Hasta La Ideas

Chocolate to melt away the woes of the U.S.’s biggest shopping day of the year

While Black Friday refers to the day that often finally puts retailers in the black for the first time in the year, other phrases—black tie, black label, black book, black diamond—imply the class of spoils that such a cash infusion might afford. Playing on the concept, Compartes Chocolate’s Black Collection, launched today, makes a fitting gift for a CEO with a sweet tooth.

Impossible to resist, the collection uses premium ingredients—black sesame and wasabi, Macallan single-malt scotch, black truffles, and Guinness Stout—paired with sumptuous patterns in edible ink and organic single-origin dark chocolate (all fair-trade certified from Madagascar, Venezuela and Ecuador) to make each a little handmade jewel of chocolate decadence. L.A. chocolatier Jonathan Grahm, Compartes founder with over 200 seasonal flavors under his belt, created the flavors and explained the process of matching flavors, “I brought in these amazing black truffles and I started to play around with different chocolates to blend them with and came up with something incredible. The Macallan 15-year single-malt scotch is another great ingredient on its own, blending it with luscious dark chocolate compliments its flavor.”

Going on to describe a bit of the philosophy behind the blends, as well as his approach to packaging them, Grahm said, “I wanted to create a unique and different chocolate experience where I can blend these interesting flavors together and let them also stand out on their own. Each box is composed of just these four new black collection truffles allowing you to really get a taste of this interesting and special chocolate combinations.”

Compartes Black Collection premieres Black Friday—26 November 2011—and is available as a twenty piece for $55 and ten piece for $30.

Rare chickens star in a specialty egg producer’s new campaign

With the the tagline “fabulous eggs by fabulous birds,” Clarence Court‘s glossy new website and ad campaign provide the proper spotlight for their exquisite rare hens. The work of full-service agency WFCA, the imagery successfully realizes the request by Clarence Court’s marketing director Vicki Hazel to take the brand from farming to foodie with alluring photography, educational information on specialty eggs and toothsome recipes.

Photographer Richard Mountney’s dramatically-lit shots have a style that shows off the resplendent feathering of the creatures, similar to English photographer Stephen Green-Armytage’s book “Extraordinary Chickens” and recent Alexander McQueen collections alike. Casting the birds in such a beautifully sophisticated light—rather than with more typically rustic allusions—makes a luxurious impression in keeping with the brand’s appealingly colorful, strong-shelled product, which sells at upmarket British groceries like Harrods, Selfridges and Fortnum & Mason.

Anchor Steam helps celebrate Sierra Nevada’s 30th with a delicious collaborative stout

While brand collaborations range from unholy to made-in-heaven, it’s rare to see two direct competitors join forces with pitch-perfect results like Fritz and Ken’s Ale. The upshot of an alliance between two of Northern California’s most respected brewers, Anchor Steam and Sierra Nevada, the partnership—while celebrating the latter’s 30th anniversary and steeped in heritage, longstanding mutual admiration and a deeply shared passion for beer-making—ultimately comes down to the delicious malty brew.

With a taste best described as somewhere between chocolate milk and black tea, I became a fan after recently enjoying the ale in its native land. While the dark stout has a nice, creamy head, it surprisingly isn’t too thick, making it easy to drink all night (though with a 9.2% alcohol content, you may want to take it slow) or enjoy with a meal.

The drinkability comes directly from the beer’s origin, which itself goes back to Anchor Steam founder and “godfather of microbreweries” Fritz Maytag’s early forays in beer. As the story goes, when Sierra Nevada’s founder Ken Grossman approached Maytag about co-crafting something to celebrate Sierra’s 30th anniversary, the two met up over beers (naturally). At that meeting, they came up with the idea of basing the new product on the first beer that really spoke to Maytag—a stout he would drink with dinner at a local restaurant after brewing his own all day.

