this weekend i had the opportunity to attend the 5th Annual Quail Gardens Chocolate Festival. basically, a bunch of local chocolatiers (both independent and corporate!) set up tables and offer tastings of their wares in exchange for $.50 tickets.

a few of the participants:

Jer's is a perennial san diego favorite, specializing in peanut butter truffles. normally i'm somewhat ambivalent towards peanut butter, but much like a gourmet version of a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup, Jer's has perfected that deeply satisfying, crumbly, slightly grainy peanut butter filling that feels cool on the tongue and is not cloyingly sweet. i always enjoy these, particularly the one with tiny bits of toffee.

guanni uses top-notch ingredients and exotic flavor combos to great effect. i tried the new cusco, a combination of hot yellow peppers and candied citrus peel in dark chocolate ganache. not only is it a very attractive piece of chocolate, it's also quite delicious. the yellow pepper has a pleasant slow burn, but i couldn't really detect much citrus.

i think helen grace is a frequent sponsor of school fundraisers, so their chocolate is... shall we say, slightly more crowd-pleasing? but that's not at all bad. one of their pieces on display was a thick square of pleasantly buttery caramel sitting atop a square of smooth semi-sweet chocolate, then drenched in white coating (i don't think this was actual white chocolate, it was kinda too sweet and BRILLIANTLY white) but it was a nice chunk of candy for a reasonable price.

i didn't see chuao this year, which is too bad cuz i'm jonesin for some of their passion fruit chocopods.

all in all, a good time. i only spent $10 on tastings (that's like 7-8 pieces of chocolate) and i surely could've kept going, but hey, it's summer and i'm trying to keep an eye on my expanding gut.