Brazil Hosts the Salon du Chocolat for the First Time

The 20120 edition of the world's largest and most prestigious trade far and exposition dedicated to chocolate, the Salon du Chocolat, took place two weeks ago in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil. Previously, the exposition had been held in Europe, Asia and in North America, but this year was the first time it was held in the Southern Hemisphere and the first time it was held in South America. From July 02 to July 09, Salvador was the center of the chocolate world and the city's trade and convention center was chocolate heaven.

It was appropriate that of all the major Brazilian cities, Salvador was chosen to host the event. Bahia state historically and presently has always been the center of cacau cultivation in Brazil. Today Brazil ranks 4th in the world in chocolate consumption and 5th in the world in chocolate cultivation, and a good percentage of Brazilian chocoate originates in the cacau-growing region in the southern part of Bahia.

This edition of the Salon du Chocolat fittingly included a homage/tribute to Brazilian novelist Jorge Amado. 2012 marks the centennial of the Bahian writer's birth, and throughout the year his literary legacy is being commemorated in Brazil. Amado himself was the son of a cacau planter, and many of his novels, including his most famous, Gabriela, Clove and Cinnamon, were set in southern Bahia in the golden age of cacau production.

The exposition included a trade show, lectures, demonstrations, a symposium and a special kids' section. There were also tours to the region of cacau-production in southern Bahia prior to the events in the capital.

At a time when the industry is undergoing a renaissance and when the image of Brazilian chocolate is improving worldwide, hosting this prestigious event is a shot in the arm for Brazilian cacau agriculture. And a very sweet experience for participants in the event.

Happy National Cachaça Day 2011

Last year about this time, Flavors of Brazil saluted Brazil's National Cachaça Day which is commemorated every September 13, in honor of the date in 1661 on which the production of cachaça in Brazil was legalized. Such an important and august date deserves more than one post on this blog, so once again we're raising a glass of Brazil's national spirit and toasting the iconic sugar-cane-based liquor with the traditional "saúde!" Pronounced "sow-OO-gee", saúde is the Portuguese word for health and it is as obligatory when toasting in Brazil as Cheers! is in English.

 Expocachaça  at São Paulo's Municipal Market

As part of the lead-up to today's celebrations, an international cachaça exposition and trade fair was held last week in São Paulo. It took place at the city's beautiful municipal market and combined a profession trade fair with an exhibition open to the public. Organizers estimated that  20,000 visitors attended the exposition, and sales of  cachaça were estimated to be somewhere between R$800 thousand ($500 thousand) and $1 million ($600 thousand).

Blind tasting

As part of the trade fair a blind tasting was held to determine the best brands of cachaça in Brazil. The fours judges, two "sensory technicians", one journalist and a sommelier, tasted 91 different brands and ranked each one. Fortunately, rules of the tasting prohibited swallowing the liquor - elsewise, the judges would never have made it to the last few samples! Between each sample, the judges used dry white bread and green apples to clear the palate, and inhaled the aroma of coffee beans to clear the olfactory glands.

The cachaças were divided into two groups - white and aged (golden) - and each group received its own ranking. At the end of the tasting the judges divulged a list of the 10 best white cachaças and the 10 best aged (golden) brands in Brazil (and presumably the world).

Even though many of the winning brands are artisanal and only made in small quantities for the domestic market in Brazil, here is the complete list of winners. We at Flavors of Brazil are going to try to track down the best is each category to provide our own judgment on their quality and will report the results on the blog. We can't promise, though, not to swallow! (Maybe that's why it's called a blind tasting...)

________________________________________________
Brazil's best cachaças - Expocachaça 2011, São Paulo


White cachaças:
1) Casa Bucco
2) Branca de Minas
3) A Tentadora
4) Pé do Morro
5) Engenho São Luiz
6) Santo Grau Século XVIII
7) Germana Soul
8) Ouro 1 Prata
9) Batista
10) Engenho d'Ouro


Aged (golden) cachaças:
1) Pedra Branca
2) Magnífica Soleira
3) Velho Alambique
4) Germana Heritage
5) Chacrinha Ouro
6) Dona Beja Sarau
7) Vale Verde 12 Anos
8) Magnífica Envelhecida
9) Colombina
10) Capim Cheiroso

Attn Chocoholics: The World's Largest Chocolate Fair Is Coming to Brazil

It's just been announced that the largest international chocolate fair and exposition, the Salon do Chocolat, will be held for the first time in the Southern Hemisphere in 2012, specifically in the Brazilian city of Salvador, Bahia.

The Salon, which held its first edition in Paris in 1995 has since been hosted by cities such as New York, Shanghai, Madrid, Beijing, Lille, Bologna, Marseille and Cairo. But it's never been held in a country and region which produces cacau, the bean from which chocolate is produced. Salvador is the capital of the Brazilian state of Bahia - the largest producer of cacau in Brazil and one of the most important cacau-growing regions in the world. The Brazilian cacau-growing industry is currently growing rapidly and recovering from the effects of a devastating disease which affected large number of cacau trees in the 1980s.

Brazil is also one of the world's largest chocolate-consuming nations, and its passion for chocolate in all its forms borders at time on obsession. The most prestigious Europeans brands of chocolate, such as Valrhona and Godiva, have recently entered the Brazilian marketplace where they have had exceptional success.

Previous editions of the Salon do Chocolat have welcomed up to 20,000 visitors per day, and the government of Bahia, which is one of the event's sponsors, expects that the Salon will have a tremendous impact on Salvador's 2012 visitor numbers.

