The project was done for the launch of Sagres-Preta Chocolate, a stout beer with – you guessed it – a chocolate flavor. While the concept is not new at all, the idea of a new chocolate-flavored stout is always welcome, especially for those who have been missing the wonderful taste and feeling of cold beer sliding down one’s throat.

Sagres is the leading beer brand in Portugal, and they teamed up with Grand Union, a digital agency. The result: frames made out of chocolate.

The frames were shot individually, at different positions and angles.

Sagres Preta Chocolate Web Site

This is even more drool-worthy.

Sagres Preta Chocolate

The genius behind the concept is the best Maître Chocolatier in Portugal: Mr. Victor Nunes. He is the artistic director of the Óbidos International Chocolate Festival, where the first pieces for the web site were sculpted. The rest of the work was done at the chocolate factory by Nunes and his team of artists.

The chocolate web site may look simple, but the work that went into its creation is nothing but! From the digital agency’s design team to Nunes’s artists – a lot of work contributed to the eye candy that we can all admire. Here’s a peek into the making of this delicious-looking chocolate web site.

Sagres Preta Chocolate from diografic on Vimeo.

Check out the entire Sagres-Preta chocolate web site.

3D Chocolate Printer

3D printing has just gotten cool. I mean really cool. There is no denying that the idea of being able to print objects that actually look real and that you can actually touch and play with is nice. Especially if that object is a teeny tiny version of yourself. While 3D printers are not yet that prevalent, they cannot be ignored anymore. From printing in 3D with bone to printing out your own chess set – I think that we shall be seeing more ways to amuse ourselves using 3D printers.

This new 3D printer takes home the blue ribbon in my eyes, though. Forget bone meal as the material. Forget high tech plastic. There is only one word that matters at this point: CHOCOLATE!

Some researchers in the UK have come up with the best idea of the year – a 3D printer made especially for chocolate!

Truth be told, I am fixated on the idea of being able to “print out” chocolate sculptures any time I want to, but some seriously hard work went into the creation of this 3D printer that it is imperative that that is emphasized. For example, chocolate or cocoa has complicated heating and cooling cycles that need to be observed/followed accurately in order to create sculptures. The 3D chocolate printer is equipped with software that monitors these cycles and makes sure that they are taken into account in operation. More so, each “print out” (that’s a really weird term for this application, but since we’re talking printers, why not?) has to be done layer by layer – a painstaking process, for sure.

Are you planning a birthday party for your kid? With this 3D chocolate printer, you just might soon be able to create cute chocolate sculptures in the form of his favorite cartoon character. Alternatively, you can simply make good use of a weekend afternoon and create chocolate sculptures of Iron Man (or your superhero of choice, of course). See where I am going here?

Sad to say, the printer is not yet commercially available and there are no details yet regarding the pricing. I am willing to bet, though, that we shall be seeing this 3D chocolate printer sooner than later.

Now all we need is some bacon.

Chocolate Skulls is the baby of Marina Malvada, who got started on the idea of skulls made out of chocolate way back in 1993. As with many noteworthy creations, the skulls were not really planned. What happened was that the artist was casting skulls, but of different material. It just entered her mind to create something edible, and what better to use than chocolate?

This year, Chocolate Skulls is entering a new phase – one which is set to give the project more exposure than ever. I think that the concept alone is enough to spread the word. These skulls are 100% edible and are cast from real human skulls. It is thus no surprise that people who have seen them in real life say that the candy – it is candy after all – is strikingly accurate, anatomically speaking.

The first skull is made of Cuban and Mexican Dark Chocolate. Now we all know that dark chocolate is healthy, so there isn’t anything you cannot like about this piece!

Here’s another chocolate skull.

This one’s a photo of a party with the skulls as the centerpiece.

I have to admit the skulls do not look particularly appetizing (especially when you think about the molds that were used), but they are still nothing but awesome. And, they’re made of chocolate – how can they not be awesome?

Then the bacon is smothered in chocolate, two versions actually, dark chocolate and regular chocolate. Considering this is a very fatty delicacy I would go all the way and get the dark chocolate instead of the regular chocolate.

The chocolate covered bacon is made by California based Marini family, it is one of their newest products. As Joe Marini says:

Who doesn’t love chocolate? Who doesn’t love bacon?

And I totally agree with him, I’m do not have much of a sweet tooth but chocolate I like and I like them most combined with other flavors such as peanuts or coconut. Chocolate combined with bacon is something I have to try once.

For those of you who live in the U.S. you can just order some from their website, they ship with next or second day air. You’ll get a fresh batch of chocolate covered bacon that holds well for a couple of day stored in the fridge. Although I see no reason to store it in the fridge, I would eat it in one day.

You can order your batch on Marini’s website. Half a pound of dark or regular chocolate covered bacon costs 9 dollars and 1/4 lb costs 6.98 dollars.

This certainly beats bacon flavored lip balms by miles. I would give a word of caution if you want to try the chocolate covered bacon, I foresee it to be highly addicting.

I wonder how many more kids would have come to chess club at school if they’d been able to eat the pieces at the end of the game?

Actually, scratch that — they’d probably just eat the pieces mid-game.

Here are some chocolate chess pieces which come in a tube that transforms into the board itself. Apparently inspired by folklore, when a Croatian and Italian king play chess with prizes of islands off the Croatian coast, this is a set you can only play one game with before having to buy another one. Best not to play it at the height of summer either.

Designed by Key Design, I’m not sure whether this is just a concept or whether you can get hold of sets. Might be too much of a temptation anyway.