Fritz and Ken’s was the first to launch the series of four beers all limited to 1,000 barrels each and created in collaboration with other local “pioneering brewers” as part of the Sierra 30 project. For best results, we recommend following their lead and drinking them all with a friend.

From Benromach to Yoichi, a definitive guide to whisky by one of the industry’s more illustrious tipplers

In his new book “101 Whiskies to Try Before you Die” whisky expert Ian Buxton poses the fun challenge of learning about whisky by drinking a lot of whisky. Having the enviable job of working in the whisky industry for over two decades, as a consultant, Marketing Director of a world-famous single malt, and builder of several distillery visitor centers, he learned the ins and outs of whisky and the people who make it. In this book, he shares his wisdom and some entertaining details along the way.

Over a golden dram of Highland Park 50 at its Harrods launch in London earlier this year, we talked scotch with the book’s illustrious author.

Buxton’s love of whisky led him to write this book not as “an awards list,” but rather as the definitive “guide to 101 whiskies that enthusiasts should try” to complete their education. He focuses generally on bottles that are neither obscure nor prohibitively expensive. Buxton’s love of whisky jumps off of the page with each story he has to tell about the geography of Scotland, the history of distilleries, the stories behind some of the unique companies that create award-winning blends. Of the whiskies included in the book, 72 are from Scotland while the rest hail from Ireland, England, Japan, Sweden, Canada, India and the U.S.

From insider details about distilleries he visited on his honeymoon to honest disclosures about companies he worked for, 101 Whiskies is full of anecdotes that make what could otherwise be a dry who’s-who into a page-turner. From three types of the brown tipple created in small batches by Compass Box to impressions of the impossibly hip Monkey Shoulder site, he covers it all with wit and a balanced perspective.

While some brands are accessible like the Macallan 10 and Makers Mark, more exclusive labels make the cut when Buxton feels they’re worth the money, which includes Johnny Walker’s Blue Label George V Edition and the surprisingly delicate Highland Park 40. All of this variety turns the book into a whisky-fueled journey through tasting these 101 whiskies into both a inspiring travel guide and an education in scotch, whisky, whiskey, bourbon, rye and new make spirit (whisky before it’s been aged).

Buxton always makes sure to prioritize the actual liquor itself, adding his own DIY suggestions for some of the packaging, such as the posh wooden box for the Dewar’s Signature that could become “a handy coffin for a pet hamster or gerbil.” Though he’s similarly skeptical about Basil Hayden’s copper belt, he likes the contents.

Buxton does have a few preferred places for drinking whisky, including Edinburgh’s Bramble Bar, The Pot Still in Gasgow, the Highlander in Craigellachie, NYC’s The Brandy Library and in London, The Athenaeum Hotel or Albannach and Salt. And if there was to be a 102nd bottle? “Probably some moonshine from the hills, but we don’t want everyone to know and the cops to visit the guy.”

“101 Whiskies to Try Before You Die” sells online from Amazon and will be available December 2010 from Powells . Sláinte!

Make great recipes better with a new book of practical wisdom from food science guru Harold McGee

Award-winning author of “On Food and Cooking,” the seminal book on the science of food, trusted NY Times columnist and all-around food science guru Harold McGee has a new book of culinary genius. In “Keys to Good Cooking: A Guide to Making the Best of Foods and Recipes,” McGee streamlines the food prep process while imparting valuable advice on ways to make meals better.

From how to pick a fresh vegetable to how to properly inflate a popover, McGee applies the science lessons learned in his earlier book to every aspect of the culinary world in a simple, straightforward style.

As a result, the 24-chapter, 524-page tome makes a practical guide to the cooking experience with info that both novices and advanced home chefs will find useful. Topics cover maximizing safety (don’t serve fresh oysters at a party), types of appliances (burners waste a lot of energy), making cheese fondue (white wine remedies thickening) and so much more.

Due out 1 November 2010, “Keys to Good Cooking” will sell from Penguin Press, but you can pre-order it from Amazon.