Chocolate Event News from Slowfood Bluegrass

The following looks like a pretty nice event :

www. slowfoodbluegrass.org
P.O. Box 976, Pewee Valley, KY 40056, 502-572-0745, Mark Williams, Chapter Leader


Slow Food Bluegrass, in partnership with The Green Building, Whole Foods Market Louisville, and Safai Organic Coffee, are pleased to announce the visit to Louisville by Kallari chocolatier Enrique Cerda of the Kallari Rainfamily Association from the Amazon rainforest of Ecuador. We would like to cordially invite you to sample some of the worlds best chocolate with us on Sunday, March 1, 2-4 p.m. at The Green Building, 732 East Market Street, Louisville. Cost for the chocolate sampling and presentation is $10.00 per person, free for Slow Food members. There will also be organic coffee provided by Louisville's Safai Coffee, and local food samples provided by Louisville's Whole Foods Market.

The Kallari Association is the first indigenous organization of cacao growers to receive 100% of the proftis from their own line of chocolate bars, which are retailing nationwide at U.S. Whole Foods Markets. With help from international volunteers and entrepreneur Stephen McDonnell, the Kichwa cooperative of over 850 families has been recognized for this unique line of chocolates by Today Show food guru Phil Lempert.Kallari cacao growers transport their cacao harvest to a nearby factory in Quito Ecuador. The Amazon beans are processed when they are still fresh, only weeks after the harvest. Kallari is one of the few chocolate bars made without the typical Methyl Bromide fumigation of cacao beans prior to export, weeks spend in airtight shipping containers and months/years spent in storage as brokers await price hikes in cacao or chocolate makers churn out bars.Kallari chocolatier Enrique Cerda and intern Rebecca Roebbler will be visiting Louisville to share the techniques of organic cacao production and artesanal chocolate making. Participants will also have the opportunity to sample various chocolates in a blind tasting, including several gourmet, organic, fair trade, and single origin dark chocolate.For more press information, please feel free to contact the Public Relations Manager for Kallari Chocolate Company:Priscilla: office@eleanorbertinopr.comKallari was featured in the New York Times Dining Section, Nov. 5, 2008.When Chocolate is a way of Life: the Story of the Kallari Rainfamily

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/05/dining/05choc.html?emc=eta1