The Salon is scheduled for the first week in July, 2012. Chocoholics, mark your calendars.

Prazeres da Mesa ao Vivo - Octopus and Goat Cheese

At last week's trade/show in Fortaleza, Prazeres da Mesa ao Vivo, there were some very interesting presentations on efforts being made in the region to develop new markets for local products. One of the problems that food producers must overcome when introducing new products into the market is overcoming the traditional local reluctance to eat anything new or untried. It seems that in northeastern Brazil, and perhaps in other parts of the country, the population's palate is extremely conservative, and if a food or a dish is not something that has been eaten for generations, people just won't put it on the table. Because of this cultural phenomenon, abundant locally-available but nontraditional food sources - vegetables, fruits, fish, seafood, meats - are not commercially viable , while traditional food sources are over-stretched.

One presentation was made by first-year students in the Gastronomy program at the Universidade Federal do Ceará. They are studying ways to introduce octopus into the local diet, as octopus is a non-endangered, widely available food source in the seas off the coast of Ceará, but has never been part of the diet of the local population. Octopus are often caught accidentally by local fishermen, but are thrown back in the water as there is no market for them. The students, in their research, discovered that apart from the traditional reluctance to try new products, the local residents are extremely resistant to the texture of octopus, perceiving it to be rubbery or too chewy. They are currently testing a number of different cooking technique, cooking temperatures and cooking times, to reduce the elasticity of octopus, and feel that if they succeed, it will significantly improve the commercial prospects of an octopus fishery. As students of gastronomy, they are also creating menu items which combine octopus with other local, traditional and familiar ingredients and cooking techniques to minimize the "strangeness" of octopus and to emphasize it's adaptability to local food ways.

The research staff of the federal Agriculture Department (Embrapa) research laboratory in Sobral, a small town in the interior of Ceará, presented the results of one of their research projects in another presentation. There researchers are trying to develop markets for goat cheese through the development of new cheese types. Although goat meat is a traditional food item in the interior of Brazil, dairy products from the same animal have never been accepted by local inhabitants. As goat milk could be widely available, and since goat milk has been proven one of the healthiest dairy products, the Agriculture Department wants to develop the market. Much of the work on this project has been in the development of new goat cheeses, based on well-known local cow milk cheeses. A good example is cream cheese made from goat milk. Cream cheese is already part of the local diet, which means that there is likely to be less resistance to goat milk cream cheese, as it's in a form that is familiar. At the laboratory this project, however, is also working to develop more contemporary and unusual goat cheeses, ones that might not sell at all in local markets, but which might be successful in the sophisticated markets of cities like Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo or Fortaleza. For example, they developed a creamy goat cheese that is impregnated with oil of the pequi fruit. Pequi has a strong and unusual taste, one that is extremely complex, and which is often compared to truffles. At the presentation, samples of this cheese were served, and I found it to be intriguing and unlikely anything I've ever tasted. There are few things are are totally new in the world of flavors and tastes, but this was one of them. An eye-opening marvel, it was.

Brazil is on the cusp of a gastronomic revolution, and is just awaking to the potentially revolutionary ideas and creations of a combination of local ingredients and avant-garde techniques. Inventive chefs throughout Brazil are looking for new ingredients which are locally available, but which may not be traditionally part of the flavor-spectrum of Brazilian cuisine. The octopus project and the goat cheese development project are just part of this new world of Brazilian cuisine, but projects such as these will be essential in the creation of a Brazilian gastronomy for the 21st century.

Prazeres da Mesa ao Vivo - Gastronomic Trade Show in Fortaleza

Fortaleza, my Brazilian "hometown", is a rapidly growing metropolis of about 3 million people, and by most people's count is either the fourth- or fifth-largest city in Brazil. It is, however, a very long way from the cultural and economic centers of the country, which are located in the region called "Southeast" and which revolve around the twin poles of Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo. In earlier times Fortaleza's isolation from the rest of Brazil was extreme, but today, with Rio and São Paulo being only 3 hours away by plane, this isolation is diminishing rapidly.

An interesting example of this was a gastronomic trade show/exposition that I attended last week here in Fortaleza. It was produced by São Paulo's Prazeres da Mesa (Pleasures of the Table) magazine. Prazeres da Mesa has approximately the same media importance and profile as such magazines as Bon Appetit, Saveur, or Food & Wine. Their annual circuit of expositions previously encompassed only cities in the central core of Brazil, but this year they brought the show to Fortaleza for the first time. They had a smashing success of it, too.

Prazeres da Mesa ao Vivo was a two-day event and included cooking classes taught by local and nationally-famous chefs, lectures, a trade show, wine tasting sessions, and two gala dinners. I attended several cooking classes and lectures, and will report in detail about them in the next few posts here on Flavors of Brazil.

I found the quality of the classes, lectures and presentations to be excellent overall. For me, the event was marred only by two problems, which might have been due to the fact that this type of show had never been produced in Fortaleza before. The first was a lack of organization - registering for the show, signing up for individual classes, etc., all required a great deal of patience, persistence, and at times even aggression. The second problem was over-sale of admissions, which meant that many events were sold out within minutes of being open for registration. I'm hoping that next year's event, which Prazeres da Mesa has already promised, will iron out these "opening night" jitters, and that the event will be all that it potentially can be - a glimpse into the rapidly-evolving world of Brazilian gastronomy and food science.