My friend Karen emailed me this research brief from the Center for Media Research that states that while passionate female bloggers would give up quite a lot to continue their bloggy lifestyles, precious few would give up chocolate.
According to this survey, for 80% of the female blogging population, chocolate is more important than blogging. So, really, the only way out of this chocolate vs. blog power struggle is to write about chocolate on your blog. OR eat chocolate while writing your blog. Pure genius.
To celebrate, I enjoyed the following chocolate while I wrote this:
Soma Chocolatemaker Africa 70% - Ghana Forastero: Soma is a chocolate maker based in Toronto that makes a line of really interesting micro-batch chocolates. Here's a past post about them. The problem is that I was so focused on writing this blog post, that I forgot to pay attention to what I was tasting, and therefore cannot write an accurate description. So lesson learned, blogging and chocolate are best enjoyed separately, contrary to what I just said two paragraphs ago.
To remedy this situation, I will try the chocolate again tomorrow and then write about it (but only afterward), breaking all convention by posting here two days in a row!
The picture above is of me peeking into a really big closet while apartment hunting at some point last fall. It relates to this post because it reminds me of how happy I will be tomorrow when I re-taste Soma's 70% Ghana bar.
Chocolate is better than flowers because your mom can eat it. A chocolate tasting kit for two is better than just plain chocolate because you AND your mom can taste, enjoy, and experience it together. So those of you who are looking for a sweet, delicious, really unique, and curiously interactive Mother's Day gift, I'm taking this opportunity to shamelessly plug the beautiful and brand new Tasty Show Chocolate Tasting Kit for Two. It's kind of like a board game, except that everyone wins nonstop while eating chocolate the whole time. (And this is some of the best chocolate in the world.) Each kit comes with 24 pure gourmet mini bars of chocolate from all over the world (12 different kinds, 2 of each) that you don't just eat, you taste. It also comes with a full set up so you can have a real live chocolate tasting at home, including a tasting board, rating cards + pencils for tasting notes, a flavor chart, a guide with the flavor profile of each chocolate, chocolate glossary, and a set up guide that includes all the hows of chocolate tasting. If you give her a chocolate tasting for Mother's Day, your mom will love you even more than before, guaranteed.
WHERE can you purchase this fabulous gift, you ask? Well, if you need one in time for Mother's Day (and don't we all), visit GRAND, in Union Square, Somerville. This guarantee of your mom's unconditional love for one more year runs about $45.
Andn note, soon this delicious chocolate phenomenon will also be available online, right here at The Tasty Show!
Here are some lovely pics of The Tasty Show's totally sweet and delicious birthday bash a couple weeks ago. A special thanks to my friend Eric Scott for offering up his photography skills while we were all eating cupcakes that night! Click anywhere below to see full versions on Flickr.
In preparation for The Tasty Show Birthday Party, a small crew of us got together for two pairing sessions - one to figure out which beers should be paired with which cupcake flavors, and one to match particular beers with 4 different artisanal cheeses. A lot of people I talked to over the past few weeks found the concept of pairing beer with cupcakes & cheeses hard to imagine - until they tested out our pairing menu with their very own tastebuds.
That said, below you'll find the entire pairing menu from the Tasty Show Bday last week along with notes about how we came up with each one. Or if you'd like to see the actual menu that our guests were given when they arrived to the party, you can see it here.
Beer + Cupcakes:
Stone Cat Blueberry Ale + Kickass Blueberry Crumbly Cupcake: This medium bodied fruit beer has a slight blueberry essence and pairs perfectly with a light, fruity dessert. The blueberry crumbly cupcake, which was a topped with a bit of mascarpone, was a nice and simple pairing with the mascarpone adding a little twist. Flavored beers can be really simple to pair with awesome results.
Stone Cat Blonde Ale + Kickass Vanilla Cupcake with Herbed Topping: The blonde ale is light and crisp with inherent herbal notes. For the pairing, Kickass Cupcakes came up with the brilliant idea to top a light vanilla cupcake with a vanilla buttercream frosting and a piece of caramelized sugar with a tiny sprig of thyme in it. I think this one won as the favorite pairing of the evening. And the favorite cupcake too. The vanilla cake was pristine.
Ipswich IPA + Kickass Cinnamon Caramel Cupcake: The IPA has a strong, dry bitterness balanced with a slight malty sweetness. The malty notes made a smooth pairing with the caramel flavors in the cupcake, and the spice warmed things up a bit.
Ipswich Oatmeal Stout + Kickass Maple Chocolate Cupcake: The oatmeal stout is a great dessert on its own; this rich, smooth stout works best with chocolate and was paired with the most curious cupcake on the menu - a maple-based chocolate cupcake sprinkled with smoked salt. The maple balanced the rich sweetness of the beer, and both elements were then heightened by the smoked salt.
Beer + Cheese
Ipswich Summer Ale + Hannahbells Classic: This light-bodied, crisp unfiltered blonde ale matches the creaminess of the Hannahbells classic cow's milk cheese without overpowering the flavor. A nice, even pairing.
Stone Cat Hefeweizen + Hannahbells Lavender: The floral notes that this unfiltered German-style wheat beer possesses are a wonderful match for the lavender flavor of the cheese. This was one of the evening's favorite cheese pairings.
Ipswich Original Ale + Hannahbells Rosemary: We tasted the rosemary over and over again until we finally went for the Original Ale. The smooth, malty flavor of the unfiltered English-style pale ale compliments the rosemary accent in the cheese.
