Chocolate University Online Blog
York Technical College’s Baxter M. Hood Center (South Carolina) was jam-packed with people last Sunday afternoon to celebrate Keystone Substance Abuse Services’ third annual Decadent Dreams Chocolate Festival.
With tickets on hand, people could purchase samples of cookies, cupcakes, and truffles, among many others. They even offered a trip to a tall chocolate fountain. Additionally, they were able to stop over at a chocolate spa and get pampered with a massage using chocolate cake-scented oil.
Those people didn’t only get to satisfy their sweet-tooth cravings but were also able to help a cause. The affair is a fundraiser for the non-profit Keystone, which offers treatment and prevention services for substance abuse in York County.
Monica Hanna, head of marketing and events for Keystone, said the festival has captivated about 800 people and made about $10,000 in the past two years and looked forward to a much better outcome this year. It involved three times as many vendors and had at least 1,000 visitors. Among the list of vendors are Periwinkle Café and Bakery, Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory and Jazzy Cheesecake Company. The chocolate festival is two-fold, said Hanna. “It’s chocolate, but you’re helping a good cause,” she said.
Like most nonprofits, Keystone has been affected by the poor economy. Some two years back, they thought of potential fundraisers to catch the attention of people, and they immediately leaned towards chocolate.
“Who doesn’t love chocolate?” asked one of the attendees, Holly Winn. “And it’s a great cause.” One of Winn’s children, whom she brought along with her to the event, was a judge for the cupcake wars that afternoon. Just last year, she won the said contest herself with her own homemade chocolate chip cupcake. According to her, the perfect cupcake would taste like a brownie with nuts and some type of filling.
It’s just good to know that participating in this kind of events, you are enjoying yourself in a not-so-selfish way.
Categories: chocolate in the news
Tags: chocolate companies, chocolate destinations, chocolate exhibit, chocolate fountain
If you are a self-proclaimed true blue chocoholic and want to satisfy your need for anything chocolate, then why don’t you head to the Field Museum in Chicago?
“Chocolate: Around the World”, a smash hit exhibit which sold more than 360,000 tickets in its first Field run in the year 2002 is back not only to entertain you, but also give you juicy and interesting information.
In the past nine years, “Chocolate” has already been to 22 other American museums and will go international when its present Field run is done in January, said the Field president and chief executive officer, John McCarter.
“Chocolate” is a combination of both the Field’s focus on anthropology as well as natural history and its attention to the origins of cacao beans and the role chocolate played in the past centuries. “This is one of the great combination stories,” McCarter said.
From the modest examples of cacao beans to a vintage chocolate mold with the shape of a rabbit driving a scooter, “Chocolate” aspires to present a food that Americans love dearly.
One of the “Chocolate” exhibition keepers, Gary Feinman, said that visitors were interested as much toward the exhibit’s story as the subject matter. “Everybody loves chocolate,” Feinman said. “The story is great, and the exhibits are about stories.”
The exhibit is almost untouched since it first premiered at the Field, very little has changed. Among the new items featured are excavated ceramic vessels in which chocolate residue was found. This aids in explaining how chocolate was used.
There is also information about the disturbing situation at African cocoa farms. “There are issues with child labor, the labor conditions,” Feinman said. “There are still issues but I think there’s more consciousness about some of the problems.”
Try visiting there and have a shot at kicking your love of chocolate up a notch.
-Through Jan. 8 (9 a.m.-5 p.m. every day but Christmas)
-The Field Museum, 1400 S. Lake Shore Drive, Chicago
-The exhibit is included in the Discovery and All-Access passes, $22-$29 for adults, $18-$24 for seniors and students with identification, and $15-$20 for ages 4 to 11.
-(312) 922-9410; fieldmuseum.org
Categories: chocolate education, chocolate in the news
Tags: chocolate art, chocolate destinations, chocolate exhibit, chocolate history, chocolate museums, cocoa, Field Museum
People who come to pay a visit at the Bruge’s Choco-Laté Festival, held in the Belfort bell tower, can relish their much loved dessert in whatever shapes & forms possible! So all you chocoholics, listen up and unite. Succumb to your every chocolate craving and indulge in your favorite sweet treat!
