There’s a lot of Valentine chocolate out there. Where to begin?

Here are two of our favorites artisan chocolatiers, with wares just waiting for you to take a bite.
 
 
JOHN & KIRA’S

John and Kira’s boutique chocolate company launched in 2002; from the beginning it has generated raves for its artisan bonbons (photos #1 and #2).

The confections were featured on the cover of Gourmet Magazine’s Valentine’s Day issue in February, 2003.

And from there, the chocolates have found their way into the hands of fine chocolate lovers nationwide.

In fact, three different items have been named a NIBBLE Top Pick Of The Week.

 
The company has used local and sustainable ingredients from the first. The boxes have always been the most beautiful in the business: beautiful paper on heavy stock that you’ll repurpose to hold other items.

Take a look at John & Kira’s suggestions for Valentine’s Day.
 
 
CHARLES CHOCOLATES

For an expenditure of $7.95, you can treat loved ones to the latest chocolate, ruby cacao (photo #3).

An authentic cacao with a naturally pink color, it has tart berry flavors and is a unique chocolate experience. Here’s more about it.

Charles Chocolates has transformed ruby into chocolate bars with three different garnishes:

 
Charles Chocolates also makes a delightful confection we have recommended previously:

 
For someone who not only wants a box of chocolates, but wants to eat the box, this is a memorable gift!

Check out Charles’ Valentine’s Day confections.

[1] John & Kira’s Chocolate Hearts, available in 9 or 18 pieces, with 9 different ganache flavors. Get them here (photos #1 and #2 © John & Kira’s).

[2] Bonbons deluxe: John & Kira’s Palette du Chocolat, in 24 or 50 pieces. Get them here.

[3] Ruby cacao bars from Charles Chocolates, available with three different garnishes. Get them here (photo © Charles Chocolates).

[1] Section the flesh with a serrated grapefruit knife or grapefruit spoons (photo © Budays Mart | Amazon).

[2] How about a yogurt parfait for breakfast or lunch, here with some lime and mint? Here’s the recipe from Taste Of Home (photo © Taste Of Home).

[3] For lunch or dinner, add red grapefruit segments to a green salad. Here’s the recipe from Taste Of Home (photo © Taste Of Home).

[4] Add red grapefruit segments or slices to your water (photo © Pampered Chef).

[5] At the end of the day, you deserve a glass of sangria. Here’s the recipe for Red Grapefruit Sangria from Taste Of Home. Here’s the recipe from Taste Of Home (photo © Taste Of Home).

[6] Serve your drink with these red grapefruit crostini. Here’s the recipe from Fit Mitten Kitchen (photo © Fit Mitten Kitchen).

If you never enjoyed the tartness of white and pink grapefruits, give red grapefruit a chance.

Not only is it a sweeter, lush flavor, but it’s the perfect color to perk up gray winter days, or to accent Valentine’s Day meals.

Red grapefruit was discovered as a mutation growing on a pink grapefruit tree. After years of breeding, the Ruby Red cultivar was released to market.

Different growers established brand names: Flame, Rio Red, Rio Star, Ruby-Sweet, Star Ruby, Sweet Scarletts, TexaSweet and others.

Different brands can have different shades of flesh. For example, Florida’s Ruby Reds are deep pink, while Flame grapefruits have deep red flesh.

Below:

> The history of grapefruit.

> More grapefruit recipes.
 
 
HOW TO ENJOY YOUR GRAPEFRUIT

One of the best ways to eat grapefruit is to simply peel it and eat it like an orange.

One of the best ways to use the peel is to make candied grapefruit peel (one of our favorite confections and garnishes!). Grapefruit Basil Martini

 
 
MORE GRAPEFRUIT RECIPES

 
 
 
GRAPEFRUIT HISTORY

America is the world’s largest consumer of grapefruit, with large commercial groves in Arizona, California, Florida and Texas.

But the grapefruit’s ancestor, the pummelo (also pomelo or shaddock), comes from far away—it’s native to Malaysia and Indonesia. It’s the largest citrus fruit.

Pummelo seeds were brought from the East Indies to the West Indies in 1693 by an English ship commander. The grapefruit may have been a horticultural accident or a deliberate hybridization between the pummelo and the orange.

The original grapefruit was about the size of an orange. It was originally called both “forbidden fruit,” and the “smaller shaddock,” after Captain Shaddock, who brought the seeds.

Grapefruit Comes To The U.S.

The grapefruit arrived in the U.S. in 1823, but it was not immediately popular; the thick skin was unusual and an impediment. But the tree thrived, and its name evolved in English based on how it grows: in grapelike clusters.

In 1870, the large, golden clusters on a tree he passed attracted John A. MacDonald, who lived in Orange County, Florida. MacDonald established the first grapefruit nursery.

