Venchi Chocolate

Road trip to Venchi chocolate factory, operating since 1878. They ship worldwide, but have only one store in the U.S., on 5th Avenue in NYC.

The factory is historically run by women, and 90% of the workers were, in fact, women. One seventy year old, who worked for Venchi for fifty five years, sported a large, gold Rolex. Also, the workers were very thin, despite the floor to ceiling chocolate.

I tasted chocolate until I could take no more. Excellent. When we tasted the spicy "montezuma" bar made with Mexican chocolate beans, I thought how wonderful this chocolate would be for a mole sauce.

Here is a video of chocolate being dusted with coconut, which reminded me of the classic I Love Lucy chocolate factory episode.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CeWMU0zY1I0&feature=youtube_gdata_player