Welcome aboard CocoaLilo !

A, seemingly, very upscale chocolate boutique just opened here in Boston (Copley Place). It's called "Richart." I've not yet been inside, but it looks like more of an upscale lingerie store (like Wolford) than a chocolate shop.

Mmmmmm.

Chocolate lingerie.....

Welcome CL, to a wonderful and wacky world of wine and beyond!

This article came out a short while ago, check it out--






All Chocolate, No Oompa-Loompas

December 22, 2004
By BRIAN CAZENEUVE





THE wheels were turning last week at Jacques Torres
Chocolate Haven, where an employee was feverishly tossing
too much powdered sugar into a rolling drum of macadamia
nuts. In another time or place, he would have earned a
four-star scolding, but not with Mr. Torres at his side.

"If you do it like that, it will puff out too much," Mr.
Torres said, patting his puffed-out stomach and stumbling
with a Charlie Chaplin gait. "See, just like me." Mr.
Torres was not only relaxing a nervous employee; he was
playing to his audience. Not 10 feet in front of him, noses
pressed against the window that looks from the sidewalk
right into Mr. Torres's workshop at 350 Hudson Street, at
King Street, in SoHo. "People know we have fun here," he
said. "They can watch to see what we do."

The Chocolate Haven is a 7,800-square-foot burst of
imagination that is both an ode to the gastronomic
craftsmanship that has made Mr. Torres celebrated as one of
the world's premier chocolatiers and a nod to the whimsy
that inspires him.

It is also one of the few places in the country that
actually manufactures chocolate. Unlike in his
five-year-old warehouse in Brooklyn, where he makes candy
from chocolate, he goes one very risky step farther here:
he is making the chocolate from cacao beans.

He longed for a spot in Manhattan, he said, mindful of not
only attracting more people but also giving them something
worth seeing. He had seen his customers squeezed into his
tight 400-square-foot storefront in Brooklyn, straining to
peer through open doors into the 5,000-square-foot factory,
as if peeking into the magician's bag of tricks.

It has taken a while to get the magic in Manhattan just
right. Mr. Torres found that expenses in his dream plan
would have been nearly double his $1.5 million budget. The
glass in the store cuts off at 11 feet in height, because
Pierre Court, his designer, found that taller glass would
need to be custom-made. The dream layout had included
floor-to-ceiling glass.

"We anticipated there would be things we didn't
anticipate," he said during a recent tour, when the factory
was finally running.

Mr. Torres bought used machines from Italy, Mexico and
Venezuela and purchased a refiner that was originally used
to make lipstick.

Because of fire codes, he had to hide his roaster behind a
windowless, reinforced sheet rack. He left alone a slope at
the entrance rather than pouring concrete to level it.
Instead of hiding pipes behind new plaster, Mr. Torres left
the ceiling as an exposed highway of ventilation arteries
beautified only by rolling gold lining inspired by the
chocolate conveyor belt in a memorable "I Love Lucy"
episode. With no general contractor, Mr. Torres twice
delayed an October opening until Nov. 9 with products from
his Dumbo store. He did not begin manufacturing chocolate
until earlier this month.

He said he would need to make 500 to 600 pounds of
chocolate each day to cover his $25,000 in monthly
expenses. So why is he doing this?

"It's like the carpenter who wants to know how the wood
grows to appreciate his craft," said Mr. Torres, 45, who
was born in Algiers and moved to a fishing village in
Provence, where he might have followed his father into
carpentry had he not witnessed a chain saw take three of
his father's fingertips one day. "I want to appreciate my
chocolate. A candymaker can use base chocolate. A
chocolatier should make his own."

When envisioning Chocolate Haven, he told Mr. Court to
eschew conventional shop-and-counter layouts, to release
his fantasy. In turn Mr. Court designed the windowed
interior shop in the oval shape of a cacao pod, with views
of working machines in the outer factory from every vantage
point. Above the bar, where the specialty is hot chocolate
(either mild Classic or the fiendish Wicked, with
Latin-inspired hints of cinnamon, clove and ancho and
chipotle chilies), he placed a statue of Quetzalcoatl, the
Aztec god of cacao.

The interior has five tables; one will soon be reserved for
children and have, in Mr. Torres's words, "small rocking
chairs fit for mini-butts." By February he hopes to have
five computer screens for customers to learn the process of
making chocolate as they watch the evolution live behind
the windows.

"I wanted to see my profession and not just my product,"
said Mr. Torres, always giddy and caffeinated. "Everybody
loves chocolate, but it's such a mystery to them. How does
this magic happen?"

On this day Mr. Torres was making chocolate with the tangy
beans from Ecuador and the nutty beans from Ivory Coast. He
put them in the roaster for half an hour.

"So the potion starts now," he said. "Are you ready for the
takeoff?"

