate is like wine.

The aroma, texture and taste of both pleasurable products depend much on the Terroir. Like wine, chocolate may be impacted by how it’s been grown: Location, geology and climate of the place.

In fact it’s among the few products with a broader flavour profile than wine.

Like grapes, cocoa beans are a fruit that goes through a series of various processes in production, all of which also affect its flavour; Fermentation and drying are extremely important for a quality chocolate. Fermentation is done on or near the farm, so the farmers’ skill has a large influence on flavour.

Conclusion: Chocolate lovers should pay more attention to cocoa farmers. Getting to know them will help us all treat them better, and in turn get better quality chocolate every day.

Did you know that cocoa trees can only flourish in tropical environments, within 15-20 degrees north and south of the equator? This is why cocoa is grown in very few countries around the world – among them are Brazil and Cote d’Ivoire. The origins of chocolate beans has an enormous impact on the flavour of a finished chocolate bar. Bars from Madagascar beans, for instance, are characteristically fruity while Ecuadorian bars are far more earthy.

Have you ever considered dividing Vietnam into individual regions, like we are so used to do to French wine growing regions?

2. Single origin chocolate tourism – the new global trend

The Chocolate Tourism trend is still mainly about a chauffeur driving you to shops around Paris.

But a new more exotic way to make chocolate the theme of your trip is to hop on a plain and then on a van, to visit cocoa farms around the planet’s equator.

More and more chocolate fans go to places such as Belize, Madagascar, where first-rate quality cocoa is sourced.

Traveling to Australia was actually what put Ika on her chocolate career path.

Travel is Ika’s second best thing to do after chocolate. When she was 35, with 12 years of experience as a radio sound engineer, she went to Australia, in search of a new vocation.

“I went to Australia to study for a master’s degree in marine science, but there I realized that what I wanted to do was chocolate. How did I realize that? When I saw that I was spending hundreds of dollars in chocolate boutiques. I was also constantly recommending to fellow travelers to ‘Go eat this macaroon, go eat those pralines.’ I realized I love it. Chocolate became a motivation for more cultural exploration.”

Returning from Australia, she became an apprentice to the leading Israeli dessert chef Claude Ben Simon. In 2011, after many more trips and much training – mainly in Paris and Brussels, she opened her own artisanal chocolaterie.

3. Original Middle Eastern flavored pralines – now a worldwide sensation

“Travel inspires my work, but I wish also for Israeli flavors and chocolate to travel. I want people in Europe and anywhere else, also in those far away places where farmers grow chocolate, to know our land. I want people all over the world to get to know the Middle Eastern Terroir. Lovely food and flavors grow here, too.”

One such special flavour is the Za’atar – a Middle Eastern herb.

This is now the 2nd year that Ika’s Za’atar praline made her a silver medalist of The International Chocolate Awards.

This innovation, combined with her professionalism, ranked her #22 International Chocolatiers of the prestigious Le Club des Croqueurs de Chocolat

In Papua New Guinea, Ika sourced a uniquely flavoured cocoa that won her a second ICA silver medal this year. The story behind the Papua New Guinea praline inspiration is just below – read our To Sin and Be Forgiven post.

If you feel inspired to embark on a major chocolate journey, here is a list of must-visit-in-your-lifetime places for true chocolate lovers.

Most are in Paris (mais bien sûr!) some further afield in France.

PARIS

1. Patrick Roger

“L’enfant terrible de la ganache…” Figaroscope (2010)

Visiting Patrick Roger’s website is perplexing – no explanations, only amazing photos, and a navigation menu that includes the phrases ‘Radioscopy’ and ‘Genetics’ (what?! why?!). His ambitious creations incorporate unexpected flavors like lemongrass and Sichuan peppercorn into the classic pralines.

A visit to his boutique on the boulevard Saint-Germain is also an overwhelming experience. It is an absolute must – your perception of what a Chocolate Sculpture is will change permanently, because Roger’s style is exceedingly bold and playful.

Patrick Roger | Address: 108 boulevard Saint-Germain, Paris

2. Jaques Génin

“His chocolates are displayed like jewels” Vogue (2015)

Génin supplies chocolates, caramels and petits fours to more than 200 top French hotels and restaurants, including the Le Meurice. The self-taught top chocolatier began his career in food in a slaughterhouse – would you believe that? He opened his first restaurant when he was 28, and at age 33 worked as La Maison du Chocolat’s Head Pâtissier. In 2010 he opened his own chocolate factory, which the New York Times described as “a holy site for connoisseurs”.

At his Salon  in the northern Marais you can taste the most exquisite pralines, as well as a legendary millefeuille. Treat yourself to his pot of decadent chocolat chaud, too.

His caramels and pâtes de fruits are probably the best you can find in Paris. The same is true for his Paris-Brest pastry, Ika says. Génin was the first chocolatier Ika apprenticed to in Paris, during her long professional training in France.

