two words that should ALWAYS go together: Chocolate Giveaway

Sunday, October 7, 2012

I have a bit of a confession to make:  I'm a chocoholic.  I actually claim to have a dessert compartment somewhere in my insides because it does not matter how much 'real' food I will eat at meals - I always have room for sweets.  Its a gift really.

Well, I got an excited call from my sister, Kayla, last week because she was anxious to let me know that she had an 'in' with a chocolatier that was interested in participating in a blog giveaway.  And then my mouth started watering and my husband told me I had a crazy look in my eye.    

Lauren Roybal is the owner of Cocopelli Chocolatier in Santa Fe, NM and she is passionate about making people happy through all things chocolate and sweet.  I have since learned that Lauren has always been a chocolate lover and through a series of opportunities and experiences in her life - she realized that she was sort of destined to open up a chocolate shop.  In an email she wrote to me she said, "Good chocolate is something to celebrate, to be picky about, and also to share...my hope is to inspire others to find local artisan baker/chocolatiers."  She had me at "good chocolate."

The thing is, Lauren isn't just my new favorite person because she opened a chocolate boutique - the most awesome part about her is she is a real life hero.  Lauren may be the owner of Cocopelli Chocolatier, but she is also serving in the National Guard as a pilot flying an H-60 Black Hawk helicopter for Medevac - where she participates in search&rescue and fire fighting missions.  (She came off of active duty in September 2011 but still flies regularly).

She is a soldier AND she makes chocolate...pretty sure those are the makings of the most awesome superheroine ever?

So then Lauren sent me over some of her artisan chocolate to try and review for all of my readers...


And can I just say that it took me all of 30 seconds after taking this pic (while still sitting in the car after getting the mail) to immediately gobble up one two pieces of her chocolaty heaven.  And now here we are a mere 4 days later and I'm ashamed proud to admit, there are only 3 pieces of chocolate left...and that's only because I am attempting to have some type of will power over my sweets addiction.  I claimed my family couldn't try any to ensure the blog review was authentic, but its really because I didn't want to share.  oops.

Each sweet treat in my Cocopelli Chocolatier box was a delight and a happy surprise.  I have a thing for chocolate and sea salt - so my absolute favorites were the sea salt topped truffles.  But a very close second were the swirl pieces (like the one in the pic on the lower right) because it had sort of a cookie type bottom layer that was crunchy and divine.  Each truffle was both beautiful and savory in its own unique way.  I honestly felt like Lauren had created and hand selected each piece just for me; each truffle a little piece of delicious artwork.

Honestly, I was chowing down on my box of chocolate like I was Rachel McAdams in the Vow...unfortunately there was no Channing Tatum involved in my little binge- even more unfortunately for me, my very own hotter-than-Channing husband wasn't involved because let's be honest, I'm a little greedy about my chocolate.

not me.
Let's just say I'm feeling kind of blue that I don't live in Santa Fe so that I could regularly stop by and say hello (and thank you -for her service to our country) to Lauren while lingering and drooling into the display case.  My sweet tooth and I give Cocopelli Chocolatier's chocolate two very big thumbs up.

Speaking of Santa Fe...do I have any NM readers?  If you are reading from Santa Fe - or live near by...or are traveling there - make sure to check out the Cocopelli Chocolatier website for menus, hours of operation, and their list of events and classes.

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And now for the great giveaway news - Lauren is happily ready to send over a 1/4 lb box of some of her high cocoa content, artisan chocolate along with a few select chocolate&nut patties* to one of my lucky readers.  Yes, you read that correctly - artisan chocolate delivered directly to you.

To enter the giveaway, all you have to do is "like" CoCopelli Chocolatier's facebook page here, and comment below with a chocolate story that you would like to confess to all of us fellow chocolate lovers.  Maybe it's where you stash your secret chocolate - or what recipes you add chocolate to (even if it doesn't call for it), etc.   I'll start us off with one of my favorites:

I love chocolate all the time, I truly need a little bit of chocolate every single day.  I read somewhere once that if your body is craving chocolate, it really means you're missing magnesium and that can be fulfilled by eating legumes and I literally laughed aloud about it.  When I'm in need of a chocolate fix, their ain't a legume out there that's going to fill it.  

