This weekend, I learned all about the hard work that goes from taking a cacao bean to the chocolate that we consume. I also had no idea how many different steps along the process there were if one wanted to produce different variations of chocolate. For many chocolate makers (like Oh! Chocolate, where I took the class), they are not producing something to be consumed, but rather a small piece of art that showcases the best that nature has to offer through the cacao beans!
Before we got to the messy part of the evening, we tasted all different types of chocolate from the purest form with no added ingredients (top) to the most processed form which some critics don’t even consider to be actual chocolate (white chocolate).
We were given a wide range of pretzels, marshmallows, Oreos, potato chips, graham crackers and fresh fruit (among other items) that we were welcomed to encase in chocolate. After about a half hour of messy experimentation, I had more chocolate items than I could (or maybe should is more appropriate) consume in a week.
Of course the store also had lovely displays about and in their cases just in case the items we created didn’t look quite as amazing as their creations!
