Strolling ChocoLovers Lane

While looking at the “Money, Meaning and Beyond” blog of Andrea J. Lee and Tina Forsyth, excellent, internationally-known, multiple-income-streams coaches in Canada who we’ve been learning a lot from, I happened to run across a post (although more from a marketing perspective) about chocolate! According to Andrea’s post, beginning in the summer of 2006, the Mars company began making all their Mars bars in Canada 100% peanut-free, due to a growing concern about peanut allergies in the public schools there. Her post also mentions another chocolate bar, Nestle Aero, which is also peanut-free.

Nut allergies are an important issue — I fortunately don’t suffer from them myself, but I once had a co-worker who was extremely allergic to peanuts, even trace amounts; it was a matter of life and death for her. She had to be very careful at restaurants because so many foods contain such things as peanut oil or traces of nuts, even when the restaurant employees believe everything is nut-free. On the labels of many, many chocolate products I’ve looked at, there is a warning about how the product either contains nuts, or “may contain traces of nuts,” or was packaged in a facility where products containing nuts were also packaged.

I did a little preliminary searching, and found a website, CanadianSweets.com, who offers allergy-free chocolate bars made in nut-free facilities. The list includes several flavors of Nestle Aero, CoffeeCrisp, KitKat, Mirage, and the Mars bars mentioned above. I’m glad for the synchronicity of finding Andrea’s post, because it has revealed another important category for this blog: nut-free chocolate. I’ll add this topic to the list of chocolate-related items to keep researching!

Blessings,
Debbie

I haven’t yet officially told the story of how ChocoLovers Lane got started: When I first met Ron, I began hearing the many amazing stories of his long-time shaman teacher, Harvey, who crossed over a few years back. Harvey was an amazing healer, who, guided by Beings who worked through him from the Other Side, helped hundreds of people a day, for just $5 each, through his rigorous hands-on treatments that Ron and fellow shaman trainees referred to as “karate chiropractic.” People would be screaming as Harvey, a small skinny man who was elderly by that time but possessed of great physical strength that he had asked the Invisibles to grant him in order to keep doing his life’s mission as he aged, worked on them, jerking them back into alignment, but they would always leave miraculously improved. Hundreds of people per day, including medical doctors, flocked to Harvey’s home office to be healed. 

In addition, Harvey would tell stories to all his clients at once, who sat together in the same room waiting for their turn as he worked. It wasn’t long before Ron figured out, and pointed out to his friends, that all of Harvey’s stories were encoded messages, metaphors for what was going on in the life of each person who was there to hear them. From that point on, Ron and his friends analyzed each story Harvey told. Some of the stories applied to future events; we’ve seen many of them only just being played out now, many years later.

Soon after Ron and I first met, we hosted a get-together with spiritual family, all who’d known Harvey while he was alive, As the newcomer, I sat awed as everyone fondly told Harvey stories and talked about the great impact he’d had on their lives. I wondered what, if any, my own relationship was to Harvey, since I’d only just arrived on the scene.

Then one night I dreamed that Ron and I were at the home of some of the spiritual kin from our get-together. Harvey was there in the dream, but I never actually saw him. He had given me some rich, thick, complex and extremely flavorful chocolate sauce that I could tell had powerful healing properties, and I was supposed to distribute it to everyone. I was putting the chocolate into little packets and gathering it together into a basket to deliver it to others.

When I awoke and told Ron of this dream, he said that Harvey had appeared in others’ dreams before too, and, just like in my dream, the dreamers knew he was there, but they never actually saw him. The overall pattern of the dream was the same; he gave them some mission or something to distribute to others as a means of channeling his healing energy through them into the world. Needless to say, I was honored to have received this dream, and delighted that the medium of transmission would be chocolate, which I happen to love! For months I pondered how to best act upon the dream.

Now, several months later, we are honoring this dream by starting the ChocoLoversLane.com website. Since we aren’t chocolatiers ourselves (or at least not yet! - but who knows what the future will bring?!), we have evaluated and become affiliates with some fine chocolate companies, so that we can still act on the dream and shamanically distribute Harvey’s energy to others through chocolate. Since Ron and I have also together lost 100 pounds between us over the last couple of years (and we’re in the process of writing an e-book about this, which will soon be available from our University of Yourself website), it feels natural that as part of this endeavor, it’s important to focus on eating chocolate responsibly in moderation as well, like the sacred medicine that it is.

