Festival of Chocolate

On Saturday, May 29th, the Chocolate Festival interns and a team of volunteers attended the Women of Worth Conference to provide two tables set up with chocolate fountains. Nearly 800 women gathered at the Fairmont Hotel Vancouver to experience a day of inspiration, empowerment, entertainment, and, of course, to indulge in chocolate.

The team set up the fountains, melted the chocolate, and prepared the delectable spread of fruit and sweets to be dipped in the chocolate fountains. The platters were piled high with apples, bananas, pineapple, marshmallows, soft pretzel bits, and double chocolate brownies.

Each table had fountains flowing with different kinds of chocolate. Everyone enjoyed being able to sample and taste the difference between the milk and dark chocolate fountains.

Guests enjoyed the thrill of dipping their selections under the streams of chocolate and experiencing the taste of the warm chocolate mingling with the sweet and delicious fruit. Another favourite among many attendees was dipping the chocolate brownies in even more chocolate!

Before the women headed off to the ballroom to enjoy the rest of the day’s events, the team handed out postcards and talked to guests about the Festival. If the chocolate fountains tempted these women’s tastebuds, then we knew they would enjoy all the chocolate at our events in the fall.

Thank you to all of our volunteers who made this event a success and to April Chan for capturing the excitement of the day in her photographs.

New to the Chocolate Festival is the Tealicious Chocolate, the first of two events was scheduled at The Gathering Place in Port Coquitlam.  The Gathering Place in the Leigh Square Community Arts Village was named as such for community members to converge.  In this case, it was the combination of two classic delights of tea and chocolate that brought people together.  The bright, airy room at The Gathering Place was the perfect venue to do so.

The event was led by Tealicious owner and tea sommelier Nancy Prokosh, with David Hooey and Christina Ostenstad from Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory providing the sweets from their stores in Lougheed Town Centre in Burnaby and Park Royal Shopping Centre in West Vancouver.  The Tealicious Tea Company was first established in 2000 and delivers fine tea to the Vancouver, New Westminster, Burnaby and the Tri-City area.

Tea is often misconstrued as just another ordinary drink but it is a beverage that can be savoured.  The proper way to taste tea begins with the sense of smell.  This is done by gently blowing on a heap of tea leaves and then inhaling deeply.  The mixture of the smell is to be enjoyed with the taste sensations of the tea.  When eaten with chocolate, the chocolate should first coat the mouth and allowed to melt.  It can then be tasted with a sip of tea to let the flavours mingle.

A myriad of teas were available for the afternoon’s tasting session.  Four types of chocolates (white, milk, semi-sweet and bittersweet) were paired with eight types of tea, two teas per chocolate.  The initial white chocolate was paired with Dragon Well Green Tea and Meghma Honey Oolong.  Both were light and mild tasting that seemed to enhance the creaminess of the white chocolate.  Milk chocolate was paired with Sencha Green and Nilgiri.  Sencha green tea is a Japanese tea that is made without the grinding of tea leaves.  Instead, it is steamed that gives it a very grassy flavour and a golden-green color.  Semi-sweet chocolate was paired with Boisahabi Assam and Namring Estate Darjeeling.  The Boisahabi Assam, from the Assam region of India, was a rich golden color with a bit of astringency.  The bittersweet chocolate was paired with Koomsong and Lapsang Souchong teas.  Lapsang Souchong was the tea that stood out the most for its distinctive, strong smell.  Originally from the Chinese province of Fujian, it is a black tea with a smoky smell and flavour that is reminiscent of a campfire.

However, the vibrant energy of young Team Chocolate volunteers with unwavering enthusiasm was what really brought life to the event.  It served as a reminder the true goal of the chocolate festival is to empower youth through mentorship initiatives in various festival projects.

Thanks to Nancy Prokosh of Tealicious Tea Company, David Hooey and Christina Ostenstad of Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory and Yvonne Chui of Leigh Square Community Arts Village for sponsoring the event.  The second Tealicious Chocolate Tasting takes place on November 8 at Heritage Tea House in Port Moody.  Tickets are still available at www.vtixonline.com/event.php?event_id=126

The Chocolate Festival is all about connecting with the senses to discover something great and the Place des Arts in Coquitlam was an appropriate place for the Wines, Liqueurs and Chocolates event.  The art that adorned the walls already set an appreciative atmosphere for the senses coupled with the smell of wines and chocolates in the air.

An annual festival favourite, wine expert John Gerum of West Coast Wine Education guides us through the basics of pairing fine wines with chocolate.  Pleasure  is enhanced through knowledge and that is what the evening was dedicated towards – a background into the how chocolate became and the different intricacies that go into a chocolate and wine pairing.

First, a lesson on how to properly savour chocolate.  We were introduced to the newest addition to the Rubens Chocolates family – a drop of dark chocolate called Oxanti that contained 5-10 times the antioxidants of regular dark chocolate.  This had 65% cocoa content and was from a single origin cocoa bean from Ecuador.  Chocolate is very complex and contains more flavour profiles than other foods.  Therefore, the best way to truly enjoy chocolate is to let it sit on the tongue and allow it to dissolve, naturally releasing all the wonderful array of flavours.  With this knowledge, we began the first of our tasting flight, a term John imparted on us that describes the selection of wines presented for such purposes.

