Chocolate Candy!

I was surprised this year to get a Groupon for my birthday from our son, Keola.  The groupon was for a chocolate candy making lesson at Ricard Chocolat in Waikiki for two people.  Keola laughingly said it would give me something to blog about.

When I called to make the reservation, I learned that Ricard Chocolat is at the Queen Kapiolani hotel in Waikiki. I worked for a Japanese Travel Agency there during the summer while I was going to the University of Hawaii.  I hadn't been back since.  That old photo is one a tourist asked me to take with him.

Our travel agency used to have a table set up right there by the escalator.  I sat there answering questions as best as I could.


Here's just a little something about Queen Kapiolani of Hawaii.

Kapiʻolani was born December 31, 1834 in Hilo on Hawai'i Island to High Chief Kuhio Kalanianaʻole of Hilo and High Chiefess Kinoiki Kekaulike of Kaua'i, the daughter of King Kaumuali'i, last King of an independent Kauaʻi before its amicable cession to Kamehameha the Great. She was named Kapiʻolani, after her great-aunt High Chiefess Kapi'olani, who defied the goddess, Pele in the name of Christianity. Her name, Kapiʻolani, means "Rainbow or Arch of Heaven."

Ricard Chocolat is a small shop selling high end chocolates.  I was wondering how they could hold a chocolate cooking class in such a small space.

There was a Wisconsin family who was also part of our class.  They bought their lesson from Living Social.

We were shown what a cocoa pod looked like and tasted the beans.  It was crunchy and a little bitter.  I was surprised that I couldn't taste a stronger chocolate flavor.  It needed sugar.

Ricard Chocolat uses chocolate grown in Hawaii.  I didn't even know we had cocoa trees on Oahu.





We were able to choose the chocolate mold that we wanted for our chocolate pieces.






These plastic sheets were dyed with cocoa butter which would melt on to the bottom of our candy pieces.

The chocolate had already been melted and was poured onto the cool counter. We were then encouraged to moved it about to help cool it down.

I thought there would be some sort of thermometer to see if the temperature of the chocolate was at around 80 degrees F from the 115 degrees F it had been.  Nope.  We had to apply a bit of the chocolate to just below our bottom lip to test it.

Art then poured some of the chocolate into the mold and I scraped off the excess.

We then added marshmallows, nuts, bits of fruit and Oreos to decorate the tops of the chocolate pieces.  The chocolates were put in the refrigerator to cool further.  Meanwhile we got to taste a piece of chocolate from the candy counter.

Once cooled, they tapped the chocolate out of the mold and had us pack the morsels into plastic packages with a little ribbon to tie it.

 This was certainly a new, sweet experience for me and definitely bloggable!

Thank you, Keola!