Florida’s first shipment of grapefruits to New York and Philadelphia, in 1885, generated interest and helped create the commercial grapefruit industry.

By the late 1800s, grapefruit trees were being cultivated in the southern part of Texas; by 1910 grapefruit had succeeded in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas, as well as in Arizona and California. The pink grapefruit and other varieties were developed.

 
When grapefruit became popular in the U.S., many households owned a set of grapefruit spoons that enabled people to scoop out the flesh in grapefruit halves. The utensils had pointed tips and serrated edges for separating the flesh from the membranes.

The grapefruit sections were loosened with a special knife that has a serrated, curved blade. Other homes had special grapefruit spoons: teaspoons with a serrated front edge.

If you have some from Grandma or Great-Grandma, it’s time to dig them out. Otherwise, both grapefruit knives and grapefruit spoons are inexpensive.

Here’s more on how people used grapefruit at home, including adding the juice to vinegar.
 
 
RED GRAPEFRUIT HISTORY

The first grapefruits were white. Pink grapefruit, a mutation, was first discovered in 1906 in the groves of the Atwood Grapefruit Company in Manatee County, Florida.

One day, a grove foreman peeled a grapefruit with the intention of eating it, and discovered that the fruit inside was pink! A local nurseryman was able to propagate the pink fruit, and it met with big success: In addition to a more pleasing color, the flesh tended to be sweeter.

Thank Goodness For Mutations

Another mutation gave us red grapefruit, which was originally discovered growing on a pink grapefruit tree in Texas. It was patented as Ruby Red grapefruit in 1929. Red grapefruit is known in agriculture as a “limb sport,” a mutation of one limb (branch) that has different fruit characteristics than the rest of the tree.

A hit from the start, sweeter with alluring rosy red flesh, Ruby Reds are marketed under different names: Flame, Rio Red, Rio Star, Ruby-Sweet, Star Ruby, Sweet Scarletts, TexaSweet and others.

While consumers call these different red grapefruits “varieties,” botanically it’s more accurate to call them different “selections” because they are all derived from one another as descendants of the original Ruby Reds. Each has different small attributes, tailored to succeed in different climates and soils.

Otherwise stated, all of the different deep red grapefruits grown around the world—Rio Red in Texas, Star Ruby in South Africa, Flame in Florida, etc.—are not botanically different, but have been adapted to the the climate and soil in each region.

> Did you know that THE NIBBLE has almost 1,000 food histories? Check them out!
 
 
WHAT MAKES THE FLESH RED?

Red and pink grapefruits contain lycopene, a phytochemical (antioxidant) found in tomatoes and some other red fruits and vegetables such as papaya, red carrots and watermelon. Red grapefruits have a greater concentration than pink grapefruits.

Why are red grapefruits sweeter?

It’s all in the weather. Sweet Scarletts, for example, are grown in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas, where hot days, cool nights and the unique terroir merge to create the ideal grapefruit.

Most red grapefruits are grown in Texas, since the The Texas climate produces the sweetest red grapefruits.
 
 

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If you can find Ortega’s Red Bell Pepper Taco Shells*, you can make Valentine Tacos (photo #1).

Or, arrange conventional tacos in a heart shape (photo #2).

In either case, top Valentine tortillas with your favorite red garnishes, such as:

 
Top fish tacos with rosy pink imitation crab leg (photo #3)—or real crab, if you’re flush.

While many people enjoy tacos with a soft tortilla shell, for others the crunch of a hard shell is part of the taco experience.

The hard shells are simply a soft tortilla folded into a taco shape, then fried until golden and hardened. (The hard, pre-fried corn tortilla shell is not authentic, but created in the U.S.A. See the history below.

 
TORTILLA HISTORY

Tortillas, a flatbread, have been a staple in Mexico for thousands of years. They were eaten plain as well as a to hold cooked foods.

The oldest-known tortillas date back to approximately 10,000 B.C.E., made of the local staple food, corn.†

Many thousands of years later, in 1519, Hernán Cortés and his Spanish troops arrived in the Aztec empire (modern-day Mexico) and noted that the locals ate “flat corn bread.”

The Aztec name for the flatbread is tlaxcalli (tlox-cah-YEE); the Mexicans used the name tortilla, “little cake.”

The original tortilla was made from nixtamalized‡ maize/corn flour. However, today’s tortillas are commonly made from less nutritious, less flavorful wheat flour. Wheat is easier to work with.

While maize/corn tortillas have a heartier texture, flavor and better nutrition, the gluten in wheat flour tortillas enables them to be made larger and thinner without breaking.

By the same token, corn tortillas they can be gluten free, depending on the manufacturer (Mission tortillas are gluten free).
 
