Craft chocolate and whisky tasting
Thursday 27 July 2017 7 - 9pm
The Sir Hugh Casson Room for Friends, The Keeper's House, Royal Academy of Arts, Piccadilly
£40. Includes ten chocolates and three whiskies.
Friends of the RA book first
This tasting is a comprehensive introduction to the world of craft chocolate, paired with carefully selected whiskies.
At this tasting Cocoa Runners will provide the ever-popular combination of whisky and chocolate. You will be tasting three varied whiskeys including a malt, bourbon and scotch, carefully selected to complement Cocoa Runners’ chocolates.
We will look in detail at the intricacies of cacao genetics, harvest, fermentation, vintages, conching and roasting, and examine how each stage of cacao production can affect the flavour of a bar. With makers from Cleethorpes to Copenhagen, Woodbridge to Warsaw and San Francisco to Saigon, there's a wide range of bars to taste along the way.
Cocoa Runners will also discuss innovations in technologies that are further revolutionising the craft chocolate scene. This innovation, creativity and skill allows fruit to be transformed into a creative and gastronomic expression of cacao.
Cocoa Runners, founded by Simon Palethorpe and Spencer Hyman, is the purveyor of the finest chocolate in the world, scouting out top-notch producers from around the globe and bringing its customers an edit of the very best selection.
Spencer had his first taste of real chocolate when he was introduced to Valhrona – the must-have chocolate of top chefs – in the 1990s. In 2012 when travelling in the States, Spencer was overwhelmed when he discovered a burgeoning chocolate revolution: a wave of new, artisan chocolate makers had arrived. Spencer began to widen his search in the hope of finding other special chocolate creators in the world. In his search for the finest chocolate, he has sampled over 5000 different bars from around the world and continues to seek out new makers all the time. Cocoa Runners now works with artisan chocolate creators such as Marou in Vietnam, Onmon in Iceland, Fruition in the USA and Menakao in Madagascar along with several more. They deliver the very best chocolate to your doorstep – as a gift, or as part of their chocolate subscription service.
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