Biagio Fine Chocolate‘s next Sample Day will be Saturday, July 23, from 3pm-6pm.
Complimentary – no R.S.V.P. needed. What is Sample Day? It is a monthly event that has been wildly successful with our customers. We will have over a dozen varieties of some of the world’s best chocolate available for tasting. Sample day is held in Studio B, the tasting room/gallery behind Biagio Fine Chocolate.
Biagio Fine Chocolate and Studio B are located at:
1904 18th St. NW, Washington, DC 20009
Biagio Fine Chocolate‘s next Sample Day will be Saturday, June 25, from 3pm-6pm.
Complimentary – no R.S.V.P. needed. What is Sample Day? It is a monthly event that has been wildly successful with our customers. We will have over a dozen varieties of some of the world’s best chocolate available for tasting. Sample day is held in Studio B, the tasting room/gallery behind Biagio Fine Chocolate.
Biagio Fine Chocolate and Studio B are located at:
1904 18th St. NW, Washington, DC 20009
This was written by Robert Cabeca, the new owner of Biagio Fine Chocolate. (Editor’s Note: (11/2112)This business changed its name to Cocova a while back. -JAY)
Are you nervous about traveling with Chocolate?
Don’t be!
Just follow these simple guidelines and you can take your chocolate with you to most locations:
1. Pack your chocolate in a ziplock type bag and pack it in the middle of your clothes in your suitcase. If you have a moisture free ice pack, place it on top of a layer of clothing, not directly on the chocolate. This is a very effective solution for most occasions.
2. Try to keep you luggage out of direct sunlight for extended periods. If your luggage contains chocolate, avoid placing it on a roof rack (you will save gas too!)
3. Don’t leave your chocolate in your parked car for extended periods. If you must, don’t leave your chocolate in the glove compartment or trunk. Under the seat is best with a moisture free ice pack or cold bottle of water. Not soda bottles or cans because they could explode in high heat. Your chocolate will probably be doomed at that point, but cleaning up a burst soda can is worse!
4. If hiking or biking, keep the chocolate next to your water supply in your backpack in a ziplock type bag.
5. Use an insulated lunch box. There are many small ones available which can easily be adapted to the above suggestions.
6. Only take as much as chocolate with you that you are going to eat in a few hours. Leave the rest in the beach house or hotel room.
A Traveling Chocolate Story:
Two years ago I traveled to the Middle East in August (what was I thinking) and brought 20 boxes of my Robert’s Chocolates truffles with me. I followed most of the guidelines above by placing the boxes in the middle of the luggage and between clothing, but did not add any ice packs.
After a lengthy unplanned layover, I arrived at my destination and collected my bags which felt very very warm and made me nervous. While going through security, I was taken to a small room where everything was unpacked. However, I was thrilled that all of the chocolate boxes still felt cool and upon inspection the truffles were undamaged (security insisted on looking in each box). I felt relieved that my packing plans worked!
However, while in my guest room, I had left a few boxes on a dresser during the day where unknowingly the sun beamed on them for a few hours. They were cool when I retrieved them and was none the wiser. I brought them to my cousins home.
They opened the boxes after I stepped out of the room briefly. When I returned I found them devouring the truffles from the box with spoons! They had melted into the container! I was mortified! They assured me that they still tasted great and refused to let me eat any or take the box away from them. Family 🙂
Another lesson learned:
7. Keep chocolate in a cool dark location whenever possible.
If you have a chocolate traveling story you would like to share, please send it along to info@Capitalchocolate.com. We would love to read it!
As an aside, if you need moisture free ice packs, we have them available at the store in 8oz for $2.00 and 12oz for $2.50.
Have a safe and fun Holiday weekend!
Best regards,
Robert Cabeca
Fried green tomatoes at the Chesapeake Room.
A couple of weeks ago, I attended Newton Vineyard’s Eco Chic Media Tour at (the relatively new) Chesapeake Room (501 8th Street Southeast) near Eastern Market. Michael Wisner was present; he is a contemporary American artist and designer of the new 2011 Newton Limited bottle chiller and an official partner of Newton Vineyards eco – conscious initiatives. I got to meet Chris Millard as well; he is the winemaker for Newton Vineyards. I’ve never had unfiltered wine before, and was expecting something like unfiltered grape juice (which is basically juice with pulp). No. there was no grit or pulp because wine sits longer and settles into sediment that does not wind up in your glass. Was it good? Yes, definitely better than expected.
Cheese & fig compote. The (delicious) seafood salad is to the right.
How was the food at Chesapeake Room? I had a variety of appetizers including fried green tomatoes with goat cheese tomato creme, seafood salad on cucumber slices, Appalachian cheese with (their house made) fig compote, shrimp & zucchini skewers with chimmichurri (I’ll go with their spelling), and smoked duck breast with Pomeranian sauce. My favorites were the seafood salad and the shrimp skewers, but i enjoyed all the dishes except the duck, which I felt was too tough. The fig compote was good. The chef is new to this area and is originally from North Carolina.
I attended Biagio’s sample day a couple of weeks ago. They had many great chocolate samples out (like a 100% bar, and one with pink peppercorns). They also had the list of winners from a British chocolate show and were selling the chocolates that won awards. First Vines was the guest vintner and had some great French wines at the tasting; they can actually deliver to DC or ship to Virginia (sorry Maryland). Biagio’s sample days are monthly, and while they announce the dates a few days in advance, they are (at my request) sending me the dates a couple of weeks in advance.
