Chocolate lover’s dream: chocolate tasting at the Pâtisserie Christian, Strasbourg

Ah, chocolat. I think I may have developed an addiction to the stuff when I was a very young child, so of course when my school offered a free chocolate tasting at the most famous pâtisserie here in Strasbourg, Pâtisserie Christian, I had to be first on the list! The experience was so worth it. I never knew there was such an art behind crafting chocolate, like where the cocoa beans come from, the temperature at which they need to be roasted, the right about of cocoa butter needed, etc. I learned so much from the presentation, especially because the head chocolatier was so passionate about his craft, it has changed my entire perception on eating chocolate!

Here is what an actual cocoa plant looks like, before the beans are extracted for chocolate making.

These beans, all the way from Vietnam, are what makes good chocolate.

They are then roasted and caramelized to extract the flavor. We actually got to taste these beans, and you can taste the pure chocolate taste even before it’s processed.

We had all of these chocolates to try, and from all over the world. We tasted chocolate with beans from places like Haiti, New Guniea, Venezuela and Java. The key to good chocolate is the ground in which the bean plants are planted. For example, the beans from Java were planted in soil in an environment that has highly active volcanic activity. When you taste the chocolate from that region, there is a distinct smoky aftertaste, a direct correlation to the ashy volcanic soils in which the beans were planted!

Never in my life have I eaten so much delicious chocolate in one sitting!

Overall, the tasting was so much fun! And of course, only in France would I be able to get a crash-course on the finer side to chocolates and chocolate-making. I am definitely going back to this pâtisserie before going home to pick up some chocolate treasures for the trip back home (which is in three weeks! Eek!)!