Love is Bittersweet
In her book, Chocolate: The Food of the Gods, Chantal Coady says we are "on the verge of an unprecedented chocolate renaissance."

Coady, founder of the The Chocolate Society in Britain, advocates chocolate tastings (like wine or cheese tastings) to raise awareness of fine chocolate.
So how do you properly taste chocolate? It's a sensory experience that involves sight, feel, and taste. The Valrhona website (www.valrhona.com) recommends tasting three or four chocolates in succession, from the sweetest to the most bitter.

The best chocolate should look rich and glossy. If it is dull or covered with a grey "bloom" it has been improperly tempered to become damp during storage. When you break good chocolate, it should snap crisply.
Because cocoa butter melts at 93*F (34*C) chocolate that is pure should melt instantly on the tongue. The cocoa content should be at least 50 per cent (good chocolate is usually labeled) and you can tell if it starts to melt in your hand in a few seconds.

To evaluate chocolate, put a small piece on your tongue and just let it melt. Try three or four bars and sip water between tastes. You are looking for flavours akin to wine, flower blossoms, citrus and red berry fruit, freshly mown hay and green tea.
The finish, or the length of time the flavours linger in your mouth, should be long.
Bad chocolate, stabilized with animal or vegetable fats, sugar and preservatives, will feel waxy in your mouth. It usually has a very large percentage of sugar, and will likely taste very sweet, sometimes with strong caramel overtones.
Don't compromise when you're buying chocolate for baking. Bernard Callebaut's baking chocolate is exactly the same quality chocolate that he uses in his own fine truffles and other award-winning chocolates (like the special little hearts filled with fresh raspberries and whipped cream for Valentine's Day, or the champagne truffles flavoured with real French champagne, some that require six different hand manipulations apiece).

Bernard says good chocolate - with a high level of cocoa butter, gives cakes and other desserts a tender crumb. Callebaut chocolate (direct from the company in Belgium) comes in more than 400 grades, however, and the bulk chocolate labelled "Callebaut" that you can buy in Canadian supermarkets, is not the same quality of chocolate that he sells in his stores or through his website (www.bernardcallebaut.com). Bernard Callebaut bulk chocolate sells for $45 for a 2.5 kg block and he also retails fine chocolate baking chips and sauces.

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Taking tea
By Cinda Chavich

The taste on my tongue is grassy and round, almost buttery, a whiff of simmering artichokes in the rising steam. The colour in my cup is brilliant emerald, that first blush of electric green that emerges in spring.

Yes, they call it "first flush," the man behind the sleek mahogany bar enthuses as he reverently lifts the tiny cup of Japanese Sencha First Flush to his lips and launches into a description of its provenance. At $500 a kilo, the tiny leaves that have steeped their goodness into this steamy brew are the most precious version of this everyday staple I have ever encountered, plucked from the tips of a rare tea bush, just as they emerge from the newly-burst buds. Their poetic moniker is fitting to the color of spring in my cup.

But what I learned about tea as I sipped my way through a handful of brews at Steeps, Calgary's "urban tea house," is how much I still need to learn about tea. And I'm sure I'm not alone.

Whoever first gave Canadians credit for "tea as it should be" didn't grow up in my family. Sure, there was always tea, but tea steeped beyond belief in the chipped Brown Betty, doctored with lots of milk and sugar to take off the tannic edge. In a land first populated by waves of immigrant tea tottlers, you'd think we'd have progressed beyond bitter bags before now. Yes, we have Red Rose in Canada - but "only" has long been the operative word.

While we drink more tea than our neighbors to the south, Canadians consume 7 billion cups of tea every year, or about twice as much tea per capita as Americans, no one has taken the pedigree of the leaf particularly seriously, at least until now. Today, there is a bit of a revolution brewing in the tea world. Along the trendiest streets in major cities across the country, tea houses are emerging where cappuccino once reigned.

These are not the frilly, tea-cosy tea rooms that pour afternoon tea from sterling tea sets. These are cutting edge, cool cafes like Steeps in Calgary and Edmonton, Tearoom T (Qi Botantical Tea) in Vancouver, or Toronto's T-Spot and
The Red Tea Box.

These trendy tea houses are where the hip and hassled come to destress - next to me at the bar at Steeps is a young man in black who says he likes to relax, contemplate and ruminate over tea. Coffee is to grab and gulp. Tea is to sit and sip. The stylish guy pressing my Human Red Oolong in a glass carafe says he doesn't even open the door until nine in the morning, and at midnight, when he's ready to close, there are always customers still lingering over their steaming cups.

The Tea Council of Canada says Canadians are drinking 22 per cent more tea this year than last the increase driven by a different kind of tea drinker, younger consumers and green tea lovers. Maritimers drink more tea than other Canadians, and more often start the day with black tea, while more green tea and herbal tea drinkers live on the west coast.

