After a morning power walk to Great Harvest and a taste of a Raspberry Chocolate Scuffin (heavenly!), I realized I was running out of time – had to shower and eat lunch before 12:20!
Luckily I had leftover fiesta cups to quickly heat up
Along with an amazingly juicy grapefruit!
Unfortunately this was consumed very quickly so I could get out the door to pick up Sara and head over to Thomas Jefferson’s house!
My friend Natasha works at Monticello and gave me a complimentary pair of tickets to a Taste of Chocolate event at the site. Our day had 3 parts: history, cooking and wine. And of course all three involved wine!
History was first and was led by a representative from the historic division of MARS/M&Ms. We learned all about chocolate’s history and production. It goes from fruity beans to fermentation. Then the beans are dried and then finally roasted when you can crack them open and find the nibs inside. The nibs are then ground into cacoa butter and powder which form a paste. Very interesting!
There is a whole line of American Heritage Chocolate that is flavored and spiced like it would have been when people first started consuming cacao beans. The American Heritage line comes in bars, sticks and drinkable mix and it all has a rich dark chocolate flavor with the essence of banana, likely from flavors like anise, red pepper, nutmeg, orange and cinnamon that were used to make it palatable. I found the same flavor to carry through all the forms – drinkable, bar, baked.
The first taste we got was in the form of drinking chocolate, much like Jefferson might have consumed. The spices were very apparent and this was incredible. I had a second mini cup!
Part I was a cooking demo by the head chef of Brookville Restaurant.
He made a chocolate mousse out of the Heritage blend for us and we tasted a brownie and Brookville’s famous Bacon Chocolate Chip cookies just for fun. All three were incredible!
Finally we arrived at the wine tasting!
We were graced with the presence of the famous Gabriele Rausse himself! He gave us a talk on wine and a bit of the history of his story and Jefferson’s. I absolutely loved listening to his Italian accent, and he made some hilarious jokes as well.
Each of the three wines were paired with the MARS Pure Dark line – Sea Salt, Raspberry Acai and Chipotle Cinnamon. All were wonderful, obviously!
The wines paired well – Gabriele Rausse Merlot, White Hall Petit Verdot and the Barboursville Malvavaxia Passito, a dessert wine.
When our chocolate daze concluded, Sara and I walked up to Monticello and back. I love going there – it makes me feel like Cville is so important : )
Afterwards we went to Whole Foods, which was slammed, and stocked up on groceries and Super Bowl foods. And tonight Matt and I are going to a birthday party for our neighbor! Going to have a healthy snack now before I go.
Not that dark chocolate isn’t full of antioxidants though : )
Mom says
Fabulous and Delicious. What a cool way to spend a Saturday!
Ashley @ My Food 'N' Fitness Diaries says
chocolate and wine tasting?! sounds like my kinda day! 😉
Lynn @ the actor's diet says
Chocolate party!!! I’m about to go to a cupcake one!
Averie @ Love Veggies and Yoga says
Last night I said your Fri night posts are usually my faves of the week but I take that back, THIS is my fave post of the week. WHAT a cool EVENT!!!
Learning how the cocoa beans go from beans, to dried, to grinding, paste, etc sounds really interesting and then of course chocolate tasting with the wine pairings, with a friend = truly a perfect afternoon!
StoriesAndSweetPotatoes says
So amazing. And then there’s wine??
Allie@LiveLaughEat says
The chocoholic in me is so supremely jealous!!!
Michelle (Better with Berries) says
That looks so cool! It would be neat to see how people first thought of chocolate. I’m also going to a party at a neighbor’s house tonight. Have fun!
Cm @ Lazy Healthy says
I went to the Museum of Chocolate in Brussels a couple of summers ago… and I may have eaten an extra large portion of dark minted chocolate this afternoon…
Christie says
Looks like such an interesting and delicious event! Chocolate and wine – is there really anything better?! 🙂
Grace @ What Grace Cooked says
How fun! I’ve always wondered what old-fashioned/historical drinking chocolate tasted like!
Maria@Sinfully Nutritious says
That is a dream day, if it included coffee, I would surely be in heaven.
Molly @ RDexposed says
I would have loved the history part! Always wish that I lived in colonial times by with indoor plumbing!
Kelly @ Vegolosophy says
Sounds like a great day!! Anything that has chocolate involved sounds amazing!!!! 🙂
jana @ newly wife healthy life says
What an awesome event! I love history, and wine/chocolate of course, so this is right up my alley!
