Tuesday, March 18, 2008

BIG Chocolate EGGS

Some may wonder, what is that title all about? Well, at Coco's Chocolate Cafe this year we are doing some huge-mongous eggs and small eggs for Easter. The larger ones are about the size of an ostrich egg and will be made out of wonderfully delicious dark or milk chocolate. The best part of all? There's a SURPRISE in each one!....yes, these are for the little ones in our lives or for the Big-little ones if you so choose. ;)

Our smaller eggs will be filled with something yummy...

Easter is about Christ rising from the grave. But somehow we've translated this into chocolate bunnies and eggs. I'm not squabbling about how this came about. It's just strikes me funny. How you celebrate Easter is up to you. I hope you will want to try out our little creations and think of the wonder that a gift given to you is truly special.

Sunday, March 16, 2008

Website having issues

For the past few days, our website has been having several issues. I apologize for the inconvenience this is causing. If you would like to have a menu of our chocolates, please look at the right for a link under MENUS. Or if you need further information, please email us at CocoCafe@bellsouth.net and we will get back to you as quickly as possible. Again, thank you for your patience.

Frederick T Moore.

Wednesday, March 5, 2008

Just give me Drinking Chocolate

There was a very nice article that came out this morning concerning our drinking chocolate. I applaud Mr.Johnson for doing his research and for giving us such a nice review. Mrs. Julie Casper, hopefully she won't mind me mentioning her name, was the sweet lady who gave me the proverbial kick in the pants to do drinking chocolate.

The inspiration for our recipe dates back a little further though to when I was in Italy working with some master chocolatiers alongside Chef Judy Witts Francini (www.divinacucina.com/). I was priviledged enough to see the inner workings of artisan chocolate makers such as Danielo Vestri (www.vestri.it), Roberto Cantinari (www.robertocatinari.it), Simone de Castro (www.simonedecastro.it), and several others as part of the Tuscan Masters program with EcoleChocolat (www.ecolechocolat.com). During this time, I experienced some of the most wonderful chocolates that you can ever imagine. Andrea Slitti is the master of drinking chocolate in Italy; he originally was a coffee roaster and turned to chocolates later in his career. He has a whole range of crazy and exciting flavors that we tried. My very first drinking chocolate was a hazelnut laden one. It had crushed hazelnuts and a syrup mixed into it. I thought the portion was way too much (roughly 12 oz) but the taste was awesome - rich and molten and nutty. I honestly didn't think this would be something I would try again...until I ran into Mrs. Casper....The recipe hinges on two things: the base chocolate used and the execution of melting it. If you start with crap chocolate, then you will reap what you make. Don't complain to me. Go with the good stuff! Then, it's just the process of how you make it. This takes a little practice because you want to add just the right amount of heat, which chocolate doesn't like. Too much heat and you have scorched earth. Too little heat and the chocolate will just float around teasing you like a school yard bully....

A lot of the recipes I received are tucked neatly away in my little binder of recipes that I hope to recreate and share with you. Drinking chocolate is just one in the arsenal of flavors that people can try out and hopefully enjoy.