Portland ChocolateFest!

 

I attended the Portland ChocolateFest with some friends yesterday, and we had a great time indulging our sweet tooth! I, like most people, am a huge fan of good chocolate--preferably good dark chocolate. Ironically, my friend who went with me  isn't much of a chocolate fan and exclaimed, "I'm just going for the caramels!" 

After each paying an $8 admission fee (which was totally worth it!) and donning our "I love chocolate" stickers, we eagerly went in with the goal of tasting as much chocolate as humanly possible. There were almost 50 booths with everything from fudge, chocolate bars, chocolate truffles, chocolate sauce, drinking chocolate, and chocolate frosting! IKEA was even there with Swedish chocolates! 

The "hot" new thing in the chocolate world today is spicy chocolates. I tried cayenne pepper chocolates and a personal favorite was the Hachez Cocoa D'Arriba Mango & Chili Chocolate Bar. It starts off with a sweet mango flavor and then at the very end a spicy flavor lingers. It is not your little sister's chocolate bar!

One of the most interesting booths at the ChocolateFest was Choffy, which is very similar to coffee but instead of roasting coffee beans, cacao beans are roasted! It is very light like coffee (unlike hot chocolate)  and considering that it is only the "essence" of chocolate it only contains 20 calories per serving and no caffeine (which, hello! is great because caffeine is like a drug to me).  I added cream and sugar to it like I would to a cup of brewed coffee.  When I remarked that it was a totally foreign idea to me and asked the man if anyone else is doing anything like this, he told me that no, they were the only ones. I would have to try it again to know for sure if I really liked it or merely liked the concept of it. 

My friend and I both agree on our favorite booth, Ladybug Chocolates. And it seems that we have excellent taste because the judges all agreed too! Ladybug Chocolates was awarded Best Confection, Most Innovative Ingredient, and Best in Show for the ChocolateFest 2010! The one that we tasted and both loved was the applewood smoked salted caramel (which won the best confection). We were both in heaven because it was a chocolate covered caramel with smoky salt on top! DELICIOUS! The most innovative ingredient award was given to their Vermont Shortstack Truffle (pan fried bacon & pure maple syrup in a milk chocolate ganache coated with handmade buttermilk pancake crumbs). 

I would definitely say my first time visiting the Portland ChocolateFest was a success. After about two hours of stuffing my face with chocolate I was a little buzzed on caffeine and had most likely taken in almost my total daily allotment of calories, but I would do it again in a heartbeat! Long live the chocolate binges!