Do you have a checklist of places you would like to visit?
Many of us want to see the entire entity of something, for example the National Parks. I once met a family who visited them all. Or perhaps like me, see all of Michelangelo’s works. Only a few are not located within Italy.
Many of you are real chocolate lovers. Well, did you ever think of finding the best chocolate in the world? It would be difficult to do a true chocolate tasting as that would require a lot of traveling to places all over the globe. But you could bring chocolate home and have a great tasting party!
I found a great new blog BootsnAll. They have some great ideas about travel. Here are some excerpts from their article on chocolate. Chocolate is sold all over the world. But there’s a clear separation between the crème de la crème and just another regular chocolate bar. Here are five destinations where you can find top-quality chocolate, in no particular order:
1. Switzerland
Chocolate processing started in Switzerland in the 17th century. By the 1850’s the popular Toberone began to make the Swiss famous. Today, the best brands include Lindt and Sprüngli.
2. Belgium
Belgian chocolate-making traditions date back to the 19th century, when Belgium’s colonies in Africa granted the country access to various cocoa plants. The most famous Belgian invention is definitely the praline, which emerged in the early 20th century. Neuhaus still prides itself as being “the inventor of the Belgian praline.”
3. Bariloche, Argentina
The Argentine town of Bariloche has become a hub for artisanal ice cream and chocolate. What a combination. The trend for manufacturing artisanal foods and desserts started in the 1960s, when the inhabitants started realizing that Patagonia, and the particular valley that includes Bariloche and El Bolsón, offers an infinite variety of food, including milk, eggs, fruits and cocoa.; hence ice cream and chocolate.
4. Oaxaca, Mexico
Chocolate is embedded in the gastronomic tradition of Oaxaca. You can have it bitter, with vanilla or cinnamon, in the form of a bar, or dissolved in milk or water. The latter would be the most traditional: dissolved in a little water and accompanied by a pan de yema, literally meaning egg-yolk bread. Chocolate Mayordomo is a good brand to look out for; it is 100% authentic from Oaxaca.
5. Costa Rica
Harvested from the cocoa tree, the chocolate bean has a long tradition in Costa Rica. During pre-Columbian times, the beans were used by indigenous tribes, for whom they were one of the main crops until the advent of coffee and tobacco in the late 16th century. Most of the country’s cocoa comes from the Caribbean lowlands, which provide ideal climatic conditions with a lot of rain. Cocoa is a crop that grows in the shade, and thus has prevented deforestation and conserved a lot of Costa Rica’s wild life, which finds shelter in the rejuvenating cocoa plantations.
Have fun searching for your favorite! And if you need help with your travels, well, you know who to call!
AlwaysHarriet 