So why drink more tea? It's healthy, it's soothing and, like wine, it's a beverage that can take years to explore. Let's face it. We're a generation of information geeks and tea is a new frontier.

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There are 150 different teas in this tiny shop, loose leaves from India, China and Japan, some fluffy and dusty green, others fermented to blackened flakes or tied artfully into flattened whorls that bloom like chrysanthemums in water. White tea, green tea, black tea, oolong, tea flavoured with chunks of cinnamon and cardamom seeds, tea infused like pot pourri with mango and vanilla and coconut, smoky Lapsang Souchong even rare Jasmine Dragon Tears, each leaf rolled by hand with a single jasmine petal into a tiny grey-green ball, like a floral-scented caper.

The selection is so foreign, I wonder just where all of this high end, exotic loose tea is going, when it's not being dispersed in the handful of trendy new tea shops like this one. Apparently, it's Europeans and Asians who truly appreciate rare and exotic tea. While tea rooms have long been part of Paris society (the famed Mariage Frères has sold fine tea since 1854) stylish new tea shops are now in vogue there, too - Rue du Cherché-Midi is the street for tea, with spots like Le Palais des Thés (with satellites in Tokyo and New York) where customers go to the tea-tasting stations for shots of the day's two flavors, the homey Marie-Thé with its luscious tea time treats, or the swank Feuille-Thé.

Designer tea, of course, has gone mainstream on this side of the pond, too, ever since Starbuck's began serving the stylish herbal and tea combinations from Tazo. But I was horrified to hear, from the tea guy at Steeps, that the lovely, individually-wrapped and colourful bags of specialty tea I have been offering to my guests may well be of the lowest grade, even the floor sweepings, of the tea world.
"It's like comparing steak and weiners," says Waye. "Both are technically beef, but there's no comparison."

Of course, when I return home and empty out my best bags I do find something that more closely resembles dust than tea leaves - tea that's obviously been finely cut, perhaps even powdered, which, in the tea business, means it's a lesser grade and will become stale much faster than the whole leaf.

What we have here is the "first growth" selection of tea, explains Waye, packing a small metal tin with precious leaves, priced from $4-$36 for four ounces, depending on the type and "class" of tea, from regular to "super rare".

Like a kid loose among tins of candy, I am overwhelmed and truly stymied by my choices. I want to start a collection of tea at home, something to sip my way through while I work, something to calm and fortify me. Tea, after all, has powerful healing properties, a cup of tea, any colour, has seven times the antioxidants of a glass of orange juice, and beats out 22 other vegetables on the free-radical-absorbing, antioxidant scale. It has some of the same flavonoids found in purple grape juice, onions and red wine, compounds that may prevent heart disease, stroke and even cancer.

Waye pulls tins from the store's towering central display, pops the lids and encourages me to inhale their aromas. But like five minutes at the cosmetic counter, the big floozy fragrant teas, with their sweet jasmine petals, vanilla and lavender infusions dominate the day and one whiff soon seems like the next. The delicate, retiring and unscented green teas, even the sweet, semi-fermented oolongs, haven't got a chance in such a sniff-off.

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I try to ignore the obvious, but like a neophyte wine taster, I'm wooed by heady aromas with their the promise of big, complex flavours. I opt for the Japanese Gen Mai Cha, mixed with crisp pellets of toasted rice and tiny bits of aromatic popped corn, to serve with take-out sushi. I must have some of their exotic Black Chai, heavily scented with cinnamon and ginger, for Indian-inspired meals. A herbal tea imitator, South African Rooibos, tarted up with dried fruits and flower petals - tempts me with it's brilliant orange colour and promise of ten times the healthy anti-oxidants of regular tea. And finally I add some leafy green oolong called Iron Goddess of Mercy (what woman wouldn't fall for that empowering handle) and a tin of white Leopard Snow Buds, just because they're plucked while the leaves are still in bud, during the last two weeks in March, and only between 3:30 and 7 a.m., when the dew is heaviest on the plants (how's that for a fascinating dinner party tidbit?)

Back in my office, I'm trying to wean myself off the everyday jolt of my morning java, and step into the kinder, gentler and healthier world of tea. It's not going to be easy.
Even though tea has some caffeine, about half as much per cup as coffee, it doesn't take the edge off sleep as instantly as my Kenyan AAA. In the end, it's the crisp white tea I love. Leopard Snow Buds, khaki twisted nuggets that unfurl luxuriously in the hot water to produce a lovely deep amber brew that's soft and soothing, bright and refreshing with just a hint of tannin as it cools.

