Christmas is coming, THE chocolate season of the year. So most us buy, eat, and give away a LOT of chocolate over the next couple of weeks. Which is great!
Just try avoiding the most common dirty tricks in selling chocolate to make sure you really get something that’s worth being praised as ‘chocolate’.

There are many nasty ways for reducing production costs (and quality) of chocolate. Low quality bulk cocoa is much cheaper than premium cocoa. Sugar and other ingredients are even cheaper so reducing the overall cocoa percentage also saves money. And often products are marketed as ‘premium’ to sell for much higher prices even if there is nothing premium inside…

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Christmas time, chocolate time. That seems a pretty universal law although it comes in different styles and shapes. Today for instance, 6 of December, many Germans will get their chocolate ‘Nikolaus‘, but chocolate Santa-Claus-like treats are fairly common in many places. It relates to a lot of great childhood memories, probably not only for me. However, when I had a closer look at my ‘Nikolaus‘ today, it felt devastating. These guys are clearly made of bad bad crap chocolate!

Two chocolate Santa Claus (here from Lindt)… as sad as it is: most of these guys are made from very low quality chocolate. Actually, it is hardly ‘chocolate’ at all and the best part of chocolate, the cocoa solids, are only present in traces…

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Feels like I am soooo slow when it comes to blogging. No way that I can keep up with my fast growing (imaginary) list of things I wanted to write about. Thus: random picking!
I still haven’t finished my list of Amsterdam chocolate places, so let me introduce another one that was missing: chocolatier Van Soest!

Van Soest – Amsterdam chocolatier in the Utrechtsestraat.

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The last two days I attended this year’s ‘Science and Society Conference’ an annual conference series which –this time- was focused on “Foods are us! On becoming and eating”. I had a great time and really enjoyed many interesting presentations by food science experts from very diverse disciplines and backgrounds. This ranged from chemistry and molecular biology to psychology and sociology.

‘Science and Society Conference’ on Foods are us! On becoming and eating taking place at EMBL in Heidelberg

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Although cocoa has always been a luxurious good and chocolate in its current (western) form is a highly esteemed delicacy, it feels like high-end chocolate is currently being re-invented. More and more bean-to-bar chocolate makers start to produce better and better chocolates, often by systematically questioning, testing, and improving the individual steps of chocolate making.

Diego Badaró from AMMA at the Origin Chocolate Event 2014 in Amsterdam

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Yesterday I learned more about the rapidly growing local microbrewery scene at Pakhuis de Zwijger. This ‘Brewery Special’ was organized by Indie Brands and mainly consisted of 5 presentations by different local breweries to introduce themselves and tell something about what they do, why they do it and additional anecdotes (the featured breweries were Amsterdam Brewboys, De Vriendschap, De Prael, Oedipus, and Browerij t’IJ). Naturally, this was followed by a beer tasting…

Selection of local craft beers at the ‘Indie Brands Brewery Special’

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When I started blogging about Amsterdam’s chocolate world I really had in mind to cover it as completely as possible. Somehow I never finished the list I initially had in mind. Time to catch up I guess.
One place I haven’t mentioned so far in more detail is ‘ArtiChoc‘ located south of Vondelpark in one of the traditionally richer areas of Amsterdam.

Bonbon selection at ‘Arti Choc’, an Amsterdam chocolatier south of Vondelpark.

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When I found myself picking apples in a beautiful south-German orchard in early September, I wondered what could all be done with the large amounts of organic, delicious apples. Eating, sure. Baking, yes. But wouldn’t Cider be the ideal way to refine the apples’ potential? Only problem: I had never done Cider or anything alike by myself. Normally I use my kitchen (besides ‘normal’ cooking) to experimente with confectionery recipes. Now it’s cider as well…

First time Cider Making – Hand-picked apples from the south German orchard I took along to Amsterdam for first cider making trials.

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There are two interesting events for people that want to learn (and taste) more about Amsterdam microbreweries in the next two weeks. The ‘Local Goods market’ and beer lectures and beer tasting in Pakhuis de Zwijger. But first let me start with a confession: As a German that moved to the Netherlands I was as arrogant as most Germans when it comes to beer. ‘German beer is the best’ is beyond dispute. So why even try other beers… well, maybe to find out that German is indeed often pretty OK. But also a bit boring. Pils, Weizen, some dark beers. That’s it…

Brewing process (beautiful infographics taken from this site).

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Dear regular followers of my blog,
I know that it must appear as if I am currently obsessed with my microbial cohabitants. Soon, I will return to more candy and chocolate stuff. Promised!
But for now: back to my microbes….

The microbiome topic is increasingly hyped in the media. ‘Redefining human’ is the catchy title for a planed film project. The picture is based on a screenshot from their website (website of ‘redefine human’)

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