 

[1] Valentine tacos in red taco shells (photo © Elegant Affairs Caterers).

[2] Some people place conventional tacos in a heart-shaped baking pan. At Rosepepper Cantina in Nashville (photo © Rosepepper Cantina).

[3] Use rosy imitation crab leg to top fish tacos (photo © Trade Korea).

[4] Look for red (bell pepper-colored) taco shells from Ortega.

Authentic or not, within 50 years the United States had shipped hard taco shells worldwide, from Australia to Mongolia—redefining the taco in the eyes of millions, if not billions.

And Taco Tuesday?

This American event was begun in in 1982 as a successful promotion by Taco John’s. It encouraged people to go out for tacos on Tuesday nights, and offered specials like $1 fish tacos.

________________

*They are available on Amazon, but the one reviewer noted that though they tasted good, many arrived broken.

†The original varieties of corn, hybridized by the Aztecs, were far more nutritious than today’s corn, which has been bred over the years for yield rather than nutrition.

‡Nixtamalization is a process that prepares the maize/corn, in which the grain is soaked and cooked in an alkaline solution, usually limewater, and hulled.

‡‡Bell was the owner of hot dog and burger stands in southern California. In 1954, he added tacos to the menu, and based on demand, opened three Taco Tias in the San Bernardino area. He eventually sold them and opened four El Tacos with a partner in the Long Beach area. In 1962, he sold the El Tacos to his partner and opened his first Taco Bell. It grew to 868 restaurants and was sold to PepsiCo in 1978 [more].

[1] Magnum’s Ruby Mini Ice Cream Bar (photo © Magnum Ice Cream).

A few months ago we wrote about ruby chocolate, the fourth type of chocolate after dark, milk and white.

Ruby is the first new chocolate in 80 years. The pink-colored chocolate gets its hue naturally, from a particular type of cacao bean.

Of the three longstanding chocolate types, ruby most resembles white chocolate—but with a unique berry fruitiness that has a bit of tartness. It’s a unique chocolate experience.

Here’s more about ruby chocolate.

Confectioners have begun to introduce ruby chocolate in cookies and chocolate candies.

But the first ice cream we know of—and a perfect treat for Valentine’s Day—is Magnum Ruby Mini Ice Cream Bars.

Appropriately pink, with a cracking ruby chocolate shell, get some to treat:

Magnum Ruby Minis are a delight year-round.

Thanks, Magnum!
 
 
>>>Check Out Our Chocolate Glossary<<<
  

Many people grow herbs at home. How about peppercorns?

If your Valentine has a green thumb, a peppercorn plant is a different kind of gift.

You can grow one as a houseplant (photo #1); or if you live in a semi-tropical climate, you can grow it outdoors (here’s what you need to know to grow the plant outdoors).

When grown as a houseplant, all it needs is moderate light in an east or west window.

Why grow a peppercorn plant at home?

 
 
WHO WANTS A PEPPERCORN PLANT?

 
You can easily find black peppercorn plants online.

The history of black pepper follows.

> The year’s peppercorn holidays are below.
 
 
THE MOST POPULAR SPICE IN THE WORLD

Black pepper is the most commonly used spice in the world. It has been used since antiquity for both seasoning and as a medicine.

Some might have guessed that salt is the most commonly used “spice,” but:

 
 
The Origin Of Peppercorns

The black peppercorn plant (Piper nigrum) is native to India and is grown in other Southeastern Asian countries.

It is cultivated for its fruits—tiny berries with the peppercorn (the seed) inside. The berries mature from green to red (photo #2).

The berries are dried, and the fruit on the outside is removed, leaving the seed.

 
There are numerous varieties of peppercorns.

Check out different types of pepper in our photo glossary of peppercorns and other “pepper.”

The spiciness of pepper is due to the organic compound piperine. (Chiles get their heat from capsaicin, an unrelated compound.)
 
 
THE YEAR’S PEPPERCORN HOLIDAYS

Also note the year’s 18 chile pepper holidays.

 
________________
 
*This was founded to refer to chile peppers, but we claim it for peppercorns as well.

[1] Your plant (or seed pack) arrives, ready for tender loving care—and in the case of this plant, a good pruning (available at Logee’s)

[2] Piper nigrum grown into a full, glossy plant. The peppercorn clusters ripen at different rates, thus both reddish and green on this plant (available from Eternal Cover | Amazon).

[3] Imagine growing your own peppercorns for Steak au Poivre. Here’s the recipe (photo © Certified Angus Beef).

[4] Black and white peppercorns. The white peppercorns are the actual seed inside the black exocarp, which is removed so as not to leave black specks in elegant dishes (photo © Adam Kozlowski | iStock Photo).

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