Northwest Chocolatier's Guild Meeting

It's been over a year but on Sunday I went to a Northwest Chocolatier's Guild Meeting. It made me realize how important these networking opportunities are. This group started three or four years ago and it came out of the increasing popularity of chocolate and becoming a chocolatier. It is a place where you can sit and talk about chocolate and the issues surrounding chocolate. It's an amazing opportunity to learn from others in your field and to connect and re-connect with friends and fellow chocolatiers. I love it.

Yesterday, Alex and Steven from Alexander's Chocolate Classics talked about their recent trip to Costa Rica with a tour organized through Ecole Chocolat. Ecole Chocolat is where I received my formal chocolatier training. It's an amazing school with great opportunities to travel the world over learning about chocolate. Anyway, this reminded me of when Tony and I went to Costa Rica. It was so much fun. We didn't get to go to the Limon region where the cacao is grown but we spent some time on some coffee plantations. Coffee and chocolate are grown basically under the same conditions. It's unforutnate, but Costa Rica's cacao plantations are under attack from the dreaded Monilia. Here's a good article on Monilia and other diseases of cacao. It's expected that by 2010 to 2015 95% of the plantations will be subject to Monilia.

Also, at the meeting were Sarina Elliot of Chocolate-Affairs and Bill Frederick, the chocolate man. These two people have been a part of The Northwest Chocolatier's Guild from the beginning and are a wealth of information and are part of the energy behind the Guild. Another passionate man about chocolate is Bernard of Beohm's Candies in Issaquah. He was there talking to us about the candy tax and is another man who is just a wealth of information. Those three alone make joining the Guild and being a part of the group worth the drive to meetings!

If you love chocolate and are learning to make chocolate, you might just want to check out the Northwest Chocolatier's Guild and become a member. You'll be glad you did!

And if you would like to see some pictures of our trip to Costa Rica, please go to our facebook photo album by clicking here. And while you're there, become a FAN!