The Sixth Annual Chocolate Show was held November 13-16 2003 at The Metropolitan Pavilion in Chelsea, NYC.

The show's $20 per day adult admission keeps many of the casually curious out of the Metropolitan Pavilion which is really much too small to handle the burgeoning weekend crowds. As I was leaving on Saturday afternoon, the line stretched from mid-block on 18th street around the corner to mid-block on Sixth Ave between 18th and 19th street,a three-hour wait I was told.

I was introduced to Amy last year through Maricel Presilla (author of The New Taste of Chocolate and Pierrick Chouard (founder of the University of Chocolate and echocolates.com). And this year I received an envelope just before the show with a sample. While Valrhona and Cluizel have nothing to fear (yet!) Amy's work is pretty amazing (at 56% a little sweet for my taste, but there's some complexity in the flavor she extracts from the Venezuelan Trinitario beans she gets from the Hacienda Concepcion which includes fruit but no acidity and surprisingly little astringency), especially given the nature of the equipment she has developed.

(Meeting Amy was also a lot of fun because she is one of the few people that have recognized me from my appearance on Oprah and the first to ask for my autograph and I got hers in return, as well as a very cool Amy's Chocolate t-shirt for my daughter Alexandra.)