Another Year. Another Chocolate Week.
We finished the week with a visit to Chocolate Unwrapped at Vinopolis. This is its third year and it’s been getting bigger by the year. Vinopolis is an excellent venue for this type of event, nice high ceilings to keep the temperature down and lots of room for growth.
The first person we spotted as we walked in was Paul Wayne Gregory. He was keen to tell us that he now has a boxed selection of his chocolates that is entirely made up of award winners. We also had some more of Duffys Chocolate (their chocolate was used in both the chocolate dinners I went to during Chocolate Week at The Providores and Almeida).
I tried to find Lauden Chocolates (one of my favorites), but if they were there I missed them. I did spot a tweet from them saying they had such a good day on the Saturday that they had sold out, so perhaps they didn’t managed to restock for the Sunday session. Matcha Chocolat another favorite from last year was also no where to be seen. However Chocolate Unwrapped for me is all about discovering something new. This year my discovery was Pacari Ecuadorian Organic Chocolate bars, specifically the Raw Chocolate with Salt & Nibs (70% Cacao) and Lemongrass (60% Cacao) – this is seriously grown up chocolate.
We had a quick chat with Paul A Young and on the recommendation of a friend I also bought some of his very distinctive Pumpkin flavoured chocolates.
We were brave enough (or was that foolish enough) to try some chocolate wine too – it was an interesting novelty, but didn’t really work for me.
The event seemed to have more of an International vibe this year, lots of French accents around. We also visited stands from Hungry, Switzerland and Italy.