Our official chocolate affiliates, currently, are Dan’s Chocolates , Lake Champlain Chocolates ,  zChocolat.com , RICHART, and Hotel Chocolat , each with their own unique offerings, each of which I’ve written detailed previous posts on. We plan soon to add a comparison page to the website that describes each company and “acts as a Google” for those who come across our website looking for great chocolate. I’ve read books that discuss the shamanic, nutritional and healing aspects of chocolate, and I know that for Harvey to bring it to me in a dream, it must have lots of benefits, so I want to keep researching it and writing up what I find for this blog and the website. So, stay tuned!…

Bountiful Blessings,
Debbie

I just recently found and tried a Terra Nostra organic “73% Intense™ Dark” chocolate bar. In the interest of “balanced chocolate consumption,” I keep a good-quality candy bar at my desk nearly all the time, and nibble it in small bits over the course of several days. This approach provides the health and mood-enhancing benefits of good chocolate (which I plan to research further and write more about in subsequent posts) without too many excess calories. And this is one of the best-tasting candy bars I’ve tried so far, with a full-bodied taste very similar to that of raw cacao beans. 

So I went to their website to find out more. Terra Nostra means “our earth” in Latin, and the company is so named to promote their mission “to nurture and preserve our earth as best we can.” Terra Nostra was founded in Vancouver, British Columbia in 1998 by Karlo Flores, “the youngest of a line of chocolate makers that spans five generations and two countries, Mexico and Canada.” He was inspired by the birth of his first child to make the world a better place by providing the world with ethically-grown organic chocolate.

Terra Nostra’s “Equi-Trade” socially-responsible approach, which is just getting started, aims to ensure that the farmers who cultivate and harvest the cacao crops get paid fairly, and that no slave or child labor is used, and also plans to give back to communities where there is need, by creating literacy programs, providing food for needy children, and the like.

Terra Nostra currently features 9 different chocolate bars, all certified organic and kosher, mostly dark chocolate (mmm!), as well as some milk-chocolate flavors, and even ”Ricemilk Choco™ bars,” which are dairy-free, wheat-free and gluten-free. They also make truffles and offer various gift assortments of these products. In 2006, Terra Nostra won the “Superior Taste Award” from the International Taste and Quality Institute (http://www.itqi.org/), and their “73% Intense™ Dark” chocolate bar received the top score of three stars. Having tasted this bar, that’s no surprise to me!

Terra Nostra’s website, which is still under construction, already provides many details of their complex chocolate-making process, as well as much interesting information on antioxidants in chocolate, including scientific articles on the health benefits of antioxidants, and even official chemical assays of their chocolate for antioxidants. All in all, this seems like a company with excellent-quality products and their heart in the right place. I plan to keep watching their website.

Blessings,
Debbie

I’ve been exploring once again, and have discovered RICHART, an award-winning family-owned French chocolate company with a true passion for chocolate and devotion to the chocolatier’s craft. RICHART is dedicated to creating the world’s most refined gourmet chocolates from the best ingredients around the world, also beautifully prepared and packaged, each piece a work of art. Says the RICHART website, “Our ongoing mission is to create an experience of complete pleasure…for your visual and tasting senses.”

RICHART’s artisitically-designed chocolates are hand-painted with beautiful designs and presented in “ballotins,” beautiful, cleanly-designed white gift boxes that, like picture frames, are meant to focus attention on the elegant contents inside. These gourmet luxury chocolates are available in many different collections in different price ranges, including assortments for holidays, weddings, corporate gifts and special occasions. And, what’s more, you can even add a message inscribed on a chocolate plaque! RICHART’s website features a “Chocolate Gift Finder;” you pick your occasion, favorite RICHART chocolate, price, flavors, and uses (e.g., chocolate-tasting, to serve with dinner, etc.), and you are shown all the choices that match your criteria.

RICHART’s seven delightful chocolate flavor options are so highly exotic and appealing that they really spark curiosity, and deserve special mention here. Since when, for example, have you heard of a basil-flavored chocolate?!:

