Boomer Away

How to host a Chocolate Tasting event

During our travels in South America I took advantage of many opportunities to expand my knowledge of chocolate. We spent most of a week in Mindo, Ecuador, living above the chocolate factory and restaurant on 9 de Octobre street. The cloud forest makes for a lovely natural setting to rest awhile and experience the many beautiful birds, and of course sample the product. (If you go, try to get the hammock room. It overlooks a “pico pico” berry tree, which attracts birds every morning and evening.)

Processed raw chocolate, with sugar and chile

The shop has a small cacao orchard on-site, where we saw the pods growing on the trees, and the processes that go into fermenting, drying, shelling, grinding and processing the cacao into chocolate.

Matt with macadamia nut, in the cacao shed

One night we participated in a traditional process of making a liquid chocolate drink from fermented cacao beans, dried hot chiles, and honey. There’s no milk involved, since this process predates the invention of modern “hot” chocolate.

Onward to Colombia! We were fortunate to score 2 tickets to a new-product rollout/tasting at Tilin Tilin Chocolate in Medellin, Colombia. The tasting sheets looked like this:

Each sample is judged based on the categories on the right, translated from Spanish as follows: Acidic; Floral; Sweet; Fruity; Nutty; and Chocolaty. Intensity is rated from 0 to 5. Then you “describe the texture”; some chocolate is very smooth and buttery, others are powdery or grainy, and some have a plastic texture.

Select about 5 chocolates, all around 60 to 75% cacao with no extra flavorings, nuts or fruits. You want to judge the chocolate itself, and I think you will be surprised at the wide variations in taste and texture that exist. There are a number of varietals of cacao trees such as Forastero, Criollo, and Trinitario. Then there are the rare Nacional beans from Ecuador which are used at Mindo. Additionally, there are single-source beans from certain forests, and each area has its own “terroir” just like grapes and coffee. Some producers specialize in “bean to bar” production, which gives you the unique flavor profile of a certain forest in a certain season, just like a fine wine. I especially enjoy Tilin Tilin and Santander brands from Colombia, and Pacari or Mindo brands from Ecuador. Santander and Pacari are available in grocery stores in their respective countries, and may be available on amazon.com.

You can also do your tasting with any high end bars from your local grocer, and throw in a mass-produced street variety chocolate bar for good fun.

Make note of the ingredients listed on the wrapper. A 70% bar is 70% fermented, processed cacao mass. The remainder is mostly sugar. Some bars also contain cocoa butter, vanilla, and possibly lecithin which alters the texture.

Pacari chocolate from Ecuador, single-region "Los Rios" — Pacari chocolate from Ecuador, single-region “Los Rios”

I have run this process multiple times, and I have improvised until I developed the following rules.

Prepare to do your tasting when people haven’t recently drunk wine or eaten spicy foods. These combinations can be fun too, but they generally reduce your ability to sense the intricacies of the chocolate. (If you’re like us, this probably means you have to start the tasting right away when the guests have arrived.)
Cut the bars into small pieces, no larger than your index fingernail. Put them in small bowls alongside the original wrappers.
Provide the tasters with judging sheets.
Provide a very weakly brewed “tea” of hot water, possibly with a light flavor, or just plain. You need to reset your palate after each tasting. Chocolate melts at normal mouth temperature, which is part of the joy of cacao. It’s easy to lose the right temperature if you drink cold or lukewarm water.
Instruct the tasters to chew the first sample, only until the chocolate starts to melt. Don’t abrade your tongue on the chocolate; doing so will decrease your taste and texture sensations in later tastings. Once the chocolate has significantly (but not completely) melted, roll the chocolate around on your tongue and enjoy. (Tasters will generally be silent during this part of the tasting.)
Make your notes on this sample. Then rinse your mouth with very warm water, and wait at least two minutes for your mouth to normalize. While you’re waiting, discuss your findings on this chocolate; it’s so interesting to find out how other people perceive the same bar. There’s no “right answer”, we each experience the product differently.
Repeat with the next sample.
If you find that each successive sample is less pleasant, you may have achieved tasting overload. Stop and let some time pass before proceeding.

For fun you might end the tasting with a bar that contains nuts, fruits, chile, flavoring, sea salt or cacao nibs.

Investigating the equator

This summer we went to Tennessee to see the total eclipse of the sun, an amazing experience that words fail to describe. This has spurred me to be more curious about the solar system and the glories that we take for granted. So, it’s off to Ecuador, to learn about the equator! (You’re not imagining it; the country was named after the equator itself. I probably learned that in school, but I forgot it along with a lot of other amazing stuff.)

We landed at Quito, and the altitude in the Andes started immediately kicking my butt. It took 3 days until I got my energy back. Climbing off the couch, we went exploring with our new AirBNB friends such as Becca, touring the ancient city center.

Steep streets of old Quito, as storms roll in

We were just in time to observe the Day of the Dead. Families went to pay their respects at the cemeteries, while we indulged in traditional snacks. The bread snacks were fairly bland, but the piping hot colada morada was a keeper, thick, sweet and fruity.

