Some people dream about love and others dream about money. But me? I dream about chocolate… chocolate vacations in Paris to be precise. And that dream came true several months back when my partner, Joan and I, took a 7-day tour of the “Parisian Chocolate Strip.” If you’re planning a trip to Paris, you must check out the Chocolate Doctor’s Guide to Paris Chocolate Boutiques—it’s my list of the best chocolates Paris has to offer. Don’t miss even one on the list! And be sure to let me know of any new discoveries.
La Maison du Chocolat
225 Rue du Faubourg St. Honoré
75008 Paris
01 42.27.39.44
The scrumptious chocolates sparkle in the shop window like precious jewels, delicately wrapped in cocoa-colored diaphanous cellophane…above, emblazoned in bold lettering: La Maison du Chocolat. La Maison in Paris could well be regarded as the Hermès of the chocolate world. Company founder Robert Linxe—The Wizard of Ganache—pioneered the approach of bringing the production principles of haute cuisine to the world of chocolate making.
Christian Constant
37 Rue d’Assas
75006 Paris
01 53.63.15.15
Mr. Constant is a master chocolatier who travels the world to garner the best ingredients for his creations. He makes the chocolates from the finest cocoa liquor and cocoa butter. The flavors are delicious and subtle. The sugar addition is just enough, so the texture remains incredibly smooth and never too sweet.
Josephine Vannier
4 Rue du Pas De La Mule
75003 Paris
01 44.54.03.09
A delectable chocolate shop with incredible chocolate sculptures in the window and the latest theme is a collection of chocolate boxes. Once inside you are assailed with an intense scent of chocolate and amused by the other sculptures of musical instruments, cell phones, Eiffel Towers, and globes. Try the exotic flavored chocolate bars with combinations of salt and pepper, dried raspberry, spice bread, curry and pimento spice, and dried apple & pear.
Michel Cluziel
201 Rue St. Honoré
75001 Paris
01 42.44.11.66
Michel Cluizel chocolates have been renowned since the mid-20th century, when Cluizel first opened a family-run shop in Normandy. One of the rare chocolatiers to process their own carefully-selected cocoa beans, Michel Cluizel’s chocolates are known for their distinct, balanced flavors. At the famous store near the Tuileries Gardens and the St. Honoré fashion district, visitors can indulge in delicious dark or milk bars, each produced from a distinct blend of cocoa beans in Cluizel’s chocolaterie.
Pierre Hermé
72 Rue Bonaparte
75006 Paris
01 43.54.47.77
Pierre Hermé is widely considered the greatest pastry chef in the world and has some of the most interesting chocolate in Paris. Hermé is the “Picasso of pastry”, in the words of fashion magazine Vogue. Try his version of “Death by Chocolate”, a moist chocolate biscuit base layered with smooth chocolate cream, frothy chocolate mousse and fine leaves of crunchy chocolate for an explosion of textures.
Jean-Paul Hevin
231 Rue St. Honoré
75001 Paris
01 55.35.35.96
Jean-Paul is an extraordinary confectioner/chocolate and ice-cream maker. He spent seven creative-packed, discovery-filled years perfecting his craft alongside Chef Joël Robuchon. He created outrageous, offbeat cheese-flavored chocolates (with tastes like Camembert, goat cheese, and Roquefort) and a variety of flavor-enhancing dried fruit, herb, or spice: époisses cheese/ cumin, Pont l’évêque cheese/thyme, goat cheese/hazelnut, and roquefort/walnut chocolates. In 1988 Hevin opened his first shop (”Le Petit Boulé”) on Avenue de la Motte-Picquet, Paris. He then opened a second shop on Rue Vavin in 1990 and a Tea House rue Saint Honoré in 1997.
Girard-Dragées de Verdun
4 Rue des Archives
75004 Paris
01 42.72.39.62
A 40 year old family business has developed three generations of producing upscale chocolates in the heart of Paris. arrange visits to their chocolate laboratory within a gastronomic and cultural context.