Jaques Génin | 133 Rue de Turenne, Paris [Salon] | 27 Rue de Varenne, Paris

3. Gilles Marchal

This Pâtisserie in the Monmartre is Ika’s favorite place in all of Paris, and she considers as her teacher and inspiration.

When you wander down from the Sacre-Coeur you will be immediately drawn inside, by the display of exquisitely beautiful pastries. His incredibly fresh and delicious madeleines have gained fans all over the world. The madeleines come in flavors like pine honey, grand cru dark chocolate, and pistachio. Marchal’s tarte aux framboises and baba au rhum are equally fabulous.

Gilles Marchal | 9 Rue Ravignan, 75018 Paris

Photo credit: Lucky Miam

4. Paris Salon du Chocolat

This annual exhibition is the leading international chocolate trade fair. Definitely add it to your bucket list, if you haven’t been yet.

Every autumn, the Salon du Chocolat welcomed over 100,000 visitors.

PS – Following the Salon on Facebook is an easy shortcut for brushing up your French language skills. [photo: Tasaka Sama]

5. Paris Chez Sharon

While you’re in Paris Ika recommends treating yourself to a very special gourmet experience: going on a pâtisserie tour with Sharon Heinrich.

Sharon is a food journalist and local expert. Sharon will give you the inside story of each chocolaterie you visit, and introduce to you the trendiest and most wonderful pâtisserie artists and around the city. Check out Paris Chez Sharon on Instagram and feast on her amazing Paris finds.

OUTSIDE OF PARIS

6. Le Cité du Chocolat Vhalrona

Headquarters and Visitor Center of the leading French premium manufacturer is based in the small town of Tain-l’Hermitage near Lyon.

The company was founded in 1922, and has been a constant favorite among gourmets and chefs worldwide. Today they have over 60 distribution centers worldwide and also runs a highly respected gastronomic school – the École du Grand Chocolat. Ika has taken many of their professional courses, and insists on using the Vhalrona first-rate ingredients in her creations.

The visitor center offers a “multi-sensory interactive chocolate experience”: featuring knowledge on cocoa plantation and harvesting, and the complex processes that transforms the cocoa from bean to bar. The visit includes tasting many types of chocolates, including the The Grands Crus de Terroir collection – single origin chocolates made from the highest quality terroirs around the equator. Activities for children, restaurants and boutique serve families who take the day trip from Paris or Lyon.

Le Cité du Chocolat Vhalrona | 12, Avenue du President Roosevelt 26600 Tain l’Hermitage, France

7. Vincent Guerlais

“Je suis un agitateur de papilles (taste-bud agitator)”
proclaims the chocolatier from Nantes, a lovely town in Western France.

Guerlais is celebrated as one of France’s most innovative chocolatiers. His work is highly creative, and full of humor.

Feast your eyes and taste buds with his pastries and chocolate treats, such as Criollo, Absolu, Féerie, and colorful pralines he calls Guerlingots. Behold the 1-meter-long box of shaped chocolates – it can serve as a fabulous souvenir! Same for his brilliant artisanal version of the Petit Beurre biscuit – make sure you get at least one box.

Like many chocolatiers from around the world, Ika has attended Guerlais’ workshops, learning from his mastery.

Vincent Guerlaishttp | 1, place Saint-Félix, Nantes, France

Bon Voyage & Bon Appétit!

Its creation was inspired by a legendary princess.  A woman who was loved by many men, some of them to (their) death.

“Queen Emma” they called her. The Samoan / American Emma was considered the most beautiful woman in Papua New Guinea around the turn of the last centuries. Her mother’s bloodline was related to the Moli tribe and Emma was recognized by the Malietoa as a princess.

Born Emma Eliza Coe (1850, died 1913) she was a business woman and plantation owner.

They say her motto was – to sin and be forgiven.

She was a lover “to die for”; passionate, powerful. And four of her lovers did indeed die, tragically. She might have had something to do with their deaths, according to highly circulated rumours.

Famously, her second husband, the German Paul Kolbe, 20 years her younger, died shortly after she found out he was cheating on her in Monte Carlo. She died two days later.

Emma was as beautiful as her homeland still is.

She lived in the town of Kokopo, strung along the edge of Blanche Bay, surrounded by five towering volcanoes. The crusty dark earth is highly fertile, rich in minerals. One of those volcanos is still active, erupting every few years, perhaps with what once thought of the locals as the wrath of the gods.

Emma was said to be prone to angry eruptions as well. She was, in her day to day, a shrewd administrator, “Queen of Commerce”, a clever businesswoman who helped her family and community flourish. She was known as a heady woman, a celebrated socialite who knew how to throw a good party. A passionate woman, loud and energetic, never afraid of what people might say about her and her choices.

Ika was immediately drawn to Queen Emma’s story, while researching notable lovers’ stories, whose lives are intertwined with chocolate.

Emma was a lover of life. Her strong character was the inspiration for the new limited edition of exceptional single origin chocolate that Ika has created.

