If you missed the third annual Chocolate Festival in Addison Saturday, let’s just say you missed one of the sweetest events to kick off the fall season. The Chocolate Festival showcased some of the world’s finest and purest chocolate, and the thought of it still makes my mouth water.
What made the festival more than just a taste-and-see was definitely the quality of the treats featured. Many of the 30 sponsors united flavors from all over the world to make their confections more than just average chocolate.
Take a choco jump.
For instance, Cacao & Cardamom, started by chocolatier and Miss Intercultural Pakistan 2012, Annie Rupani, brings travel, art, and chocolate together to create some very exotic flavors.
Her handmade Cardamom Rose truffle was almost too beautiful to eat with its speckled teal and fuchsia hues, but when Rupani explained that it was “a creamy white chocolate ganache infused with cardamom and rose water,” I couldn’t resist and neither could other attendees at the event.
“It was definitely unlike anything I’d ever tasted but it was delicious. The aromatics of the atypical ingredients play up the feel-good endorphins already induced by chocolate,” said Lewej Whitelow.
After, I tore myself away from Rupani’s table, I stumbled upon Bark Chocolate owned by Katy Priore. I tasted what still remains as my favorite sampled at the festival, even after revisiting each piece given to me in a doggy bag.
Priore’s Sweet and Swine bark chocolate combines arguably, the world’s two most beloved foods—chocolate and bacon. Brown sugar and red chili candied bacon add a perfectly surprising chewy bite to the smooth bittersweet chocolate bark.
Even though I sampled a lot of chocolate, I didn’t spend the entire time at the festival ruining all of my dental work. I dropped in on several roundtable events where I learned the science of making chocolate – from choosing the best cacao beans to the best types of appliances on the market for chocolate makers.
When I asked a panel of chocolatiers what makes chocolate king, Kevin Wenzel of Wiseman House Chocolates said, “Chocolate is the only dessert that melts at body temperature and that’s sexy.”
Though the event was centered on the taste of chocolate, it was carefully constructed to give justice to all that goes into making a delicious product where there are “endless possibilities,” as Zach Townsend of Pure Chocolate Desserts by Zach said.
In case you’re wishing the time away until the next Chocolate Festival, don’t worry. All of the chocolatiers are available online.
Tiffany Thomas is 22-years-old from Shreveport. She graduated from Northwestern State University of Louisiana in Natchitoches, LA. She enjoys writing, cooking, shopping, and eating.
