May 3, 2007
Welcome to May! This past month, I have been busy tasting samples and selecting the best-of-the-best chocolates to introduce to you, the discerning chocolate lover.

I'm very excited about Kakawa Cocoa Beans, roasted cacao beans quadruple-dipped in white, milk and dark chocolate then dusted with cocoa powder. And what's that on the counter?! It's the Wally Bar as well as four flavors of all-natural German snack bars from Seitenbacher.

I feel obliged to remind all of us that Mother's Day is Sunday, May 13th. Not sure what to get for muma? We'll have beautiful, chocolate-dipped, long stem strawberries, for sale that weekend, as well as rows and rows of truffles, caramels and pralinés for you to choose from. We'll help you build the chocolate box of her dreams! We'll even tie it with a curly bow and special Mother's Day Tag for you to write, "TO MOM YOU ARE THE BEST MOM IN THE WORLD I LOVE YOU," in scraggly caps just like in the old days.

And of course there are chocolate tastings. I'll be leading us through the wonderful world of Pralus chocolates on May 10th at the Pralus Rendez-Vous and teaching Chocolate 101: Everything you Need to Know about Chocolate one week later on May 17th. Read more below!

New stuff I'm really excited about:
Kakawa Cocoa Beans
There is a trend among chocolate lovers of going back to the roots of chocolate. That is to say, we are interested in learning what cacao—the main ingredient in most chocolates—really tastes like. And although we might not keep 100% chocolate, nibs or toasted cacao beans in our chocolate survival drawer at the office, we certainly do not shy away from their full flavors. In fact, we appreciate them.

We have people like Tom Pederson, the founder and CEO of Cocoa Puro, to thank for introducing us to the true flavor of cacao. Two and a half years ago, Tom started making chocolate-covered cacao beans in his kitchen. He started by hand-sorting whole, raw cacao beans. After he roasted them, he dipped them in criminally delicious, consecutive layers of white, milk and dark chocolate. He finished by tossing the coated beans (now about the size of a big marble) in cocoa powder.

Not surprisingly, Tom's friends loved his creation and encouraged him to sell his chocolate-covered cacao beans at the Downtown Austin Farmers Market. Honestly, he wasn't really expecting anyone to buy them! After all, this was a unique product and most people didn't even know what a cacao bean was! But to Tom's delight, they were a huge success and Kakawa Cocoa Beans were officially launched.

Today, Tom continues to make this (his single product) in small batches in a community kitchen. Tom sources most of his cacao from the Ocumare region of Venezuela, although he is not opposed to working with great cacao from other parts of the world. He sees Kakawa Cocoa Beans as the perfect combination of New World (i.e. Europe) and Old World (i.e. Meso-America) chocolate traditions. On the outside, you get to sink your teeth through the familiar sweetness of European-style, smooth, creamy chocolate. On the inside, you get to crunch into an earthy, toasty, nutty, blast of 100% cacao joy.

Look for Kakawa in bright red bags at the counter. Enjoy!

The Wally Bar
The Wally Bar was invented by (and named for) Wally Al-Shamma, former Zingerman's Next Door Manager and current assistant to Mimi Wheeler up at Grocer's Daughter Chocolates in Empire, MI. To make it, Wally takes dark Ecuadorian chocolate (65%), molds it into the shape of a bar, and then pours a heaping portion of his custom trail mix onto one side. The dried cherries, cranberries, sesame sticks, sunflower seeds, cashews and maple-caramelized almonds add crunch and flavor to an already delicious chocolate. My husband and I recently went on a long day-hike and took one of the Wally Bars with us. Not only was it really tasty, but with all the nuts and fruit it gave us some serious stamina. My advice? Keep the bar in the coldest part of your backpack and take more than one!

German Snack Bars from Seitenbacher
We discovered Seitenbacher about a year ago when Reina attended a conference in Germany. This small natural-foods company is based near Heidelberg and employs about 120 people (which is fewer than the Deli!). The company was founded in 1980 by Willi Pfannenschwarz, who named the company after the river that ran through his hometown. Willi comes from a long line of millers—his ancestors were milling way back in the 1600's! As he worked delivering flour to his dad's customers as a young man, Willi was surprised to find that people weren't really interested in eating whole-grains. To encourage people to include more whole grains in their diet, he developed muesli and began selling it. His natural-foods business blossomed from there.

In addition to their muesli and gummi fruit snacks (both of which you can find at the Deli) Seitenbacher just started making gluten-free snack bars. "Whoopie" I hear you say. Well, let me tell you a secret: These are really tasty. I'm not even a big bar person (not really into protein bars and the like), but I do like these. Maybe it is because they are full of flavor and actually taste like food, not vitamins. Or maybe it is because I can pronounce all the ingredients on the label. All I know is these will go with me (and the Wally Bar) on my next hiking trip.

Fitness Bar: Honey, hazelnut kernels, chocolate, soy kernels, whey protein and oat bran (just to name a few ingredients)
Energy Bar: Honey and almonds coated with chocolate.
Chocolate-Apricot Bar: Dried apricots coated in chocolate. My favorite.
Natural Sports Bar: Dried apples, apple juice, almonds, honey, raisins, wafer and cinnamon.

Please feel free to email (eanderson@zingermans.com) or call 734-663-JAVA to talk chocolate. Your comments and questions are always the best part of my day.

Best,

Chocolate Lady Duff