This was a year filled with extraordinary food and beverage adventures.  It was difficult to narrow down a “Best of the Best” list, but here are my picks for 2011:

Best Overall Coffee Experience: Roasting beans and doing a comparative tasting with Scott Miller, owner of Ogeechee River Coffee Company, Savannah, Georgia.

Best new chocolate confection chef: Chris Kollar of Kollar Chocolates in Yountville, California.  Especially love his passion fruit, coconut and peanut butter chocolates.

Best foraging adventure on a farm: La Petraia in Radda in Chianti, Italy, with owner and chef, Susan McKenna Grant.  Foraging was followed by a cooking class and lunch that featured our foraged ingredients!

Best wine harvest experience: Goosecross Cellars, Napa, California. Was such a learning experience to follow Winemaker Geoff Gorsuch during the pressing and crushing of the grapes for their Viognier wine.

Best new chocolate bar: Askinosie Chocolate, Springfield, Missouri.  I absolutely adore their new single-origin bar made with cacao beans from Honduras.

Best organic olive oil discovery: Castelas’ Biologique Olive Oil, Les Baux de Provence, France.  Grassy, aromatic, spicy and delicious.  This is a perfect finishing oil.

Best dish using brussel sprouts: Bottega Restaurant, Napa Valley, California.  Their new crispy brussel sprout salad is phenomenal.  I was upset that they took their shaved brussel sprout salad off the menu but this new salad is truly superior – so full of flavor and crunch!

Best new diner: The Fremont Diner in Sonoma, California.  Farm-to-table, Southern-inspired dishes such as BBQ pork sandwich, collard greens and housemade biscuits.

Best sugar discovery: Wasanban from Shikoku, Japan.  Wasanban is a very fine-grained sugar that is made from a thin sugar cane plant grown in Shikoku.  A friend in Japan sent it to me.  I have been using it to sprinkle on dessert crepes and cookies and to sweeten tea.  I love its delicate texture and sweet flavor.

Best affogato (gelato with a shot of espresso): Poggio in Sausalito, California.  They dress their affogatos up with slices of toasted almonds and candied orange peel.  Exquisite!

Best caramels: Jacques Genin in Paris, France.  These caramels melt in your mouth and dance on your tongue.  The flavors are rich and the texture is perfect.

Best wine education experience: Les Printemps de Chateauneuf-du-Pape, Chateauneuf-du-Pape, France.  Was there in April for a tasting of grenache wines from several different soil types and microclimates within the Chateauneuf-du-Pape appellation.

Best new artisanal salt: Jacobsen Hand-Harvested Pure Sea Salt from Netarts Bay, Oregon.  This salt has a wonderful crunch and a bright, clean flavor.  Excellent finishing salt.

Best hamburger in San Francisco: 4505 Meats, San Francisco Ferry Plaza Farmers Market.  Haven’t tried every hamburger in town yet, but this was my favorite of the ones that I tried this year.

Looking forward to discovering what new “Bests” 2012 will bring!

Note: Top photo taken by Oliver Seidel and Nicky Stich of deliciousdays.com.

Perhaps the BEST chocolate in the world is being made by Shawn Askinosie in Springfield, Missouri.  Seriously.  It has become my absolute favorite, and I taste a LOT of chocolate.  

When starting up Askinosie Chocolate, Shawn decided to cut out the middle man and work directly with cacao growers.  This meant getting very hands-on in the bean-selection process – measuring the moisture level of the dried beans, monitoring the temperature of the fermenting beans and tasting and smelling the beans before importing them.  Working directly with the farmers allows Askinosie to pay higher than fair trade wages to the growers.  In addition, Askinosie shares 10% of his profits with the farmers. 

My favorite Askinosie chocolate is the San Jose Del Tambo with cacao nibs.  This chocolate is made with the Arriba National bean from Ecuador.  It has 70% cacao level.  This chocolate is smooth on the tongue and has a wonderful fruitiness on the palette.  I eat three squares each day and use it for taste comparisons.   I use the San Jose Del Tambo without cacao nibs for baking and have never been disappointed.  It is moist and rich and perfect for recipes that call for 70% (bittersweet) chocolate.  In addition to the smaller bars, you can buy it by the kilo – it is less expensive that way. 

Askinosie also makes chocolate from cacao beans grown in Mexico.  They have just added a new product from beans that were grown in The Philippines.  This chocolate is smooth and delicious, as well, but my preference for taste is still the San Jose Del Tambo bar.

You can find Askinosie chocolate in the Bay Area at Bittersweet in San Francisco.  I typically order mine online from the Askinosie website.  It is packaged to remain cool and arrives within a few days.

