Northwest Chocolate Festival

By Sonia Lyris

The best part about being at a chocolate festival is that you're surrounded by people as crazy as you are about chocolate who are devoting a whole weekend to it.

In fact, at the Northwest Chocolate Festival held recently at the Seattle Center, most of them are probably crazier than you. Whatever your passion for chocolate, from making truffles to cacao genetics to educating your tongue with the finest bittersweet, you wouldn't have to throw a cocoa bean far to hit an expert who was having a blast getting their chocolate-geek on.

Imagine table after table of quality chocolates staffed by vendors eager to offer you taste after taste. Imagine truffles, lectures, pictures, wine, and art. Imagine a delicious bias toward quality dark and plenty of it.

Missed it, did you? Too bad! More for me.

For a mere $40 ($50 at the door, $20 for a day pass) you could sample an astounding variety of superb chocolates across dozens of chocolate makers and artisans, tasting to your heart (and tongue's) content.

The festival was crowded at peak times, but no one waited long or went without. While I resist the overused phrase "something for everyone" it absolutely applies to this festival; between ongoing demos (with tastes!), four superb lecture tracks, arts and wines, and endless samples of some of the best chocolate you're likely to taste, it was hard work not to be engaged, intrigued, and educated—and maybe slightly ill from not being able to stop yourself.

One fellow told me that after a few hours of chocolate he was ready for real food and that someone selling oatmeal there could make a killing. Indeed, the single vendor not selling sweet stuff ran out of food on both days. Advice: bring your own healthy snacks for breaks from the hard work of tasting.

Offering up their best were makers like Taza, Ritual, Dandelion, Fresco and the local Theo. Some of my favorite chocolatiers showed up and showed off, including Chocolopolis, Forte, Coastal Mist, and Intrigue. And there were other ways to indulge besides eating, including jewelry made from cocoa beans and pods, paintings made from molten chocolate, body paints, wine, and "OMG" body lotions from Indi.

Bill the Chocolate Man brought raw cacao pods, allowing some lucky attendees a rare taste of the fruit of the cacao that surrounds the seeds that become beans. What does it taste like? Sweet, tart, and slimy. He advised us not to bite into the raw seed, so of course I did, being that sort of person. It was earthy and raw and a touch bitter. Chocolate waiting to be born! And a lovely shade of purple.

Before the festival my understanding of cacao from tree to tongue was fuzzy. I knew there were tropical fruits involved, fermenting and mixing, and eventually, well, me, but despite having heard it described several times I didn't retain details. Perhaps my short attention span was due to my inner child calling out "gimmi gimmi!" rather than "do tell me more about conching!"

I'm sure the bowls of chocolate available in every lecture room helped quiet my inner child so my inner adult could listen, but I also credit the excellent speakers. At Sunday's keynote panel I was so engaged I sat through the entire two hours and wanted more.

Indeed, I can now say things like "conching," "fermentation," and "heirloom cacao" with some confidence, along with "hand me a piece of that, will you?"

The VIP ticket extras included a Friday night "Meet the Makers" party and a Saturday night Dessert Ball with even more opportunities for consumption of excellent chocolate delicacies. Toss in food-oriented body art and live music and the VIP ticket offered additional decadences that demand to be repeated.

I went to the festival thinking that I might learn a thing or two and taste some of the good stuff, but it was so much more than that. My greatest takeaway? Learning to taste my chocolate and not merely eat it, to take fewer bites and notice more.

Making chocolate is a complicated process and giving consumers a window onto it is one of the best things the industry can do for us and for itself, and I can't think of a better way to learn about this magical bean than a practical hands-on-- tongue-on! --festival like this one.

My advice? Put the NW Chocolate Festival on your calendar: October 27-28, 2012. If you missed it this year, don't miss it next.

This is the way to learn about chocolate.

Visit www.nwchocolate.com.

Seattle-based Sonia Lyris says, “Follow me through the streets of Seattle, from the bright boulevards to the shady alleys, as I explore the best--and worst-- the Emerald City has to offer lovers of the dark side of chocolate.”

©ChocolateAtlas.com

Contact us:  Editor  Webmaster