Chocolate Show Coverage, Part 2: My Favorite Things

So I know I'd promised you all some good ol' chocolate show coverage yesterday, but Red got distracted by ugly pillows and aebleskivers. Sorry! I won't make you wait any longer to hear my favorite picks from this year's show. So here you go, Red's Chocolate Awards 2008!

Best Design:

Pralus Chocolatiers put together these beautiful arrangements called Des Pyramides Tropique, a set of ten chocolate bars each from different parts of the world. They're all made with the exact same recipes, so that the only difference between the bars comes from the nature of the beans and the geographical conditions in which they're farmed. It's a fascinating concept, but the color-coding really hit my aesthetic soft-spot.


Best Guilt-Free Snack:


Since I went to my first Chocolate Show, Romanicos has always caught my eye. Coming from Miami (like me!), they also specialize in healthier chocolate treats. Their pure dark chocolate truffles, which they call "Original Sin," are quite sin-less in fact, with only 38 calories apiece. How do they do it? No butter! And this new line, photographed above, uses Miami's Latin fruit flavors--papaya, mango, guava--to decorate and flavor the truffles that are shaped to look like sushi. Chocolate masquerading as health food? No need to masquerade, Romanicos!


Best Indulgent Treat:


Roni-Sue's chocolate-covered bacon, also called "Pig Candy," a surprisingly delicious execution of the salty-sweet combo, harkened back to the days when my friends overcame my skepticism to show that potato chips dipped in chocolate are seriously tasty. Apparently, after talking to Roni-Sue, I wasn't the only one to have that epiphany who-knows-how-many-years-ago, as it was one of the inspirations for the deep-fried, pork-based chocolate treat. Having frequented her store at the Essex St. Market, I'm not sure why it took me this long to muster up the courage to try them. If there was one thing I wanted to purchase at the show, a bag of this stuff was it. The label aptly reads, "Pig Candy--it's addictive!"


There were so many delicious chocolate confections at the show this year that it's hard not to mention the rest... so stay tuned as some other special chocolatiers may make eventual appearances here at eatmywords. But for now, I think I need me some choco-indulgence!