Mark, a life-long chocolate expert and the author of xocoatl.org; will come to your home, party or business with about a dozen, pure, dark (70% or greater), European Chocolate bars to conduct a formal Chocolate tasting class for up to 20 people! Not candy, not sweets, but real Chocolate -- the food of the gods. I promise you'll have more chocolate than you've ever had in your life!
I will discuss, in depth, the history, biology, manufacture, and health benefits of Chocolate. More importantly, you will taste each chocolate bar with me, while I teach you and your friends how to discover the subtleties of the flavors and how to search out the 400 individual flavors in real Chocolate! We will talk about what makes different bars taste so different, what to look for when tasting a bar, and how to find, choose and store good Chocolate bars. During the course of your tasting class we will taste very different Chocolates representing: the different sub-species of Theobroma cacao, different processes for manufacture, different storage methods and different places of origin. (The bars we taste are taken directly from my barlist here on the site. Special requests will be accommodated if at all possible.)
I
hope that, by the end, you will feel like a Chocolate expert. I have had
great success: even people who were unsure at first have gotten caught up
in the wonder of Chocolate.
"We really enjoyed the party and we learned
a great deal. It was wonderful to find out about the complexities of the
world of chocolate--so much we didn't know! We now know who in our family
loves 'vanilla' and who are the true choc-o-holics. Now our chocolate box
is never empty. Thanks Mark for a great time!" -- Kristin
Read the Portland (Maine) Press Herald's
Feb 8th, 2006 story about a Xocoatl.org tasting class.
Each tasting class lasts about 2.5 hours (people often make it part of a larger event!).
2007 cost is $250 plus expenses (the chocolate and local transportation usually total
about $125 - $150).
Become a Chocolate snob!!!
Please drop me an email with questions, or to schedule a tasting class!
I am in Seattle, Washington.
Good Chocolate is very sensitive to heat and goes bad very quickly. Many wonderful bars are impossible to acquire between June and November. Because of this limitation, I usually do tastings in the winter and spring only.
Theobromine is a strong stimulant and the quantity of concentrated Chocolate we will consume is quite large. I recommend that tasting classes be scheduled between noon and 7pm. I will do it at any time you choose; however, past participants have had trouble sleeping after evening tastings. Because the pharmacological effects of Chocolate are something we hope you will discover and understand at our tastings, I suggest that people abstain from alcohol the day of the tasting.
To fully appreciate the wonderful subtleties of flavors in Chocolate, I recommend that no strong flavors (such as wine) be served before the tasting -- and that no food be served during the tasting. However, a plain craft bread or water cracker is very useful for clearing the palate between different Chocolates.