High art / high tea

The video notebook class (four of the five of us anyway) and our professor Carol Morley took a mini-field trip to sketch, a collection of restaurants, bars, lounges, and gallery space. Officially we were there for the video installation, 100 people and 3 people, a new work by artist Tim Etchells. I had a very mixed reaction to the work, being very engaged by the '100 people' component and rather bored by the '3 people' components. I had no such division of opinion in regards to 'the parlour,' where we took our tea. Really, only Carol drank tea; I had hot chocolate since I was rushing to get back to studio and not in the mood to drink a pot of anything; my classmates had cappuccinos since, well, they're Americans, not tea drinkers.

Hot cocoa, it seems to me, is frequently neglected. Back in 2004 Starbucks made a valiant attempt to bring their chocolate up to par with their coffees with the satisfactory but short-lived Chocofino (Chantico in some regions), but generally good hot chocolates are harder to find than good teas and coffees. To my great surprise and delight, the cocoa at the sketch lounge was astoundingly good. The chocolate flavor was strong and clean, accented lightly by hints of fruit and nut extracts. The thickness was satisfyingly creamy without being thick enough to necessitate a glass of water on the side.

Also worthy of praise were the cakes. I had a profiterole, at the heart of which was a nugget of mango jam. I could detect the presence of almond as well, but the subtle balance of flavors was difficult to pick apart in the short amount of time I had. I guess I'll have to go back and try again...