In 2006, Corinne DeBra was your average chocolate fan when her daughter challenged her: "I bet you can't eat a different chocolate each day for a year.” Now it's 2010 and she has yet to miss a day in her chocolate quest. Corinne has eaten more than 1300 chocolate bars in more than 1300 days. She maintains a spreadsheet of the varieties she finds to ensure that she never eats the same chocolate bar twice. She was kind enough to take time out her her chocolate project and discuss her experiences with us.

You travel a lot and you've tried chocolate from many places and countries. Any favorites, any patterns?
It seems that every chocolatier that makes finer, higher end chocolate went to Europe at some point or came from Europe. The Swiss and Germans have a rich history of craft and technique that lead to a very nice, smooth texture and taste. In Belgium as well. The French have their own sort of advantages. I always find it nice to see when people take these basic techniques and put creative spins on them.

What's your favorite city in the US for chocolate?
I didn't think of this when I started here, but San Francisco turned out to be an extremely convenient location for my undertaking. There are many small chocolate shops here, a lot of their founders came from the tech business, and they've formed a great community. Also, New York, and Chicago with Vosges. But really there hasn't been a city where I didn't find someone doing something interesting with chocolate.

Were you ever close to missing a day?
I've definitely been filled with panic a couple of times, where I ate the chocolate ten minutes before midnight. Since then, I always try to travel with a chocolate stash, which leads to funny situations like pulling out a chocolate bag at a business dinner in Japan because my partners wanted to know what the chocolate of the day was. But in the end it always turns out unnecessary - I always find something fun in chocolate wherever I travel.

How long do you think will you be doing this?
I used to say I'll do it until I run out of chocolate- but you just blew that goal with 27 billion different combinations at chocri! Maybe until I've eaten my weight in chocolate, we'll see.

Thank you for talking to us Corinne!

While we’re pretty passionate about chocolate, sometimes we meet someone whose dedication to the topic seriously impresses even the chocolate fanatics at chocri.

Recently, I spoke with Corinne DeBra- Corinne made an interesting commitment to sample a new chocolate bar each day, and she spoke about some of her more intriguing chocolate experiences. Below is the first half, where Corinne talks about how the challenge came about, some of the more interesting chocolate finds she’s seen, and blogging her love for chocolate.

In 2006, Corinne DeBra was your average chocolate fan when her daughter challenged her: "I bet you can't eat a different chocolate each day for a year.” Now it's 2010 and she has yet to miss a day in her chocolate quest. Corinne has eaten more than 1300 chocolate bars in more than 1300 days. She maintains a spreadsheet of the varieties she finds to ensure that she never eats the same chocolate bar twice. She was kind enough to take time out her her chocolate project and discuss her experiences with us.

You set out to win the bet, which you’ve done successfully. What compelled you to actually attempt this challenge- and why have you kept going, even after you’ve won?

I wanted to see if I could commit to anything for that many days. There were days when I was frustrated with the administrative aspects and blogging about it, but after you get to a certain point, you just keep going and hunting new chocolates.

Then I realized that I wasn't going to run out of chocolate, so I wanted to prove to myself I could keep at it. In a sense it is a dedication to fun my in life, to something creative. If I can do this for 1000 days, what else am I capable of... you know?

You list your best and worst experiences per year on your blog, but throughout the project, which chocolates were your most (and least) favorites? (Ed: Corinne hasn't tried chocri yet!)

For my least favorite, I'll have to go with insects covered in chocolate. Although people tell me I should’ve tried ants- maybe I just didn't have the right kind of insect?

As for a favorite, that's so hard. Perhaps a recent experience when I traveled to Alaska. I did research ahead of time and found this Salmon and Anchovy Truffle. You couldn't get that anywhere else. I like going to remote areas and trying out what they make with their native ingredients, small businesses trying out something creative."

Did you ever pass on a chocolate?

[sigh] People find out what I'm doing and they start buying me things. Often it's a chocolate that I’ve already tried. I don't actually eat excessive amounts of chocolate- maybe an ounce a day, even if that's more than most people. I'm not interested in eating all the chocolate, especially if it looks like bad chocolate, or if it doesn't contain a lot of real chocolate.

Can you taste a difference between regular and fair trade, organic and/or single origin chocolate?

Single origin can be very distinctive in some cases, with a flavor arch like wine- with a beginning, middle and end. Fair trade and organic is more difficult. There is a correlation to a certain type of taste, sometimes related to texture, but it's unpredictable. Often fair trade and organic chocolate are more artisanal, and that affects the texture.

Tune in next week for part two, where Corinne gives us the scoop on chocolate from different regions, perseverance, and her future chocolate plans!

Today I'd like to introduce a mass customization company to you that allows you to create your own product on their website just as we allow you to create your own chocolate bar. Build-A-Sign lets you make your own sign or, like in our case, vinyl banner, which they then quickly make and ship to you. We had the pleasure to try them out (disclosure: for free) and made a huuuge vinyl banner to use at markets and just this past weekend at our tasting. Look at it, isn't it pretty?

Many thanks to Build A Sign for allowing us to make a banner with them. You can choose from many pre-designs, but obviously the sexiest way to "build a banner" is to create your own - by uploading the complete design (like we did), or your own. Delivery was super fast and the quality makes me want to hang the banner over my bed.

I love seeing how mass customization is moving into B2B and how efficient this company can make signs with reduced complexity - and price! Just one more example of the co-creation revolution. All the best to Build A Sign!

File this under studies we'd like to participate in.

We've already posted about studies linking chocolate to better health and glowing skin, but this particular story caught my attention. Aussie researchers did a study to determine the effects of sweets cravings on concentration- especially for vital tasks, like driving.

As someone who has to open our website, Facebook page and Twitter feed several times a day (OMG, the background!), I am fairly familiar with this phenomenon. Often when confronted with tasty, tasty images of chocolate, distraction is a typical outcome. This study measured what happened to subjects when they really needed a chocolate fix and were stuck:

"Fighting an all-consuming desire for chocolate ice cream can have consequences ranging from memory lapses to car crashes, say scientists...

They found that volunteers whose favourite chocolate bar was unwrapped and within their reach while they sat a series of tests had slower reactions and poorer memories than those who did the same tests in a chocolate-free zone."

Hmm... you think we might see high-quality chocolate bars included in car maintenance kits any time soon? The scientists concluded:

"Although cognitive effects of individual food cravings are likely to be small, in practice even small reductions in cognitive resources have the potential to compromise optimal performance in everyday situations, thereby reducing work efficiency or increasing the likelihood of accidents."

So while the effects of a massive chocolate jones on your ability to concentrate are likely to be "small," working or driving while images of a tasty, tasty chocolate loop across your conscious mind is just as distracting as it seems. Right now, I'm being drawn by the Mexican Hot Chocolate Love Bar. Are you being distracted by chocolate today?