Peperoncino Festival 2005 in Calabria, Part 2 of 2

Chiles and Chocolate - another Festival Highlight

If you've read last year's Calabria Report, you probably have noticed that we had sniffed out a new trend: The ancient tradition of combining chiles and chocolate is back (for more on this subject, see also the SuperSite article "Chiles and Chocolate"), and chocolatiers around the world are getting increasingly creative. Even manufacturers in Germany (the former "Land of the Bland"), are now releasing more or less fiery combinations of "choc and hot". But the most inventive top of the notch chocolatiers are at home in Italy, so it's no wonder that this country also yields the most interesting chocolate specialties involving the mighty pod.

The photo to the left depicts the many chile chocolate products we dicovered just at this year's Peperoncini Festival! We were amazed to even find Italian-made Ancho Chocolate. Ancho, originating in Mexico, is a dried Poblano pepper of mild heat and a slightly smoky flavor, with hints of tobacco and prunes. Anchos are commonly used in Mexican sauces called moles, so it is unusual to see them used in Italian chocolate bars. We also found chocolate bars spiced up with Chipotle, which are smoke-dried Jalapeno peppers  ("Jalapeno affumicato" in Italian), another bold choc flavor. Not surprisingly though, most Italian products use domestic peperoncini, especially from Calabria.

Here's Maria of Dolci Pensieri di Calabria, showing off the poster she painted just for the festival. This company is one of the hottest of our discoveries last year, and their Cioccolato al Peperoncino is a great seller at our Pepperworld Hot Shop in Germany. Fired up by the success of their literally "hot chocolate", Dolci introduced a whole line of spicy products, combining choclate not just with chiles, but also additional flavors like cedro (a kind of citrus), peppermint and - would you believe it! - with onion and with garlic (the folks in Gilroy, CA would be delighted). We found the combination of peperoncino and peppermint most interesting, as this triggers response from heat and pain receptors at the same time. Plus, the flavor is great.
Local manufacturer Castel Fagiano introduced "Confettura di peperoncino al cioccolato", a spicy chile-choc spread that's not justgreat on rolls and toast, but on crepes as well.	The cocoa & chile combination  is good for more than just chocolate bars.  Magnifici del Mezzogiorno for example makes a delicious liquor with these ingredients, going by the fancy name Amore Piccante. Both chiles and chocolate are believed to have aphrodisiatic properties (just don't drink too much of it, or amore might suffer).	"Amore Piccante"
Toon Time!
	With the many attractions at the Peperoncino Festival, the organizers are always trying to spice up the culinary delights with art and humor. This time, there were even two exhibits of  spicy cartoons. And as every year, theere was also "Vignette sul Ring", an entertaining contest where hobby artists were competing with each other, drawing cartoons for a given subject, using transparent foils and overhead projectors, so the public could follow progress. The cute number girls were also quite entertaining.
Of the professional cartoons by the "artisti piccanti" picked by the Accademia Italiana del Peperoncino, this one here by Roberto Mangosi was our favorite. Go figure :-)	Spicy cartoon competition at the overhead projector.

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 Story and Photos by Harald Zoschke