For the Love of Chocolate

Valentine's Day is one of a chocolate lover's favorite times of the year. Not only can they share their love a chocolate with someone special, but they might also be on the receiving end of some of that luscious coco extract known as chocolate.

Want a valentine gift for that special someone what will really be remembered? The Creative Chocolate Printing Company can create a one-of-a-kind chocolate valentine gift for your sweetie that will make them say "Wow". Your photo on a heart shaped chocolate! One idea for a special gift this Valentine's Day is having a favorite photo printed directly onto chocolate using the astonishing Chocolography process. Chocolography is a patented technology that makes it possible to reproduce any picture, image, or message right on the surface of delicious chocolate using edible inks.

The Creative Chocolate Printing Company at www.YourPhotoOnChocolate.com offers a wide range of traditional and heart shaped chocolates in your choice of dark and milk chocolate, to be turned into truly an unforgettable gift this Valentine's Day.

Here are a few suggestions for your special Valentine gift:

A chocolate heart box (item 204) - This "all-chocolate" box comes in the shape of a heart with a heart center. Measuring 4.5" this 8.5 oz chocolate also contains 3 truffles that can be replaced with a little something from the jewelry store if you wish.

Heart Truffle Box set - A beautiful heart shaped chocolate portrait and an insert with your image on it. This 7.5 oz, 7.75 " x 7.75" heart-shaped portrait comes surrounded with 16 delicious milk and dark chocolate truffles (item 210).

Deluxe I Love You Card (item 232) - A A 13 oz chocolate greeting card personalized with your photo or image and "I Love You" Packaging: custom made box with a gold hot stamped message, plastic tray.

A jumbo 4.8 oz heart shaped chocolate lollipop is 3.25" x 3.25" in size and is a great low cost way to give a gift of personalized chocolate this Valentine's Day.

Getting started is easy. Select a High-Quality Chocolate gift from our wide range of Chocolate valentine Chocolography products. Customize your gift with your uploaded photo and message to that special someone. Then, we print your fully personalized, unique image, text and/or design onto chocolate and ship it to you or directly to that special someone. We can ship to anywhere in the U.S. Anything you can see or say, we can reproduce on Chocolate! What better way to get your message across to that special someone than to say it in chocolate!

While 75% of chocolate purchases are made by women all year long, during the days and minutes before Valentine's Day, 75% of the chocolate purchases are made by men. Over $1billion of chocolate is purchased for Valentine's Day. And www.YourPhotoOnChocolate.com can make it easy to give a unique memorable gift - a sweet heart to your sweetheart!

The combination of photography and chocolate, Chocolography can produce a sensational Valentine Day gift if you plan ahead. While selecting the right photograph to be printed on the chocolate, make sure it is of good quality with a neutral light-colored background.
For more information on Chocolography, visit the Creative Chocolate Printing Company, winner of the Web Marketing Association's 2007 Standard of Excellence WebAward, at www.YourPhotoOnChocolate.com

Posted by Bill at 07:32 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Thanks to advertising blog AdRants, we found this commercial for a Japanese chocolate candy. While this is really stretching the limits of chocolate related news, it was so funny, it had to be shared.

Posted by Bill at 03:21 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The travel blog Tavelhacker today posted an interesting article from Christina Laun entitled " World's Best Chocolate: A Chocoholics Travel Guide". The article discusses the different countries where chocolate is important and why.

My only suggestion would be to add the Creative Chocolate Printing Company to the information about the USA. It is one of t he most creative uses of chocolate I've seen in a while.

Posted by Bill at 07:48 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

An article entitled Remedies: Dark Chocolate Similar to Blood Pressure Drugs by NICHOLAS BAKALAR, Published April 24, 2007 in the New York Times reports that eating dark chocolate may be almost as effective at lowering blood pressure as taking the most common antihypertensive drugs, a review of studies has found. Tea, on the other hand, appears to be ineffective.

The study appears in the April 9 issue of The Archives of Internal Medicine. It reports that four of the five studies on chocolate found reduced blood pressure after eating, but none of the tea studies showed significant benefit. The magnitude of the effect of eating three and a half ounces of dark chocolate a day was clinically significant, comparable to that of beta-blockers like atenolol, known by the brand name Tenormin, or propranolol, known as Inderal. The authors acknowledge that the studies were short and that results may not apply to habitual use.

Just another great reason to love chocolate!

This posting is sponsored by the Creative Chocolate Printing Company which provides personalized chocolate gifts and chocolate party favors for any event, occasion and budget. Chocolography™ is a newly patented technology that makes it possible to reproduce any picture, image, or message right on the surface of delicious chocolate.

Posted by Bill at 05:56 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Here is an article from the Food Network on how to buy, use and store the best chocolate products for your baking needs.

