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Everybody loves travelling for pleasure, but a recent trend sees more and more people travelling with a purpose. One of the best ways to combine purpose and pleasure is gastronomic tourism. There are wine tours along the California coast and whisky tours of the Scottish highlands. If Manitoba travel writer Doreen Pendgracs has her way, chocolate tourism will be the next big thing. A professional freelance writer who focuses on travel, Pendgracs has just released her fourth book, Chocolatour: A Quest for the World’s Best Chocolate. The independently published book chronicles a four-year chocolate odyssey that took her from the Amazon jungle to the Alps of Switzerland. And this is just the first volume. “It became a massive project for me and one that I think will consume the next 10 years of my life,” says the Winnipeg-born Pendgracs. “And I willingly agree to that. I can’t think of a more sumptuous topic to research and investigate and share.” Pendgracs starts by looking at where cocoa is grown, which is always within 20 degrees of the equator. She explains why chocolate has historically been precious and expensive. “Growing cacao is extremely difficult,” she points out. “It’s all hand done. Everything is harvested by hand, and then the pods are cut open by hand, the beans are extracted by hand, then put into bins to ferment and then to roast. There’s a lot of labour involved.” Then Pendgracs heads to Europe. (The second volume will deal with the Americas and the Caribbean, while the third volume will examine Africa, Asia, Australia and New Zealand.) She looks at how chocolate is crafted by chocolatiers (who start with couverture chocolate made by companies like Ghirardelli, Callebaut or Valrhona) or by chocolate makers (who begin with unprocessed cocoa beans). She rhapsodizes over chocolates created with Piedmont hazelnuts, sea salt and extra-virgin olive oil, with lemon peel and chiles, with Iranian pistachios and Earl Grey tea. After offering such tempting descriptions, it’s only fair that Pendgracs advocates giving in to chocolate cravings (in moderation). In support, she cites the winningly titled book Why Women Need Chocolate by nutritionist Debra Waterhouse. It turns out that eating pure dark chocolate releases endorphins, a natural anti-depressant. And there are other documented health benefits. “I was amazed at just how good chocolate is for us,” Pendgracs relates. “As children we were always told chocolate is bad for our teeth, for our skin, for our weight.” And while you don’t want to gorge on sweet chocolate candy, if you stick to pure chocolate (70 per cent or higher cacao) and limit the quantity, chocolate can be part of a healthy diet. “Chocolate has more antioxidants than any other power food on the planet,” Pendgracs points out. It gives red wine a run for its money. Speaking of wine, we’re used to wine snobs talking about terroir, that unique combination of soil, weather and grapes that gives a wine its specific character. Chocolate fanatics are starting to think this way, too, with a new emphasis on origin chocolate from specific growing regions. Cacao from Madagascar has fruity undertones, for example, while Caribbean beans tend to be lighter-bodied. Each artisanal chocolate makers also brings his or her own style, something Pendgracs discovered as she was researching the book. “I would be trying to understand the essence of what they’re doing,” she says, “and I soon came to realize that just like with chefs, they put a piece of their personality into what they’re creating.” Pendgracs offers lists to help readers find the right chocolate match. Are you Sophisticated, Elegant?; Or Exotic, Sensual? Or maybe Playful, Adventurous? Pendgracs has a chocolate maker for you. —Winnipeg Free Press