Chocolate!

I took Jasper to a Chocolate Tasting lead by the charming Savina Darzes, and it was a big hit!  Ms. Darzes gave a presentation of the history of chocolate, and an overview of the way chocolate is processed.  She showed everyone raw cocoa beans and an actual cocoa pod.  But of course the highlight was the chocolate tasting!  It was set up like a formal tasting, with unmarked samples and a chart asking for ratings on how appealing each chocolate was to each of the senses.  After giving everyone time to taste, she told us all about each chocolate and its composition and origin.  Jasper and I both learned a lot.  I have never been much of a fan of dark chocolate, but found I liked their complexity.  Jasper had never been persuaded to try white chocolate before, and he loved it.  Ms. Darzes not only gives chocolate tastings, she also leads walking tours in Portland, Lake Oswego, and Vancouver which highlight local chocolatiers and their amazing talents. You might be surprised how many independent chocolatiers there are in Portland!  And their creations are definitely a mile above an ordinary chocolate bar.

Ms. Darzes did talk about colonial history as it relates to chocolate, a New World food.  She did explain that more than 80% of chocolate now is produced in West Africa, but did not go into the human rights abuses that take place on those plantations.  A good starting point for learning about these issues is the film "The Dark Side of Chocolate".  If you are interested in finding fair trade chocolate, there's a great list here. It's more available than I suspected. Organic chocolate is also likely to be fair trade, as organic certification requires meeting certain labor standards, and there are apparently no organic producers in Cote D'Ivoire where most of the problems have occurred.