"Tranquilidad Wild Amazon Chocolate, Pistachio Pralus Chocolate and more at chefshop.com/enews EXCLUSIVE SUBSCRIBER 5% OFF CODE amazon  Recipes | Chef's Pantries | Shop for Food & Ingredients | Food Blog Tranqilidad fills the appetite! and finishes like an aperitif! Chocolate is one of the most complex foods we have and is said to have over 200 different flavor compounds. To identify them is beyond my simple tongue and perhaps why, when we try to define the taste of chocolate, we are at a loss for words! And why chocolate above 65% (dark) can be so complex and is without the need to be sweet to be satisfying and, ultimately, fulfilling that sweet craving! Great chocolate, or more correctly the wild cocoa bean from which it is derived, is more rare and difficult to cultivate and harvest than one might think. Keep in mind, most chocolate does not come from a wild bean grown in the remotest locations of the Amazon (as is this one). Most chocolate comes from a “domesticated” bean, easy to grow and many generations from its origins. Not to say those beans (and chocolate) are bad...just not the best possible. This wild bean has existed as Cru Sauvage chocolate (68%), and an honest favorite of my Mom, who could care less about where it is from or any back story, as all she cares about is the taste and, at 98, she doesn’t eat what she doesn’t like. Tranquilidad meets her taste criteria. This bar from Tranquilidad (74%), made from the same Beniano Amazon Cocoa as Cru Sauvage, is one of the rarest beans known to man and is truly amazing. Slightly darker than Cru Sauvage, it is as smooth as any chocolate. Tranquilidad is calming. To the nose there is a lot of personality hidden there. With some quiet notes of floral hinted. When breaking (the bar) it has a very good snap. The bite is firm and not quite sharp. Once warm it softens nicely and is clean and gentle. The flavor has many levels of harmony. Not quite bluegrass and not a quiet guitar strum, it has the sweet feel of a quiet yet full banjo. After your first few bites to break your piece apart the chocolate starts to melt and you stop chewing and let the chocolate dissolve naturally, savoring all the hints of the rain forest. Without a doubt it is smooth, smooth and smoother with a complexity that is so satisfyingly simple. Tranqilidad fills the appetite and finishes like an aperitif. Shop Now for Amazon Wild Harvest Chocolate! It's a Convenient Tin Same chocolate, slightly thicker, shinier and cut up into convenient pie shaped slices. Open the tin and be pleased! Driving down the road you can have a slice of the amazon. Much more convenient than a bar. Walking the jungle of NYC keep a tin of Tranquility nearby. In a tin - convenient hits of bliss - shop now! The creamy interior feels...creamy! This is a 3 dimensional “bar” of chocolate. Filled with a pistachio cream that is divine! If you will, it is three bars in one. The creamy interior feels creamy, but seemingly without flavor. If you want to experience the pistachio you must squeeze your cheeks in and rub your tongue around. And then a warm smooth pistachio flavor comes thru. Refrain from chewing vigorously and instead dissolve the paste and in a movement the flavor comes through smooth and sweet. As the cream dissolves what’s left is the shell of chocolate and whole pieces of pistachio. Crunch the pistachios and the chocolate is smooth with a slightly bitter dark feel, as one would expect from a 75% bar. There is a stickiness to the cream and a bit of drying left on the tongue, like the aftermath of a dessert storm. It is really quite interesting and lovely. Separate the chocolate from the cream, and you can easily taste the chocolate, easy to bite, with chocolate flavors of a wonderful Pralus bar. As for the cream, there is something about it that makes you wanna suck your tongue and the inner parts of your mouth to get the full flavor. If there was such a thing as the pistachio effect, it would be here. Even after the cream is completely gone you find yourself moving your mouth around trying to find all the little nuances and little tidbits' hiding places to get that last hint of flavor. If you like super sweet, this is not that. This chocolate concoction is more about a savory experience – of chocolate. Click here for a bar of 3 dimensional flavors! Black Lemon Bitters From the producer ... A "Black Lemon" is an earthy, smoky, spice commonly used in Middle Eastern cooking, and contrary to what the name suggests, is actually a dehydrated lime, but the name of the spice was a mistranslation from Arabic to English ages ago. Despite not having any actual "black lemon" in this bitters, the bright and fresh lemon flavor has rich floral notes and deep earthy spices that are reminiscent of the "black lemon," hence the name. From us ... By far our favorite of Scappy's products - not that we don't like everything Miles makes! It has a citrus punch that can't be beat - but with an unusual twist. You will have people wondering what the heck you put in your cocktail! Shop Now for Black Lemon