Finding Hotel Chocolat

I just landed in Boston a few hours ago and I’ve already had a little tour of the area. During this trip I am staying at the historical The Boston Park Plaza Hotel and Towers on Park Plaza. Usually, I stay at The Liberty but it was sold out for this trip. The minute I landed, I was off to the Flour Bakery on Washington Street. However, the weather was gloomy and it started to rain. Typically I would say, “Who cares”. But the construction on Arlington and the Gay Pride Parade block off some of the roads. I am pretty savvy at navigating areas, but I didn’t want to risk getting lost in potentially bad weather. So, I watched the parade attendees dance in the streets for a hot moment and decided to have an early dinner at McCormick and Schmidt’s until the weather improved.

Church of the Covenant on Newbury

After dinner, I went back to my room to grab a hat and attempt to find H&M. On my way up and down Newbury Street I stumbled upon the Hotel Chocolat at 141 Newbury Street. Many moons back I blogged about their cacao plantation and hotel experience. Although I was disappointed I couldn’t get to Flour Bakery, this is a superb find. Upon entering the brightly light modern location, I searched the shelves for their hot chocolate. Opps! Excuse me, Hotel Chocolat calls it Liquid Chocolat. Their Carmel Chocolate caught my eye first. It has these cute little cream colored hearts mixed in with light brown chocolate shavings. I knew my husband would love this, but call me greedy. It is all about the Classic/Dark Chocolate. Hotel Chocolat also had an Aztec Chili Liquid Chocolat and pure cocoa powder. After an employee offered me a tasty heart shaped chocolate containing hazelnuts, I selected a jar of their Classic Dark Drinking Chocolate. What I loved best was that the jar was plastic. This makes it so easy to travel to my second destination prior to arriving at home.

I still have another night to get to Flour Bakery. I haven’t given up yet.

Deviation can be good

Deviating from a recipe can occasionally create a fabulous new one. I’ve done it many times before with delicious results. This evening I decided to make chocolate chip cookies with E. Guittard Fair Trade Certified Akoma Extra Semisweet Chocolate Chips made with 55% cacao. Unfortunately, I was out of brown sugar so, I opted to use Dark Muscovado Sugar which contains 100% pure cane sugar from Mauritius. Normally, I bake with margarine (I know Paula Deen wouldn’t approve of this), but this time I actually had unsalted butter in the refrigerator. Instead of the typical pure vanilla, I used Tahitian Vanilla.

Although the changes were minor, the dough color was a little deeper and consistency thicker and chunkier than normal. The final cookie maintained it’s chunky shape and each batch came out the same. Tomorrow, I will be shipping them to some family members for their insight. We enjoyed them in our house and if all is well, I will keep the substitutes a standard in my chocolate cookie recipe.

Cocoa…Take me away

Forget Calgon, Hotel Chocolat in St. Lucia will relax your soul and tantalize your senses. Scheduled to open in 2009, Hotel Chocolat plan to immerse visitors in the true meaning of bean to bar. Visitors can tour the hotel’s very own cocoa plantation and journey through the entire growing, harvesting and manufacturing process of the hotels luxury line of chocolate.

While submerging yourself in the sensory experience, the body and soul can enjoy a cocoa nib exfoliation, cocoa butter moisturizing treatments and a dinner menu influenced with St. Lucia’s prize cocoa beans.

In Search of Cocoa’s Genome

Recently, Mars, Inc., one of the largest privately held confections manufacturers in the US, The U.S. Department of Agriculture and IBM joined forces to map the DNA sequence of the cocoa tree.

Due to an increase in global demand, the fragile nature of the cocoa tree and the ferocious appetite of fungal diseases, such as Witches Broom and Frosty Pod Rot, weakening or eliminating various cocoa tree strains, cocoa has become the new “Gold”. Cocoa, the foundation of a $5 billion dollar chocolate industry, is currently trading on the stock exchange at a 28-year high. To quench a world-wide thirst for chocolate, a task force was formed consisting of $10 million in funding, advanced technology, scientists and agriculturalists to identify the cocoa tree’s DNA sequence to improve overall cocoa quality and create healthier crops with higher yields.

With the establishment of a research facility in Davao City, the largest city located on the Philippine island of Mindanao, and the use of a 24-hectare (59.31 acres) cocoa plantation located within the Malagos Garden Resort, the Philippines is designated ground zero for this research project. Currently ranked eighteen in global cocoa production, the Philippines is looking to increase their footing in the cocoa industry. Over the next five years, the task forces hopes to safeguard for the world’s cocoa production as well as assist in eliminating the tree’s estimated $700 million annual expenses due to fungal disease infestation.

Australia enters the field

A group of scientists and food experts are working hard to carve a niche in the ever growing chocolate industry. Horizon Science, a subsidiary of Cocoa Australia, has a trial plantation of 1,200 4-year old cacao trees in Mossman, Australia. Mossman is approximately a 31 hour drive from Sydney and 34 hour from Melbourne

Since Australia has the perfect climate to grow and harvest cacao along with millions of dollars set aside to invest in this budding venture, Australia hopes to take a bite out of Africa’s cacao production stronghold. Horizon Science plans to produce chocolate for the “couture” chocolate market.

Central American’s cacao production revitalization

The Ngobe Indian people of western Panama in Central America are returning back to their roots! For centuries, the people of Central America grew, harvested and indulged their own chocolate beverages. In the 1990’s, they moved away from growing and harvesting cacao due to poor prices and a fungus infestation. With a global upswing in chocolate consumption, the indigenous people are reviving their cacao plantations.

Like other cacao growing regions, cooperatives are being established allowing growers to secure proper prices and profits for their beans as well as manage the relationships with buyers. As more chocolate manufacturers look for fair trade products, Central America as an edge over the Ivory Coast, the largest cacao grower in the world, which has been tied to child-slave labor. The native people of Central America work their own plantations thus removing the child-slave labor stigma.

Personally, I think it is nice to see people from Belize to Panama return to an industry they perfected so long ago.

Got Cocoa!

Thomas Jefferson said, “The superiority of chocolate, both for health and nourishment, will soon give it the same preference over tea and coffee in American which it has in Spain.” Although we have yet to truly reach that point with modern day hot chocolate surpassing tea and/or coffee. However, the tide may be changing? According to the International Business Times, the demand for cocoa for a March delivery increased “3 pounds, or 0.3 percent, to 1,120 pounds ($2,187) a ton after posting 17 percent gain last year.” On the other hand, coffee delivery for “March declined $23, or 1.1 percent, to $2,024 a metric ton.”

The value of the dollar vs. the euro plays a role in this equation as well…but I really don’t understand all of that extra stuff. All I care about is… Got Cocoa!

Cacao Can Save the World!

On the way into work pass Monday, I caught a portion of the NPR segment on cacao farming in Brazil called “How Chocolate Can Save the World” by Joanne Silberner.

Well I knew cacao can save the world in heart, body and soul. However, numerous people and now environmentalists are highlighting the benefits of growing the cacao tree in parts of Brazil that previous gave up on growing the tree.

Take a listen to “How Chocolate Can Save the World”