• Balsamic - fine “black chocolate” flavors and “silky butter cream filling”, including select-origin cocoa ganaches, and such specialties as licorice and vanilla ganaches.
• Roasted - crackly, crunchy, “subtle and golden” flavors, such as almond or hazelnut praline, coffee ganache, and caramel coulis. 
• Fruity - flavors “bursting with joie de vivre,” in RICHART’s words: “A festive nectar, fresh like an apricot or strawberry, voluptuous like a chestnut or prune, fragrant like a pineapple, mango or passion fruit, in butter cream or sauce.
• Citrus - The “fragrant essence of citrus that sparkles and fills you with a heady vitality,” including flavors like kuquat or orange zest coulis, and grapefruit ganache.
• Herbal - flavors from aromatic herbs, “a delectable decoction taking us back to our roots, to mother earth.” Flavors include such exotic choices as ganaches of jasmine tea, basil, and anise & fennel, as well as thyme praline.
• Floral - flavors include wonderful-sounding ganaches of “exotic blossom” such as ganaches of rose, ylang-ylang and lavendar.
• Spiced - this family of flavors exhibits “Exoticism, mystery, sensuality, the provocative atmosphere of the Orient, insolence, inebriation,” with such appealing flavors as ganaches of cinnamon and ginger, or even curry praline.

In addition, RICHART’s many other unique offerings range from the “Little Gourmet Ballotin,” chocolates that exhibit (yes, right on the chocolates themselves!) artwork of the winners from the company’s annual worldwide childrens’ design contest for ages 12 and under, to their top-of-the-line expensive “Luxe Collections,” extensive assortments of chocolate complete with a finely-crafted burlwood vault to store them in! Special for 2006, RICHART even features a collection of special “pink ribbon” chocolates supporting those challenged by breast cancer.

If you’re looking for ways to enjoy fine gourmet chocolate in moderation, RICHART’s “J’en Meurs d’Envie®” collection is an elegant choice. Roughly translated, this means “I’m dying for it.” Their “Tablettes Sachets” are small individually-wrapped pieces of chocolate designed for “those who cannot resist their temptation to have just one bite…” In RICHART’s own words, “As if there are not enough good reasons for us to consider the guilty pleasure of snacking, rare times arrive when the craving is overwhelming. At these times, RICHART offers a small piece of self-gratification for the road: irresistible pocketsize sachets.” A fabulous idea!

Terrific Tasting to you,
Debbie

We’ve discovered another Vermont-based gourmet chocolate company, Dan’s Chocolates , a “Best of America’s Foods” finalist, which offers a variety of milk, dark and sugar-free truffles (described on the website as “delicate and thin chocolate shells filled with the freshest creams, fruit purees, pure cocoa butter and nuts”), as well as a variety of chocolate bars in unique flavors, made by a Swiss-trained chocolatier.

The chocolates are available in 1-pound, and in some cases 1/2-pound and 1/4-pound, quantites with a choice of assorted, all milk, all dark, all caramel, or all-sugar-free truffles, or even all bars, with over 200 unique gift boxes to choose from. Dan’s offers special gift boxes for holidays and special occasions, and also in different themes, such as hobbies, animals, nature scenes, and even professions (for example, you can order a box of chocolates designed specifically for a journalist, with a picture of a typewriter on the box). These specially-boxed chocolates can also be ordered with flowers or a teddy bear. To top it all off, the chocolates are made in small batches and shipped via FedEx to ensure maximum freshness.

Dan’s is also a socially-responsible company, which is focused on conserving energy and environmental resources, and donates a portion of their earnings to charities. Dan Cunningham, the “Chief Chokolada” of the company, aims, as a business owner, to ”do a good job without having to sacrifice what it means to be a good person,” and he aims to “start a ‘chocolate revolution’ by delivering fresh chocolate, good will and lots of fun. And in doing so, allow people … to reveal the fun-loving, chocolate-worshiping kid that lives inside all of us.” A fine aspiration indeed!

Blessings,
Debbie

I’ve just been exploring a unique U.K.-based chocolate company, Hotel Chocolat , which offers a wide range of mouth-watering gourmet chocolate gifts for all occasions, all price ranges, and all ages. Among their colorfully-packaged offerings are special assortments for kids that are aimed towards exposing them to fine chocolates, including a holiday advent calendar with a piece of chocolate for each day, which teaches kids each step of the chocolate-making process. In addition to a wide selection of exotic and attractively-packaged chocolates, truffles and ganaches, and many types of hot chocolates (even rose flavored! Mmm!), here is a list of just a few more of their most unique and interesting offerings:

