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.

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.