Askinosie Chocolate
514 E. Commercial Street
Springfield, Missouri  65803
417-862-9900
www.askinosie.com/

A friend of mine recently told me about Brix Chocolate, a line of chocolate that has been specially formulated to complement wines.  I was skeptical because I have never particularly liked wine and chocolate together, unless it was a port-style wine and chocolate.  I immediately went to the Brix Chocolate website and ordered a variety pack.  The chocolate comes in three varieties – milk chocolate (40% cacao), medium dark chocolate (60% cacao) and extra dark chocolate (70% cacao).  All varieties of the chocolate are formulated from cacao from Ghana. 

I tried the milk chocolate first.  It is recommended that the milk chocolate be paired with Port, Ice Wine, Rose, Pinot Noir and Burgundy.  We had some Ice Wine that was open in the refrigerator so I tried the two together.  I was quite pleasantly surprised.  The chocolate did not make the wine taste bitter or acidic at all; in fact, the combination was really good!  The next day, I tried it again with a Muscat de Beaumes de Venise.  Again, a great pairing.

It is recommended that the medium dark chocolate be paired with Zinfandel, Syrah, Rhone, Merlot or Sherry.  I tried it with a glass of 1998 Swanson Napa Valley Syrah.  Again, a good pairing.  This surprised me, as I was expecting the taste of the wine to be drastically changed by the chocolate.  Instead, I got complexity and harmony from the pairing that I did not expect. 

A couple of days later, I tried the extra dark chocolate (which is recommended for pairing with Cabernet Sauvignon, Bordeaux or Barolo) with a glass of one of my favorite Cabernets.  I thought the pairing was okay, but I think that the tannins in the Cabernet seemed a bit sharper after the chocolate.  I am looking forward to trying the extra dark chocolate with a Barolo next for comparison.  And maybe with a Zinfandel – I think that combination might work, too. 

Yesterday, I was in the Napa Style store in Napa Valley and discovered that they carry Brix chocolate, too.  You can also order it from the Brix Chocolate website.

TCHO Chocolate is a new chocolate producer in San Francisco.  Today I stopped by their factory store and found that their version 1.0 chocolate had just been released.   It is now available to the public in the form of four different types of chocolate – TCHO 1.0 ”Nutty” Peru 65% cacao, TCHO 1.0 “Citrus” Madagascar 67% cacao, TCHO 1.0 “Fruity” Peru 68% cacao and TCHO 1.0 “Chocolatey” 70% cacao.  Note that these chocolates are not flavored with “fruit” or “citrus”.  These flavors occur as a result of the type of beans used, the conditions under which the beans were grown, and the roasting, fermentation and other processes involved in making the chocolate. 

TCHO  founders, Timothy Childs and Karl Bittong, came from the technology world.  They approached the chocolate-making process quite differently than do traditional chocolatiers.  They decided to get input from their target audience along the way.  They spent a year making various beta samples and having their ”users” test them and provide feedback.    In fact, this chocolate went through more than 1000 iterations over the past year before the 1.0 product was released! 

I have very strong opinions about chocolate and I couldn’t wait to get home to do a “taste test”.  The result – I really love the TCHO chocolates!  All four are different and delicious.  They all have a smooth texture and complex flavors.  My favorites are the “Citrus” and the “Fruity” but I would not turn down any of the four that I tried!   I also brought home a tin of their dark chocolate-coated dried mango – delicious!

Check out TCHO online or stop by their factory store in San Francisco. 

TCHO Chocolate
Website:  tcho.com/
Factory store:  Pier 17, The Embarcadero, San Francisco, CA

Robert Lambert makes unbelievably delicious chocolate sauces.  I first discovered these sauces at the Marin farmers market in San Rafael, California, on a Sunday morning.  I am very particular about chocolate (and other foods, as well) and I was skeptical about “yet another chocolate product” until I had a taste of the Coconut Dark Chocolate Sauce that Robert makes.  First of all, it had a deep, rich chocolate taste and texture.  Second, it had a deep, rich, natural coconut flavor.  Third, it was incredibly delicious!  I bought a jar, took it home and served it for dessert that night with a French baguette.  What a hit! 

I have since tried some of the other products that he makes – Extreme Vanilla Bean chocolate sauce, Deep Dark chocolate sauce, Four Orange chocolate sauce.   ALL delicious! 

Robert also makes exceptional marmalades, fruit preserves and fruit cakes (seriously!), utilizing recipes and memories from his Wisconsin childhood and his grandmother. 

You can see Robert in person at the Oakland farmers market on Saturdays and at the Marin farmers market on Sundays.  You can also order directly from his online store:  http://www.robertlambert.com/store/index.html .