Word: cacao
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Amano, established in Utah by another software developer, recently teamed up with four other start-ups to launch an artisanal association--the Craft Chocolate Makers of America--for small high-end "bean to bar" producers that do everything from roasting raw cacao beans to packaging pristine bars. Meanwhile, another newbie, Chuao, is cranking out little pods of chocolate with crazy flavor combinations like its aptly named Firecracker, whose chipotle, salt and popping candy send tiny bursts of electricity through your tongue...
...Dagoba as well as top-shelf artisans Scharffen Berger and Joseph Schmidt. Mars is trying to keep pace, launching deluxe Dove bars and premium M&Ms in flavors like raspberry almond for $4 a bag. Supermarket shoppers can now select their sweets on the basis of preferred percentage of cacao (the mod way to refer to cocoa content): from Hershey's Cacao Reserve (35%) to its Scharffen Berger Extra Dark...
...high-end rums shot up 45% over the past three years, to $287 million, according to the Distilled Spirits Council in Washington. Gourmet restaurants are taking notice. Labels like Santa Teresa's 1796--a top Hamilton pick for its "honey smooth" finish--from Venezuela are after-dinner favorites at Cacao in Miami. "It reminds me of the global market shift to New World wines," says Cacao's chef-owner, Edgar Leal, who has begun hosting aged-rum tastings. "The same is happening with digestifs...
...lesson will focus on cocktails with a brandy base, so the syllabus includes the brandy alexander, sidecar, brandy stinger, pisco sour and brandy flip. History is an essential part of the syllabus. As Weber mixes a brandy alexander - a smooth drink made of brandy, crème de cacao and cream topped off with freshly ground nutmeg - his colleague, Beate Hindermann, tells us why German brandy cannot be called cognac. "It was prohibited in the Treaty of Versailles," she says. "And so German brandy will forever remain what it is - French cognac's little brother...
...Springs Café in Lenox, Mass., connoisseurs nibble on feather-light champagne cognac truffles and fresh garden-mint chocolates while relaxing to live piano music on weekends. At Moonstruck Chocolate Café in Beaverton, Ore., patrons attuned to the nuances of flavor order several pieces of chocolate with varying percentages of cacao beans. While the confections and connoisseurship may be less rarefied at the more mainstream shops, they too encourage customers to linger. At Ethel's, which promotes itself as "a place to chocolate and chitchat," patrons can chew the butterfat over the chocolate trivia cards planted at a few tables...