Bitters! Italian Chef's Flour Not all flour is the same! It's the little nuances that make the difference between just about perfect and average. Looking for the flour for a specific recipe and one that you like the best is a quest. Which means not just one cake to bake but many. And who doesn't like a lot of cake! This finely ground wheat flour from Italy has a little less gluten than the Caputo Pizza Flour (which is the bomb for making thin crust pizza!). The fine grind and the perfect gluten balance makes for a great crumb for the next cake. Shop now for "00" extra fine flour! Boyajian Orange Oil Natural orange oil is ideal for use in sauces, dressings, soups, glazes, whipped cream and frostings. It can also be used in sweets and hard candies - pairs beautifully with chocolate. Boyajian has dedicated 25 years to the pursuit of the finest sources for their natural extracts. The result has been a line of consistently superior products that are relied on by home cooks and professional chefs alike. Unlike common supermarket varieties, Boyajian orange oil is undiluted and unadulterated. Because of their remarkable intensity, only a few drops of oil are required to replace zest or peel. Click here Orange Oil! Fruit for Baking All kinds of fruit make baking sweet, chewy and fun. Candied fruit has variances per crop / season. It can add sweetness and a textural change to a scone. Or make a mixed drink and switch out the cherries with lemon peel.... Some, like the orange peel or the ginger slices, are like candy. (Better than candy!) Check out all the Fruit for Baking! * White corn from the north of Venice Today, most corn flour comes from yellow corn, but in Veneto, there grows a local variety with a long cob with a tapered shape, which produces a bright white kernel. Named Biancoperla, it has been preserved by local farmers passing “seeds” on for generations. This open pollinated or self pollinating variety produces a lower yield at harvest. This prized white corn is grown to make polenta, one of the regions most important and historical dishes. Polenta is a classic “porridge” made by boiling cornmeal/flour into a soup or thicker mix. Eaten right away, baked, fried or grilled it is a wonderful base for flavors or as the perfect accompaniment to proteins from the sea. It's a great time to pull out your Marcella Hazan's cookbooks for some recipes featuring polenta. Shop now for Stone Ground White Corn Polenta! * Moscatel Wine Vinegar This warm, light colored vinegar is first sweet and, as it moves to the back of the mouth, the throat gets a jolt of acid! If you are to “taste” with a little lip and tongue, there is a sweetness and a wonderful grape and peach flavor, and the acid is subtle and later. Its very light persona is not aggressive, with fruity notes, that will create a wonderful dressing. A dressing that would go well with the summer bounty and delightfully with fall harvest, too. There is also a woodiness that comes with it that adds a round, perhaps cushy, finish to your palate. It has a subtle approach which spreads out nicely revealing all its nuances of flavors. What’s wonderful is that this vinegar is not mono-toned at all. Its flavor profile is indeed white wine, yet, from a light, simple wine comes this quiet flavor-rich vinegar! Espelt Moscatel Wine Vinegar - Shop Now! Sun is shining and setting after 7PM! ChefShop Cocoa Powder The Top Cocoa Ever! "...first discovered this cocoa...20 years ago...and have been using it ever since. Of course, now I buy it in large quantities! It makes a decadent hot chocolate, and I use it in brownies and Martha Stewart's one-bowl chocolate cake recipe. Really wonderful...." - Donna Shop now for rich cocoa powder! New Line-up of Cooking Classes See what's up for cooking in May and June! ChefShop Cooking Classes - See what's coming up! Store Hours - come visit and have some nuts! Monday thru Saturday 10AM to 5PM. ChefShop.com 1425 Elliott Ave W Seattle, Wa 98119 206-286-9988 Our parking lot is to the north of the shop and to south of Champions Party Supply. Easy open parking lot. Click here to see the map. This Week's Recipes Cold Chickpea Salad with Figs, Olives & Pomegranate Dressing Recipe Fruited Couscous Recipe Fruited Couscous Recipe - adapted from Chef Tamara Murphy's cookbook TENDER. Squid Ink Stringozzi al Frutti di Mare (Fruits of the Sea) Recipe So simple, and so good - if you can locate the right seafood. This recipe includes just about all the shell fish and crustaceans you can find, but it is just as good with one or two of them. Recipe courtesy of Giuseppe. See what you missed in previous Newsletters Black Cherry Preserves We Tried a Lot and Found This One! New Farm Parmigianno-Reggiano ChefShop.com Toll-free: 1-800-596-0885 You've received this email because you have purchased from us or subscribed. We respect your privacy online, and will never share your email address. Help | Contact | About | Terms | Privacy Policy | Search | My Account DESIGN: JODI LUBY & COMPANY, INC. NEW YORK CITY, NY; EMAIL STRATEGY: CRM Group USA, SEATTLE, WA