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oliver kita

All photographs
Ron Dunlap/Doglight Studios

I'm a big girl so I am not afraid to admit, on the Internet no less, that I love Jerry Springer. To me, it's the raw version, albeit still scripted and unreal, of reality TV. Many of my favorite episodes have contained a version of the phrase: "My ______ thinks she's/he's all that." This brings me to the question, when a someone has been labeled a Chocolate Maestro, as Oliver Kita has, are his chocolates "all that?" I am here to tell you, they are. They are truly "all that."

Each Oliver Kita chocolate is a work of art. The chocolate couverture is sinfully, smooth and silky, each center is more fragrant than the next and each chocolate is a visually exquisite work of art. Enjoying these chocolates is like living a tale in the book, A Thousand and One Nights. No detail has been overlooked. Even the box is stunning with the elegance and heft that befits chocolates of this calibre.

The first chocolate I tried was the Cherry Ancho. Photographs of this chocolate does not do it justice. It's round but bumpy and has an purple, iridescent fairy dust sprinkled on top. This chocolate combines morello cherry with a little chili heat. Palet D'Opium was next, a transcendental center of blood orange, lapsang tea and something spicy that lingers on your tongue long after the chocolate is gone.

The chocolates that followed the first two, proved without a doubt, Oliver Kita's mastery of combining unusual and exotic flavor combinations. Consider the Passion Fruit & Lychee, which just bursts in your mouth with joyful fruity flavors; the Lavandre Citronade which sets the flowery taste of lavender against the tartness of citrus; the Scarlett Caramel that mixes a rich buttery caramel with a hint of strawberry, the Palet de Framboise, raspberry finished with Chambord liqueur and the Coconut Voile, organic coconut, white chocolate, bergamot and tart lime. Each of the flavors is perfectly balanced, and the attention to texture and detail is exceptional. The marzipan in the Marzipan Grand Marnier for example, starts with fresh roasted almonds, lightly coated with hot sugar, and then crushed and ground.

I completed my Oliver Kita journey with his Palet d'Argent, a Venezuelan Chocolate; the Palet D'Or, which is a blend of milk and dark chocolate and Oliver Kita's signature chocolate and the Palet D'Olivier, an extraordinary chocolate with a hint of fruit and wine that makes you think of twinkly stars, balmy nights and romance in the air. Each of these chocolates, less complex than his other truffles was effortlessly sublime. Like any great master, Oliver Kita can astonish us with his virtuosity and then silence us by making the simplest things genius.


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cocoa bella

There is a certain satisfaction in knowing you've had the "best of" something. However the best most of us can do is live vicariously through what we see on TV, in the movies or Oprah Winfrey. The champagnes, fancy cars and diamonds are a just a fantasy, especially in this economy!

But there is a "best of" that is affordable, to anyone who can spare a few dollars, for one, a few or a whole box of the world's best chocolates at CocoaBella Chocolates.

Like any great institution, CocoaBella Chocolates makes it easy for both the novice and expert chocoholic as they have already done the hard work for you. That is, if you consider scouring the earth for the world's finest chocolatiers and then presenting them to you so you can select from their chocolates at your leisure to be hard work.

CocoaBella Chocolates hail from Belgium, Switzerland, France, Italy, and Spain and include fine American Chocolatiers as well.

When you walk into the store you are greeted with a mesmerizing array of little chocolate armies, all organized neatly in rows by chocolatier. There are interesting descriptions of each chocolatier, followed by individual chocolate descriptions, all of which you feel compelled to read while trying not to fog the glass case or drool unbecomingly. Sadly, after browsing the selection you find yourself in the position of having to choose just a few chocolates when what you really want to do is be a complete glutton and eat everything in sight.

When you are making your selections, the vendeuse (I had to say that) places the chocolates on a little silver tray which, to me makes it extra special. There is no minimum but I didn't think to ask about the maximum. Honestly, it would be my dream one day to say "just pack up the whole store for me."

On this excursion we decided to try chocolates we hadn't tried before. Our selections included: Apple Brandy, a chocolate with apple caramel, Apple and Brandy; sesame nougat, dark chocolate and caramelized Sesame Seeds; Maple Caramel, maple syrup infused caramel enrobed in dark chocolate; Peanut Butter and Jelly, strawberry jam with peanut butter in milk chocolate; and a spicy Root Beer infused ganache. All were wonderfully delightful. But, the chocolate that delivered the most extraordinary chocolate experience, we had ever had, was the Hazelnuts with Pop Rocks, a hazelnut praline with popping candy. This captivating chocolate kept zipping and popping in our mouths, making us giggle as the last traces of chocolate slipped away on our tongues.


