Lazy Saturdays

2 Responses

  1. Dez says:

    he’s so retro Yazz..

    ( the only way is up )

  2. Anonymous says:

    http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070304/ap_on_bi_ge/pedigreed_chocolate;_ylt=Au6.V6KZeiI8j.Vq7KfmwCsDW7oF

    Single-origin chocolate goes mainstream

    By LIBBY QUAID, Associated Press Writer Sun Mar 4, 1:06 PM ET

    WASHINGTON – Call it chocolate with a pedigree. Like a good Bordeaux or Chianti, some chocolate comes from a particular place the Indonesian island of Java or Venezuela’s Sur del Lago, for example.

    As with wine grapes, the source of cacao beans is supposed to result in distinct flavors and aromas. Chocolate from Colombia might seem peppery while chocolate from Venezuela might smell like vanilla.

    “It’s like colors on a palette,” says Gary Guittard, president and chief executive of San Francisco’s Guittard Chocolate Company. “There is a tremendous parallel between wine and chocolate.”

    He mentions terroir (pronounced tehr-WAHR), a French word used for wine and coffee that translates loosely as “taste of the earth.” The idea is that beans grown near a vanilla orchid plantation may carry notes of vanilla, depending on fermentation and processing.

    “Terroir, weather there are so many things that are very similar to wine,” Guittard says. “I think people are beginning to understand that complexity of flavor.”

    Guittard was among the first U.S. companies to make “single-origin” chocolate, which had been available in Europe for many years. The term refers to chocolate made from beans from a specific region or even a single farm. Most choices today are dark chocolate, though milk chocolate varieties are produced.

    Like other single-origin chocolate, Guittard’s is sold in upscale supermarkets and specialty shops.

    Until recently, high-end retailers such as Whole Foods Market have been the province of pedigreed chocolate.

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