What The Celebration is All About
My first chocolate ratings, reviews, and news website – chocophile[.]com – went live in May of 2001. It was, arguably, the first professional site of its kind, in the sense that I approached the endeavor as a business, not as a hobby. This past 20 years coincides with the huge increase in awareness and appreciation of specialty aka craft aka artisan chocolate, and this virtual tasting experience is an invitation to join me as I share some of the most important and memorable moments in my Chocolate Life since 1994, when I was first inspired to pursue a career in chocolate.
The Key Details
The Day: Saturday May 15th
The Time: 18:00 EDT (6pm New York time)
Limited-Edition Celebration Tasting Kits
As a part of the celebration, I am curating a limited-edition tasting kit – only 42 will be shipped (sorry, limited to addresses in the Continental US) – that will be the centerpiece of the tasting event. These kits will include:
- Limited-edition ChocolateLife merch produced just for this event.
- A PDF preview edition of TheChocolateLife Guide to Pairing Chocolate with Anything and Everything! You will get this in advance so you can decide if you want to purchase any of the wines, beers, and spirits mentioned for the tasting. I know I will be!
- CHOCOLATE! So far, the A-Z selection includes bars from:
– Askinosie (the bar Shawn is proudest of)
– Bonnat (a bar so new it doesn’t even have a name yet!)
– Heinde & Verre (direct from Holland – exclusive limited edition)
– Map (direct from Oregon – exclusive limited edition)
– Quetzalli’s Mexican Memories (Wolter Chocolate, Tabasco, MX)
– Zotter (so many fun and interesting choices!) - Invitation (link) to the live tasting event, hosted on Google Meet.
Tickets and Availability
There are two ticket types available:
- Celebration Tasting Kit – $125 each, including priority shipping (to addresses in the continental US). Price is per kit, not per person. Each kit will contain enough of each chocolate for 2-4 people, but only one item of merch.
- Celebration Supporter Kit – $25 per kit. This includes the PDF preview edition of TheChocolateLife Guide to Pairing Chocolate with Anything and Everything! and an invitation to the live tasting event, hosted on Google Meet.
- BOTH kits include the member perks listed below.
ChocolateLife Member Perks
- A 25% discount on all future ChocolateLife virtual tasting events for Annual Premium members who purchase a Celebration Tasting kit.
- A 10% discount on all future ChocolateLife virtual tasting events for Monthly Premium members who purchase a Celebration Tasting kit.
- 10% discount on any and all future ChocolateLife merch purchases.
- 10% discount on a signed and numbered copy of the first-edition print version of TheChocolateLife Guide to Pairing Chocolate with Anything and Everything.
How to Order Tickets
Send an email to 20th[@]thechocolatelife[.]com with 20th Anniversary Celebration Tickets or somesuch in the subject.
In the body of the email, please indicate which Celebration ticket package you want to order – the Tasting Kit or the Supporter Kit. I will create an invoice you can pay online via credit card.
Tickets requests will be processed in the order in which they are received.