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sugardaddy's sumptuous sweeties

All photographs
©2010 Ron Dunlap/Doglight Studios

Just the idea of a brownie makes my pleasure receptors go into overload. There is something so basic in the simple bliss of biting into a rich, dense chocolate brownie and chasing it down with a glass of cold milk, or soy milk for the lactose intolerant.

For some reason, I have never placed brownies into the connoisseur chocolate category. But just one bite of Sugardaddy's Sweeties, a Sugardaddy's trademarked Edgeless Brownie ® set me straight.

Sugardaddy's Sweeties, so fresh they taste like they just came out of the oven, would make even the biggest chocolate food snob smile. Plus the presentation would please even the pickiest reality show chef, even a really mean one with a chip (chocolate of course) on his shoulder.

Each brownie is a perfect, three inch, round, chocolate disk of pleasure, which is is why they are considered edgeless. (However, I need to point out that technically, they still have an edge, they just don't have corners but, I digress.) Each Brownie arrives with it's own case, to keep it from getting smushed. These cases are stacked and placed in either clear cellophane or elegant silk bags and they are always topped with an extravagant satin bow. This presentation makes them them perfect for gift giving. But, if you are a greedy chocoholic like me, you would have to channel the famous Peanuts comic strip where Lucy shares some candy with her brother Linus saying, "One for you, two for me" and buy a couple Sugardaddy's Sweeties for yourself each time you purchased one as a gift.

Dark Citrus
This is the first Sugardaddy's Brunette Sumptuous Sweetie that I sampled because the candied piece of orange zest caught my eye. Like all of Sugardaddy's chocolate sweets, every bite has chunks of chocolate that give each brownie an amazing dense and creamy texture. There are bits of orange zest throughout this brownie but, the flavor is subtle and sophisticated, an intellectual brownie if you will.

Rich Mint
I am always a sucker for anything that looks like a sandwich and so the Rich Mint was next on the tasting plate. This Sugardaddy's Sweetie is an absolute must for anyone who loves Peppermint Patties; mint butter cream frosting sandwiched between the dark chocolate brownie layers.

Dark Berry
When I opened this package I was surprised at how beautiful this brownie was, with its rich swirls of raspberry. Just when I was about to dig in, several friends who have been showing up randomly at my house and hanging around on my porch since I started Chocolate Grail, rang the doorbell. When I invited them to taste test with me they all hastily agreed and this particular Sugardaddy's Sweetie was gone in seconds.

Auburn Original
If you're the kind of person who likes their classic brownie and no fancy fixin's, thank you very much, the Sugardaddy's Auburn Original has got your name on it. It's a classic brownie with perfectly toasted walnuts and what makes the brownie pack a punch -- a hit of espresso powder. Our photographer and world traveler extraordinaire, Ron Dunlap, doesn't like nuts and claimed the Auburn Original without nuts (shown below) after hearing the Auburn Original raves.

Auburn Original No Nuts

American Beauty
Everyone was clamoring for the American Beauty next, which is the brownie featured at the top of the blog broken open to reveal an absolutely sinful creamy peanut butter center. This brownie is especially visually appealing, with bits of toasted peanuts on top. You just know by looking at it, that it's going to be good. There was barely time to photograph this particular brownie before it was devoured, but Ron still managed to do a masterful job!

Fiery
The Zanzibar (not shown) and Fiery (shown above), in Sugardaddy's Fire and Spice collection, were the last on the taste test and my personal favorites. What I liked is that they took the brownie into a new flavor dimension without losing any essential brownie-ness. The results were surprising and satisfying.

The Sugardaddy Zanzibar Sweetie is the most exotic and sophisticated brownie I have ever had. It's a magical blend of clove, ancho chiles and dark and white chocolate chunks, and I could eat it all day, all week and into the 2011 New Year, the year of the Rabbit. The Sugardaddy's Fiery Sweetie focuses on heat. It borrows from the Aztec tradition of mixing hot chocolate with hot chili pepper so it delivers a rich, intense chocolate experience with a touch of burn. Hot Stuff! That's what I say!