Guaguas (bread babies) and hot Colada Morada

We joined up with a full-day bus trip to the famed street markets at Otavalo. This trip is known for those markets, but along the way we saw so much more. First stop was Cayambe, a scientific research site that is actually right on the equator. As we will see later, that’s… unusual.

Here we heard a barrage of Very Cool science! stuff, including a compelling case for rotating our view of the globe by 90 degrees, so the equator runs from top to bottom. My inner geek was bouncing up and down with joy. I really *got* the fact that every day on the equator has 12 hours of light and 12 hours of dark. And how amazing is it, that on 2 days of the year, every place on the planet has virtually the same 12 dark/12 light combination. That’s why it’s called the equinox. Simple facts that we may have learned in 2nd grade, but when I go back and immerse myself in this as an adult, it just moves me. For a whole lot more coolness, check out their website.

Also, from this location you can gaze upon Cayambe volcano. It’s the only spot on the entire equator that has snow on it 100% of the year.

Onward, with beautiful vistas and people along the way.

The guide arranged for a local woman to join us on the bus and explain all the detailed points of the Quechua women’s daily apparel. Everything from the gold color of the necklace representing the sun, to the way they tie back their hair, was meaningful.

The Otavalo market is where tourists go to get beautiful local crafts, from fabrics to furniture. We spent 2.5 hours there, and most wished it was longer. Price haggling here isn’t as aggressively cutthroat as in, say, southeast Asia, but you still have to do it. I found that if I simply asked “Puede ser mas barato?”, then yes, it could be cheaper, and the expected price (or thereabouts) was offered up.

The following Saturday we went touring with our AirBNB host Jacobo, his girlfriend Juicy, and fellow roommate/blogger/travelers Lexie and Josh. We were going to see the “other” equatorial sites. But first, another volcano, and a sweet treat.

The Temple of the Sun is a beautiful site, though to be fair it is only a modern representation of ancient times. Here we were presented with a pseudo-scientific “demonstration” about how your body becomes stronger if you hold magical crystals in your hands. I did find the aromatherapy session calming, so I bought a small vial of eucalyptus oil. The massive internal sundial was impressive.

Onward to Mitad del Mundo, a lavish presentation of the equator that alas, isn’t actually on the equator. It was the best they could estimate it back in the 1700s.

Ciudad Mitad del Mundo (not the actual equator)

At the top of the monument is a massive globe.

The world turned on its side; a new perspective

We went off to find the actual equator, and came to the privately-owned Intinan Museum, purporting to be on the equator. After we paid our $4 entry fee I used Google Maps to verify that we were at zero-zero-zero, and something just wasn’t right. You can see on my phone, it says we had to walk 10 minutes to get to the equator. What the heck? (Blue dot equals my location, red pin equals 0-0-0.)

at Intinan Museum (also not the actual equator)

Here you get to see some interesting exhibits about ancient Ecuadorian culture and crafts, and then you get a pile of woo. For example, you can balance an egg on the head of a nail. Is it because you are on the actual equator? Nah, you can do this at home. But it’s quite exciting as you get sucked into the woo!

This is a fun photo op.

Lastly, and with great excitement, the guide demonstrates how the Coriolis effect “makes” water swirl in different directions. She starts with a tub of water, poised above their equator line, and gently pulls the plug. The water goes straight down the drain! Then she walks the tub and bucket a few feet to the north, pours the bucket into the tub, and the water goes down spinning to the right. Lastly, she takes the tub and bucket to the south of the “equator line”, and now the water goes down spinning to the left. I had to review my videos below a couple of times to see the trickery: when she dumps the water into the tub she does it from the side, creating the swirling motion prior to pulling the plug. Clever magic!

Find an amazing deal on airfare- South America from $417 r/t

Our next trip is fast approaching, and it’s time to start playing Google Flights Roulette.

We want to go to South America (somewhere) in November (flexible dates.) Going into google.com/flights, I said we want to fly from any Chicago airport, to South America, in November.

Round trip flights from Chicago to South America

When I click on Suggested dates, it offers the following:

Paging down through the highlighted trips, I saw some interesting options. Quito and Guayaquil make nice jumping-off points for heading out to the Galapagos Islands, such a great bucket-list trip.

I went back and narrowed in on November 4-8. At the bottom of the screen you can now see part of a map.

From here you click on “Explore destinations” to see a map of South America and nearby sites. You can move around and zoom in to see the best airfare from Chicago to various cities all over the region. Should we consider Bogota, at $417 round trip? Or perhaps Medellin, which is getting a surprising amount of press as an expat haven?

Click on “I’m Feeling Lucky” to get a somewhat-random suggestion of a good deal. My first try delivered a site in Brazil, and the second try delivered a suggestion on the western side of South America, in Quito, where we would like to go.

We mostly buy 1-way tickets to keep our travels flexible. There are less search options for 1-way tickets, but you can still use this feature: seeing the best price per day in a 2-month window. This is how we snagged a one-way flight from Chicago to Quito, Ecuador for $166 each. On today’s screen you can see best prices highlighted in green, at $180 each.