Chocolat Foucher
134 Rue du Bac
75007 Paris
01 45.44.05.57
There are quite a few places in Paris where you can buy and eat great chocolate and Chocolat Foucher is definitely one of them. Even though they have two stores in Paris (one on Avenue de l’Opéra and one on the left bank, on the Rue du Bac) it’s anything but a chain store and it’s still a family operated business (founded in 1819). If you come to Paris, visit the store on the Rue du Bac because you can also have tea there.
Patrick Roger
108 Blvd. St. Germain
75006 Paris
01 43.29.38.42
A sculptor of flavors, he treats chocolate like a raw material which he transforms into giant 150 pound creations or wrapped sweets in yard-long boxes. The subtlety of flavors, the combination of textures and the sublime aesthetics of the creations are what makes the gourmet world of Patrick Roger so fascinating.
Michel Chaudun
149 Rue de l’Universite
75007 Paris
01 47.53.74.40
A former employee of La Maison du Chocolate, Michel Chaudun set out on his own just a few years ago, opening a little corner shop on Rue de l’Universite. According to one well-known Parisian food critic, Chaudun’s product now equals that of his mentor, Robert Linxe, in both quality and creativity. His base chocolate, a blend of chocolates from nine sources, is rich and complex. Products: includes over twenty-five creations, the latest of which is a crunchy, dark chocolate (70 percent cocoa liquor) flavored with toasted, crushed cocoa beans.
Richart
258 Blvd. St. Germain
75007 Paris
01 45.55.66.00
Richart is fond of using exotic spices and herbs and likes to make tiny chocolates that are just one mouthful. You can always count in inventive flavors—with an accent on fruit, spice or flower-flavored ganaches.
Debauve & Gallais
30 Rue Saints Pères
75007 Paris
01 45.48.54.67
A national treasure closely guarded by the French savvy travellers flock to the legendary D & G on Paris’ Left Bank. Established in Paris in 1800 and appointed the official chocolatier to the French court, Debauve & Gallais has since built a cult following among chocoholics, gourmands, and connoisseurs all over the world.
Jacques Genin
133 Rue de Turenne
75003 Paris
01 45.77.29.01
3-Star Michelin Chef Alain Ducasse selected Jacques Genin his chocolatier for his restaurants. After years of jumps and starts the most elusive chocolatier in Paris opened up his own boutique in December 2008.
Communication is a wondrous thing. When I was producing my own radio television programs, The Food Show and Stump the Chef, I thought that we had gone about as far as we could go in personal communications. Today, however, it’s possible to reach considerably more people in so many exciting ways. We have our iPhones and Blackberries, iPads, laptops and notebooks, and a wide array of programs and applications from which to choose, ranging from simple email to YouTube, MySpace, Stitcher, Lexy, 
Now there’s 
As the ChocolateDoctor and author of Ed Engoron’s Choclatique (Running Press, 2011), listeners will discover numerous great, new chocolate recipes along with many of the wonderful adventures that I have taken to discover the secrets of everyone’s favorite “dark” food—chocolate.
You can check out some of these recipes on the 
The artisan chocolate industry is still very much in its infancy. It’s on a parallel path to where the wine industry was in the early 1960s with vintages, estate-produced blends and even single origin varietals. While I never thought anything could me more complex than growing and harvesting grapes, crushing and fermenting the must, the aging process, and finally bottling the wine, I’ve learned that the chocolate-making process is very much like that of wine… only on steroids—more temperamental, more multifaceted, and even more rewarding. It is now a known fact that dark chocolate, high in cacao mass, has many of the same health benefits that have been recently discovered in red wines.
The complexities of turning rustic cacao beans into fine chocolate are many. Consider that cacao crops are grown on plantations by over 3.5 million independent subsistence farmers in no fewer than 50 exotic countries like Vietnam, Malaysia, Ecuador and Columbia… distances of over 5,000-10,000 miles from where the beans are grown to where they are processed. The beans have to be of certain specie and harvested at the perfect moment of ripeness. The farmers must also carefully ferment and dry the beans before shipping them to artisan chocolate makers and chocolatiers in the United States (and other points around the world) for further processing.