Like wine, tea is an acquired taste and a journey of discovery. It will take many more trips to the local tea shop to unlock the mysteries of the world's finest teas.
Next stop, perhaps a rare black tea from China like Golden Monkey or a heady floral whiff of Earthly Paradise Jasmine. Now, that sounds like tea as it should be.

Tea talk:
To brew the perfect pot of tea takes care. Bring the water to a rolling boil and remove it from the heat, the temperature should be just around 190-200° F, just short of the boiling point. Tea experts use the French press (aka Bodum) to make tea, this way, the leaves steep for the perfect length of time before they're plunged away to the bottom of the pot. Use 1 teaspoon of loose tea for every two-cup mini-press and don't over steep (30-60 seconds for unfermented green or white teas, 1-2 minutes for oolong, and 3-5 minutes for black tea).

• The latest craze in Asian communities (or in cities like Vancouver and Calgary where there are large Asian communities) is bubble tea. This is a cold tea concoction - tall glasses of fruit-flavoured tea with balls or "bubbles" of squidgy tapioca balls to suck up through a fat straw. Bubble tea shops are the Asian equivalent of Starbucks but only for those who enjoy strange textures in their tea.
• Tea is popping up as an ingredient for creative cooks. Green tea ice cream is all the rage among the Asian fusion set and you'll find dishes incorporating tea on many menus, Chef Dario Tomaselli serves tea smoked sea bass with Thai curry mashed potato and baby bok choy sprouts at Oro in Toronto, or you can try truffles infused with saskatoon berry tisane at The Wickaninnish Inn in Tofino, B.C. The Four Seasons Hotel in Vancouver offers pastries and a tea menu from Tearoom T each afternoon. If you want to experiment with tea in your kitchen, check out Cooking with Tea, a new book by Robert Wemischner and Diana Rosen (Periplus Editions).
  
• No trendy new tea house in your neck of the woods? Learn all about exotic tea and shop on line at several tea shops including Toronto's Tea Emporium (www.theteaemporium.com); Steeps in Calgary and Edmonton (www.steepstea.com); Tearoom T in Vancouver
  (Qi Botanical Tea at www.tealeaves.com); or at Ten Ren teas
  (with stores in Vancouver, Calgary and Toronto) at www.tenren.com
  

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Indigenous eats
(appeared in the City Palate)
By Cinda Chavich

When I talk about Alberta cuisine, there's always some smart aleck in the crowd who makes a dismissive comment about beef and beans being the only thing we eat out here.

Yes, we do beef particularly well, and we grow beans for the entire world. But Alberta has so much more in its culinary back pocket, especially when you think about the foods that Nature gave us here on the high plains.

Because I'm a fan of fresh, quality ingredients, I always tell people to eat locally and eat seasonally. But I'd add one more admonition - eat indigenously.

For it's the plants and animals which were here long before any of us ever arrived - bison and venison, trout and saskatoon berries - that make Alberta's culinary traditions unique. Chefs like David MacGillivray, food and beverage manager of the Chateau Lake Louise, and Hubert Aumeier, discovered this a decade ago when they began serving Rocky mountain-inspired cuisine. Today top Calgary chefs like Glen Manzer, Michael Allemeier and Dany Lamote regularly cook with indigenous ingredients. In their Calgary restaurants you'll find foods that once sustained Native people in new dishes designed for the discriminating diner.

With the growing season upon us, it's the perfect time to go foraging for indigenous eats in the wild or at farmer's markets. Look for Aumeier's Rocky Mountain Cuisine Cookbook (Random House) or my own new book, High Plains: The Joy of Alberta Cuisine (Fifth House) for recipes using local and foraged foods.

Herewith, a taste of some of the wild flavours of the wild West.

BISON AND OTHER WILD GAME
Bison - or buffalo as they are often called - are the hardiest ruminants that ever roamed the Great Plains. Tough and stalwart, they will turn their huge, shaggy heads into a 40-below breeze without feeling a thing and can thrive on the roughest patch of prairie.

That may account for the current popularity of bison with both ranchers and consumers. Independent and able to exist on the most marginal land, bison now flourish on farms as they once did in the wild, without the need for antibiotic s, growth hormones or much other human intervention. This has made for a bit of a renaissance for this once wild western animal - 60 million of them were hunted to the brink of extinction more than a century ago, but today 200,000 bison live on Canadian ranches, half of them here in their native Alberta.

This ultra-lean red meat, with less fat than turkey, is served in the best retaurants. At the Delta Lodge at Kananaskis Chef Jeff O'Neill serves a lot of bison - from burgers to grilled strip loin steaks and bison carpaccio. His buffalo hump roast smoked with sweet grass and glazed with local pine syrup combines all things indigenous. At the River Cafe in Calgary, Chef Glen Manzer is big on buffalo, too - creating unique prairie dishes like flatbread topped with dried blueberries and pulled buffalo hump, and blue cheese flan with buffalo sausage and cloudberry compote.

