Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Trick or Treat? « OrganicPedic by OMI

Trick or Treat? « OrganicPedic by OMI: Ingredients: Organic milk chocolate (organic evaporated cane sugar, organic cocoa butter, organic whole milk powder, organic chocolate liquor, organic soy ...
blog.omimattress.com/2011/10/06/trick-or-treat/

Sunday, April 17, 2011

Exotic Chocolate Tasting Events

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

What’s in your Easter Basket?


Chances are Child Slaves Harvested the Cocoa to Make Your Childs Bunny

This fact the cocoa industry chooses to hide and has broken international agreements not to import beans from West African countries that support slave labor. The exporters buy children as young as 7 years old to cut down the cocoa pods with machetes and harvest the beans.

These children are smuggled into the Ivory Coast by human traffickers with the promise that they will make money for their needy families in nearby countries. These families never see their children again. Human traffickers make about $230 euros per child. Their corrupt government has covered up this issue since cocoa is their leading export.

How sad it is that American children receive “Blood Chocolate” to celebrate a Holy day at the expense of children their own age. If you give chocolate for Easter, do not give any chocolate make by Hershey, MM Mars, Godiva, Cadbury, Nestle, Kraft or any generic or brand drug store chocolate. Look for the Fair Trade label or Direct Trade that is described on the label. Savorique has fine chocolates that are slave free, also you can find them at Food Emporium, Fairway, Whole Foods and health food stores. Even local chocolatiers buy bulk chocolate to re-melt it down and mold into those cute bunnies. They may not even know that the bean source is from West Africa, where the in the Ivory Coast alone 12,000 children are enslaved.

Be an informed and caring consumer by knowing where your chocolate and other foods like coffee and tea comes from. More info is on my site at www.ExoticChocolateTasting.com.

http://www.chocolatework.com/chocolate-slavery.htm

Saturday, April 2, 2011

Spa at Trump-Wellness Chocolate & Biodynamic Wine Pairing | Exotic Chocolate Tasting

Trump1

Tuesday, April 26  7-9pm Trump Soho Hotel-Spa at Trump
246 Spring Street, NY, NY

Antidote Chocolate, made from a blend of raw and roasted organic Ecuadorian cacao, dried fruits, flowers and spices for purity and nutrition are paired up with biodynamic red wines from South America’s acclaimed wine regions.

Roxanne Browning, New York’s Chocolate Sommelier from Exotic Chocolate Tasting and Matt Spirn from The Northport Tasting Room will be your guides though this relaxed evening that will awaken all your senses… and enrich your mind. Chocolate maker, Red Thalhammer will share her knowledge of chocolate health benefits of her chocolates named after Greek goddesses.

Experience this first time event at the luxurious and peaceful setting of the Spa at Trump. Treat your body, mind and soul with the gift and the “Food of the gods.”

Limited Seating RSVP a must, email Roxanne ExoticChocolateTasting@gmail.com  $25 pp CASH ONLY at the door
If you are a NYC Chocolate Meet Up member or would like to be, join and pay here.

Posted via email from Exotic Chocolate Tasting

Friday, March 11, 2011

Chocolate 201- the passion behind dark chocolate

Chocolate 201- the passion behind dark chocolate

Chocolate 201- the passion behind dark chocolate | Exotic Chocolate Tasting

Chocolate-greenplateAmericans are catching up to what Europeans have known for decades – dark chocolate is a sign of a discriminating palate. Not the anonymous chocolate that you find in the candy isle or in your Easter basket. Dark chocolate U. S. sales exceeded 5 billion last year and there is no end in sight. At Exotic Chocolate Tasting you will start your journey to discover the benchmark in today’s chocolate…the worlds best chocolates.

Let’s start from the beginning… Theobroma cacao – Theos, god. Broma, food. “The food of the gods” the scientific name. Around 1300BC, the Olmecs of the Gulf Coast called it Kakawa; today we call it cocoa or cacao.

A fruit that can only be grown in the 20/20 zone of the shaded and wet rain forests, migrated from the Amazon basin to Africa and Asia by way of the Spaniards discovery of the new world. A frothy drink for the Maya and Aztecs, a divine food reserved for the rulers, worship, births, sacrifices and funerals, Montezuma drank 50 cups a day! So valuable the beans were used as currency and certain death to any commoner that drank it.