The ventilation system tamed most of the aroma in the room,
but the waft at the edge of the roaster's base was
intoxicating, like being inside a giant cacao pod. In a
part of the factory hidden from public view, Mr. Torres
placed the beans on a cooling rack and then in a winnower
that cracked them between steel rollers, removed the shells
and spilled the nibs into bags. The nibs have an acquired
tart and bitter taste, and Mr. Torres processed their
particulars in his mouth, with every blink, nod and squint
hinting at the beans' character. "I tell you, for chocolate
Ecuador is a strong country," he said, sensing the
sharpness of the beans.

Now in public view, he poured the nibs into a grinding
machine, a mixer where the dry beans released their cocoa
butter and morphed into liquid. This was the first hint of
a chocolate's sheen. As he inhaled and waved his hand in
front of his nose, the people at the windows licked their
lips.

At the refiner Mr. Torres had trouble at first keeping the
machine cool enough so it wouldn't spray chocolate around,
so he called a timeout to bring over some bags of ice. He
incorporated sugar, vanilla beans and lecithin next into a
conche that grinds them into small particles, aerates the
mix and blends it with the cocoa butter.

He then moved that liquid into a tempering machine where
the chocolate was first cooled and then heated in order to
crystallize the cocoa butter.

"Eighty-eight degrees," Mr. Torres said, changing from
artist to scientist. "That is when chocolate gets hard and
soft. It dances at that special note."

After tempering the chocolate, he started pouring it into
bar molds. He ran to get a camera to take a picture of "Bar
No. 1," the first one he had produced using this particular
mix of origins. After he removed the molds from the freezer
20 minutes later, he started calling people over to elicit
their opinions of the blend.

"Sharp, but not so smooth," he said. "Oh, we can do
better." He encouraged and listened to each opinion of his
staff members. When friends showed up a few minutes later,
he gave them samples and asked for their thoughts, too.

"The signature needs less Ecuador," he said. "I need to
wait a few minutes. Then I cool my taste buds and I taste
some more."

Later Mr. Torres offered yet another comparison for his
product.

"You know, chocolate is like romance," he said. "It makes
your eyes close, your mouth water. It makes you playful.
You feel it? You see what I mean?"

Over the last couple of months:

Sao Tome Varietal Reserva Chocolate 72% Cocoa
Scharffen Berger Pure Dark Chocolate 60% Cocoa
Villars Maitre Chocolatier Chocolat A L'Ancienne Noir 64% Cocoa
Terra Nostra Organic Truffle 57% Cocoa
Ocumare Unique Origin Criollo 71% Cocoa
Guaranda Unique Origin Forastero Arriba Cocoa 61% Cocoa

Michel Cluizel Amandes Au Chaudron Caramelized Almonds coated with 62% Dark Chocolate. WOW!

I am in this bakery. I notice Michel Cluizel dark chocolates. It is not often that one can buy Michel Cluizel dark chocolate(s) in America. So, I bought just about everything they had in the store to keep in my cellar. These can be stored in the cellar for months...

The sales lady tells me, “why don't you try these right here”.

I tell her that I am not a big fan of any chocolate covered nuts.

She tells me..."listen to me, just try it. These are NOT your every day chocolate covered nuts."

Hey, the lady is correct: these are NOT! If you see these, grab 'em! But, I figure these are not easy to find. :-(

Thanks for the tip LCC. These sound fantastic!

Hey LCC --Is this the right stuff? ??

Ohh man, that's it, dude! Rock on! Great stuff!

Cool. I think I am going to order some. But I wonder if I should wait until the fall. It's over 90 here today.

Absolutely! I will wait until then also (to order from the place that sold me this bunch).

Unless, of course, you like your almonds with melted dark chocolate on the side.

The place that had these chocolates is rated in the top 5 bakeries in North America. They are located in Saratoga Springs. Honestly, I ordered some pastries & breads @ that place. Good stuff, but rated that high?!?

these do look great. any idea on the cocoa percentage?

Man, that website made me drool.

In your opinion, does Michael Cluizel chocolate taste better than Scharffenberger?

I am like Augustus Gloumpf, I want to get thrown out of Willy WOnka's Chocolate Factory after falling in to a river of glorious chocolate!

TBird: the box that I have is 62% cocoa. Only a few remain. These almonds are roasted perfectly. I am telling you, I am not @ all a fan of any type of chocolate covered nuts. But, these are great!

BellaDonna: I like the products from both producers. Cluizel is up there as a producer & very much respected.

I had a mini Schraffen Berger Nibby Bar tonight...mmm...what are those bits in there?

They are cocoa 'nibs'. Seriously. And those Nibby Bars do rock.

Veritas True Flats Cherry Almond & Dark Chocolate: pass & not recommended. The dark chocolate is not of high/good quality.