The Bitter Sweet Box

Chocolate and alcohol aren’t normally things that you would consume together. I mean, how many people have you seen with a drink on one hand a chocolate bar on the other one? Very few – because they would be doing it wrong.

Liquor and chocolate actually make a very good combination, but there’s more to it than it looks. What we call pairing (chocolate & liquors) actually takes some effort and skill; these two aren’t easy to blend together. When it’s done correctly, though, people may not want to consume chocolate traditionally ever again.

If you love gourmet chocolate, and you like liquors, then it’s time to take the next step. Add some personality to your favorite chocolate; make it sweet but grumpy at the same time. The combination of chocolate liquor is something unique – the flavors contrast each other while still being perfectly compatible (not to say delicious).

At Chocotenango, gourmet chocolate bars are our everyday. But don’t get it wrong – our chocolate can assume a huge variety of shapes and properties. At the end of the day, all we care about is spreading happiness in the form of chocolate. What a better way to make people smile than deluxe, paired chocolate?

Whether it’s with wine, a specific cocktail, or just a single liquor, we love seeing our chocolate becoming part of something new. We’re very proud and happy about our work, and we believe great things can come from mixing it with other great talents, like our friends at Modern Bar Cart.

Aside from featuring our chocolates, Modern Bar Cart offers valuable cocktail advice, podcasts, and recipes. But it doesn’t stop there. If there’s someone who knows how to pair something with liquor, it’s them. The Modern Bar Cart offer the bitter-sweet boxes, in which you can try the traditional flavor of the Chocotenango in combination with the orange and chocolate bitters from DC Embitterment.

The best part about chocolate pairing is that it’s perfect for nearly any occasion. If an important date is upcoming, treating your relative to a Bitter-Sweet box might as well be the perfect solution.

Chocolate gifts are just flawless – especially if they’re accompanied by such a powerful complement. One thing is for sure; if the chocolate bar doesn’t make them smile, don’t worry... the liquor will.

Cheers!

Bean to Bar Chocolate Handcrafted in Washington DC

It’s easy to forget that chocolate is much more than just a bar of happiness. It looks simple making it out of the bean, but techniques and ingredient combinations for preparing chocolate are endless. We like our chocolate to be unique; something that your taste buds haven’t had before. For this, we use both quality material and quality handcrafting.

It’s surprising how different two chocolate bars can taste. There are many ways to prepare chocolate, which is why Chocotenango offers a variety of flavors. We have three particular products we want to talk you about: Happy Medium, El Puro, and Arabian Nights. You may know them from their purple, blue, and green packages, respectively.

They share their organic Caribbean origin, but each bar has a different story to taste.

Happy Medium is a milk chocolate, with 54% cacao. It means that 54% of the bar is made from cocoa. Non-fat dry milk composes the rest along with some organic sugar.

After our process, there are 53g of rich and creamy milk chocolate. The Happy Medium is light, yet tasteful; it creates a soft milky sensation in your mouth. It’s so exceptional that it became an International Chocolate Awards (ICA) winner.

El Puro is a dark chocolate bar with a 73% cacao base, made from organic beans, sugar, and cocoa butter. It’s unique in many ways – its smoothness, texture, and concentrated flavor to start with. It has a deeper cacao taste than milk chocolate; the El Puro delivers the very essence of the bean, and it’s also an ICA winner.

Last but not least, Arabian Nights is also a 73% dark chocolate bar, but rich and intriguing in its own form. Its taste is surprisingly delightful. This is in part thanks to cardamom – an aromatic, bold, and unique taste. It blends in perfectly with chocolate, as it’s also a traditional sweetener. The bar is tasteful and sweet enough to brighten your night.

We aim to provide you with a variety of ways of enjoying chocolate, and the distinctness of our bars is part of who we are. If you’ve tried our chocolate, share your experience with us and other chocolate-lovers on our social media channels!

Have a sweet week!

DC Chocolate Festival 2018

They say time goes by faster when you’re enjoying, which is probably why chocolate bars seem to be over so fast. In the blink of an eye, it’s already April, and two chocolatey things come to mind for this month: organic, bean-to-bar Chocotenango bars, and the DC Chocolate Festival!

It’s okay, you’re still in time for your tickets, as it takes place during April 28th. It will go down at nothing less than the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m., two different sessions. Individual tickets go for 25$, but you may consider the all-day pass for $35.

This festival gathers up vendors, or rather artisans, to bring us chocolate from the Mid-Atlantic and beyond. It’s a concentration of chocolate makers, chocolate lovers, and chocolate itself; it’s hard to think of a better combination. Chocolate is actually very interesting, and you can learn a lot from it during this event.

It’s the third time this event is held, but this year it comes bigger and better than ever. Expecting over 1800 attendants, the event will feature local, domestic, and international chocolate makers. You’ll get the opportunity to participate in exclusive chocolate workshops, experiencing in first person (and tasting) how a bar is made.

Some of the morning activities (although not all) are geared towards families and children, and there will be a 1-hour break between blocks. The evening block is the ideal date night activity; classes and offerings involve some whiskey and a class on chocolate pairing. It will also feature a cash bar.

Each block will be somewhat different, and if you’re down to spend a full day with chocolate, the all-day pass will prevent you from missing a thing. It’d be your loss to miss out really. Here, we’ll get to do what we like the most; taste, talk and learn about chocolate.

Hope to see you there!

Saturday, April 28th

10:00am-2:00pm & 3:00pm-7:00pm

Washington Marriott Wardman Park

2660 Woodley Road Northwest

Washington, DC 20008

https://www.dcchocolatefestival.com/