Buy bison meat from butchers like Bon Ton Meat Market, Gordon's Fine Meats or Specialty Fine Foods & Meats. The IGA Garden Market on south Crowchild Trail has a fresh bison counter, and in Canmore, Valbella Meats creates produc ts like air-dried bison. Ranchers that sell direct are listed on their association website, www.albertabuffalo.com

While deer and elk are easier to spot along Alberta roadways, local venison is harder to buy. The company that owns hotels like Emerald Lake Lodge and restaurants like The Ranche has its own game farm, so you can often find venison and caribou on their menus. Much of the other venison you'll see is farmed in Saskatchewan. Buy it frozen from Western Quality Meats or Gourmart.

Wild boar is farmed by several producers including Hog Wild Specialties. They will ship their wild boar pate, terrines or fresh racks and ribs if you order (www.hogwild.ab.ca).For wild turkey call First Nature Farms (403-356-2239) and see Handee Meadows (780-389-2103) for game birds like pheasant.

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INDIGENOUS FISH
Trout is the big sport fish in Alberta, but unless you catch your own fish in season, you won't find any of these wild rainbows on your plate.

Nearly all of the trout served in restaurants or sold at retail is farmed. Only wild lake whitefish and pickerel are fished commercially in Alberta. Most of the latter comes from Manitoba but it's delicious - ask for it at fish shops.

Valley Springs Trout Farm near Innisfail sells frozen and hot smoked trout at Community Natural Foods or from the farm (403-227-2105). These fish fend for themselves in outdoor ponds, feeding on the freshwater shrimp and bugs that give them the real pink colour and flavour of wild trout.

For the outstanding cold smoked and gravlax-style trout and salmon you'll taste at top restaurants, contact Chris Gaudet at Classic Smokers in Calgary (235-4531). Gaudet brines his fish with flavors like maple whisky and wild sage, or dill, Pernod and orange rind, then smokes it over alder or maple, and slices it paper thin for perfect appetizers.

PRAIRIE BERRIES
As far as I'm concerned, if it ain't apple, rhubarb or saskatoon, it ain't pie - the latter being the indigenous fruit filling of choice in my family.

There's nothing quite like the saskatoon, an earthy, almondy berry found along the steep sides of coulees across the prairies. But even if you don't have access to a wild patch, never fear - saskatoons are the most widely farmed berries in the province and you can't go far before running into a U-pick farm.

I have a couple of favourites - both serve pie and coffee, when you get tired of slapping mosquitoes. The Saskatoon Farm, just 10 minutes south of the city limits, and Pearson's Berry Farm (an hour north on Highway 2) sell berries, jams and syrups or homemade pies to take home. Call the Alberta Market Gardener's Association
(1-800-661-AMGA) for a list of U-pick farms or buy berries at farmer's markets.

Saskatoons make a tasty addition to pies, apple crumbles or muffins, and are perfect in savoury sauces. At the River Cafe the elk flank steak is served with saskatoon barbecue sauce, Teatro offers Alberta lamb with saskatoon berry sauce, and you can take home a Saskatoon Berry and Lime Cheesecake from Brulee Bakery.

OTHER INDIGENOUS EATS
Every spring, mushroomers flock to the mountains and foothills to find dark earthy morels and big puffballs, golden trumpet-shaped chanterelles and delicate pine mushrooms. Morels, the queen of the local mycological world, thrive in newly-burned forests but you can also find them poking their conical heads up in Fish Creek Park.

If you decide to forage for fungus, make sure you go with a real expert. Some wild mushrooms are delicious, but others are deadly. A safe source for fresh or dried specimens is a retailer like The Cookbook Company or Mo-Na Mushroooms in Edmonton (780-435-4370).

Birch syrup is another ingredient for the indigenous pantry. Tapped from birch trees just like maple syrup, the sap produces an intense darksyrup, three times sweeter than maple. Find Warren Bard's Indian Head Birch Syrup at Edmonton's Old Strathcona Market.

Wild sage tints the prairie silvery grey in summer. The Blackfoot use it in religious ceremonies, while early mountain climbers swore by sage tea to restore energy. Pick some sage brush and try it in the home smoker to season fish or use sage sprigto brush olive oil over grilled bread. At the Millarville Farmer's Market look for Alexandra Luppold - along with her organic vegetables she picks aromatic wild sage from her ranch for tea.

Other wild edibles pop up right in your back yard. Pick fiddle head ferns when they emerge in spring as tightly wound as violins. Check your shrubs for indigo juniper berries to add to wild game rubs and sauces. Collect the first pale green shoots from firs to infuse honey with forest flavor, then brush it over a venison chop as it comes off the grill, or gather some kinikinik and throw it on the fire the next time you smoke a trout!

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