Showing posts with label chocolate salon. Show all posts
Showing posts with label chocolate salon. Show all posts

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Chocolate Salon 09

October 11th was a day of various food events around town, one of them being the 2nd Chocolate Salon held in the Pasadena Convention Center. Alas, instead of eating chocolates and drinking wine all day long, I was slated to walk 17 miles up and down the Half Dome. Yeah, tell me about it. Since Chocolate Salon had sent me a press pass, I dispatched fellow blogger Kung Food Panda to cover the event for me. So, I present to you:

2009 Chocolate Salon, as reported by: Kung Food Panda


Howdy ya'll! This is Kung Food Panda reporting for KTWN at the Chocolate Salon at the Pasadena Convention Center. Gourmet Pigs is out on assignment in San Francisco.

Once a year, hundreds of chocolate aficionados gather upon Chocolate Salon a la those geeky Trekkie's bound for those yearly Star Trek conventions. Admittedly, I'm not a Chocolate Connoisseur. In fact, eating a Ferrero Rocher or even a Snickers bar often hits the spot for me. Upon arrival at 11AM in the morning, I was ready to get my chocolate on! All in the name of reporting for GourmetPigs.net!

The first chocolate that I tried was a white chocolate "creme brulee" from The Chocolate Traveler. Although quite tasty, this particular chocolate didn't quite stand out, but regardless, I was able to whet my chocolate appetite.

Next stop, I saw chocolate spa treatment products by Sweet Beauty. Interesting, but that's a bit out of my comfort zone!

Next, probably the most unique chocolate I had during the convention, a Bacon Chocolate bar made by Christopher Michael.
Bacon Bar
The mix of bacon, sea salt, and pop rocks (yes, pop rocks!) within the chocolate resulted in a combination of taste, texture, and that damn pop rocks almost created a party in my mouth. Now, I don't necessarily love the bacon in the bar, as it had too much of a bacon flavor (TOO much sometimes is not a good thing), but I can definitely dig it. NEXT!!

The next stand I visited had a variety of 7 different chocolates by Chocoveda. With flavors ranging from Green Tea to Ginger Lemongrass, it definitely had some of the most interesting flavors I had during the day.
The lemongrass flavor in fact was one of my favorites as the flavor was intense, yet meshed well with the subtle bitterness of the chocolate. I like! Mmmmmm

From one of the most unique flavors of the day to probably my favorite chocolate bar of the event, Sterling Collections' truffle bars nabbed the top prize.
The two bars I tried were both fantastic! The Strawberry Orange Liqueur had a great blend of strawberries and oranges within the French vanilla ganache . Delicious! The Banana Honey Caramel was also quite delicious. White chocolate that was infused with caramel mixed with dark chocolate and honey, the symphony of flavors meshed beautifully. I loved it!

Another winner for me were chocolates made by Amano Artisan Chocolates. Although simple, the dark chocolates with a slight bitterness were simply fantastic. My favorite from their tasting was the Montanya.
Made from rare cacao from the Venezuelan mountain range, the chocolate was rich, bitter, but simply what chocolate was all about. There's a reason why Amano wins numerous awards for their chocolates.

Another delicious concoction was the "Root Beer Float" made by Choclatique.
The root beer and cream within the milk chocolate was a heavenly mix. Root beer floats were one of my favorite childhood treats whenever I visited A&W back in my hometown, and this chocolate DEFINITELY had the taste of the delicious cold treat.

I'll close out the chocolate review with chocolates from Neapolitan Print & Co. from Portland Oregon. A few flavors I enjoyed were the "celery" infused chocolate and the mango/chipotle chocolate. However, one of the more interesting things I saw was the Chocolate Moustache on a stick from a dude with a killer mustache!

All in all, Chocolate Salon was a fantastic event. From what I've heard, it was a much better event than the one held previously as more companies came to show off their chocolates. Although I was quite "chocolated out" by the end of the day, I had a great time trying out chocolates from various companies. Although there were many chocolates I was not able to try, I hope the lovely Gourmet Pigs will allow me to attend the event again next year as her +1. I had a lot of fun covering the Chocolate Salon and I thank Gourmet Pigs for this opportunity. This is Kung Food Panda, saying goodbye from Pasadena.

Until next time, too all of you chocolate lovers out there keep doing what you do, but ask yourself this......are you ready for the Chocolate Salon???

For even more photos, here's KFP's photo slideshow:

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