Chocolate Paradises Around the World

It’s just like any other addiction. You start slowly, gradually acquire a taste for the stuff and then ramp things up into a full-blown habit. But you can’t help yourself—you love the subtle buzz, the lingering aftertaste, the euphoric feeling that seems to follow every delicious encounter, to the point where you can no longer live without your daily dose. That’s when you know you’re a full-blown chocoholic. But who offers the best chocolate high? That depends on what sort of chocolate you crave and how far you’re willing to travel for your buzz.

With more than a dozen factories and some 2,000 chocolate shops, Belgium is the undisputed kingpin of the chocolate world. From nut-filled nougats and pralines to truffles and white chocolate seashells, the little European nation produces more than 170,000 tons of chocolate each year—an amount equivalent to the weight of 850 Boeing 747s.

“Chocolate has a profound effect on people on many levels," says Pamela Hinckley of Theo Chocolate in Seattle, another chocolate lover’s paradise. “The aroma, flavor and sensual way it melts is just the beginning. Many of the sensations are similar to those we experience when we are falling in love." John Sharffenberger, co-founder of Sharffen Berger Chocolate in Berkeley, the little Belgium of California, agrees: “Chocolate satisfies on three levels—body, mind and soul."

Europe's love affair with chocolate desserts began in Belgium as a result of the country's colonial involvement in the Congo. Along with a huge swath of African jungle, the Belgians suddenly found themselves with a huge supply of cacao, the basic raw ingredient of chocolate. The invention of the praline in Brussels in 1912 kicked off the world’s first chocolate candy craze and established chocolate as one of the country’s key industries.

Although there are many famous Belgian chocolate makers—Neuhaus, Leonidas, Sukerbuyc and Daskalidés—one of the oldest and most celebrated is Godiva, which has been around for more than 80 years. Seeking a name that combined beauty and sensuality, founder Joseph Draps named his confections after the lady who once rode naked through Coventry. His original chocolate shop on the Grande Place in Brussels still exists today. There are 15 other boutiques in Belgium, while the original Godiva factory churns out hundreds of thousands of boxes per year.

“It’s really not surprising that Godiva originated in Belgium," says Jim Goldman, the company’s worldwide president. From art and architecture to lace and crystal, Belgium has as long tradition of perfectionism. “In keeping with this tradition—and with a remarkable eye for detail—Draps set forth the standard at Godiva for elegant, shell-molded designs and beautiful packaging."

On the other side of the Atlantic, another charismatic individual was responsible for launching the chocolate craze in the United States. After failing at the candy business in a handful of cities, Milton Hershey returned to his roots in rural Pennsylvania in 1883 and established a factory to produce caramels. Convinced that the future belonged to chocolate (rather than caramels) Hershey spent years of trial and error perfecting the milk chocolate formula that would lead to the first Hershey bar.

Today, Hershey is Chocolate Town U.S.A.—home to the factories where they make Hershey’s iconic brands, from Kisses to Kit Kat, and a sprawling interactive experience called Chocolate World that combines theme-park rides, simulated factory tours, 3-D films and private tastings of Hershey’s new gourmet chocolates.

Organic chocolate, all the rage these days, is the raison d’être of companies like Green & Black’s and, in the Pacific Northwest, Theo Chocolate. The ultimate in politically correct confectioner, Theo uses only fair trade-certified cacao (and other “socially and environmentally responsible" ingredients) and participates in a local “green power" initiative in which customers can score free chocolate by participating in a renewable energy credits project.

Named after the Latin term for the cacao tree (Theobroma cacao)—or, “food of the gods"—the company was started in 1994 by Joe Whinney. A stint as a conservation worker in Central America convinced him there was a better way to undertake both farming and food-making in the modern world. Theo’s factory tour starts in a classroom setting, where visitors are schooled in the basics of cacao growing and chocolate production, including a chance to taste “nibs" (roasted, hulled cacao beans) that constitute the primary raw material of all chocolate. Festooned with fluffy hair nets, they move onto the factory floor, making their way through the 13 different machines and processes that magically transform cacao pods into finished, packaged chocolate.

Further down the West Coast, in the Bay Area, Scharffenberger is a chocolatier on the rise. The chocolate comes from organic Brazilian cacao grown on an Amazon co-op that practices sustainable farming. Founded in 1996 by organic farmer and vintner John Scharffenberger and Bay Area physician Robert Steinberg, it’s a miracle the company even got off the ground. The pair used a home coffee grinder, electric mixer and hair dryer in Steinberg’s kitchen to test nearly 30 varieties of cacao beans for flavor.

“Robert provided the curiosity and patience of a scientist," Scharffenberger says. “My background in botanical anthropology gave me the opportunity to work with cacao and the indigenous communities that farm cacao." Located in an old brick warehouse, the Scharffenberger factory in the Berkeley flatlands is both a local landmark and chocoholic hangout, with free daily factory tours, chocolate clinics and a café that serves desserts to die for including chocolate pancakes and tribute cake filled with whipped chocolate ganache.

