Riding the Brown Dragon

Last week The Dulcinea and I went over to A Woman's Touch to attend a chocolate tasting presented by local chocolatier, Gail Ambrosius.

But first, we stopped in next door at the Bandung Restaurant for a tasty Indonesian dinner. It lays claim to be the only Indonesian restaurant in Wisconsin and only 1 of 2 in the Midwest. Let me say that it was really good! I remember the appetizer was Rujak Cuka - a tasty cucumber salad. Cukes with cabbage, bean sprouts, tofu, and peanuts in a nice vinegary dressing. For the main course, I had Bakmi Jahe. It's fried noodles with vegetables and tofu in a sweet soy sauce with lots of ginger. It was absolutely delicious! I can't remember what The Dulcinea had but of course I sampled it and it too was mighty tasty. It took a remarkable feat of mental strength to not order dessert. I mean, take the Gunung Merapi, for instance. It's "chocolate cake with a dense fudge middle, sereved with vanilla ice cream". Or the Chocolate Ribbon Cake: "Sabayon chocolate mousse with whiskey, wrapped in a shell of white and dark chocolate, topped with a chocolate cameo". Oh fuck, does that sound good! But no, I held off as I would be going to the tasting. We got to AWT a bit early so we wandered around looking at all the stuff on display. Garters caught The Dulcinea's attention first thing and she ended up buying a nice black number which, regretfully, I have not yet seen on her. But I can imagine how nice it would look. The black lace framing the black triangle between her legs...mmm...Anyway, we looked at some dildos and vibrators before being called to go across the hall for the tasting.

The womyn herself - Gail - was there making sure her samples, er, I mean class materials were in order. There were 15-20 people there. Lots of womyn. I was only 1 of 3 men there. One guy, who looked to be in his early 20s, had a look of boredom on his face, as if his girlfriend had to drag him there. The other guy, who was next to us, was middle aged and, as I discovered as the night progressed, rode the brown dragon as I do. In front of us were a couple cute co-eds. I recorded the lecture bits of her presentation but haven't listened to it yet.

Gail began by giving us a brief history of chocolate. The Central & South American natives valued cocoa - treasured it, even. Then Europeans came over and quickly caught onto the wonder that is chocolate and it eventually spread throughtout the world. Gail went on to describe how chocolate is grown today with its 3 main types (Criollo, Forastero, and Trinitario) as well as how she goes about buying cocoa for her business. Next, she explained how cocoa is processed and becomes chocolate and she included a description of her daily routine down at her shop. The part that really got the audience's interest was her elucidation on the health benefits of chocolate with all its flavinoids'n'such. In addition, she described how it activates the same chemical receptors in the brain as THC.

After we ran out of questions, the fun part began as we all lined up and took samples of eight (yes eight - 8) different kinds of chocolate. We also got sheets on which we could write down our descriptions of the various aspects of each chocolate and assign a rating. We checked out the chocolate's:

Appearance (glossy, dull, red, mahogany, dark brown, black)
Primary Aroma (weak, delicate, penetrating)
Texture (velvety, smooth, sticky, sandy, waxy)
Aroma & Flavors (floral, fruity, herb, spice, nuts, others)
Taste Balance (of acidity, sweetness & bitterness)
Aromatic Balance (of intensity, richness, finesse, finish)

We'd look at, smell, and then taste each sample discussing them all the while amongst ourselves. It was funny how, after someone said that a particular chocolate had, say, a citrus-like taste, that everyone would suddenly taste citrus and nod in agreement. Once we'd tasted and rated all 8, Gail revealed the chocolates' identities, origins, and make-up.

My favorite was #4 - by Santander. It's from Columbia and Columbia only. (single-origin) Its appearance was semi-glossy and the primary aroma was cherry, for me. I labeled its texture as "sinewy" and found that it had a plum taste to it. It was fairly bitter but not too much for my taste. and I thought that it just had this rich, intense balance. Mmm...One had a banana-like flavor and another had a smokey finish. With the initial round of tasting done, Gail then busted out samples of her finished product. Manna from heaven! She had one that contained pink peppercorn. It was a taste sensation, lemme tell ya. First I had the bite of the peppercorn on the tip of my tongue. Then, as the chocolatey goodness made its way back, the luscious chocolate titillated the center of my tongue with its rich sweetness. Mmm...(I am salivating heavily as I type!)

With the end of the night near, we were all flushed and I was giddy as a schoolgirl. Laughing and giggling and making bad puns. On top of all of this, I had a nice buzz. I don't know if it was caffeine or if the chocolate had hit my THC receptors or what, but my head was aglow with a gentle tingle. Folks began to clean up and a hot little co-ed who was sitting in front of me bent down right in front of me so her nice, tight ass was mere inches from my face with the small of her back showing. Mmmm...The Dulcinea and I chatted briefly with Gail. (I asked her why the percentages of cocoa in chocolate always seem to be of the same amounts. E.G. - why do I see lots of 82% chocolates and never 83%?) Then I got my picture taken with the chocolatier herself!

Leaving, The Dulcinea and I made our way to her car. We stood by it for a while as I held her before I took her up on the offer of a ride to my own automobile. Not that it was a long walk, mind you...So we get in the car and almost immediately her hand is rubbing my member through my jeans and my hand is shooting up her skirt. So she drops me off at my car and each take off like a bat out of hell for her house. I think you can figure out what happened once I arrived.