Love Chocolate? It’s Caputo’s Chocolate Festival Time!

Salt Lake’s own Caputo’s will be spotlighting Omnom Chocolate from Reykjavik, Iceland at the 8th Annual Caputo’s Chocolate Festival, and will be paired up with several of Utah’s top chefs and cocktail-making experts to create and share their ultimate chocolate-based creations.

The 8th Annual Caputo’s Chocolate Festival

WHEN: Thursday, November 14th, 2019 at 7:00 PM

WHERE: Downtown Caputo’s Market & Deli, 314 West 300 South, SLC

$45 w/out, or $70 w/ alcohol (highly recommended)

FOR TICKETS: click here.

All proceeds will  be donated to the Heirloom Cacao Preservation Initiative. For more information, visit hcpcacao.org.

Festival participants include Normal Ice Cream, Pallet Bistro, Nomad Eatery, The Farm in Park City and Table X Restaurant. This year’s festival will feature the Icelandic flavors of Omnom Chocolate, both sweet and savory. Bonus: There will be cocktails from Water Witch, Sugarhouse Distillery and Bar Daddy, local brews from T.F. Brewing and Epic Brewing Company, and cozy pour-overs by La Barba Coffee Roasters.

Hold the phone. Chocolate from Iceland? I didn’t know they could grow cacao there? Well, you’re right, they sure don’t. 

However, they make some dang good chocolate. In 2013 Icelandic Chef Kjartan Gíslason got to experimenting with single-origin flavors that come from cacao beans grown from countries such as Madagascar, Nicaragua, and Tanzania and along with his æskuvinur (childhood friend) Óskar Þórðarson, took over an abandoned gas station and Omnom Chocolate was born.

Chef Kjartan Gíslason explains, “Just like wine, beer, cheese or kimchi, chocolate is the labor of a lot of patience, from growing the cacao pods until the bar is safely melting in your mouth.” With a focus narrowed in on flavors and textures, the cacao and cane sugar is paired with one thing authentically Icelandic, their milk.

“We knew confidently that Icelandic milk would add character to our chocolates and distinguish them from many others. After all, Icelanders have been making skyr, cheese, and butter for over a thousand years with the help of cows brought over from Norway.” As a highly-revered craft chocolate Omnom was chosen as the highlight of this year’s festival and Chef Kjartan and his team are coming to SLC (and so should you).

To keep up with the latest SLC happenings, tastings and other fun events, go here.