Anyway, when I'm pregnant, my chocolate situation is a little more severe.  So the truth was finally revealed one night when I was about eight months pregnant with Gemma. I was watching tv in the evening and way too tired and big belly'ed to get off the couch so I yelled into Brandon to bring me a chocolate bar.  Very hesitantly he reported back, "sorry babe, we don't have any candy bars."  Which I quickly shouted back, "no we do.  Check in the back of the snack cupboard on the right side, behind the box of popcorn."  B walked in with the candy bar silent and shaking his head.

Hello, my name is Tabitha and I hide chocolate from my family members so they can't find it and eat it.

Enter the giveaway!!  Winner will be randomly selected on Wednesday, October 10, 2012.



*allergies:  chocolate pieces are possible to have traces of nuts.  Chocolate&nut patties could include (but not limited to) toasted almonds, macadamia, chocolate y maiz, etc.  

9 comments:

  1. When I get a box of chocolates I cut all of them in half. Two Reasons - so I only eat half, the other is so I know what's inside. One day when I did this I looked down at the box at the end of the day and I had eaten everything but 2. I was so sick that night I swore to never eat another chocolate again. The next morning when I woke up I ended up finishing the other 2. Something is wrong with me!!! I LOVE chocolate!

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  2. My husband and I are both serious chocoholics, in our house having some form of chocolate after dinner is a daily MUST! Our mutual love of chocolate was actually what sort of sparked our attraction when we first started dating. He’d give me a small box of Ferrero rochers at the end of each date and this went on for at least 10 dates before I told him he had to stop because I had had waaaay too much chocolate in my system at all times! The cutest surprise was when he proposed a year later, he hid the ring inside of a Ferrero rocher that he intricately hollowed out, it totally blindsided me! Needless to say our 2 year old son is a bigger chocolate addict than his parents, once in a desperate attempt to get him to eat real food we slathered Nutella on tunafish and he ate it cheerfully. Chocolates in our house never go wasted, that’s a fact!

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  3. Chocolate is stashed in the closet. Lots of it. Don't tell my husband.
    wrotek5 (at) gmail (dot) com

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  4. Every year around Christmas time, my mom, sisters and I decide to make some chocolate covered pretzels. EVERY YEAR, this turns into coating everything we can find in the cupboards in chocolate--like everything. And I ALWAYS keep an opened bag of chocolate chips in the fridge for my emergency chocolate stash. :)

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  5. I always have mini chocolates on hand and when my kids are being especially grouchy or bickering, I've been known to throw out chocolates (like at a parade) exclaiming, "Happy Tuesday (or Weds...or Fri, etc). It's a great restart to a bad day :)
    Thanks for the chance to win.

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  6. My husband is not a fan of sweets at all specifically chocolate, so when I get some sort of chocolate that I love or a delicious chocolate treat and he wants some I shamelessly turn into a three year old that never learned to share and throw a fit and tell him "you don't even like it, why are you taking it from me" it is borderline pathetic!

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  7. I always have 3 jars of different types of candy out for display in my house (my least favorite) for when people come over and also for the hubby. The good stuff is hidden in the pantry for my after dinner sweet tooth! Yes, I am a chocohalic!

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  8. Lauren is an amazing chef and chocolatier! We use her chocolates at our high end Art events like the Frank Lloyd Wright private home tour, where she designed chocolates specifically for our event.... um, we ran out in one hour and she ran back to the shop and brought hundreds more! Anyways, equal to her tasty chocolates is the service she provides. So yes, we bribe collectors to buy fine art at our events with Lauren's chocolates!

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  9. I LOVE chocolate!!! I buy candy for Halloween intending to give it out to trick or treaters. But I always end up buying something different because I don't want to give away MY chocolate. I will sometimes grudgingly share it with my kids, but have been known to stash it in my closet so they can't have it. I got that trick from my mom who hid it from us kids. I love reading your blog and thanks for the chance to win chocolate!
    Kathy bkbuhr@msn.com

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