Godiva: The Chocolate Story

Few weeks back, we were invited to a Godiva event, where we had the privilege of being a chocolatier (ahem) for a day. The event also opened our eyes to a little history on Godiva’s chocolate and how it was made.

Godiva Chocolatier was founded 80 years ago in Brussels, Belgium when master chocolatier Joseph Draps founded a chocolate company that was named in honor of the legend of Lady Godiva. Many hundreds year ago, the respectable Lady Godiva took up a challenge from her husband, Lord Leofric that if she rode naked through the streets and the people of the city remained inside, the taxation on the poor would be lifted. And of course, the people did close their shutters, as promised. Hence, Joseph Draps lines of chocolates that represents the timeless qualities of passion, style, sensuality and modern boldness was named after Lady Godiva.

Do you know that Godiva Pavilion KL is the world’s very first Godiva cafe?

Ciki, Suanie and Citygal…

Pic credit to Ciki

The cafe offers a wide range of confectionery products including chocolate assortments, truffles, fudge, toffee, chocolate bars and seasonal novelties.

There are also cakes and macarons where you can choose from the counter to go along with your coffee/tea.

Luxurious truffles anyone?

The event kicked start with a showcase of Godiva’s dessert selection. We were also being fed with some finger food before we make our hands dirty making some chocolate goodies.

chocolate macarons

Surprisingly, the macarons were not too sweet! The shell broke and shattered immediately we put em’ into our mouths and the inner part of the macaron was so soft and moist!

*blink*

Our chocolate tasting session began shortly after Yazeed, the brand manager of Godiva gave us an introduction on Godiva Chocolate.

Do you know that like wine, chocolate connoisseurs explore all the delicious details of their favourite food by the look, the smell and the taste.

We started with some mass-produced chocolate that contains much less cocoa and fats other than cocoa butter, hence the light/minimal hint of cocoa taste. The surface of the chocolate appears to be mottled and matte due to uncontrolled crystallization of cocoa butter.

Good chocolates should have a glossy shine, with a strong smell of cocoa butter and melt easily in your mouth without sticking all over.

The bloggers were given opportunities to learn about tempering chocolate. This is the technique used to melt and cool chocolate so it sets firm and shiny at room temperature. We also dip, decorate and package our chocolate treats into our own gift box.

melt the chocolates…

make our own chocolate lollipops…

the finished products…

chocolate fondue in the making…

Ciki, Su and Citygal…

KampungBoy reviving his childhood memories with these chocolate lollipops…

with the gorgeous Kimberly…

with Su, my dedicated team mate who does most of the work (hehe)…

Godiva is also debuting The Ramadhan 2011 Collection with three different sizes of beautifully wrapped hampers – Jubilee, Impression and Jewel de Nile. The selection of chocolates and gift boxes were carefully hand picked.

Thanks to Godiva for having us up for such a fun and well organized event!

Godiva Chocolatier Cafe
Level 2
Pavilion
Jln Bukit Bintang
Kuala Lumpur
Tel: 03 – 2142 5252