Ate All the Choklat

When Tom turned the ripe old age of 31 in January, I bought us two tickets to Choklat Snobbery 101, at Choklat. Choklat is one of the few shops in the world that actually roasts their own beans and makes their own chocolate. As their website says, they have been voted the #1 Artisan Chocolate maker in Canada.

Tom is a bit of a chocolate addict. There is almost always a bar of dark chocolate in our fridge. It has to be in the fridge (apparently he thinks it's better cold?), and it has to be 80% or darker.

We started our evening with a mug of warm hot chocolate. I admit, I could have done without the bright blue whopped cream-- but the blue matched the colours on their logo. Apparently the blue colouring is all natural (I wasn't listening to well at this point).

The hot chocolate WAS delicious. Maybe a touch too sweet for my taste, but still, a delicious treat.

 

 

Next we moved into the shop to learn more about cacao beans. We saw the good, the bad and the ugly. Essentially all of the cacao beans are grown in third world countries. The Ivory Coast produces the most, at about 1.6 million metric tons per year, followed by Indonesia, with about 0.9 million metric tons per year. The beans themselves look a bit like almonds, but in their raw form, they have a bit of a vinegary smell to them.

 

The beans are processed and roasted in the shop, then mixed with cocoa butter for the base of the chocolate. The chocolate needs to be tempered (that is, heated up gradually), and is done so in a series of tempering machines.

 

Eventually it comes to being pressed and molded for consumption. There were dozens of giant baking sheet filled with squares of various types of chocolate.

 

We sampled somewhere between 7-8 types of chocolate from different regions in places such as Brazil and Venezuela. It was interesting-- each of the chocolates had a different flavour. Some were earthy, some were fruity-- and it all comes from the type of bean, and how it was fermented. For the most part, the chocolates were all 70% dark chocolate, but we did get to try an 80% chocolate at the end. We also did some wine and chocolate pairings and samplings.

Tom's favourite part of the night was that he was the only man on a tour with nine other women.

I feel like I now know so much more about chocolate than I ever thought possible.

I wish our house smelled as delicious at the Choklat shop did, all the time. Visit Choklat down in Inglewood-- I highly recommend it!

Tom and I are heading to Chicago on Thursday, so stay tuned for more travel-related posts.

2014 Race Itinerary

Normally at this time of year I would be well into half-marathon training. The last two years I have run the Calgary half marathon which normally occurs the last week of May-- or in this case, the first weekend of June. After last year, two half marathons, eight months straight of training, shin splits and bruised heels, I decided I would take it easier this year, and only run one major race.

As it has turned out, it is probably for the best. I keep catching colds that have put me out of commission, and it has been so cold this winter, I have barely had a chance to run.

However, I have two races on my itinerary this year.

COLOR ME RAD - June 28

Photo Credit

After having to opt out of Color Me Rad last year because of flooding, I deferred my race registration to this year. This is a 5km race novelty race-- I don't even think they record your time.  Basically, you run 5km with a pack of your friends while people throw corn starch colour-bombs at you. It is going to be AWESOME.

LAS VEGAS ROCK 'N ROLL HALF MARATHON - November 16

Photo Credit

 

The Las Vegas Rock 'N Roll Half Marathon happens late in the fall. 13.1 miles (or 21.1km) down the Las Vegas strip-- starting at dusk.  The best part of this race is that it starts in the evening! I have never been much of a morning runner, so the idea of running later in the day is very appealing to me.

 

I had no idea this race was so huge. Past races have had around 45000 participating runners! I'm a little concerned about some of the race accounts I've read from previous racers-- some people say the race is not very well managed. Start corals are congested, not enough aid stations... But I hope that with years of experience of running an event this large, it will have improved over the years!

 

My full training won't start until early August, but I hope to get back to a more regular running schedule as the weather starts to warm up.

 

Ashley and Andrew will be joining us in Vegas for this race-- and hopefully Jasmine and Joel as well.

 

Looking forward to these races in 2014!