Over the centuries, blights wiped out plantations; wars were fought over trade routs and regions. Small pox killed natives that farmed the lands that lead to slaves brought from Africa. Spain met with competition from Portugal, England, France and the Dutch that all wanted a finger in the chocolate sauce. All this activity had tremendous consequences to this day. A third world crop is “fair” game to exploit the land, its people and the manipulation of the bean itself for better and for worse.

Present day, Fair Trade and Direct Trade has brought positive change to small-scale farmers and the rain forests, this represents less than 10% of the global cocoa market. Entrepreneurial spirited American chocolate makers are making a difference by working directly with these farmers to bring you the superior chocolate that Europeans have enjoyed for years.

Posted via email from Exotic Chocolate Tasting

Thursday, January 27, 2011

Our cocoa stock levels are sufficient so far, says Barry Callebaut

Our cocoa stock levels are sufficient so far, says Barry Callebaut

By Helen Glaberson, 26-Jan-2011

Related topics: Markets

Leading maker of bulk chocolate, Barry Callebaut, has bought and exported the cocoa beans it needs to fulfill its processing needs, said a company spokesperson in reaction to the suspension of Ivory Coast exports.

Raphael Wermuth external communications manager at Barry Callebaut told ConfectioneryNews.com that the company’s two factories in Abidjan and San Pedro are still running. “For the time being our stock levels are sufficient,” he said “they can cover our current needs.”

Wermuth said the company was observing the situation in the Ivory Coast on a daily basis.

US ingredients supplier Cargill, which normally buys around 15 per cent of Ivory Coast’s crop, has reportedly halted its cocoa purchases from the region temporarily.

Rise in prices

Cocoa prices rose 6.2 per cent to $3,393 Monday morning, almost their highest since January 2010, as Alassane Ouattara, the president-elect of the world’s largest producer of cocoa beans, called a halt to all exports including cocoa and coffee for a month.

The move by Ouattara is an attempt to cut off funding from his rival Gbagbo who is currently refusing to leave office despite Ouattara being widely accepted as Ivory Coast's legitimate leader.

In December, Rabobank warned that cocoa prices would respond if there was a return to civil war in the African producer company.

Cocoa prices to ease

But, according to recent reports, cocoa prices are to ease as dealers say the majority of the region’s main crop has been exported.

Gary Mead, an analyst at VM Group in London said it was toward the end of the main crop, and the majority of the beans have already been registered for export, Bloomberg reported.

“If the ban persists, then we will have a problem,” he said.

Ivory Coast said it will permit exports of beans that have been registered for shipment, say reports.

The European Cocoa Association (ECA) and the Federation of Cocoa Commerce (FCC) raised concerns last week that the ports of Abidjan and San Pedro together with the Coffee-Cocoa Sector Management Committee (CGFCC) have been included within the organisations on the EU sanctions list.

The ECA and FCC asked the Commission to clarify how cocoa shipments can be put through without the standard export tax-based payments to these bodies.

The request was part of a joint communiqué that was sent by the ECA and FCC to the Commission requesting more information about the regulation in order to gain greater understanding of how the sanctions would impact the cocoa supply chain.

Trade bodies press EU on Ivory Coast ban

Lack of clarity on the implications for the cocoa industry of the financial penalties imposed by the EU on the Ivory Coast has prompted trade representatives in the bloc to seek such additional information from the Commission.

The EU has tightened its economic sanctions against the West African cocoa producing country in a move to try and unseat Gbagbo.

EU Council Regulation 25/2011, which entered into force on 15 January 2011, is targeted at individuals and organisations in the Ivory Coast said to be jeopardising the proper outcome of the electoral process.

Posted via email from Exotic Chocolate Tasting

Sunday, January 16, 2011

Dark chocolate bars are not created the same | Exotic Chocolate Tasting

Cacao Farmer in the rain forest

Cacao Farmer in the rain forest

Like superb wine or premium olive oils, fine chocolate has different flavor profiles, too. Wines vary by region, soil, weather, grapes and wine making process…cacao bean flavors are also influenced by the same conditions.

“Terrior” French for soil, is one of the five components that create the distinct taste that Sommeliers study to identify wines. Single origin and estate chocolates are now being recognized for their complexity of flavors in their pure state. A 70% bar from Madagascar will taste different from a 70% from Ecuador, just like a Cabernet Sauvignon from Bordeaux will taste unlike one grown in Napa of the same year.

At Exotic Chocolate Tasting’s wine and chocolate pairing events, we look for flavors and subtleties of both and how they affect each other and the palate. Vive la différence…and the similarities!

Posted via email from Exotic Chocolate Tasting

Friday, January 14, 2011

Wine and Chocolate Pairing Class