The Story of One Golden Ticket
During our annual anniversary celebration we hide three golden tickets among our collection of chocolate bars. Whoever finds these Golden Bars wins a free bar of chocolate every week for a year. One of last year's winners, Richard Vaughan, was so inspired by the experience he started a chocolate blog to chronicle his year of chocolate tasting. I asked Richard to tell the story of his experience. Here it is in his own words.
"Before last year I'd had good chocolate from Lindt and Green and Black's, but in 2010, Chocolopolis exposed my palate to great chocolate. I attended five of their free chocolate tastings during anniversary week, and ending up buying 8 or 9 chocolate bars. Artisan chocolate is expensive (at typically $6 to $10 for only a few ounces), so I savored each bar and ate them slowly, perhaps one per week. As luck would have it, it took me until September before I opened the last of those bars to discover, to my astonishment and delight, one of the golden tickets!
Realizing I would have the opportunity to try literally dozens of different chocolate bars, I decided to start a blog to keep track of my experiences as I tasted and reviewed this huge variety of chocolate. The result was One Golden Ticket. At first it was rather overwhelming, as I was new to the world of artisan chocolate. I asked several of my chocolate-loving friends, and Lindy volunteered to help me with this project. Over the past year, we've reviewed nearly 100 bars of chocolate, and in the process, we've learned about cacao beans, farming, regional origins, ingredients, production, and chocolate makers. Chocolate is almost as complex as wine.
If you love chocolate and have not yet experienced artisan chocolate makers, you owe yourself a trip to Chocolopolis. It might feel overwhelming when you get there and see hundreds of different chocolate bars, but just ask one of the friendly staff there for help. They can explain about different regions, typical flavors, and suggest bars based on your preferences. To try some chocolate before buying, stop by their free Thursday evening "happy hour" chocolate tastings (5 to 9 p.m.). Better yet, visit some of their events during anniversary week, and if you find some chocolate you especially like, buy a bar or two and you might just win a golden ticket as I did."
Richard Vaughan