Recently, Joan and I had the experience of following the process of making 
The treasure of beans were imported to the United States from small, subsistence farms near one of the many tributaries of the Amazon. Initially transported by burros to all-terrain vehicles, they finally made it to airplanes, then get flown to California. It was here that the beans were slowly roasted and winnowed, a process of removing the outer shell and extracting the inner bean, leaving the rich, aromatic and flavorful cacao mass of chocolate liquor and cocoa butter.
The unfinished mass was converted into Q-91 chocolate with only the addition of a small measure of Hawaiian cane sugar, a touch of vanilla and some additional cocoa butter, then conched for over 72 hours. The result was our highest percentage of cacao mass chocolate. I think you will agree that it is one of the finest chocolates ever to be tasted.
This South American treasure, made from the species of beans that Montezuma himself might have enjoyed, is rich in the most full-bodied, “big chocolate” intensity available. The chocolate has light undertones of coffee, red fruit, touches of tropical forest musk, with traces of banana and cashew flavors.
At Choclatique, we quality check and, of course, the taste the texture of our chocolate on the day of production, four days after production when the chocolate has had a chance to fully develop its Beta 5 crystalline structure, and again twenty days post-production when the chocolate has fully matured before it is sold.
It was back to school last week for both Chef Wayne Chidester and me as we had the honor of teaching several days of bakery and confection workshops using American-grown, protein-packed peanuts at 
New Haven is a campus town with quaint commercial districts, serene residential streets, the famous New Haven Green, Yale University and other landmarks of American history. It’s also the place that has given the world five United States presidents, the hamburger, the lollipop, the corkscrew, and some of the world’s best pizza.
Yale University has been a part of the New Haven community for three centuries. With just over 11,000 hard-working students, you can imagine the appetites that have to be satisfied in the 12 colleges, Commons (Yale’s primary Dining Hall) and several other foodservice facilities. 
Commons alone serves nearly 16,000 meals per week. Yale has made an effort to serve “responsible foods”— foods that are healthful, locally-grown in a sustainable fashion, whole wheat products and now a protein-rich bakery—pastry and bread—which offers menu options made from what George Washington Carver thought was nature’s perfect food, the peanut.
We also showcased 
The highlight of the workshop was our own version of Top Chef where our “students” had the opportunity to take the basic ingredients that we supplied and turn them into their own super-tasty inventions. While we had the chance to teach a group of talented bakers and pastry chefs all about baking with peanuts, they had the occasion to educate us on all that is Yale. It couldn’t have been a better marriage of food and education.
Many chocolatiers hang up their molds and close their doors for the summer because it is normally too hot to work with chocolate and it’s also typically the only time chocolatiers can get away from it all before the busy holiday gift-giving season kicks in. But our team of Choclatique artisans and chocolatiers continue to run our 
Even the earliest residents of the New World knew about chocolate as a cold beverage. It is a well know fact that chocolate has been enjoyed as a beverage for thousands of years. The Olmecs, thought to be the oldest civilization of the Americas (1500-400 BC), were probably the first to use cacao, followed by the Maya; they drank cold cacao-based beverages by the gallon, all made from beans off their Chontalpa plantations from what is now eastern Tabasco. Chocolatl, the original cacao recipe was a thick, foamy, slightly fermented mix of ground cacao beans, water, wine and peppers. I think of it as a kind of chocolate beer!
After the Spanish conquered the native civilizations, it didn’t take them long to begin heating the Chocolatl and sweetening it with sugar. Later, the mixture was introduced in England where the Brits added milk to the blend for an after-dinner hot beverage similar to what we now consume for breakfast.
Today, most chocolate beverages are actually made with cocoa, not chocolate. There is a big difference between the taste of cocoa-based beverages and those made with chocolate. Sometimes the terms are incorrectly used interchangeably; 
technically they are as different as milk chocolate and bittersweet dark chocolate. Cocoa-based beverages are made from cocoa powder—chocolate, pressed free of all its richness, meaning that the fat of cocoa butter has been reduced. Hot or iced chocolate beverages are from chocolate (not cocoa) melted into cream. The latter is a much richer, decadent beverage. And, that’s exactly how we blend our chocolate drinking mixes at Choclatique.