The dark praline contains cacao from the fields of Papua. The beans were dried over open fire, and you can feel a touch of smoke in the creamy rich chocolate filling.

Thin, almost unnoticed slivers of coal lay on top of the praline, enhancing its flavor. The coal embellishment gives away a visual clue for the smoky note. The deep aroma adds to the sensory experience of tasting this superior single origin chocolate. It is a unique expression of passionate love for chocolate, love of life, and giving.

Pictures: [clockwise] Emma Forsayth | Tavurvur volcano & Sunset in Papua New Guinea – the romantic vibe is helped by the unique crimson colours of the sky at sunset – photos by Raz Sherbelis | Ika’s praline, photo by Shiran Carmel

“I used to work in a radio station for many years as a sound technician. I can’t possibly describe how much music means to me. I flew four hours to Barcelona from Tel Aviv and back last week just for a Sting concert.”

As usual, Ika’s answers are just a prelude for a longer story: “His voice fills me with hope. Sting has been an inspiration for me ever since high school. In general, I feel that music is instrumental to my work. On the sound job I learned how to mix and balance sensory experiences. But the most important lesson sound engineering taught me is how to be patient while working. It wasn’t an easy lesson to learn, let me tell you,” and she goes on…

What’s the most memorable concert you have ever attended?

“It was a Tosca performance at the magnificent Sydney Opera House.”

Surely even just entering the building is a hugely inspiring experience: The pure curving shapes rise across the harbor render a heroic artistic achievement.

Savoring Splendor

Another magnificent opera building, though completely different in its Baroque style, is the famous Opéra Garnier. We mention it here because the building is said to have been the inspiration for a luxurious popular cake – the Opera Cake.

Gâteau opéra is an elaborate almond sponge cake with a coffee and chocolate filling and icing (Grande Larrousse Gastronomique).

Cyriaque Gavillon claimed he had invented the cake in 1955, while working as a Pastery Chef at La Maison Dalloyau (established in Versailles in 1682); Gavillon’s wife Andrée supposedly named it after the Garnier Opera building.

The idea behind this dessert is that all of the flavours of the cake should be tasted in just one bite.

And what is a praline, if not pleasure concentrated into one rich chocolate-y bite?

Pâtisserie Expressions

On the night before flying to the Barcelona Sting concert, we visited a new temporary exhibition here in Tel Aviv: The artist Anat Hutzler created eight unique chocolate desserts, each inspired by a song or an album she loves. Anat had let the words and melodies inspire color and taste combinations, textures, compositions, under the title FoodPlay.

“Behind every act of creation there is inspiration, igniting passion.”

Above: inspired by Abbey Road: Pralines filled with bittersweet English Breakfast Tea Ganache, crossing strips of homemade vanilla marzipan. Every band member has a different shell.
Did you guess that John is made of white chocolate?

The Sweet Sound of Sting

What do you listen to when you work?

“I’d like to have been able to tell you that I put on an opera CD early every morning at the chocolatery, when I start my long day at work,” Ika says. “But really, I only listen to a couple of uplifting songs on my iPhone, before the craziness of the workday tasks and calls take over.”

Here is her favorite Sting song, à propos de #MarchMadness

This pralines collection was made in collaboration with the well known French chocolatier Gilles Marchal and each includes five pralines: bitter chocolate ganache, passion fruit and black pepper, salty caramel, pistachio marzipan and honey with praline waffle chips.

It is on sale for the Israeli public in limited edition at the Chocolaterie, in three kinds of packaging: 5 pralines (33 NIS), 10 pralines (65 NIS) or 25 pralines (165 NIS).

Starting the month of November the elegant packages will be on sale exclusively at the magnificent food hall at “Gallerie Lafayette” in Paris (which is moving to a new wing in September) as part of the prestigious Christmas collection of this famous institute.

Galleries Lafayette’s address to Ika to take part in the Christmas collection 2014 arrived following the international recognition which Ika is receiving in recent years and her winning the gold medal at the “International Chocolate Awards” for her zaatar praline which exposed her to the French press. This is the first time that an Israeli representative exhibits his creation on this respected stage. Ika’s produced in Israel pralines, will be the only kosher pralines sold on the premises.

The packages include a special poem written for each praline in an enclosed booklet which are the work of Gerard Guy the famous culinary poet and artist, who created menus for Pierre Herme, “Potel & Chabot”, pierre gagnaire.  In addition, the French companies  “Air France”  and “Valrhona” chocolate, imported to Israel by Tishbi winery, sponsored this special project. The link between all these bodies was Betty Edry Biton, the best chefs in France and in the world’s ambassador. As Ika said, “ Gallerie Lafayette’s address is for me much more than a business opportunity. The place represents the top of the culinary essence and my every visit in Paris begins there. My collaboration with Gilles Marchal and Gerard Guy brought a thrilling and original result. This is a wonderful example that shows how art and creativity exceed all borders and languages.