The first wine pairing was a Major Allan Merlot from Ganton & Larsen Prospect Winery.  The source fruit was hailed 100% from the Okanagan Valley and tasted of red berry and spicy notes.  A dry wine, as John explained, is best paired with chocolate of higher cocoa content ranging from 55%-81%.  In this case, the merlot was sampled with a 64% cocoa mass from Costa Rica.  A bitter cocoa with a hint of smokiness, it enhanced the merlot and made it smoother and fruitier.

A beautifully delicate wine called Impearfection by Forbidden Fruit followed, paired with Ruben’s popular Blueberry Pomegranate chocolate.  Impearfection was a light gold wine that exhibited the subtle intricacies of Asian Pear with a hint of honey.  The fruity sweetness of the blueberry pomegranate chocolate served to interplay with the fresh acidity of the wine.

The minute you swirl a glass full of Elephant Island’s Framboise, you are rewarded with an overwhelming aroma of rich raspberry.  Elephant Island Winery uses fresh, local fruit in their wines to bring out all-natural flavours.  Again, this was paired with a blueberry pomegranate chocolate that was covered in a 60% dark chocolate casing.  The slight bitterness of the chocolate balanced out the sweetness of the raspberry liqueur.  The liqueur featured a natural acidity and sweetness that was refreshing and not too cloying.

A fortified port of Saturna Estate’s Vinsera had light berry and red currant flavours.  It was made from two grapes, a Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier.  This was matched with an organic 37% milk chocolate from Belcolade which softened the wine to increase its richness, giving it a fuller body.

The fifth pairing featured a Vidal Ice Wine from Prospect Winery that tasted of apricot, mango and honey notes.  BC is one of the largest producers of ice wine and the concentrated sugars from the wine give it that pure nectar sweetness.  This was matched with an orange caramel chocolate as well as a BC blueberry gelée chocolate whose natural fruit flavours went well with the wine.

The final pairing was Giffard’s Caramel Toffee Liqueur, a top maker of liqueurs.  Its toffee and butterscotch notes was paired with a Machu Picchu Café chocolate.  It contained a chocolate ganache crushed with coffee beans to give a rich espresso flavour that contrasted with the sweet caramel liqueur.

What truly made the night personable were the anecdotes on everything from serving Queen Elizabeth II to the secrets on how to infuse intense fruity flavours into chocolate.

The night concluded with a gelato service of five different flavours – mint with chocolate, double chocolate, mango sorbetto, Amadeus dream and a lemon raspberry sorbetto all served with coffee.  Rick Valiant serenaded the crowd with Sinatra hits in a night that seemed to appease all senses.

Tucked away in a private room during a bustling dinner service at Fred Soofi’s Pasta Polo was the Desserts, Chocolates,Wines and More tasting, a sold out event, hosted by wine expert John Gerum of West Coast Wine Education 

The evening consisted of six pairings celebrating all things sweet through the union of fine wines and liqueurs with chocolates sponsored by Rubens Chocolates.  The first pairing of the night featured a Joie Riesling (2008) with a special flatbread made specifically for the night from Pasta Polo.  The Riesling was light with hints of lemon, lime and a touch of honey.  Pasta Polo owner Fred Soofi brought out the flatbread, still hot from the kitchen.  An apple strawberry flatbread with baked melted cheese sprinkled with fresh raspberries and basil, it was a light fruity delight that harmonized nicely with the wine.

The second pairing featured a red wine – Lulu Island Merlot with a strawberry black pepper chocolate.  The wine was balanced and medium bodied with traces of plum and black fruit.  It was enjoyed with the dark chocolate with a strawberry ganache and black crushed peppercorns to add a very subtle kick.

A fruity theme was the focus of the next sampling with Capel Mango Premium Liqueurand BC raspberry chocolate.  The liqueur highlighted natural mango flavour that was moderately sweet but balanced out the tart raspberry gelee and chocolate ganache that was contained in the dark hand-dipped Belgium chocolate.

Marie Brizard Watermelon Liqueur paired with a mango guava chocolate allowed guests to take a trip to the tropics which brought about sweet, tropical fruity notes and a refreshing watermelon flavour combined with a smooth dark chocolate ganache.

Onto a buttery, creamy pairing was the Giffard Toffee Liqueur and mango caramel chocolate.  The toffee liqueur was creamy and soft that matched the rich caramel and dark chocolate which melted and lingered on the tongue.

Throughout the night, guests were treated with John Gerum’s never-ending wealth of knowledge on all things wine – including Okanagan’s finest – and were given an inside peek on the selection and care that went into each handcrafted Rubens chocolates.  It was a small, intimate setting that allowed an easy flow of conversation and transfer of knowledge all the while savouring the decadence of fine wines and liqueurs with chocolate.

