Santosha Chocolate is raw, fair-trade, humanity-committed chocolate made in Asheville, NC. I met, or re-met, rather, founder Don Rowe at the Santa Cruz, CA, home of one of my best friends. Her husband happens to be Don’s step-brother, and I happened to be down for a visit the same time he was this past December.
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Sonoma Valley Portworks Petite Sirah Port 2007 Clarksburg, CA During my trip last spring to Petaluma, I picked up this bottle of port in a surge of jubilation that I had found a winery specializing in dessert wines (613 2nd Street in the Foundry Wharf building). Plenty of wineries offer one or a handful of
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I tried out the cupcakes at this local bakery stand inside the NewPark Mall (directly under the food court) after an open mic night with the Fremont Writers’ Club. The pretty, pretty cupcakes on display drew me in; I’m a sucker for a gorgeous cupcake, although the wares often don’t deliver on the visual appeal.
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The Sustainable Classroom: Coffee & Chocolate As part of my whirlwind weekend at TerraVITA 2012, I participated in the Sustainable Classroom on a free press pass. Each of the four sessions I attended was jam-packed with information and tasting experiences. There is no way I can share everything I learned with you, so instead, I’m
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Lumpy’s 306 East Wait Avenue Wake Forest Website $3 a scoop Lumpy’s is a new restaurant in Wake Forest offering ice cream and easy eats like hamburgers and frankfurters. Their grand opening is tomorrow from 11 to 7, but that’s just for the storefront. Lumpy’s owner and ice cream creator, Buck Buchanan, has been serving
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Epicurio 2008 Primitivo Di Manduria Vendemmia Apulia, Italy The nose of this wine made from a relative of the zinfandel grape is full of rich milk chocolate truffle with a hint of raspberry. The smell makes me rather excited to drink it, I must say, as truffles with raspberry are my favorite ratings, after all.
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Lost Vineyards Tempranillo Calatayud, Spain   This medium-bodied and medium dry tempranillo is all you can ask for at $3.99. It smells like dark chocolate and light leather. Cherry comes to mind first when sipping, but that dark chocolate has a stronger presence overall. It’s bitter in a way that ties in nicely to the
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We are nearing the end of our recent California adventure. The next two blogs don’t have many food-related pictures, because I was too busy talking with my friends to actually devote time to documenting the places we went—that, and I’ve been to most of them a million times during my college years, so I forget
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Martine Galhoune Moulin 2010 Pinot Noir France Nectarine. The nose of this wine is full of nectarine. It’s thin-bodied, fun to drink, and a welcome shift from the overly dry wines I’ve had lately. I’d call this one medium dry. It has vanilla, spice, nectarine, chocolate, and cherry all balanced well together. The MGM 2010
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Tisdale Pinot Noir (vintage free, yo!) Modesto, CA This wine looks thin, watery, dark brown, and plum. It smells of bitter chocolate and currants. As expected, it tastes very thin and watery. Fleeting cocoa powder comes first followed by the currant and overripe figs with some apricot notes. Then the cocoa powder rushes back in
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