• Eau de Chocolat perfume with tones of chocolate, sandalwood and spices
• Cocoa nib balsamic vinegar
• Festive Chocolate slabs, 1/2 kilo each (that a little over a pound), consisting of chocolate with multi-textured inclusions such as coffee beans, cookie-pieces, toffee, nuts, fruits, and so on, swirled together in beautiful patterns, such that each piece looks like a frameable work of art. One such example is the “ebony and orange” slab, which consists of “72% Swiss dark chocolate, blended with succulent pieces of confit d’orange and finished with whole orange slices.” They also sell mix-and-match mini-slabs with different chocolate types and inclusions.
• “Liquid Liquers” - these are “Gossamer thin sugar shells filled with fine alcohol and enrobed in good dark chocolate”, featuring liquers such as cointreau and amaretto.
• “Meltingly Soft Chocolate Dippers” - these are squares of meltable chocolate at the end of a stirrer, designed so that you can “swirl them in your elevenses” (a British word for “morning coffee or tea”). What a great idea!
• “Table Crackers” - these are little party-favor packages that you pull open and they make a popping noise (a little like firecrackers) and snap open to reveal a prize of some sort inside. Only these particular ones each contain 3 fine chocolates!
• “Smudge” gourmet chocolate spread - no doubt this takes Nutella up several levels!
• “Mini-Chocolate Dipping Adventure” - a chocolate fondue set for two, complete with two tubs of dark and milk chocolate you heat up in the microwave, a variety of fruits, cookies, marshmallows and toffee to dip, and bamboo skewers to dip it with.
• A Chocolate Tasting Club, where you are delivered new chocolates to try each month. They have even now started an “All Dark Club” for lovers of dark chocolate.

Besides selling so many fine, fun and unique chocolate products, Hotel Chocolat also takes an ethical approach in acquiring their chocolate, fully described on their website, which includes working with cocoa-growing communities in Ghana, planting new cocoa tree seedlings in St. Lucia, and buying large quantities of fair-trade cocoa. That’s a great combination!

Sweet Sampling,
Debbie  

We’ve just discovered an appealing Vermont-based company, Lake Champlain Chocolates , who hand-makes an array of chocolate indulgences in all price ranges. Celebrated by the New York Times as “some of the best chocolate in the country,” Lake Champlain Chocolates’ rich offerings include milk, dark and filled chocolate bars, exotic truffles, a variety of hot chocolates, tanzanian chocolate sauce, chocolate covered goodies such as nuts, ginger, marzipan and orange peel, as well as almond butter crunch, just to name a few. All of their delicacies are ”crafted fresh in small batches from Belgian chocolate and all-natural ingredients including Vermont cream, sweet butter, maple syrup, and honey.” Plus, all of their chocolates are preservative-free, because, according to Lake Champlain’s website, “As chocolate has over 500 flavor components, anything extra is bound to compromise the flavor.” In addition, all products except the hot chocolate are certified Kosher, and they offer some organic, select origin, and fair-trade products as well. 

This company also provides beautifully-packaged holiday gifts, gift baskets, free gift cards, a Chocolate-of-the-Month Club, wedding favors and a corporate gift program, with discounts on bulk orders. Customers get a 100% satisfaction guarantee and a free gift with a $95 purchase. Lake Champlain’s well-organized, beautifully designed and highly informative website allows you to search by either product type or price range. There is a even an “Under $12″ category for those who are on a budget. In addition, the website features a “Chocolate Connoissieur” section, with chocolate articles, chocolate quotes, and even chocolate poetry! There is also nutritional information on chocolate and on the process of cocoa bean harvesting and roasting.  

One of my favorite sections of this website is the “When to Give Chocolates” section, which provides an extensive list of holidays, including the following holidays related to chocolate and various ”chocolate inclusions”! Whether Lake Champlain invented these holidays themselves, or someone else is the culprit, what a fun idea!:

• January 8 - National English Toffee Day
• February 19 -National Chocolate Mint Day
• February 26 - National Pistachio Day
• March 1 - National Peanut Butter Lover’s Day
• March 19 - National Caramel Day
• 3rd week in March - American Chocolate Week
• March - National Peanut Month
• May 4 - National Candied Orange Peel Day
• May 11 - Eat What You Want Day
• May 15 - National Chocolate Chip Day
• June - National Candy Month
• July 28 - National Milk Chocolate Day
• September 13 - National Peanut Day
• September 13 - (also) International Chocolate Day
• September 22 - National White Chocolate Day
• October 13 - National Peanut Festival
• October 14 - National Dessert Day
• October 22 - National Nut Day
• October - National Caramel Month
• November 7 - National Bittersweet Chocolate Day
• November 23 - National Cashew Day
• November: National Peanut Butter Lover’s Month
• December 16: National Chocolate Covered Anything Day
• December 28: National Chocolate Day

Nicest of Nibblings,
Debbie

Another recent discovery of ours is zChocolat.com , which has received many awards, including being named Forbes magazine’s favorite on-line chocolatier since March 2005, and quoted by Forbes as “committed to elevating the art of chocolate indulgence and chocolate gift-giving to a new level of personal expression - one of imagination, intelligence, and elegance - and one that assures the giver will make a grand and lasting impression.” ZChocolat has selected the four best award-winning French artisan chocolatiers, Pascal Caffet, world champion, who search the world over to find only the very finest ingredients, to create all their many unique and elegant gourmet chocolates and select origin chocolate bars.

