Title Defense: Snackdown 2022

I have come to terms with the fact that I don't win awards even though I feel like I deserve them.  I try to tell myself that I don't need a trophy to tell me that I am a success but the fact is, a little trophy here and there validates my efforts to me. I remember someone telling me that the coach only notices the first guy and the last guy. As compelling as that is, having won so few awards, I have managed to celebrate my shortcomings and to pat myself on the back hard enough to propel myself forward. 

But two years ago things changed. Woodblock Chocolate was invited to compete in an event that would lead to one of the greatest accomplishments of my life and change the course of history. The event was called Snackdown and it took place at the end of Portland Beer Week, June somethingth, 2019,  a rowdy celebration. The WWF themed event teamed 10 local breweries with 10 local chefs with the goal of creating a tasty pairing that would garner the most votes from the participating public. The winner gets obnoxious bragging rights and the honor of being in possession of the most sought after, iconic and coveted trophies in all of Beer Week. The Belt! Like the lesser known Stanley Cup, The Belt is to be defended or passed on, for it know no allegiance but to the reigning champion.

We were fortunate to be teamed up with Great Notion Brewery. We were late to the game and had little time to prepare but managed to come up with a stellar offering. It was a dish of Woodblock Chocolate's signature chocolate pudding with a malted whipped cream, dusted with ground cocoa nibs and a disk of Meridian hop enfleuraged 70% dark chocolate. This was paired with Jammy Pants, a red hued, berry forward kettle sour beer. The complex but accessible combination of the flavors took everyone by surprise. It was a case where 1+1=3. The combination of flavors and textures was bigger and better than the individual components. It was a symphony, an orchestra on the tongue. 

The result was a coup. We walked away with the belt held high above our heads to protect the patina from the salty tears of the weeping losers. To the jolting shock all of those culinary school cowboys, we won! This was no small feat! We were up against extremely accomplished culinary superstars but their tears are as salty as their food and the belt is mine. 

But then came the global pandemic.  

To many, this was a bad thing but to me it was an opportunity. If the pandemic we horrible enough, maybe Beer Week would be cancelled! Maybe I could keep the belt FOREVER! But Beer Week has prevailed and we are ready to defend! We have a plan and we are not screwing around. We have called in the ice cream geniuses at Fifty Licks to assist on the recipe development and have had many deeply intense meetings with high level people throughout the multiverse. I feel the target on my back and it is the closest thing I have had to a massage in years! Look out Snackdown 2022! The belt is ours and we intend to keep it.

The 92%

It's been a while. I wish I had a better excuse but the fact is that I couldn't find my password. It took me 9 years os searching and guess where it was! In my jacket pocket! No, I'm kidding. It fell down the 1/8" gap between range and the counter in the kitchen. The other day I cracked an egg and rather than making it into the pan, followed the same path as my password did 9 years ago. I went to clean the egg up, there it was, old and battered but it still worked. So here I am, 9 years better. 

My plan is to use this platform mainly for chocolatalk. I should probably start a new blog dedicated only to that effort but I have to give credit to everything I have done before because that has lead me to where I am. Chocolate is a design problem as much as a kid's chair or a furry van is.  It is all creative problem solving and that is essentially what I am blogging on about. Chocolate is now my main problem.

Take dark chocolate, for example.  Make that very dark chocolate. 100% cacao is about as dark as it gets and there are a lot of them out there. Some are really good and a lot are tough to eat. The problem is that the less sugar you add, the fewer places you have to hide. As you get closer and closer to 100%, the more the cocoa bean itself and the skills of the chocolate maker are revealed. If you choose the wrong cacao, if you goof up the roast, If you don't sufficiently aerate the chocolate, you may well be responsible for an astringent, harsh mouth mess, unworthy and regretful. Nobody wants that. 

WRONG! There is definitely a group of 100% chocolate lovers that has a bit of a cultish air to it. They eat 100% like someone who eats ghost peppers. They don't do it for flavor, they do it because it separates them from everyone else. I am pretty sure that if Woodblock Chocolate made a 100% bar, there would be a devoted clan that would eat it and praise it only because it is 100%. To me that is like wearing a badge of honor for something of questionable honor. It feels disingenuous. That is fine but I am driven by flavor and if the experience of eating chocolate is less than amazing, I don't want to have any part of it, even if I could sell the hell out of it. Integrity is a costly burden, right up there with ambition.

The truth is that I would love to make a great 100% bar but I haven't been able to make something that meets my standard. I did make a chocolate a few years ago that was 98% cacao and I added 2% whole milk powder. That little bit of milk added an amazing amount of creaminess and sweetness for its tiny presence. It was The Darkest of Milk. The darkest milk chocolate bar in all of the land.  

Alas, many super dark chocolate eaters are also very anti-milk so it wasn't viable.

I have been chipping away at the sugar content and although I am not yet at 100%, I am very happy with a new chocolate bar I am calling The 92%! It is a blend of cacao from Tanzania and the Dominican Republic and it is sublime. It is fruity and bright but without too much acid. Its sweetness comes from the cacao as much as from the sugar. The melt is magical with the thin format allowing the chocolate to reveal its flavor with the bawdy fluency of a burlesque dancer. It is truly a thing that you want on your tongue. The 92 %! Its the darkest chocolate we make.