Choco-Laté is the annual festival of our favorite guilty pleasure. The vibes that chocolatiers give off at several stands lure the customers and magically bring them to a chocolate haven.
The festival will be hosting an array of activities to make visitors drool with tons of interesting and fun interactive programs such as body painting, chocolate recipe exhibitions, creations such as sculpture by chocolate artists and sculptors, a chocolate village for the little ones, and a “chocolate walk” through the town of Bruges, among many others.
The patrons are given a chance to learn about chocolate creations and recipes that are easy enough to do by themselves during live demonstrations by top chefs, bakers and chocolatiers.
Today, chocolate is used as a health aid and also for aesthetic purposes, not just to curb our sweet tooth cravings. Some of the innovative means of using chocolate are through treatments such as chocolate massages, chocolate packs or cocoa therapies.
Practically any chocolate is tempting, but as with what was stated on yesterday’s blog post, pairing it with a nice glass of wine will surely kick the chocolate delight up a notch. Choco-Laté will be revealing the art of delectably combining chocolate with other delicacies. Case in point: fruits dipped in chocolate fondue, and that is just one of the basics.
And finally, for the true blue chocolate lovers, the festival presents a Choco-Laté junior – a creative corner for kids where they can nourish their imagination in chocolate through fun body painting, sculpting and decorating, and many more.
When: 11 – 13 Nov 2011
Where: Belfort, Belgium,
Cost: €10; under 12s €6; under 6s free
Opening Hours: 10am-6pm
For more details, visit www.choco-late.be/en.
Categories: chocolate in the news, fine foods & beverages
Tags: Belgian chocolate, Choco-Laté Festival, chocolate art, chocolate celebrations, chocolate destinations, chocolate exhibit, chocolate games, chocolate pairings, chocolate party
The title is one of the advertising slogans of Thorntons, a household name in UK for chocolate retailing. The company was established in 1911 by Joseph William Thornton who eventually turned the business over to his sons, Norman and Stanley Thornton. Since then, it has always been Britain’s go-to store when it comes to high-quality chocolates. This year, it celebrates its Centenary birthday. And what better way to celebrate their 100th birthday than sharing it with their customers?
The first ever Thortons chocolate shop was opened in Sheffield in the year 1911 and it was called the Chocolate Kabin where you are magically transported into a chocolate heaven as you step inside the store. Today, as a Centenary birthday treat, Thorntons wants to give their customers a chance to experience such delight. They excitedly bring you the recreated Thorntons Chocolate Kabin where a Golden Key to the chocolate factory is hidden. And the lucky winner gets to be Willy Wonka for a day! Isn’t that such a sweet treat?
Go and grab the chance to experience the chocolate lucky dip, or see chocolates come plummeting down a truck directly to a super duper chocolate scooper, where you can also have yourself a chocolaty treat.
As you leave the delightful and almost enchanted Kabin, you can give donations to the Live Mechanical Chocolatier in exchange for chocolates. Such donations will be going to the NSPCC, Thorntons charity of the year.
One lucky customer who finds the Golden Key from each place the Chocolate Kabin visits will get a chance to see behind-the-scenes at Thorntons and visit their chocolate factory to take a look at how they have been manufacturing their chocolates for the past 100 years. You don’t get to experience this everyday, so for our readers in the U.K., try your luck and let us know how it goes!
The Thorntons Chocolate Kabin will be visiting:
- Covent Garden, London on Friday 2nd September
- Liverpool One Shopping Centre on Saturday 10th September
- Nottingham off Market Square on Saturday 17th September
- Edinburgh Castle Street on Saturday 24th September
- Sheffield Fargate on Saturday 1st October
For more info visit Thorntons Centenary website.
You can also find your local Thornton’s store or buy chocolates online when you click here.
