Chocolate

Yesterday we had a wedding reception in Centerville for Ethan Wing. Quinn and Violet knew the girl he was marrying from Spokane and wanted to carpool up with us. We decided it would be fun to stop at Tony Caputo’s in Salt Lake before the reception and try the fine chocolate. Quinn and Violet are always raving about it and have shared with us generous samples from their own chocolate collection.

We got there around six and Quinn spotted his favorite employee Nick over behind the cheese counter. Eventually Nick came over and Quinn told him we wanted a quick fine chocolate crash course. Nick was delighted to have new chocolate disciples and for the next hour expounded to us the evils of Lindt, Hersheys and other “cheap” chocolates that are packed with polyphenols and sugar and cocoa butter, and the magical properties of Chuao cocoa beans and the way high quality cocoa beans carry the flavor of the soil they are grown in. We tried chocolates that had hints of blueberries, peat moss, mushrooms and cigars, and let the intensely flavor packed cocoa melt in our mouths.

Apparently Amadei, based in Italy, is the current king of chocolates. It sweeps the Academy of Chocolate competitions every year. Nick gave us a taste of the gold medal bar, the best chocolate in the world. It’s named “9” for the nine cocoa beans used in the blend. Apparently the French said you really can’t get away with anything more than six beans, but the Italians stuck it to ‘em with nine. It tasted pretty phenomenal. Then he shared with us an Amano, the bronze medalist from this last year’s contest. It is actually made by a guy from Orem, and is the finest chocolate to ever come out of America. It is made with cocoa beans from Madagascar, and it was definitely one of my favorites. After that fine chocolate education we headed up to Centerville and had a great time catching up with friends and eating reception refreshments.