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crixa cakes

When I was a little girl growing up, my best friend's mom was known in our neighborhood for being a great cook and, more importantly to us kids, a great baker. The baked goods that came out of her oven were things of legend. Almost every day when we walked home from school (for miles, in the snow with no shoes on, if you must know) we could smell her cookies baking, the scent wafting through the air. This would make us all walk faster, and faster until we would break into a run, hair, lunch boxes (mine was Scooby Doo, although I would have preferred Aristocats) and book bags flying.

There was something magical about her ability to transform the simplest, most wholesome ingredients: eggs, butter, flour, sugar, milk and vanilla into not just an ordinary cake, but something divine. Crixa Cakes, a Hungarian Bakery, has that same magic, wizardry that you can taste in the goods they bake each day, from scratch, in their store.

Crixa Cakes is located on a wonderful tree-lined street and there is something fairy-tale-esque about the interior of the store. There are bakers bustling about, bags of flour on the counter, mixers mixing and bright colored copper pots hanging from the ceiling. And best of all the counters are piled full of cakes, cookies and pastries each more enticing than the next.

It was hard to make a decision but we settled on the Pave Vergiate, a flourless chocolate cake that is rich and flavorful and the Soprano Tiramisu that blends what you love most in a Tiramisu with the perfect addition of a layer of dark chocolate mousse. But what makes both of these cakes so extraordinary is that they are so light and airy. So light and airy it is hard to believe one cake is flourless and the other a cream cake unless there is some magic being involved.

The only thing that we regretted was not being able to sample every chocolate temptation: the Jamaican Rum Chocolate Mousse Cake, the Kiraly Raspberry Cream Cupcake, the Black Forest Cake, an intriguing Chocolate Mousse served in a white porcelain cup and the Rigo Jancsi Celebration cake, a cake created by a gypsy musician who won over the heart of a princess. I guess that means we're just going to have to return again and again to the magical kitchen of Crixa Cakes.

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chocolate gourmet - ugly truffles and damn good cookies

All photographs
©2010 Ron Dunlap/Doglight Studios

During my teenage years of angst, no matter how many times my mother told me that "true beauty comes from within", I never really got my arms around the concept. Who cared about within when your exterior was without? How could your life really ever be meaningful if you didn't have high tops which you would leave undone and hanging open to indicate to all your maximum coolness and insouciance? Or a Michael Jackson Thriller style leather jacket? Or Earth Shoes? Come on - at least Earth Shoes! How could any self-respecting teenager not have a pair in blue or brown suede? (Sadly, my parents were steadfast in the matter of Earth Shoes. None of us ever got a pair, no matter what angle we tried or how hard we begged.) However, I do believe that if I had sampled a Chocolate Gourmet Ugly Truffle way back then, the notion would have been crystal clear and the trauma of not owning a pair of Earth Shoes would not have affected my life as profoundly.

Chocolate Gourmet 's Ugly Truffles do their best to live up to their name. They simply aren't pretty. Even though some of the Ugly Truffles are technically round, they are still lumpy and bumpy, and more often than not resembled deflated soccer balls. But once you opened the box and smelled the chocolatey goodness and then put the most misshapen Ugly Truffle in your mouth, (to put it out of its misery, which is similar to the reason you need to bite off the head of your Easter bunny first), how these truffles looked goes right out the window. These are great truffles that don't need fancy outfits. Each truffle is meaty, flavorful and deeply satisfying. I think of them as "comfort chocolate" similar to the concept of comfort food but, the kind of comfort food that your grandmother (or great grandmother) used to make from scratch, with wholesome ingredients, before the advent of TV dinners, cream of mushroom soup casseroles (with potato chips on top) and cake mixes.

We sampled the 9 piece box, Living Dangerously, which came with Oozy, Boozy Caramel, Gordita Picante, Morning After Merlot, Messed Up Mocha and Put Your Clothes on Chocolate. (In case you are wondering, we tried the last with our clothes on.) We loved that there was a "something, something" in each truffle that made it extra special. For example, Oozy, Boozy Caramel has a hint of brandy and Morning After Merlot is rolled in red velvet cake crumbs. My favorite was the Gordito Picante: smooth cinnamony Mexican chocolate with chili spices and toasted corn tortillas. Yes, toasted tortilla chips! This neato ingredient, which goes so surprisingly well with chocolate, needs to be immediately recognized as one of the great inventions of this century, if you ask me. Even better than the Internet even if Al Gore invented it!