The percentages listed on a chocolate bar represent the amount of cocoa butter and cacao solids by weight. The rest is largely sugar. Depending on the quality of the bar, there might be other additives present, like vanillin or lecithin, but they generally total less than one percent. Milk chocolate must have a certain percentage (12% minimum) of either powdered or condensed milk added as well.

Chocolate comes in the following levels of sweetness, from least to most added sugar:

* Unsweetened chocolate (which is exactly what it sounds like; it's also sometimes called baking chocolate).
* Dark
* Bittersweet
* Semisweet
* Milk Chocolate

White chocolate is made from cocoa butter, without any cocoa solids, so it's technically not chocolate at all.

Cocoa, which is key to the distinctive chocolate taste in baked goods and candies, comes in two styles: Natural (non-alkalized), and Dutch-processed (alkalized). These should not be confused with the instant sweetened versions intended for hot chocolate.

Cocoa powders are primarily used for baking, but make top-notch hot drinks when mixed with sugar to balance their bitter taste. Natural cocoas, like Hershey's or Ghirardelli, tend to be lighter in color than Dutch-processed varieties like Droste. Which is "better" on the taste front? Some bakers prefer the direct chocolate flavor of natural cocoa, while others vote for the mellowness of Dutch.

However, when using chemical leaveners (baking powder or soda), make sure to use the type of cocoa called for in the recipe. Natural cocoas are acidic enough to activate the baking soda in cakes and cookies; alkaline Dutch cocoas should be used in recipes that rely solely on baking powder for their lift.

Storing:
Keep chocolate wrapped well, in a cool, dry place (not the fridge). Milk chocolate keeps for up to a year; dark for even longer. If the chocolate develops white dots or streaks on the outside, that's called "bloom." It means the cocoa butter has become un-emulsified (separated), but it's still perfectly safe to eat.

This posting is sponsored by the Creative Chocolate Printing Company which provides personalized chocolate gifts and chocolate party favors for any event, occasion and budget. Chocolography™ is a newly patented technology that makes it possible to reproduce any picture, image, or message right on the surface of delicious chocolate.

Posted by Bill at 07:07 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Here is another video from YouTube that shows the Chocolography machines in action. This one also has an interview with Mark Weiss of the Chocolate Printing Company at the PMA tradeshow.

Chocolography is what the Creative Chocolate Printing Company uses to personalize chocolates with photos and text.

Posted by Bill at 08:20 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Chocolate, much like wine or cheese, can vary vastly from brand to brand, and even within brands. The quality of chocolate depends on the origin of cocoa beans, as well as how they are roasted, processed and blended. And, just like wine, there is no definitive right or wrong as far as taste goes; it is a personal preference. With the vast differences among types of chocolate, cocoa percentages and brands, it is helpful to taste chocolates before baking with them to find one whose flavor you enjoy.

The Food Network Web site has an interesting article on Learn how to taste and select chocolate like the pros.

Here are their findings:

Chocolate Varieties: Bittersweet & Semisweet: In general, we find that bittersweet and semisweet can be used interchangeably in recipes without altering the outcome. The flavors of each individual chocolate, however, can be quite different, so taste each one before baking with it. If the chocolate is flat and bland, a chocolate mousse made with it is likely to be bland as well.

Although bittersweet lends an intense chocolate flavor, it often lacks the roundness that works well in chocolate mousse or truffles. It's a good choice for recipes such as bundt cake or soufflé, where the chocolate flavor needs to stand up to many other ingredients.

We find semisweet to often have rounder, fruitier qualities that work well in mousses, truffles and any recipe where the outcome depends heavily on the inherent flavor of the chocolate.

Chips & Chunks:Chocolate chips or chunks are best used only as add-ins to recipes; they shouldn't be used for melting or in the place of chopped bittersweet or semisweet chocolate. These chocolates have a different level of cocoa butter content, as they're designed to hold their shape when baked. As a result, they have a different texture in baked goods from melted baking chocolate.

Unsweetened:Unsweetened chocolate (chocolate in its rawest tasting form) is unpalatable and therefore hard to taste on its own. This is a case where the appearance (dull or shiny) and the aroma may be your best clues as to its quality, intensity and flavor. Unsweetened chocolate is almost always used in recipes like brownies, where the addition of granulated sugar contributes to the texture of the finished baked good.

Brands: The following baking chocolates fared well in our five tasting categories (appearance, aroma, break, melt, taste and aftertaste) and are ranked according to our preferences.
* Lindt Semisweet Chocolate - first choice
* Scharffenberger Semisweet - second choice
* Nestle’s Chocolatier [dark] - tied for third
* Baker's Semisweet - tied for third

This posting is sponsored by the Creative Chocolate Printing Company which provides personalized chocolate gifts and chocolate party favors for any event, occasion and budget. Chocolography™ is a newly patented technology that makes it possible to reproduce any picture, image, or message right on the surface of delicious chocolate.

Posted by Bill at 08:52 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)