Venezuelan Criollo Chocolate at Heavenly Chocolates

I attended yesterday the Chocolate Appreciation 101: Going Nuts by Heavenly Chocolates.  It was facilitated by Mr. Benjie Pedro who jet sets Manila-Singapore and other places of the globe because of chocolate. He was instrumental in setting up chocolate businesses in Singapore and started in the Philippines a chocolate restaurant called Heavenly Chocolate in 2008. The resto will be celebrating its 4th anniversary next month (July 2012).  

Through their Chocolate Appreciation 101 they are able to promote by word of mouth or likes and shares on Facebook their chocolate business.  So we attendees were asked to help in promoting  the place especially they do not spend much on marketing and advertising.

For Mr. Pedro his falling in love with chocolate  was started by tablea style of drinking chocolate. So the resto’s  mantra: promote hot chocolate dinking. He traced back that the tradition became ingrained in the Filipino culture as cited in the novel of Rizal, Noli me Tangere when Padre Salvi would serve chocolate ah or chocolate eh to his guests.  Mr. Pedro observed that Central and South America has similar hot chocolate drinking tradition with the Philippines because of Spanish colonization then.

The chocolate appreciation was conducted on a monthly basis from 2008  that tapered down to the present.  But it is being activated again on a more regular basis as more people gets interested learning about their favorite chocolates. Also, their current location is unfamiliar to many.

Mr. Pedro during his presentation of the history of chocolates and nuts (hazel, almond and pistachio) was distributing chocolates for attendees to taste that includes – Swiss- Frey, Belgian-Cote ‘d Or, and English-Cadbury mostly milk chocolate.  Since chocolate are characterized based on their country origin. He mentioned that these chocolates were made and prepared based on the culture of those countries. Swiss is creamy and milky because of their supply of milk. The Belgian is caramellic (burnt sugar), a distinct character for Belgian chocolates. And for the English it has a crumbly nature because of the moisture content of the chocolate.

But another school of thought in characterizing chocolate is the chocolate bean source of a single origin. Distinctly, cacao are only grown in a particular region - between 20 degrees north and 20 degrees south of the equator where temperatures do not fall below 68°F. Luckily, Philippines falls in that region so we are fortunate to have supply of cacao.

There are tree main varieties of cacao beans and some newly created hybrids.

Varieties and Characteristics of Cacao Beans

Name	Region	Description
Criollo	Venezuela, Mexico, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Columbia, Trinidad, Grenada and Jamaica	This bean has a slightly bitter taste with a powerful aroma and a complex but delicate flavor. The trees that produce this bean are difficult to cultivate and yield very low volume crops. This bean represents only a small percentage of the world’s cacao crop. The pods themselves are soft, red in color and contain twenty to thirty white, ivory or very pale purple beans.
Forastero	Africa, Brazil, West Indies, Central America and in an increasing number of South American countries.	This bean is the most common of the varieties, representing the vast majority of the world’s cacao crop in a given year. While it gives chocolate its body and finish, this bean lacks flavor and aroma of the other varieties and requires an intense roasting process to bring out its qualities. New crossbreeds of this bean have been developed, which are more flavorful than the original.
Trinitario	Trinidad (country of origin), Ski Lanka, South America, Central America and Indonesia	This bean is a hearty bean developed by crossbreeding the criollo and forastero trees. It boasts of an extremely high cocoa butter content and comprises less than 15% of the world’s cacao bean production in a given year.

(source - http://www.tifachocolate.com/about-chocolate/cacaoBeans.phphttp://www.tifachocolate.com/about-chocolate/cacaoBeans.php) 

So we attendees were introduced to their new line of hot chocolate drink a Venezuelan Criollo (kriyoyo). It has a pleasant fruity smell not overpowering cocoa aroma. The taste is slightly bitter and silky. In a cooler temperature, a chocolate drink thickens and resembling a melted chocolate bar or chips. If consider the new criollo chocolate drink as a pleasant addition to the numerous drinks at Heavenly chocolate and a prized drink given the demand and limited supply  for this cocoa variety. The Philippines does not produced this kind of cacao.

Also the restaurant is coming up with a new line of cake as an addition to its current list. A Pistachio Chocolate Cake, criollo cocoa and coated with pistachio paste. The taste is so pleasant. Well I am so fond of pistachio nuts, but be careful for those who are susceptible of gout, not very good when nuts is taken in large amount. So going back to the cake it is really very delicious.  The pistachio paste was just right for the cake served to us taste-test. The pistachio paste suits very well the chocolate producing a well balance decadent flavor.

We were told that unlike cream the pistachio paste has a longer shelf life. It does not need too much refrigeration, thus preserving a good moisture of the cake. Cakes become soggy when left on the ref for too long, the cream also thickens and it is like eating solid chunk of butter or margarine.

So for pinoychocophiles and pinoychocoholics, Heavenly Chocolates is a place to go when you crave for a choco fix.

Up coming - review of Belgian truffle and Green Tea Chocolate.

Related Read:

http://eatmoko.wordpress.com/2012/06/26/chocoholics/

http://www.tifachocolate.com/about-chocolate/cacaoBeans.php

http://www.thenibble.com/reviews/main/chocolate/flavors-2.asp

http://www.worldwidechocolate.com/shop_single_origin.html

Pinterest:

http://pinterest.com/rahonpete/heavenly-chocolates/

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(source - http://on.fb.me/Mh7AkO)

the place to go for chocolate drink