The Land Of Chocolate

As news editor at The Bar Towel, I occasionally receive invitations to press events and launch parties around town, but generally they have something to do with beer. So I was surprised a couple of weeks ago when I was emailed an invite to the 6th Annual "Chocs-O-Fun" event presented by Ganong, a New Brunswick based chocolate maker that is Canada's oldest candy company and one of the oldest family owned businesses in the country.

I wasn't sure if I should RSVP, as I couldn't really do much in the way of promoting Ganong via The Bar Towel. But when I mentioned it to the wife, her eyes lit up, and she immediately pitched it to Gremolata as a story idea. Helped by the fact that the event was also serving as a launch for Ganong: A Sweet History Of Chocolate - a beautiful book that documents the history of the company in words and pictures - the story was approved, so we could attend without feeling like freeloaders.

The event was held this past Thursday at the very swank Dominion Club at King & Yonge in downtown Toronto. Smartly dressed waiters floated around the room with plates of hors d'oeuvres, soothing jazz played in the background, and a large marble table was piled high with boxes and boxes of chocolates and fruit candies. Each attendee also received a swag bag on departure containing three boxes of various tasty Ganong treats.

There was also an open bar, but the beer selection was limited to the terrible trio of Blue, Canadian and Corona. Too bad, as a rich and roasty stout would've provided a great pairing for the chocolate bon-bons. In retrospect, we should've headed a block east to beerbistro afterwards and cracked open our gift bags to try a couple of pairings of our own. Ah well, I'm sure we'll be able to come up with some good ones here at home...