Green & Black’s

I had the great pleasure to attend an event showcasing the lovely Green & Black’s brand of chocolate, which is completely organic.  Before this, I hadn’t much experience with the chocolate, but I got to sample many different kinds over the course of the evening. 

Even more fun?  We each sat down in front of these trays and were then informed… it was a quickfire challenge!  I don’t watch Top Chef or those types of cooking reality shows, but the gist was that we had 7 minutes to create a unique tiramisu from what was in front of us: sugar, madeira wine, mascarpone, unsweetened whipped cream, espresso, and lady fingers.  Regular readers of the blog might remember how much I adore tiramisu; it’s my second favorite dessert in the world after panna cotta.  However, I’ve never actually made tiramisu… only thought about it a lot and never executed.  In any case, I quickly started assembling and making things up as I went.  The mise en place really helped with the process. 

I wound up layering espresso soaked lady fingers on the bottom, topped with lightly sweetened mascarpone blended with madeira, a bit more lady fingers (not soaked this time, to help retain some texture), then whipped cream blended with sugar and espresso.  On top of all of that, I shaved espresso chocolate on top, then added more lady fingers around it for aesthetics.

Judging began by aesthetics alone; three finalists were chosen.  I actually only took photos of mine (right), Sarah‘s (middle), and Justin‘s (left), because the third finalist was sitting far away from me.  Sarah and I made it past the first round of judging, which shocked me as I was in a particularly boisterous mood and kept trash talking her the entire 7 minutes – within earshot of the judges.  Maybe they thought I was amusing? because it was definitely not sporting! 

Then a final winner was picked based on taste.  Shockingly… I won.  I mean, I wasn’t particularly creative with my entry – everything was very straightforward, using classic flavors.  Sarah went with the “gold” chocolate, which was different at least – though I didn’t get a chance to try hers, so I’m not sure how it tasted.  I did eat some of mine and thought yes, this is tiramisu… IN ANY CASE, enough of the humility, I was thrilled that I was picked because now I can say I have award-winning tiramisu.  😉 

Afterwards, we mingled for a bit, eating our way through chocolate and more chocolate, and then some more chocolate.  Had a lovely time learning more about the Green & Black’s brand and their mission to be completely organic and fair trade in all aspects.  Thank you for having me at this great event!!! 

Please note that I attended this event courtesy of the Green & Black’s PR, though I received no monetary compensation and was under no obligation to post about this event positively or negatively.