Chicago Chocolate Tours

 

When people ask me if I miss practicing law, I show them my calendar: visit chocolate shops, meet with chocolate lovers, participate on chocolate tasting panels, go to launch parties and spa parties, and go to the All Candy Expo! It's true that when you do what you love, it doesn't feel like work.

Thousands of exhibitors and attendees have taken over McCormick Place here in Chicago for the All Candy Expo, featuring 3 days of chocolate, candy, and snacks. Paradise! And fascinating! Some of the attendees are taking our chocolate tours this week, which is wonderful. Yesterday at the Expo I tried and learned about chocolates from Indiana and Italy, Colorado and Colombia, and practically everywhere in between. And I brought my team back lots of samples!

 

One of the best I tasted was the chocolate from Chuao Chocolatier in San Diego (pronounced chew-WOW). Not only are their flavors amazing - the strawberry balsamic chocolate really stood out, and their spicy hot chocolate was amazing - but the chocolate itself is Venezuelan and tip top notch. Their combination of creative flavors that taste great, and ultra high quality chocolate that sings on the tongue, is seductive, refreshing, and mind-expanding. I got to meet the owners, and later today I'm making chocolate with them!

 

Another highlight: I met Joseph Schmidt -- yes, THE master chocolatier Joseph Schmidt of the exquisite mega-sized truffles, whose company is now under the Hershey's umbrella. 

He's a jolly gentleman, with sharp twinkling blue eyes and his Austrian/Israeli accent. As you know if you've taken the Downtown Loop route of Chicago Chocolate Tours, his Chicago Skyline made of chocolate is on view at Marshall Field's/Macy's, and Maitre Schmidt is an incredible chocolate sculptor. He was sculpting incredible designs yesterday at the Expo, including decorative bowls, lamps, and women's legs (!) made entirely of chocolate, all with a lovely marbleized look (except for the women's legs which were wearing chocolate fishnets). One bowl broke, so he gave me a big piece of it, which he told me I could eat. I took a little bite just to see that it really was 100% chocolate, and I brought back the rest of it to show my team. 

I told him that not only do our tour guests ooh and ahh over his truffles at the Hershey's store, we also take tour groups to see his skyline sculpture at Macy's, and his face lit up as he said he couldn't believe it still existed. He told me he made it 10 or 15 years ago. I asked him how he did it, and he said he made it in California and carried it in pieces on a plane to Chicago, enlisting the aid of another couple who were traveling to Chicago too, and somehow they got it all there. High flying chocolate.

I'm going to the Expo again today, to delve again into the wide world of chocolate. I confess I don't miss the law firm! Would you?