Candy at the Winter 2017 Fancy Food Show

Nassau Candy had a huge display of their many candies. I took a lot of pictures, but they mysteriously disappeared from my phone and I couldn't find them in the cloud, either. Their website doesn't list their customers, but they carry many name brand confections and other products, so I'm sure you're buying from their customers, especially if you live near a distribution center, as Tea Time does. Take a look at their website for pictures of everything. You might be inspired to try something new.

Ghirardelli featured their caramel chips. Tea Time makes our own caramel, but this beats cutting it up into tiny pieces and rushing to mix them into our cookie dough before they spread!

I don't remember anything about these, except that they were delicious!

Doscher's Old-Fashioned Candy Canes are the best!

Unfortunately they don't make crushed candy canes, but these pieces are a start. A plastic freezer bag and my hammer and I'll have peppermint marshmallows. The French Chews are good, too, although not suited for inclusion in cookies or marshmallows. Also available as bars.  Just eat them. They'll keep you from finishing off the marshmallows as you cut them.

Fun packaging for the holiday season

We still miss Toffee Talk, and thought we'd have to make our own. Then we discovered Enstrom's.

  

Gerrit Verburg was back with my (and the Doctor's) favorites:  Jelly Babies and Licorice Allsorts, plus the rest of their lines. You can find their candies (plus much, much more, including old favorites) at The Candy Store in San Francisco.

Jelly Babies, Licorice Allsorts and Gumbites from Gerrit Verburg

More Licorice Goodies from Gerrit Verburg

Dagoba, a formerly local brand now manufactured by Hershey's (along with Scharffen Berger chocolate) gave me the most amazing press kit of the show.  A cute little shopping bag was filled with three full-size products:  cocoa powder, chocolate drops, and a xocolatl bar! See an update from Beth, our expert on spicy things, here. Angela and I are not fond of anything too hot. I was so amazed by this generosity that I forgot to ask for a press kit from the Scharffen Berger folks at the other end of the counter!

Amano Artisan Chocolate, a Tea Time favorite, had their own booth this year. With some artisan chocolatiers, we have to taste everything to find out which bars we like, but not Amano. We like everything they make.

This is the current selection of Amano bars at Fog City News in San Francisco, where you can find artisan chocolate, greeting cards, and calendars in addition to a great selection of magazines and newspapers, and also load your Clipper Card.

Fall Luxury Chocolate Salon in pictures (2013)

Tea Time Adventures is happy to volunteer and help you with your foodie event! It's how we got involved with the Chocolate Salon! Now we know all the major players and chat them up whenever we get the chance. If you're interested in volunteering for a foodie event, (Tea Time also helps with the San Francisco Street Food Festival, Oakland Eat Real, the MOWSF Gala and we're looking for more!) just go to the website of the company hosting the event and click the volunteers link. You'll meet a bunch of fun people and get to see behind the scenes of a major event. Plus you (usually) get to attend the event for free (sometimes with restrictions). It's totally worth it!

Art Pollard (Amano Chocolate) and Chuck Siegel (Charles Chocolate)

There was a full roster of presentations.

Art Pollard's talks are always popular.

Angela loves the Teriyaki!

Tea Lovers chocolates

Art perusing Chuck's wares.

Plumeria flour

Their popcorn is always popular!!

Aaron Pollard minding the store while Art gives his talk.

Stephanie of Tea Lovers Gift Baskets

Angela and Adele of Tipsy Tea

Nothing like absinthe to bring out the essence of chocolate.

Chocolate Salon Presentations

Katreece Montgomery (The Chocolate Addict), Bethany Garland and Nicole Knobel gave a joint presentation about different ways to decorate chocolate. Nicole manufactures transfer sheets (and a whole line of other supplies, including molds) and Katreece uses the transfer sheets to decorate her chocolates. They both also sell instruction videos.

Bethany hand paints edible works of chocolate art.

Nicole included a sample transfer sheet with her card.

Art Pollard, of Amano Chocolate, spoke on the negative aspects of organic and fair trade certification for cacao growers. Art has spoken on this topic before, but he doesn't give a canned speech. His talk is always different and informative.

Art Pollard

Attentive crowd.

Elyce Zahn from Coco Tutti was our final speaker, doing a staged tasting showing how the aroma and flavor of raspberries enhance the chocolate experience.

We started by eating a dark chocolate disk, followed by a fresh raspberry. Then we tasted Elyce's house-made (and strained four times!) raspberry jam. Next we dipped another dark disk into the jam. The final step in this progression was a raspberry truffle, made with the jam, with dried raspberry on the shell. The last piece in the box was a mocha truffle, another great scent/flavor pairing with chocolate.

Los Angeles Chocolate Salon in Pictures (2012)

Tea Time Adventures attended the 2012 LA Luxury Chocolate Salon and took a few pictures. These photos feature a very small amount of the vendors at the salon. If you're in the Bay Area and interested in attending a Chocolate Salon, there is one coming up in November. You'll see us there!! (but we're sure you'll just want to taste chocolate!)

 

Le Cordon Bleu students creating art with chocolate.
These sculptures were display only, but that's okay they looked delicious!  

The chocolate was donated by Amano Chocolate

Amazing decorated cakes!

The Chocolate Salon! Lots of companies to check out, plenty of people-watching.

     

Amano Artisan Chocolates. Amazing bean to bar company.

  

Fabulous beef jerky from Jerk'n Pickle

Artisan jerky and pickles

La Dolce Vita Gourmet

Cashew, Almond and Peanut Butter Spread

Supports La Dolce Vita Animal Rescue Foundation

Ruth Kennison
The Gourmandise School of Sweets and Savories and
Bonaparte Chocolate

  

Beautiful and Delicious Chocolates from Cocotutti

Marti Chocolatt

Mignon Chocolates

Deuvo Chocolate

Pralines Perfected

 

Plumeria Flours
Cookies, Confections, Specialty Desserts
And Very Tasty Popcorn

  

Specialty Oils and Vinegars from
Leonardo e Roberto's Gourmet Blends

Capay Farms
Farm Fresh to you

Chuao Chocolatier
Unusual, Unexpected & Delicious Chocolate

TheToffee Box
Artisan Toffee

Droga Chocolates
Confections Reimagined

Representatives of Ecuador

Sasha Chocolates by Kallari
Bean-to-Bar Chocolate from Ecuador

Pacari
Ecuadorian Organic Chocolate

Marco Paolo Chocolates
Premium Artisan Truffles

Butterfly Brittle
Simply Indulgent Gourmet Brittles

Elyce Zahn of Cocotutti talks about enhancing chocolate with the aromas of food.

Art Pollard of Amano Chocolate talks about the negative aspects of "fair trade."

Ruth Kennison demonstrates making chocolate bars

We've been around the Chocolate Salon block a few times here at Tea Time. It's always great to see old faces, eat new chocolates and celebrate the bean. If you're interested in learning more you can check out TasteTV for links and news from past salons. We hope to see you in November! Tea Time will be around, tasting Chocolate and taking more (better!) photos over at Fort Mason.