Thanks to a competition on twitter, I ended up with 2 tickets to the Lindt Chocolate Masterclass at this year's Good Food and Wine Show in Melbourne. Tickets were valued at $50 each and included entry to the show, which was fantastic since I hadn't yet gotten around to buying my tickets.
I had no shortage of volunteers that wanted to come and join me. Hamsley was the lucky one though, as we both needed a day off as the event was on the weekend we moved house.
The class we attended was at 10:30am, and since we were going to a food expo, we didn't have any breakfast. So essentially, it was chocolate for breakfast. Our chocolate guru was Thomas Schnetzler,Master Chocolatier for Australia and a Lindt Ambassador.
Lindt & Sprüngli is the full name of the company, but as not alot of people know how to pronouce Sprüngl, they just shorted it to Lindt.
When you eat chocolate, you need to use your 5 senses:
- Sight: is the chocolate glossy? does it have an even surface?
- Touch: is it silky and smooth? The chocolate should be below body temperature, so when you touch it, it leaves a mark.
- Sound: do you hear a crisp, clean sound when it breaks?
- Smell: can you smell the bittersweet cocoa beans?
- Taste: (the best part): take a small bite, chew a couple of times, then allow it to melt in your mouth. Experience the texture consistency, and subtle flavours undertones.
Some history notes I jotted down in between munching away:
- Chocolate was used as a way to pay taxes, and debts.
- It was the Spanish that introduced sugar to chocolate to make it taste less bitter.
- Chocolate was introduced into Switzerland in 1696.
- The first solid block of chocolate was made in 1828.
- Milk chocolate was invented in Switzerland in 1875.
- Lindt & Sprüngliwas established in 1899.
The ideal temperature to store chocolate is 16°C.
Both were both amazing. Whenever I tell people about the sea salt chocolate I tried, they scrunch up their face and in a high pitched voice ask "SEA SALT?!?"
Lindt uses the finest quality seasalt in the world, Fleur De Sel, and it provides just little bursts of salty flavour which just goes down so smoothly. The same people that shriek at the thought of salty chocolate are pleasanlty surprised, then ask for more.
The blueberry intense is just as amazing as it sounds, and with flaked almonds, it's like a magical explosion to your tastebuds. Don't believe me? TRY IT.
Hamsley ended up winning the door prize; the Lindt chocolate cookbook. I'll be making good use of that, don't you worry!
And since people would have paid $50 to attend the masterclass, we got showbags on the way out. So between us, we probably came home with about 1kg of Lindt... never a bad thing.
For more information about chocolate or the Lindt range: http://www.lindt.com/au/
Lindt uses the finest quality seasalt in the world, Fleur De Sel, and it provides just little bursts of salty flavour which just goes down so smoothly. The same people that shriek at the thought of salty chocolate are pleasanlty surprised, then ask for more.
The blueberry intense is just as amazing as it sounds, and with flaked almonds, it's like a magical explosion to your tastebuds. Don't believe me? TRY IT.
Hamsley ended up winning the door prize; the Lindt chocolate cookbook. I'll be making good use of that, don't you worry!
And since people would have paid $50 to attend the masterclass, we got showbags on the way out. So between us, we probably came home with about 1kg of Lindt... never a bad thing.
For more information about chocolate or the Lindt range: http://www.lindt.com/au/
I have chocolate envy :P
This sounds like fun!