Chocolate and Vanilla

First for the chocolate! I was one of the lucky recipients of Amano Chocolate from Blake Makes. I received three bars in the mail and tucked them away for the perfect time. I wanted to do a chocolate tasting. Since I received different bars, I wanted to know the difference. First we checked out the Amano site and found a Chocolate Tasting Guide.

Opening our bars, we felt a little like we had just won a Willy Wonka Contest. The chocolate was wrapped in a beautiful gold foil. It looked decadent.

With our glass of water to cleanse our palate, and the T.V. turned off to prevent distraction, we were ready to taste.

The first one we tried was the Ocumare bar.

It's hard to let a piece of chocolate just melt on your tongue with out wanting to chew. But I resisted(most of the time). As it was melting, I felt like I had my nose in the box of cocoa. I thought of fudgy brownies. This was the very essence of chocolate.

The second bar was the Madagascar bar.

Right away we could tell it was a little sweeter. Maybe fruity is more the word I'm looking for. I just know that this would be the bar I would pick to go with a bottle of good red wine. It was my favorite!

The last bar was the Cuyagua *Limited Edition*

My husband said it was like green beans. He swears by his description. How can chocolate taste like green bean? I cant say that, but! I will give him earthy. It was definitely earthy. It was my least favorite of them all, but, come on, it's chocolate. It was still delicious.

A big thank you to Amano Chocolates and to Blake for the opportunity to taste this amazing chocolate. And if you want to buy some amazing quality chocolate, click here!

Now on to the vanilla.

I just wanted to show you my vanilla extract brewing. The big vodka bottle one was indeed made with cheep vodka. It started out crystal clear and now look at that color. It's a little darker then the Southern Comfort. It has been brewing for about 3 weeks.

I just added vanilla beans to the whisky today so that's it's natural color. I just found some brandy in the cupboard and I thought about starting a third bottle. I found some cute little bottles at World Market to package the extract in.


It's gonna be verry happy vanilla extract come Christmas.

Dont forget to enter out *Taste Like Home* goodie swap event!
Sign-ups close June 27th.


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More chocolate recipes:
Dream Bars
Macaroon Bars
Mock Hostess Cupcakes
Chocolate Chili
Chocolate Chipotle Truffles

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