Tuscany is another region where chocolate making has risen to an art form. The area along the Arno River between Florence and Pisa has come to be known as the Chocolate Valley. The most celebrated is Amedei, founded by siblings Cecilia and Alessio Tessieri in 1990 and named after their grandmother. The astonishing Porcelana is Amedei’s most celebrated sweet, made from rare white Venezuelan cacao and one of the world’s most expensive chocolates. Amedei is a favorite of French President Nicholas Sarkozy, a man with a demonstrated penchant for things Italian.

Visitors must call ahead to arrange a visit to the Amedei factory, but other chocolate producers are open during regular business hours on an almost daily basis including the unique Mannori Espace in the town of Prato, where chocolate maestro Luca Mannori organizes classes and chocolate tastings.

One of the highpoints of the Chocolate Valley is the Cioccolato Vestri boutique and factory in Florence. Any chance to sink one’s teeth into Vestri’s tocco oriente, a thin slab of white chocolate generously infused with sesame seeds and Himalayan salt, will not be soon forgotten. Then there’s Roberto Catinari’s workshop in Agliana where wonderful-sounding confectionaries like tavolette, schiacciate and rustichelli are produced. If that's not enticing enough, read on to discover more choco-heavens that may be closer to home.

source: forbestraveler.com

Travel Scams to Avoid

Joe Yogerst 2008-08-13
© Peter Cade/Getty Images



How to avoid resort fees, ID theft and more

Writers like to think they’re immune to the scams that plague ordinary travelers. But wandering scribes are just as susceptible to stings and swindles anyone else. During a trip to England several years ago, I spied an advertisement in one of the London papers promoting a hotel-and-meals package in Yorkshire that looked too good to be true.

Arriving in the old medieval town of York a few days later, I checked into a wonderful city center lodge full of bygone ambience and good cheer. At dinner that evening I promptly announced to the waiter that I was there on the special package and asked how that worked with the meals. With an absolutely straight face he told me I could choose from either side of the menu. Given that the dishes on the right side looked a lot more appetizing than those on the left, I spent the next three days merrily making my way down that side of the meal card.


Then at checkout, I was presented with an enormous (and unexpected) restaurant bill. Turns out the meals on the right side of the menu were not part of my too-good-to-be-true package. And the hotel refused to swallow the charges or admit it was their error. I had fallen victim to the old bait-and-switch, one of the oldest travel scams in the business. Months later—after letters to my credit card company, the British and Yorkshire tourist boards, and the Phoenix-based Best Western organization that marketed the hotel that had ripped me off—I was still without recompense.

Bait-and-switch is one of numerous scams that make travelers wish they had never left home. And the ubiquity of instant communication has made it easier for con artists and dubious travel agents to prey upon those of us who like to move around. Some scams are incredibly sophisticated.

The California Department of Justice recently announced the arrest of Orange County travel agent Ralph Rendon. “The suspect allegedly ripped off dozens of senior citizens who wanted to travel to Cuba for religious and cultural purposes,” says California Attorney General Jerry Brown. The scam targeted Jewish and Greek Orthodox seniors trying to congregate with people of their own faith on the Caribbean island. After the 34 victims forked out five-figure deposits, Rendon announced their trips were being blocked by the Treasury Department and refused to refund their money. According to state investigators, he used the money to lease a brand new Mercedes, pay his rent and hire a divorce attorney.

Selling counterfeit merchandise is another huge travel scam, especially for anyone visiting Asia, the source of so many bogus goods. There was a day in the not-too-distant past when a fake Rolex was the height of Third World travel chic. But nowadays the knockoffs can be downright deadly.

“Sunglasses, handbags, DVDs—every product in every industry is liable to be knocked off these days,” says Caroline Joiner, executive director of the Global Intellectual Property Center at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. “I often tell people that if your product isn’t being counterfeited, then you probably have a brand that isn’t worth much.”

Nobody’s going to get killed by a counterfeit handbag, adds Joiner. “But consumers are at risk of buying counterfeit products that pose a real danger.” At the top of her list are knockoff pharmaceuticals cut with everything from harmless filler to motor oil, highway paint and glue. She also cites bogus electronics with faulty wiring or potentially hazardous batteries, as well as shampoo and perfumes that contain harmful amounts of bacteria. “I’ve seen things like fake diabetic testing strips, surgical mesh for repaired abdominal walls during surgery and even an entire Ferrari that was counterfeit.”

There are all kinds of money scams, from hotels that charge exorbitant commissions to change currency to money changers passing you bills or coins that are no longer in circulation. As a young backpacker doing the Eurail tango, I often changed money on the street trying to get a slightly higher exchange rate. During one of those black-market transactions, the fellow who ducked away “for a minute” to convert my dollars into local currency never came back. Needless to say, I started changing in kiosks and banks.

