Slow Food Nation '08

Fort Mason Center | Included with Taste Pavilions Ticket: $45 - 65 | Saturday, August 30; 11am – 3pm (SOLD OUT); 5pm – 9pm (SOLD OUT) | Sunday, August 31; 11am – 3pm (SOLD OUT); 5pm – 9pm (SOLD OUT)

Everyone is familiar with the singular pleasure of chocolate, but few of us appreciate the complicated journey behind its production. Cacao only grows in the tropics but is almost exclusively processed into chocolate in Europe and the U.S. At the Chocolate Pavilion, multisensory displays and a complete micro chocolate-making facility allow visitors to taste chocolate as it’s being made. Some of America’s best and most progressive artisanal chocolate makers are on hand to serve tastes of their chocolates and explain their relationships with Theobroma Cacao and its growers. The opportunity to taste cacao’s terroir in a newly minted bar of chocolate and talk face-to-face with some of the country’s most innovative chocolate makers is a revelation to chocolate novices and lovers alike.

CHOCOLATE producers making a special trip to personally present their chocolates include:

• Art Pollard from Amano Chocolate, UT
• Steve DeVries from DeVries Chocolate, CO
• Alan McClure from Patric Chocolate, MO
• Alex Whitmore from Taza Chocolate, MA
• Shawn Askinosie from Askinosie Chocolate, MO