Paper & Chocolate on Saturday, February 9

Ok, the chocolate you're about to read about is admittedly sourced far, far away from New England.  But if you're going to eat chocolate (and you know you will), then you might as well get it from folks that source their beans directly from farmers and process them (the beans, not the farmers) locally.

And that's just what the proprietors of Taza Chocolate do:  "The Taza Chocolate mission is to bring chocolate eaters closer to the cocoa farmer by making minimally processed chocolate that passes directly from the farm, to us, to you. Since we source beans directly from farming communities and co-operatives, we can ensure that a fair price is paid for high quality cocoa beans. From there, we bring the beans to our chocolate studio in Somerville, Massachusetts and grind them into our delicious chocolate."

We found their Chocolate Mexicano at Bloc 11 Cafe in Union Square (Somerville, MA).   (And, a noteworthy aside: after a lifetime of being a skim milk drinker, I finally caved to 1% so that we could buy from Crescent Ridge.)

This is no ordinary chocolate -- it comes in a disk that you have to break apart into pie-shaped pieces to make hot cocoa.  Action shot:

And, being no ordinary chocolate, it wasn't a huge surprise that it made no ordinary cup of cocoa.  It's much less lighter in color than the normal cocoa we normally get, the sweetness is more subtle, and it has a hint of cinnamon.  On sip one, we weren't really sold -- but by sip three, we could never go back to our old stuff.  It was incredible.

If you're up for an outing this weekend, stop by the Paper & Chocolate event on Saturday, February 9, from 1 - 6 pm at 561 Windsor Street in Somerville.  Taza is pairing up with the very talented Shelley of Albertine Press who will be selling her beautiful handmade cards, coasters, and calendars.

If you can't make it to Paper & Chocolate, you can also find Taza in plenty of other (mostly New England) retailers and online.