“I was back in Moscow a few years ago and saw with nostalgia they were still trying to pull the ‘wad of money’ trick in Red Square,” says veteran travel scribe Robert Reid, author of the Lonely Planet guides to the Trans-Siberian Railway, Central America and Myanmar. “Some goon rushes by you and drops a wad of dollars—could be more than a thousand—and another goon steps in and picks it up, offering to share it with you. If you take the offer, the other goon will track you down and demand all of the money. I kinda find it cute that they think it can still work—sadly it probably does.”

Another scam I’ve been stung by is the hotel that isn’t quite what it advertised—and sometimes nowhere close. I’ve booked rooms at beach hotels that were nowhere near the beach and airport hotels that were miles away from the terminals. “My advice is, do your research,” says Brooke Ferencsik, senior manager of media relations for the popular TripAdvisor website. “The more educated you are about a given hotel, the better off you’re going to be.”


The flipside of that coin, says Ferencsik, is choosing a hotel on the basis of a great location or a snazzy website without reading reviews that may paint a much darker picture. Unsuspecting travelers can get scammed into rooms only a few notches above a pig sty, places like the Hotel Carter in New York, which recently topped TripAdvisor’s list of the Top 10 Dirtiest Hotels in America. A manager at the Hotel Carter—who requested anonymity—said, “We know about the list. We’re doing OK. We’re still busy,” adding, “But we get many emails saying that it's not fair or not true or something like that.” Then there’s the centrally located Park Hotel in London, which one TripAdvisor reviewer dubbed a “typhoid cubicle.” (The general manager of the hotel could not be reached for comment.)

Despite the phenomenal growth of airport security over the last seven years, getting scammed at the TSA checkpoint is still a distinct possibility. Often it’s just a crime of opportunity—somebody who decides on the spur of the moment to snatch your iPod or cellphone from one of those ubiquitous plastic bins. But there are thieves, working solo or in tandem, who make a living off airports. They stand behind you in the TSA line and snatch items from your carry-on as you're passing through the metal detector. Or, they may be in front—one member of the team takes forever passing through the scanner while his or her partner walks away with your laptop that's already gone through the X-ray machine.

There have been several well-publicized cases over the past year in which victims were able to remotely activate the camera on their stolen laptops and identify the culprits. But you can’t rely on stupid crooks.

Steve Lott, head of North American communications for the International Air Transport Association (IATA) suggests several ways to keep from getting ripped off at airports. “I always recommend keeping an eye on your handbags and carry-ons at all times,” he says. “Don’t go through the metal detector before your bag does. If you require secondary screening, always ask a TSA agent to get your bag from the belt and bring it with you to the screening area. Be vigilant and avoid distraction. And before you leave the TSA screening area, always double-check that your valuables are in place.”

Expensive electronics aren’t the only thing that thieves are after. They can also pocket your identity without you even knowing that it’s been taken. Sifting through items that many travelers leave lying around their hotel rooms—driver’s license, airline tickets, address book, diaries, expense reports or anything else that may contain sensitive personal information—hotel workers and anyone else who gains access to your room can successfully hijack your persona for financial or other means. The simple solution is securing everything with personal information in the room safe or a lockable piece of luggage.

Identity theft also proliferates online. Be wary of using cybercafés or even hotel business centers for commercial transactions involving credit cards, and if you communicate personal financial information via email on a public computer, always verify that you have signed out of your email program before leaving the computer.

One of the least financially damaging scams is one of the most irritating—the infamous resort fee—that extra charge (normally $20 to $30) that some luxury hotels add for the privilege of using things that should be free or that we are unlikely to use. Although no one is sure who invented the resort fee, it’s often associated with Hawaii and its ritzy beach hotels.

“It’s an easy way for hotels to capture extra revenue from a captive audience,” says Alex Salkever, founder and editor of the Hawaiirama travel news and reviews website. “Once you get to the front desk, it’s not like you can turn around and leave.” The problem, says Salkever, is hotels that don’t disclose their resort fees ahead during the reservation process. “A few are good deals,” he adds. “One resort offers kids meals for free as part of the resort fee and that strikes me as a bargain. Most, however, are rip-offs.”

Cyberspace is rife with travel scams. Just this past winter, San Diego college students—planning a summer volunteer trip to teach English to orphans in West Africa—bought their tickets online from a discount airfare website based in Delaware. They paid online using their credit cards, but never received an e-ticket or electronic itinerary. By the time they got around to asking for a refund, the website had completely disappeared and nobody was responding at the travel agency’s telephone number.

“I don’t understand how someone can do something like this to other people,” one of the students lamented to a local television station, especially when the agency knew they were going to be doing volunteer work “and we didn’t have money to throw away.”

Maybe they can no longer fool all of the people all of the time, but savvy scammers know there are still plenty of travelers out there who they can trip up at least part of the time.

Source: ForbesTraveler.com