I love Portland, Oregon and I wish I spent more time here.  Any major city can host a festival dedicated solely to craft chocolate, and chocolate education.  But in Oregon, there are so many craft chocolatiers and cacao roasters operating locally, they can fill a convention center.  Dave Cook, owner of the Fire Roasted Coffee Company, and my original coffee roaster of choice when I lived in Canada, was the first to bring to my attention the many similarities between coffee and chocolate.

ChocolateFest is an annual event hosted by the World Forestry Center, and this is its seventh year.  The mission of the WFC is simple: educate and inform people about the world’s forests and trees, and environmental sustainability.  On their campus in Portland’s Washington Park for the first ChocolateFest, they attracted over 1,000 people.  Last year, over 8,000 people.

Even before entering ChocolateFest, guests are provided with education on the cacao tree, fruit, and seed, and its transformation into the chocolate we know and love.Recognized at the Food Network Awards, Portland loves cuisine of any kind, and appreciation of chocolate is no exception. The people came out to sample from local chocolatiers, learn more about chocolate, and buy pounds of it.

Exhibitors used many ways to stand out in the crowd. An exhibitor wouldn’t get by selling chocolate bars alone. It takes a different angle, either a variety of origins, unique packaging, or in this case, something visual. One exhibitor was not providing samples, a huge mistake at this show!
 

A Lesson in Chocolate…

• Types of Beans: Where the beans are grown, as well as how they are formented and roasted, directly affect their quality. Each high-quality variety of cacao beans has its own individual aroma, personality, complexity, subtlety, and character.
• Blending: Some chocolatiers use beans from only one region creating a desirable, distinctive flavor. Others, however, skillfully blend beans which can result in a unique product for their company and an extraordinary taste. Most chocolate today is made from blended cacao beans.
• Cocoa Content: The amount of cocoa in a piece of chocolate candy is one determination of its “quality”. The range is 10-75% with gourmet chocolate hovering around 60% and higher. Dark chocolate has a higher cocoa content and generally tastes more bitter. The remaining percent is sugar. The higher the cocoa rate, the less sweet it is. A typical American milk chocolate candy bar is about 11% cocoa.

The unsung heroes of ChocolateFest. Always smiling...it might be something in the chocolate!

The first person to help me see chocolate in a new light was Dave Cook, owner of the Fire Roasted Coffee Company, and my original coffee roaster of choice when I lived in Canada.

Read Profile: Fire Roasted Coffee Company

Dave had expanded from roasting coffee into also roasting cocoa into chocolate through a new venture, Habitual Chocolate Roasters.  It was a very cool experience for me to learn more about the similarities between coffee and chocolate, the same ideal climate and conditions for growing the coffee cherry as the cocoa bean, and so naturally, the same people bringing this to the world.  With those similarities, also the opportunity for a roaster to differentiate between the commodity chocolate product that we all know and take for granted, and something more akin to gourmet chocolate.

It was Dave who brought to my attention that the Pacific Northwest’s largest chocolate show was in my city of Portland, OR this weekend: ChocolateFest.

The event is hosted by the World Forestry Center, and this will be its seventh year.  The mission of the WFC is simple: educate and inform people about the world’s forests and trees, and environmental sustainability.  On their campus in Portland’s Washington Park for the first ChocolateFest, they attracted over 1,000 people.  Last year, over 8,000 people.  This year, they bring it to their largest venue yet, the Oregon Convention Center.

I’m happy to be there and continue my education in the world of chocolate.  I’ll be looking for similarities with coffee to help me understand the chocolate process better.  And I’ll also eat a stupid amount of chocolate.  If I see the woman from the above picture walking around with that bar, I will probably take it from her.

Read: Cafe Mocha Recipes

Stay tuned!  If you live in the area, check out the show.  Here is some further information:

ChocolateFest 2012
Location: Oregon Convention Center, Exhibit Hall A
777 NE MLK, Jr. Blvd., Portland, OR 97232

Dates: January 20 – 22, 2012

Recently, I had answered an e-mail asking if I could help recreate the unique Cafe Creme espresso drink that is popular in France.

READ: How to Recreate France’s Cafe Creme

If you’ve never checked out the site’s Perfect Cafe Mocha Recipes, take two minutes now.  It started with one simple recipe and thanks to people who visit the site that have gone through the same experimentation at home, has grown into something fun.

Recently, a very good friend dropped off six Cafe Mocha and other flavor recipes.  Each one is so simple, it’s summed up in 2-3 sentences.  I added them to the recipes page in a new section I just had to call Quick and Easy Cafe Mocha recipes.  Click the link to check them out.  I’d love to hear your thoughts and your own experiments.

Although I stress it on the recipes page, I’ll say it again here.  Experimenting with flavored coffee drinks is a lot of fun, but starts with the same rules of how to make good coffee.  You’re adding a chocolate flavor, but it should be to an otherwise well prepared coffee.

READ: Golden Rules of Fresh Coffee

My wife loves the Espresso Truffle from Starbucks. It’s a combination of the trademark Starbucks rich hot chocolate and a shot of espresso coffee, topped off with whipped cream and sprinkled with mocha powder.

I knew we had enough information needed to recreate this drink after having a few $5 samples from the local Starbucks. Want to make it at home? All you need is:

- An espresso machine with milk frother.
- Mocha powder or hot chocolate mix. Starbucks offers a mocha powder, otherwise any mocha powder or a premium hot chocolate mix.
- Espresso coffee beans. Of course, Starbucks offers an Espresso Roast coffee that you can grind fine for your espresso machine or grind regular and drip-brew for a bold coffee. Otherwise, any quality dark-roasted beans. You will be making one shot of espresso per Espresso Truffle.
- Skim milk.
- Whipped cream.

Start boiling some water. Grind your espresso beans to a fine grind. Begin to brew the ground coffee in your espresso machine, including enough water in the cycle to blow steam from the milk frother. Put 2/3 cup of mocha powder in a oversized mug. When your water is boiling, pour 2/3 cup in the mug with the mocha powder. Stir until the powder is completely dissolved into a mocha syrup in the mug. If you’re making two Espresso Truffles, prepare the same in a second mug.

Per your espresso machine instructions, begin to heat 1-2 cups of milk using the frother. You will be heating the milk rather than frothing it so if your espresso machine frother comes with a rubber spout that frothes the milk, remove that rubber spout. Once the milk is very hot, let the espresso brewing cycle complete.

Pour one shot of espresso into each mug with mocha syrup. Top up the mug with the heated milk, leaving enough room for whipped cream. Stir together. Top off with whipped cream and lightly sprinkle with mocha powder.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the Espresso Truffle that costs $5 at Starbucks. I’m not suggesting it isn’t worth $5, I love this drink too. But, now you and I can make it at home for much less – and best of all in the case of Starbucks Mocha Powder and Starbucks Espresso Roast, use the same ingredients that they’re using.