How lucky was I to be invited as the ‘press’ along with The Huffington Post, The Daily News to sample the finest chocolates currently on the market at Food Fête Chocolat held at the Helen Mills Event Space on W. 26th Street, NYC. last night. In attendance were Amano, American Heritage Chocolate, Chuao, Divine, Fine Chocolate Industry Association, Gail Ambrosius, Gnosis (a fellow IINer), Hotel Chocolat, Kallari, Lindt, The Madison Chocolatiers West, Sun Cups, Truffly Made, Inc and Valrhona.
I wore my Celiebo NO GLUTEN pin so that people would have a visual that I couldn’t eat gluten in addition to me telling them that I was representing the Gluten Free Community (along with Erin Smith, Gluten Free Fun and Jordan Gary, Delight Gluten Free Magazine).
The American Heritage Chocolate had a display of the History of Chocolate and it’s health properties. I tasted a chocolate drink that was better than any tea or coffee I have ever had. They were using a stone slab and made the chocolate in front of us. The smell was wonderful!
The chocolates were SO beautiful. What was especially enjoyable was that a few of the Chocolatiers talked about the history of cacao in Venezuela, Ecuador and Ghana and how the chocolate groves/farms ultimately produce this artful gastronome.
A few of my favorites: Sun Cups; using Dark and Milk Chocolate and sunflower seeds. They are nut free, gluten free, kosher and certified organic by CCOF. Another favorite was a chocolate salted-caramel by the Fine Chocolate Industry Association. There’s nothing like mixing the savory wtih the sweet all in one bite. As well, there were chocolates made with garlic, bacon, and exotic herbs with healing properties. Really, the displays were like none I have seen, so innovative and the crowd of about 100 was buzzing with excitement.
Needless to say, I walked out with a generous gift bag stuffed with delicious chocolates some of which does contain gluten and that which doesn’t I will gladly eat sparingly.