Categories: chocolate in the news
Tags: chocola, chocolate celebrations, chocolate companies, chocolate destinations, chocolate history, chocolate manufacturing, favorite chocolate, Thorntons
According to the TripAdvisor website, www.tripadvisor.com, they have come up with a list of US attractions that satisfy a sweet-tooth.
Not all of these include chocolate, but I thought the list was pretty interesting anyway.
Here you are (drum roll please) the top 10 US destinations for the lovers of all things sweet!
- Hershey’s Chocolate World, Hershey, Pennsylvania
Chocoholics rejoice. Jump aboard a free tour ride on a simulated journey through the chocolate making process. Of course, samples are part of the experience.
- Jelly Belly Factory Tour, Fairfield, California
The Jelly Belly factory offers free 40-minute tours of their candy-making process.
- Food on Foot Tours, New York City, New York
A three-hour guided tour to some of the city’s sweetest offerings of cookies, cupcakes, candy and more.
- M&M’s World, Las Vegas, Nevada
Visit their four-story retail outlet and see M&M dispensers dishing out every color of M&M’s possible. And shop ‘til you drop.
- Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream Factory, Waterbury, Vermont
30-minutes of your time will include a movie about the history of the company and a guided tour of the ice cream making process.
- Gourmet Walks, San Francisco, California
Take in the artisan chocolatiers with a three-hour guided tour. Three hours may not be enough!
- New World of Coca-Cola, Atlanta, Georgia
Explore Coca-Cola’s history and check out the samples of Coke from around the world.
- Bellagio Las Vegas, Las Vegas, Nevada
This hotel boasts the world’s tallest chocolate fountain! Guinness World Records records the fountain at 27-feet tall and uses more than 2,100 pounds of dark, white, and milk chocolate.
- Angell & Phelps Chocolate Factory, Daytona Beach, Florida
Tour Angell & Phelps Chocolate Factory and get a glimpse of candy making the old-fashioned way. The factory opened in 1925.
- Eli’s Cheesecake World, Chicago, Illinois
Take the guided tour of their bakery and learn about the history and cheese making process the way Eli’s has for last 30 years.
Enjoy!
Categories: chocolate in the news
Tags: chocolate destinations
 A month ago we spent a week in the Space Coast area of Florida. Perhaps you saw the related blog articles: Chocolate in Space and Caffe Chocolat.
Today I was looking through some photographs and realized that I had taken a picture that I wanted to share with our readers. While we were staying in Titusville, we had the opportunity to drive up and down the Atlantic coast. Usually we were in search of interesting sights and nice beaches.
Of course, no chocolate lover’s experience would be complete without a visit to the city of Cocoa. It was fun just seeing the name on signs, like the one posted here.
The beach was not covered in cocoa powder. The streets were not paved with chocolate liquor. I didn’t even see cacao nibs being used as mulch around flowers and shrubs. It was Sunday so the visitor’s center wasn’t open for us to ask about these things.
My primary question then, why is the city called Cocoa?
With a little research here’s what I found: No one really knows how the city got its name. You’d think someone would have recorded it for future visitors, but that is not the case.
The City of Cocoa celebrated its centennial in 1995. That means that it considers its beginning in 1895. Yet only 30 years later, in 1925, the Cocoa Tribune published several reader-supplied accounts of how the city got its name. Apparently they forgot in only 30 years time! I guess they just weren’t thinking about the inquiring minds of Chocolate University Online students and faculty.
Anyway, one reader said that Captain R.C. May recommended the name at a town meeting in 1884. At Captain May’s suggestion, the group present chose the name “Cocoa” for the town’s association with the Cocoa plant. Another story suggests that a woman was inspired by a box of Baker’s Cocoa and her suggestion was adopted.
Yet another account suggests that along the bank of the Indian River there was an old woman who would provide hot cocoa to the sailors as they went by. The sailors knew a good thing when they had it, so as they passed, they called out for “cocoa, cocoa” until the woman supplied them once again.
I guess the origin of the name doesn’t matter as much as the fact that it is called Cocoa, thus making it a fitting destination for chocolate lovers.
Categories: fun chocolate facts
Tags: chocolate destinations, cocoa
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