The website, which is available in English, French, and Spanish, provides detailed information on every chocolate they offer, complete with passionately-written, mouth-watering descriptions of the exotic ingredients, and pictures of both the whole chocolate, and the chocolate cut in half so that you can see what it looks like on the inside. It is evident that this company, and their chocolatiers are truly passionate about chocolate. Their chocolates include mouth-watering ingredients such as exotic fruit preserves, spices, nuts, liquers, and flower essential oils.  On a couple of the assortments, you can even hand-pick which chocolates you want included.

You can have the chocolates gift-boxed (in different amounts and price ranges) in mahogany boxes, or, as another choice, “chameleon” boxes, to which you can add your own personalized images and a brass plate engraved with your own message. You can also add your own image to the personalized card you include with the gift. For shy romantics, you even have the option to send a gift anonymously (and zChocolat promises they will not reveal your name on any of the packing or mailing slips), and can even have the card state that the sender of the gift wishes to remain anonymous. They even have a concierge service that, for a small extra charge, will call the receiver of your gift in advance to build up suspense by telling them that they will soon be receiving a special gift from you that is being flown in from France (gift are delivered via DHL to anywhere in the world), but won’t tell them what it is!

These chocolates are not particularly cheap, but, considering that they are crafted using such fine and exotic ingredients by the best chocolatiers around, and are natural, preservative-free, and free of all fats except pure cocoa butter (which has its own health benefits– I hope to include more information on that in this blog at some point), and so creatively packaged, they seem well worth the price. Accordingly, one of zChocolat’s slogans is, “Never compromise with chocolate.”

Blessings,
Debbie

Some of the very best hot chocolate drinks I’ve ever found so far, in terms of taste and texture, are “European Drinking Chocolates” made by Schokinag, called “The Artisan Chocolate.” Schokinag’s chocolate  factory is located in southern Germany, and they remain a privately-held, family-owned chocolate company after being in business over 80 years, apparently a rarity in the chocolate industry.  Their chocolate is a favorite of pastry chefs and chocolatiers, and has received many prestigious awards in culinary circles. This drinking chocolate comes in many delectable flavors, including dark, mixed, and white chocolates, dulce de leche (caramel), spice, mint, and even a new “strawberries and white chocolate” flavor. The chocolate mix itself is not a powder, but is instead composed of tiny chocolate chunks which melt when heated. At their website, they also sell cocoa powder, chocolate bars and chunks, and a variety of gift packages. This chocolate is not cheap, in terms of calories or price (although they do have a sugar-free [not fat-free] drinking chocolate for low-carb diets). However, consumed in moderation as an exquisite special treat, it’s well worth it! If you love great chocolate, this is an absolute must-try!

Be Well,
Debbie

Sitting here working at my computer, I decided I’d like to make another blog entry about a favorite chocolate product of mine. I looked down at the wrapper of the delicious dark chocolate bar I happen to be nibbling on right now. (Just nibbling, since, in a book that I think is called “The Chocolate Diet,” the author says it’s okay, and in fact good, to include chocolate in your diet, as long as you eat just enough to satisfy your craving and then stop. This, I’ve found, is a good way to include a varietly of rich and wonderful chocolates in my diet in a healthy way.) Anyway, the bar I’m eating right now is an Endangered Species Chocolate (ESC) bar, specifically “Extreme Dark Chocolate”, with 88% cacao content, and a picture of a black panther on it. 

This environmentally-conscious company’s core value is “Reverence for Life,” and 10% of all their net profits are donated to support “endangered species, habitat, and humanity.” Their chocolate is all-natural and ethically-traded, and they also feature some 100% organic, and some kosher and vegan choices. They have many flavors of both dark and milk chocolates, mixed with fruits, nuts, toffee, coffee beans, and other delicious combinations. Each bar features a picture of a different endangered species on the wrapper.

They even have an interesting and informative blog, which appears to have just been started in September 2006. ESC has been nominated for Co-op America’s People’s Choice Award for “Green Company of the Year”. I’ve tried a lot of their different chocolate-bar flavors, and this chocolate is one of my favorites.

Blessings,
Debbie