Chocolaterie Wanders offers you the world's finest handmade gourmet chocolates.

MOCHA is the new book by Michael Turback after writing “Hot Chocolate”.

We were very happy to be able to assist Michael with his write-up, as we provided information about the Wanders’ Pharisee - a hot chocolate infused with mocha and rum, finished with a dolip of cream and a bit of cinnamon. Our parents have been serving the “Pharisäer”  since they opened their pastry shop in 1981 and with success we might add

The Pharisäer is being served throughout Germany with similar ingredients and originates probably from the northern part of Germany (don’t tell the bavarians!. Originally it is served with just hot coffee and rum and whipped cream on top - our parents added the chocolate to add some variety to it. Rich Valrhona Caraque (my favorite couverture from Valrhona) just seals the deal for us on this drink.

 The cover of the book also shows the Pharisee, which is listed first under category “cocktails” in Mocha. As we read more into the book itself (we got it yesterday and didn’t have a chance yet!) we will keep you posted and tell you about all the other interesting recipes you can find in there.

If you can’t wait to get it, here it is -> link.

When the temperatures drop we will publish the recipe of our (now) famous Pharisee here, so stay tuned

Maybe it was a little windy to begin with. We were honestly not sure if the tent would still be standing - you see, we put it up on Friday night, so that we would be faster with setting up in the morning. Speaking of Friday night …. we ate at a German “Döner” stand. At a WHAT ?!? Yeah that’s right: Döner

“fresh lean meat from the rotisserie in a hot flatbread with a choice of salad and sauce” is what it says in the description - well, we know Döner of course from Germany ….. it got very popular there, due to its lean meat (the fat drips off of the rotisserie) and all the salad thats on it - you find it practically everywhere - as I remember the food came from Turkey or the Middle East. Anyway, it was delicious - if you visit the Hamburg-Döner guys on Catoctin Circle in Leesburg, VA say “Hi” to them from us and get the ’small’ version (unless you are REALLY hungry!

Alright, I really wanted to write about the festival though …. We were worried that the tent would have been blown away, since there were 30mph wind gusts throughout the night and even in to the morning …. BUT a little tape here and there and artistic usage of floral wire (to attach empty display gift box assortments to a water bottle, not to fly away!) and everything was in place.

We had fantastic weather otherwise and enjoyed all the buzz (literally) around. Saturday seemed a little more hectic than Sunday …. maybe just because we had to get into the rhythm though. We ran out of samples of our Pate de Fruit on Sunday afternoon and were completely out of samples by closing time on Sunday - so we were very happy with our estimation for those

All in all it was a fun event for everyone I think. We were happy to be able to add numerous folks to our mailing list and everyone promised us to keep us in mind for their Christmas gift giving.

We will unveil our Fall/Winter flavors soon and actually make a first batch this week to test the new recipes. We have a few tasting sessions coming up and I will keep you posted on those in a later post.

Until then!