For hot drinking chocolate—simply add 4 tablespoons of the Dark Chocolate Drinking Chocolate Mix of your choice to cold milk (whole, 2%, 1%, non-fat or soy); whisk and heat for a steamy cold-weather chocolate treat. Add a dollop of whipped cream or a marshmallow for a wonderfully warm chocolaty indulgence.
For iced drinking chocolate—simply add Drinking Chocolate Mix to cold milk (whole, 2%, 1%, non-fat or soy) and blend with ice for a summer time refresher. Add a dollop of vanilla ice cream or whipped cream for an iced chocolaty treat.
There is substantial evidence that chocolate was a major food during most of California history—it was a pleasure to drink and a pleasure to eat. California can claim a long history of savoring chocolate. Recently discovered documents show that chocolate was part of the supplies during a 1774-76 Spanish expedition to San Diego, San Gabriel, Monterey and San Francisco. Chocolate served as a 
Accounts of the early Spanish and Mission era extol the merits of chocolate, as noted in the diaries of 
Chocolate is found in the accounts from the Gold Rush. Miners took “chocolate breaks” to brew their 
As it turns out, while people have been looking for the fountain of youth, the silver bullet or Holy Grail has been right there on the shelf in the candy aisle of your favorite supermarket or confection store all along.
The study showed that for those suffering from high blood pressure the effect of chocolate was so dramatic it could reduce their chances of having a heart attack or stroke by 20% over five years. Hey, I’ve been eating chocolate for over 50 years. I’m going to live forever!
“You don’t always need medication to reduce blood pressure,” said Dr. Ried who carried out the research. “This [study] shows that there are some [functional] foods that can help.”
For the latest research, Dr. Ried and her team of doctors and medical researchers combined the results of 15 other studies looking at chocolate and cocoa between 1955 and 2009 covering hundreds of people. They found that for people with hypertension, eating chocolate could reduce the blood pressure by up to five per cent. For those with normal pressure it had no effect. “This is a significant finding,” said Dr Ried.
She said it will take more research to determine the optimal amount of chocolate that was needed to make the most difference. Any volunteers who want to eat massive amounts of chocolate are welcome to sign up here.
Chocolate has been found to have health giving benefits in the past. Research published earlier this year showed that people who eat just one bar a week are 22% less likely to suffer a stroke. 
#5… It’s our birthday! 
#4… Those lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer! Nat King Cole got it right with the soda, pretzels and beer, but where was the custard? I’m a Milwaukee girl; growing up our summers always included plenty of trips to 
#2… 
And the #1 reason to celebrate… the book is finished and off to the editor!! Here at Choclatique, we’re definitely celebrating the completion of 
Last Christmas, Choclatique adopted the marines of SOTF-81 from 
Early in their deployment their cots were replaced with some makeshift beds. The odd thing was the springs in the beds were positioned sideways. So, instead of getting an up-and-down motion when they sat on the bed, they’d get thrown out of bed when they rolled over in the middle of the night.
The weather in Afghanistan is about as dangerous as the bad guys. In late January, they were exposed to about 120 days of winds that blew every day like a bad nor’easter (not that there’s a good nor’easter). Most of the camp has heating and air conditioning, so even when it does snow or is 120º, they manage to keep relatively comfortable. Of course, all bets are off when they’re out on patrol and exposed to the natural elements of Afghanistan.
Young Americans make friends easily and these Marines feel blessed that the locals have taken kindly to them. The locals are mostly friendly and the 
One thing for sure is that no matter what the news reports tell us here at home, these soldiers cover one another’s backs and always feel safe because of the Marines’ special bond. They have told us that the great training they received back in the states and the quality of men and women with whom they are serving gives them confidence to know that they’ll all come home to their loved ones safe and sound.
What seems to get lost in all of the eating, watching and shopping is the real significance of the holiday… a day of remembrance and respect for those who died in service to our country. 
Those of us who have never served in the military can never begin to fathom what thousands and thousands of brave soldiers have endured—and are enduring—to protect us and our allies in conflicts. We owe these brave men and women—and their families—a debt we can never repay.
At 