Stone Cat ESB + Hannahbells Chipotle: The spicy chipotle was definitely the favorite cheese flavor of the night. Our biggest challenge with this one was to pair a beer that enhances and not flattens its spicy, smoky elements. The ESB, which stands for "extra special bitter" has a smooth malty sweetness and is not bitter at all. It was an excellent complement to the spiciness of the chipotle flavor.
Photos by Eric Scott Photography.
The Tasty Show Bday Party was quite the evening of tasty delights. In the next couple days, I will post the entire pairing menu of both beers + cupcakes and beers + cheeses along with some of our reasoning behind the pairings. In the meantime, here are a couple posts about the event:
And of course, I want to say thank you to the evening's wonderful sponsors:
Then there's Eric Scott Photography, whose pics I'll be posting sometime in the next few days, and Fleming Printing who provided all of the printed materials for the event (and which was also the excellent local printer who did all of the lovely tasty kit printed pieces). And our gift bag sponsors, Whittard of Chelsea, My Lip Stuff, and La Tene Chocolatier.
And finally, thanks also to Joe from Somerville Local First for bringing along Heather, Jessica, Jonathan, and Kerri, our high energy volunteers (who looked pretty awesome in those Tasty Boy and Tasty Girl tees!), to my awesome friend Jeff of Nerve Action for handcrafting delicious-looking tables to display the new tasty kits, and to my close friend Jon who helped out with everything the whole entire day!
The Tasty Show's big night is tomorrow! We've had a tremendous response to the event and are fully expecting tomorrow evening to be nothing short of absolutely fabulous.
Several people asked me about the new Chocolate Tasting Kit that will be available tomorrow eve. Kits will be $45 (the regular price after tomorrow night wlll be $48) and $5 of every kit purchased tomorrow night will go to Somerville Local First. Tasty girl and tasty boy tees will be available as well, and of course, the lovely Grand boutlque will be open and willing to satisfy all of your wildest shopping desires.
Several people also asked about tickets/cost for this event - this event is free. In order to attend and enjoy the evening's deicious beer, cheese, and cupcake delights, you just need to be on our guestlist.
Important Note: If you have already RSVP'd and are a confirmed guest for this event and need a refresher on event details, it's all here. For those of you who have not yet RSVP'd, unfortunately this event is at capacity, and we cannot accept any more guests. If you're not sure if you or one of your guests is on our guestlist, please contact me to confirm by noon tomorrow.
RSVPs for The Tasty Show Birthday Party are now closed. If any spots open up over the next week and a half, we will post updates here!
In Part II of the pre-Tasty Show B-Day party beer pairing sessions (here's Part I) that have been taking place these past few weeks, five of us congregated at Kickass Cupcakes to determine which brews and which cheeses we're going to pair up at the April 16 event. I can wholeheartedly say that I have never seen anything quite like the tiny, thimble-shaped artisanal cheeses that we've lined up to be part of the pairing. These little cheeses, which are called Hannahbells and are made by Shy Brothers Farm in Westport, MA, are made according to a traditional recipe that the Shy Brothers (two sets of very shy twins) discovered in the Burgundy region of France.
Once again, I'm not going to be all giving away all our party secrets (at least not until after the Tasty Show beercupcakechocolatecheese evening of tasty deliciousness next week), but I will say that after an exhausting evening of rigorous tasting, we came up with some wonderful pairings! Here is a bit of pairing wisdom that I was lucky enough to pick up last week:
Barbara from Shy Brother Farms has a fabulous way of articulating what makes a good food pairing (of any kind) that she shared with me ~ it's when 1 + 1 = 3. Or, translated into the context of beer & cheese, it's when Beer + Cheese = Delicious Enhancement of Both Beer and Cheese That Becomes a Wholly New BeerCheese Entity.
I'm super excited to announce that the Tasty Show is having a party and you are all invited! All the details are below. Space is limited, so if you'd like to come please be sure to RSVP with your full name + names of any guests to dana@thetastyshow.com.
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Last week I enjoyed a delightful evening with a couple friends during which we 'tested out' various pairing beer & cupcakes pairings. We sipped several brews ranging from the lightest blonde ale to a deep, dark oatmeal stout, and experimented with various cupcakes and pairing ideas. Rough times here at the Tasty Show, I know.
That said, I don't have a grand lesson or extravagant pairing idea to share in this post - mostly because our tests results are secret. The evening, which was hosted by the illustrious and creative Kickass Cupcakes in Somerville and featured artisan brews from Stone Cat and Ipswich Ale made by Mercury Brewing Co. in Ipswich, MA, was held in preparation for a very special Tasty Show event that is happening on April 16. I'm thrilled to report that with Sara from Kickass Cupcakes and Caitlin from Mercury Brewing Co. as our guides, we came up with some fabulous ideas! And Kickass Cupcakes will be developing cupcake recipes especially for the beer pairing. Details on the event will be posted here shortly.
The only conclusion that I am willing to share is:
The right beer & the right cupcake can make an incredible pairing, and while I'm not going to tell you what our star pairings were, there is absolutely no harm in running some tests on your own. If you're not sure where to start, go for tastes that usually match (a citrusy or fruity brew with a citrusy or fruity cupcake, a honey brew with a spiced cupcake, and so on).