Pasta Polo

2754 Barnet Hwy, Coquitlam, BC

(604) 464-7656

‎www.pastapolo.com

Beer and chocolate is not a typical pairing one would expect to work well in tandem.  The two seem to stimulate completely separate sensory areas of the tongue.  Chocolate’s delicate features have a sweet, milky finish that melts at the tip of the tongue whereas beer demonstrates a more assertive, robust flavour with a lingering aftertaste.  A Dr. Jekyll to Mr. Hyde.

This is where the magic of the chocolate festival comes in.

The Craft Beer and Chocolate event was held at The Outlet in Leigh Square of Port Coquitlam and featured a journey of the senses led by beer expert Ken Beattie and chocolatier Farid Jamal.  Immediately, guests were treated to the acoustic stylings of David Blair on guitar whose mellow, coffeehouse rock provided a relaxed and comfortable ambience to the evening.

Five pairings were featured for the night with beers ranging from light copper colors to a dark black.  After a quick primer on the composition of beer and tasting tips, the real fun began.  The first pairing featured Okanagan Spring Pale Ale with a pure Belgium milk chocolate.  A well-established crowd favourite that began in 1989, Okanagan Spring Pale Ale is clear and caramel coloured.  The creaminess of the milk chocolate supplemented the pale ale nicely, which contained a nice, round finish with light fruity notes.

Next up was the Blanche De Chambly paired with a dark chocolate meltaway.  Blanche De Chambly is the winner of 8 gold and 2 silver medals from the Beverage Testing Institute and is unique in that it is partially filtered, thereby containing a natural cloud of yeast reminiscent of the white ales brewed during the Middle Ages.  Its light citrus and spicy notes contrasted with the semi-sweetness that the dark chocolate offered.

The power of chocolate was fully demonstrated in the next pairing which featured the same dark chocolate meltaway with Okanagan Spring Brewmaster’s Black Lager.  New to Okanagan Spring, the beer’s dark and chocolate roasted malts gave a bold but crisp taste that complimented the dark chocolate beautifully, bringing out a hint of smokiness from the beer.  This pairing was a clear winner to everyone in the room and showed how one chocolate paired with two different types of beer could bring out such different but subtle tastes.

The next pairing featured Okanagan Spring Porter and pure Belgium dark chocolate with a milk center.  The porter was the darkest of all the beers but also offered the richest and most flavourful taste.  Its aromas were rich and reminiscent of roasted grains and espresso which in turn, complimented the creamy dark chocolate wonderfully.

The final pairing of the evening was the Ephemere Cassis, whose beautiful rose color and sweet, fruity tastes did not seem to resemble anything beer-like.  Paired with a dark chocolate of 75% cocoa mass, the Ephemere Cassis — a lightness and sweet tone similar to champagne – was a fitting conclusion to the evening.

Beer is typically seen as a compliment to the salty and the savoury but works surprisingly well with chocolate.  That is what the chocolate festival is all about — taking a sensory journey to places not yet ventured.

We would like to thank Sleeman’s and Okanagan Spring Beer for supplying the beer and Charlie’s Chocolate Factory Ltd. for supplying the chocolate.

As the festival opening nears with our Salon du Chocolat on Thursday October 15, samplings of chocolate, wines, beers, scotches, liqueurs, and teas to be featured during the next three weeks will be in abundance.

Among those making appearances at the Salon will be chefs from the Pacific Institute of Culinary Arts showcasing their Cooking with Chocolate event and providing delicious dessert samples.

Heather (Hodie) Rondeau of XOXOLAT will be showcasing their Scotch and Chocolate Pairing event with some scotch and chocolate samplings.  The event will feature Finlaggan, Ileach peaty, Ileach cask, Laphroaig and Single Malt Scotches, valued at $71 to $150 a bottle.  Be sure to stay for the white and dark truffles as well as other desserts and coffees prepared by PICA chefs and culinary arts students.

In addition, Okanagan Spring Brewery and Sleeman’s will be showcasing a selection of ales, lagers, porters and more from their Craft Beer and Chocolate Event.  Craft beers to be featured include Okanagan Spring Porter, Brewmaster’s Black Lager, Okanagan Spring Pale Ale, Blanche De Chambly and Ephemere Cassis.

Chef John Garrett from Horizons Restaurant will be on hand to provide samples of ahi tuna tataki.  Along with Chocolatier Wim Tas of ChocolaTas, Chef Garrett has created a five course menu of chocolate and West Coast fare with paired wines for the final Chocolate ce Soir event.

Other features not to be missed at the Salon include Survivor Boot Camp, Beverage Concepts and Lindeman’s Fruit Beers, Pampered Chef, Veracis Wellness, Saturna Vineyards, Planet Organic, John Gerum of West Coast Wine Education and Edward Suter of Schokolade Artisan Chocolate & Café.  Samplings will be provided by Ruben’s Chocolates and Tealicious.

Entertainment will be provided by Joyelle Brandt, the Ken Abel Jazz Trio, and Michael the Magician.

Shaw TV’s Johanna Ward will be on location at the Red Robinson Theatre from 1-3pm to cover Salon events.

Tickets are still available for the Salon at http://www.vtixonline.com/event.php?event_id=103 (for group tickets of 6 or more, email  dawn@festivalofchocolate.ca call 604.628.9547 to inquire about special pricing).