Biagio Sample Day: Chocolate is Especially Good after a Six Hour Workout

Yesterday was a great day. Look at this sign that greeted guests at Biagio.

Don’t have to tell me twice. Especially not after the epic “Day of 5s” with Beth, which involved biking 50 miles, swimming 5000 meters, and running 5 miles (in the pool). In one day.

You might wonder what the point of this was. In fact, Alex, a very helpful member of the Biagio team, asked us that very question. Were we training? Not really. Here’s how this whole thing happened.

Beth: Want to swim this weekend?

Me: I was thinking of a long bike followed by a long swim on Saturday.

Beth: How about a 50 mile bike and a 5000 meter swim?

My brain: Crap. I was thinking more like 30 miles on the bike and 3500 meters in the pool.

Me: Yes! Awesome.

Beth: OK. And I’m bringing a super-fast friend on the bike. We are going to do hills.

My brain: This is going to suck.

Me: Sure thing. Hey, how about we also do 5 miles of pool running?

Beth: Why? Because pain is awesome?

My brain: Basically, yes.

Me: Because then we do 5 of everything! Day of 5s!

Beth: OK! I’m in. See you in Georgetown at 6 am on the bike.

My brain: I hate my life.

Me: See you then!

In the end, we did it. And then we tried some chocolate. One that we both enjoyed was this Christopher Elbow White Nib Bar, which was creamy and offered not-too-bitter nibs that offset the sweet white chocolate to offer a balanced bar.

We checked out two John&Kira’s bars, which was exciting for me because I was very interested in their work involving use of urban gardens to grow ingredients for their bars. Their Rosemary Orange Urban Garden bar was immediately heavy on the rosemary and offered some orange flavor at the end. Though the bar was high quality, Beth and I both deemed it to be “strange.”

The John&Kira’s Mighty Mint Urban Garden bar, on the other hand, offered a nice strong flavor of real spearmint that balanced nicely with the dark chocolate.

I picked up that bar, as well as the Elbow White Nib bar, and a few other items from sample day.

My haul included the Pralus San Tome, which Beth picked out as a creamy bar that tasted like an earthy hot chocolate, and the Domori Teyuna, a sweet and creamy 70% cocoa bar made from Columbian beans.

Of course, I’ll be reviewing all the bars I purchased. But first, I need to go, uh, stretch. My legs are unhappy with me.

Have you ever gone to a chocolate tasting after a long workout? Did you eat everything in sight?