Change the inputs, spin the wheel, and so many possibilities appear. The hardest part is pulling the trigger and buying the ticket.

Artistry in Bali

The island of Bali, Indonesia has many charms to attract us to visit, and maybe even stay; more and more western expats are making their homes here. One part of the beauty is the handmade carvings that are abundant on the island.

Our traveling “nieces” Cindy and Toulla took us to Wayan’s woodworking shop on the waterfront in Padangbai, where the senior artist showed us some of his beautiful handiwork. All of this work is done solely by hand, with a mallet and a set of handmade blades, sandpaper, and saws.

Painted wood carving at Wayan’s shop, Padangbai

Carved coconuts at Wayan’s shop, Padangbai

Later, near Ubud we toured a woodworking center. There they explained the 4 major types of wood that are used. Cheaper, lightweight wood articles are soft and often will split into pieces as the years go by. It’s best to buy from reputable artists.

We went to Five Art near Ubud for a day of art lessons. Matt worked on his Om carving for 6 hours, and we gained an appreciation for the hard work that goes into these pieces.

Matt works on his carving at Five Art, Ubud

While he created his carving I learned to do batik on cloth. In the end we both were exhausted, and delighted with our creations.

Round the World airfare dirt cheap

Royal Park Rajapruek, Chiang Mai, Thailand

One year ago I calculated the estimated costs for airfare to travel from Chicago to Southeast Asia, transit a number of countries, and return via the Pacific. There are some package prices out there running around $3,000 pp, and I was hoping to beat that.

We make our travel plans based on what we call “Google roulette”, using www.google.com/flights/ (and cross-check against www.skyscanner.com) to look for one-way tickets to general areas we might want to see, in flexible time frames, and settling on a destination and time that work best for us. Our original plan based on the roulette method was shockingly inexpensive. We were worried that we must be missing something. This information could not be correct, could it?

We started off with a real deal on our first long-leg flight from Chicago to Bangkok at $397 each. The original soft plan called for 10 foreign destinations, which later morphed into 13 sites. Cities were added and deleted as our desires and the roulette wheel changed.

Note: In December we took a 20-day multi-city tour of Vietnam with Intrepid Travel, which included the cost of some bus and train travel and none of that is not shown in our results below. Also, I have added in the cost of one bus trip to DaLat, since it substituted for an air flight.

Then, we decided to increase our costs by actually circling the globe. The original plan called for retracing our route across the Pacific ocean, but we found that we could add in a trip to Europe for an extra cost of $100 each. Besides getting to see Holland and Iceland in the spring, we would cut down our return jetlag into manageable chunks.

So, how did we do on our airfare costs? Surprisingly well.

I have frequent flier plans with stockpiled points, and annual-fee credit cards for the major US airlines, but as you can see from the above list, I never once used them. The smaller airlines had better prices every single time. This was a big disappointment, and I may be cutting up some of those credit cards soon. The only useful card was the Chase Sapphire Card. We put all our travel expenses on it, and we get 2 points per dollar for travel and dining. You can then call up Chase as your travel agent, allowing you to use your credits to buy airline tickets from most airlines. We racked up $472 in credits, which we applied to the air tickets from Amsterdam to Iceland to Chicago. So, our total airfare cost of $1,861 turned into an actual cost per person of $1,625.

Surprise costs: We thought we would avoid baggage fees by packing just a moderate-sized backpack (20-30 liters) and a 20-inch rolling carry-on case. I traveled for years on the US airlines and these two bags were always considered carry-ons; I hoisted that case into the overheads and put that backpack under my seat. Not so in Asia. A carry-on officially has a maximum weight of 7 kilos, and I am grateful that the airlines here never weighed my backpack because it probably was 8 kilos. The 20-inch cases weighed in at 15 kilos each, fully packed, and were forbidden in every single passenger cabin. The good news is that the cases traveled for free on major legs across the ocean; and on the shorter flights, a pre-payment of around $10 each usually gave us a checked bag allowance of 20 kilos, a preselected seat, and a hot meal. (That additional cost is included in the prices I’ve listed above.) The cases have been checked into the belly of every plane.

What are people doing with those back-breaker backpacks, at 45 to 70 liters of capacity? I’ve watched them in the check-in lines, and sometimes the owners have to weigh them, pay a punitive fee at the counter and check them in. Sometimes (rarely) the airlines turned a blind eye, and the owner walked onto the plane with the bag. This may be a good option for young people with strong backs, and many travel bloggers extol the virtues of single-pack traveling. To each his own; I won’t be joining them. Besides, where would I put the Vietnamese fabrics and the Balinese wood carvings I bought?

I don’t know if these low airfare prices are an anomaly caused by the low oil prices we’ve had lately. I am just grateful that we were able to take advantage of them. If you’re planning a trip to Asia, I wouldn’t wait too long. I can’t guarantee that your prices will resemble ours.