Once you've had Chocolate Gourmet 's Ugly Truffles, you will be glad their offerings include Damn Good Cookies too. While, I am sure your parents told you never to swear, they probably told you to always tell the truth as well, and these sassy cookies are really that good. These cookies have ganache centers sandwiched between little bittersweet, soft, luxuriously chewy cookies generously studded with thick chocolate chips. The ganache comes in four divine flavors, each flavor better than the next: chocolate, raspberry, peanut butter (my husband's favorite) and mint. Be prepared though. Due to their diminutive size, you can easily cram a Chubby Wubby in your mouth but, they pack a powerful chocolate punch, enough to knock the unsuspecting off their feet.

Only available by mail order to guarantee maximum freshness!


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ginger elizabeth

There is a famous Confucious saying, "A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step." However, in our case, the journey was wasn't quite a thousand miles. It was about 90 miles each way but still it took over three hours which I think counts as extra miles.

Now, you may wonder why four fairly intelligent adults, (OK three), a quartet that included two surgeons would undertake a three hour trip from San Francisco to Sacramento. Your answer is because we all happened to be attending the San Francisco Tribal Arts show, because we are die-hard chocolate aficionados and mainly because of the Ginger Elizabeth Palet D'or Entremet Cake.

I came across this cake while surfing the web for new and exciting chocolatiers and was instantly spellbound. This chocolate cake had me at hello.

Among other things, the Ginger Elizabeth Palet D'or Entremet Cake was offered especially for Valentines Day as an "expression of fine chocolate" -- which is a terrific concept. I can definitely get my arms around the concept of a Valentine's Day cake.

There was the description, a "65% Maracaibo Venezuelan Chocolate Mousse, layered with Bittersweet Chocolate Ganache, Chocolate Dacquois, and Crunchy Chocolate Shortbread inspired by our popular Palet D’Or truffle and similarly garnished with gold leaf, this cake is made with a 65% bittersweet chocolate from the prized Maracaibo cocoa growing region in Venezuela."

And then to seal the deal there was the intriguing name Palet D'or which means disc of gold in French and I think perfectly romantic.

For all these reasons, I felt I had to have this cake and immediately campaigned for the side trip. (We had to pick up the cake ourselves because it's fragile, must be eaten immediately and Ginger Elizabeth does not ship the cake.) Surprisingly or not surprisingly, after everyone looked at the online picture and read the description it actually didn't take much convincing. I was honestly prepared for a much lengthier campaign.

The Ginger Elizabeth shop is located on a side street near the Sacramento Capital buildings (I wonder if Arnold comes by for a chocolate fix) with lot of nice restaurants around, not that you need any other type of sustenance when there is a chocolate shop nearby.

The minute we entered the store, we knew our decision had been a good one. The store is small but charming, complete with vendeuses dressed in matching white outfits and little white gloves. And, there is a wonderful selection of chocolates and gifts that could keep any chocoholic engaged for hours if not days.

Our cake was waiting for us as promised and looked "just like the picture." While we were torn about whether we would eat it right there on the spot in a completely uncivilized manner, we decided it would be best to take the cake back to our hotel and enjoy it after dinner.

After dinner, some of us were daunted by the quantity of chocolate so we invited a friend and her daughter to share the Ginger Elizabeth cake, which ended up giving us all the perfect amount of cake.

The cake as you can see in the picture is exquisite. The ganache is perfectly smooth, with an artistic ribbon of chocolate and an artfully placed foil of gold. When a cake is this beautiful, you don't want to make a mistake slicing it, so we enlisted the surgeons to cut the cake into six neat pieces. Then, we took our first mouthfuls. As we experienced the creamy mousse, the silky ganache, the texture of the dacquois and the buttery, and slightly salty crunch of the shortbread, so light and airy you feel you could eat a thousand cakes, a silence descended in the room. The Ginger Elizabeth Palet D'or Entremet Cake is easily the best cake I and everyone else had ever had: a cake to end all cakes; a cake that when you look up "cake" in the dictionary, you see its picture next to it; a cake where, if you love chocolate, you truly must have one slice in your lifetime.

After the last slice had been eaten, and the plates literally licked clean, our friends said they would be happy to drive back next year for another Valentine's Day cake. I think a new tradition has been born.










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