One nice thing about the Biagio tastings is that two wine stores on the same street have wine tastings on Saturdays. So, we hit 3 tastings in one shot. The other two shops we hit were A.M. Wineshop (which only carries French wines), and Ansonia (which has prepared foods as well). De Vinos might have tastings as well.
-JAY
In My Inbox.
-JAY
——————————–
Biago’s February Sample Day – Simply Chocolate
This month we introduce Moonstruck’s Peruvian Fortunato #4 68% dark bar to Washington, DC. Also in this month’s line-up are John & Kira’s Dark Mint and Milk Rosemary-Orange Urban Bars, Christopher Elbow’s award winning Dark Pop Rocks bar, and 12 other delectable chocolates.
Saturday | February 26 | 3pm – 6pm
Complimentary – no R.S.V.P. needed
What is Sample Day? It is a monthly event that has been wildly successful with our customers. We will have over a dozen varieties of some of the world’s best chocolate available for tasting. Sample day is held in Studio B, the tasting room/gallery behind Biagio Fine Chocolate.
[ad]
Crafts & Kisses:
Saturday, February 12: 12:00pm – 6:00pm.
The Cacao Tree is awesome and will be one of the vendors. Check it out. Sandra (of The Cacao Tree is a great cook and chocolate maker. I was lucky enough to be at an event at her home a few months ago. The above C&K link was the Facebook evite. Here is the C&K direct link.
This Wednesday (February 9th) 5-7pm will be the Arlington Wholefoods Market’s Chocolate Festival. According to Chef Michael Kiss, there will be 8 demos, and all will contain chocolate. Other romance themed events are listed below and are only live demos and not full on classes. The “chocolate for breakfast” event is Chef Kiss making chocolate chip pancakes for the hot bar live on the floor.
-JAY
———————-
Join us for a celebration of all things chocolate! Sample all that we love from around the store and find the perfect sweets for your sweetie, romantic meal packages, unique gifts & more.
[ad]
A few years back, I had dinner with some friends, and one of them made these sugary, scrumptious, little bundles of happiness. She called them “cake balls”. I call them truffles, because “cake balls” sounds funny to me. Despite the deliciousness of the truffles, they only required three ingredients, which makes them even more fantastic, and can also be made in about an hour, if you need a dessert quickly.
Recipe:
-One 8 oz. block of cream cheese, softened
-One box/container/slab of Oreo-type cookies
-One bag of white chocolate chips
Using a food processor, crush the cookies until they are a fine crumb. Reserve ¼ cup. Mix in the cream cheese until well-blended. Roll small pieces of the dough into golf ball-sized balls, place them on waxed paper on a cookie sheet, and either freeze for 15 minutes, or refrigerate for an hour. After they are set, melt the chocolate chips (using a microwave, double boiler, or whatever your preference may be), and dip the truffles into the melted chocolate. Shake off the excess, and place on another sheet of waxed paper on a cookie sheet. While the chocolate is still wet, sprinkle the reserved crumbs over the truffles, and place in the freezer for 30 minutes, or the refrigerator for two hours. Serve and enjoy.
The beauty of these is that they can be frozen (I’ve had them in the freezer for nearly two months) and customized. I believe the original recipe uses actual cake (in place of the cookies, bake a sheet cake according to the directions on the box, let it cool, crumble, add cream cheese, etc.), so different types of cake or chips can be used. Favorites so far have been peanut butter chips coating peanut butter Oreos, white chocolate chips coating lemon cake (with a little lemon extract added), and white chocolate chips coating red velvet cake. They can even be made using reduced fat Oreos and fat free cream cheese with no noticeable taste difference. As for decorations on the top, you can melt a few dark or milk chocolate chips and drizzle over the white chocolate or peanut butter coatings. I was planning on making white chocolate-peppermint coating for the holidays, but apparently peppermint extract in Arlington is hard to come by. The world is your oyster, so be creative and enjoy!
-JDS
[ad]
In my Inbox from Artisan Confections in Clarendon. They have good stuff. 🙂
-JAY
——————–
Autumn Open House
Those of you who’ve been with us for a few years know that this is the time of year that we like to mix things up. Chocolatiers, you see, are a fickle breed. We’re ready to make a major change. How major? 11 out of 15 flavors major. We’re keeping a few of our favorites around, but adding a bunch of new and fun flavors to the lineup. Two of our most requested flavors ever will become regulars (sorry trendsetters, still no bacon) but that also means that we’ll have to say goodbye to some of our very popular current flavors.
If you’ve been playing along at home, you know what that means: sale! So, join us for our Autumn Open House on Saturday, October 23rd from 11 to 3. We’ll be sampling all of our new products, and offering deep discounts on outgoing bonbons. Need more incentive? Check out next week’s reminder email for a sweet coupon good only at our Open House.
[ad]
From Robert of Fleurir Chocolates (who also sells at the Alexandria Farmer’s market Saturday mornings 8-11am):
——–
Come join us at Biagio Fine Chocolate on May 20th to enjoy our final six flavors- Wattleseed Toffee, Peanut Butter Banana, Pink Peppercorn, Spumoni, Brandy Alexander, and Lemon Honey. The tasting is from 6:30-8:00PM and completely free! 1904 18th St. NW, Washington, DC 20009
——-
I used to get his chocolate all the time when he was at the Ballston Farmer’s Market. He makes good stuff, with an artistic eye.
-JAY