Jen says
What a wonderful Saturday! Have fun tonight. Are you hosting a Super Bowl party in your new house this year?
KathEats says
Nope, attending one
Greg says
I sat on a committee with the author of the Chocolate book. I’m sure he would be glad that you spent the day immersed in chocolate!
KathEats says
Oh wow – what a fun connection!
Angela @ Eat Spin Run Repeat says
Wow, what a fun day! I’d love to learn more about wine pairing, and having a little chocolate to pair with wouldn’t hurt either. Yay for antioxidants! 😉
~Christy @ wonderofallthings says
Sounds like a really fun afternoon — historic places, good smackrel’s and vino…delightful! 🙂
Angela @ Happy Fit Mama says
I went to the grocery store today, too. Bad choice! It was crazy busy especially in the meat dept and chips aisle. Is there a big game going on tomorrow??!! 😉
Laura Jane @ Recovering Chocoholic says
Oh wow, a chocolate party!! What could be better? I find Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods are super crowded on Saturday afternoons. It makes shopping there a lot less fun. I like to go when they open at 8am.
Lindsay @ Running the Windy City says
Chocolate is so interesting! I remember seeing cacao trees growing in Costa Rica when I was in middle school, it’s so incredible how that plant is transformed into the chocolate we eat. Craziness!
Stacy @ Say It With Sprinkles says
Any day that involves that much chocolate sounds like a GREAT day to me!…But now you’ve got me craving chocolate, haha!
Kristen @ Change of Pace says
Seriously I don’t know what could be better! What an amazing time 🙂
Susan H. @ The Food Allergy Chronicles says
Wine, Chocolate and a double dose of antioxidants…perfection!
Kaila @healthyhelperblog! says
What a cool event! Seems like there is always something fun going on at TJ’s place!
Gina @ Running to the Kitchen says
that is pretty much the perfect day! wine + chocolate 🙂
Michelle @ A Healthy Mrs says
How cool! Sounds like a really fun day!
Angel7 says
Monticello looks like a really cool place!
I like to have dark chocolate on-hand in the refridgerator to grab from time-to-time. I always buy the highest percentage of dark chocolate, because I know that it is better for you, and the antioxidants are really good for you as well.
http://faithfulsolutions.blogspot.com/
Hillary says
I honestly don’t know if I could think of a better way to spend my Saturday!
Erika - The Teenage Taste says
That chocolate tasting sounds like loads of fun. Everything looks so good and that drinking chocolate looks absolutely heavenly! Drinking chocolate is so good – it puts regular ol’ hot chocolate to shame! 😉
Ashley @ Coffee, Cake and Cardio says
What a fun event!!
Khushboo says
Wow this sounds heavenly! I didn’t realise chocolate had specific wine pairings!
Lindsay @ Salt, Sun & Sanity says
I was literally just telling myself the same things about dark chocolate (as a crazily scanned pinterest chocolate goodies). It can also help lower blood pressure 😉
Lexi @ Cura Personalis Foodie says
Chocolate tasting? YUM sign me up for that, and I’ll be there in a jiffy 🙂
Jasper @ crunchylittlebites says
yum! Kathy, what are the chances (eek, prices, too) of getting to spend my Saturday with my two friends (Wendy and Kevin) when I come to visit Charlottesville, VA in early April this way?!?!? Is it tough to get a spot for/reserve a spot for attending such an event?
KathEats says
I’m pretty sure this was a one-time Valentine’s month event 🙁 But Monticello always has fun things going on
Jasper @ crunchylittlebites says
ah well there’s always next, year?! hehe thanks Kathy! I will be coming up in April and Monticello would be such a treat!
Simply Life says
oh what a cool event- The combo of history, wine and chocolate is pretty perfect! 🙂
Fran@ Broken Cookies Don't Count says
Wow, that must have been incredible! All that chocolate! I bet you could smell it when you walked in!
Katie @ Peace Love & Oats says
That is so cool! I’m jealous of all these neat tastings you get to go to, I mean come on, wine and chocolate?! What gets better than that!?
Kayla says
that looks like a near perfect way to spend a Saturday! 🙂 thanks to having chocolate involved.. yum
Maureen says
That sounds like the perfect day to me! History, chocolate & wine…could life get much better??
[New Balance] Nicole says
How fun!! And that house is SO breathtaking and beautiful!