This wonderful guide introduces the world of artisan chocolates. Not candies, but the rich and little-known variations of dark cacao produced by one of the oddest trees alive. Just as wines and coffee vary, cacao grown in different regions of the world have unique taste and smell, as do diverse genetic strains of the cacao bean. Global taste is beginning to move away from the mono-blend of bland Hershey's to the wonderful diversity of local chocolate flavors. Cacao is a little understood plant, with weird habits, and a photogenic nature. This handsome book, filled with glorious color pictures, is actually a how-to book: how to find and appreciate the new tastes (plural) of chocolate. We've used it to plan chocolate tasting parties, find tours of cacao makers, and orient us on the quest for new varieties of the most loved spice in the world. Even if you hated chocolate, the culture of cacao is sufficiently amazing to warrant this book.

--KK

The New Taste of Chocolate
A Cultural and Natural History of Cacao with Recipes
Mariel E. Presilla
2001, 193 pages
$20
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