Chocolate Construction Challenge

February is Chocolate Month, and what could be more fun than a Chocolate Team Building Event?

One chocolate team building event that TeamBuilding Unlimited facilitates is The Chocolate Construction Challenge--build a structure completely from chocolate. TeamBuilding has never been so Sweet!

TeamBuilding Unlimited leads your group in this luscious activity. Teams are challenged to construct a "creative" designated chocolate structure while incorporating their Company into the event. The process is grounded in both the reality and uncertainty of the task. Specific structure will be defined after reviewing company information.

Teams are provided with all kinds of chocolate based foods that might include chocolate-covered graham crackers, M&Ms, chocolate Gummy Bears, Hershey bars and all kinds of other chocolate--different shapes, sizes, and textures.

Teams then compete to build a structure. One HMO firm had its teams build their ideal medical center. A hotel group set its teams to designing resorts. The final chocolate structure has to stand up on its own and, except for the white cardboard base, has to be completely edible. Teams are given time to design and build, and then they present the results. Half the fun is explaining why they built what they built and how they built it.

And, of course, there are rewards! How sweet it is!

Contact Team Building Unlimited for your next teambuilding event--chocolate and more!

Wine & Chocolate Tasting Team Event

TeamBuilding Unlimited has long been known for its  Chocolate Team Building, as well as its Winning Wine Team Events.  TeamBuilding Unlimited also produces a combination event-- Team Wine: The Noir of Wine and Chocolate Tasting.

This event is a combination of two great tastes! Chocolate and Wine—to die for... Participants are given an opportunity to taste, sample and rate different Wines paired with great chocolate with different percentages of cacao. As participants sample each wine, they will use the five "S," seeing, swirling, smell, sip, and maybe spit, to compare colors, flavors and tastes. Teams will be given a chance to make comments, to keep score and to rate the wines and chocolates that they have tasted, as well as how they pair together.

Perfect for Team Events, Appreciations, or a Social Function!

Contact TeamBuilding Unlimited for this ultimate event!

Chocolate Stimulus Package for Tough Times

I sent out a Chocolate Stimulus email yesterday to my clients about TeamBuilding Unlimited's Chocolate TeamBuilding programs. In addition to all our other creative interactive team building and entertainment, we also do so many types of chocolate events: Chocolate Scavenger Quests, Chocolate Challenge, Have Your Cake and Eat it, Too! and chocolate tastings! I also have a chocolate Blog, DyingforChocolate.

Now's the time to reward your team with TeamBuilding Unlimited's chocolate teambuilding programs. Great for Admin Week, Morale Building, Icebreakers and ReOrgs. Our teambuilding events motivate active participation, generate enthusiasm, improve communication ... and are fun. Great ROI!

"When the going gets tough, the tough eat chocolate!"

Bar to Bar to Bar San Francisco Scavenger Quest

What are San Francisco’s three basic food groups? Caffeine, Chocolate and Alcohol.

The Bar to Bar to Bar Scavenger Quest that TeamBuilding Unlimited/Murder on the Menu created is primarily for team building and team bonding. This is not for the faint of heart. There is an emphasis on fun, creativity and enjoyment.

Last Friday, the catering and conference services team from one of the largest San Francisco hotels had a teambuilding event that included the Bar to Bar to Bar Quest. Each team was expected to visit specific yet different chocolate locations in the City near the starting point. For this specific quest Shoggi on 87 Yerba Buena Lane, CocoaBella Chocolate in the Westfield San Francisco Center, Teuscher at 307 Sutter St, Ghiradelli at44 Stockton St., Leonidas Belgian Chocolates at 50 Post St, Richart at 3393 Sutter and Fog City News at 455 Market Street were selected for the chocolate portion.

In addition, each team had to visit and bring back proof of the visit (electronic, paper or product) from a place that also serves or sells coffee, as well as a place that serves or sells alcohol.

Frank Price from TeamBuilding Unlimited also set a goal for this Quest (as if eating chocolate wasn't enough?). Each team had to redesign the hotel's corporate logo utilizing these three food groups along with cultural, sporting, artistic, political and recreational information of San Francisco that they found along the way. As part of the final presentation, each team combined their information by making a marketing/advertising t-shirt to persuade the other teams that their new logo was the best.

Teams enjoyed the visits to the chocolate places best of all. No big surprise! The presentations were animated, lively and exciting. Some employees added music and dancing as well as props to their presentations. Who knows, maybe their hotel will adapt one of the new logos!

Bonding at its best! And never bittersweet!

TeamBuilding Unlimited/Murder on the Menu also does Chocolate Only Scavenger Quests--anywhere in the World. Groups of 5 to 300.

Are you a chocoholic? Check out DyingforChocolate, my other Blog. News, reviews, and chocolate for the chocoholic.

Chocolate Scavenger Hunt

TeamBuilding Unlimited has created several different types of Scavenger Hunts, one of which is our Bar to Bar to Bar Scavenger Quest that has teams searching the City (any city) for creative fun items at coffee bars, alcoholic bars and includes chocolate bars. This interactive teambuilding event also incorporates information about your company, the location and your goals and objectives.

Since we also do Chocolate Tastings and other Chocolate team building events, we decided to design a special Chocolate Scavenger Quest. San Francisco could be renamed Chocolate City, but there are other cities and towns where this will work, too. Downtown Napa, San Jose, New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, really the sky's the limit! What's unique about our Scavenger hunts is that the group must also incorporate information on their team and their company into the final presentation about their 'found' items, photos and other chocolate related tasks. Everyone's a winner in this Sweet Chocolate Scavenger Quest.

Speaking of Chocolate, have a look at my other Blog: Dying for Chocolate. Everything and anything you want to know about Chocolate.

Chocolate Team Building

February is Chocolate Month, and TeamBuilding Unlimited/Murder on the Menu has several chocolate TeamBuilding events.

THE CHOCOLATE CHALLENGE: Everyone loves Chocolate! What could be more tempting than building a structure completely from chocolate? In this case, chocolate and chocolate related foods. TeamBuilding has never been so sweet! Read More on Murderous Musings/TeamBuilding Talk.

CHOCOLATE TASTING: Frank Price, chocolatier, guides you through a tasty sensation tour of the world of cacao from the bean to the bar. History, geography, culture and myths are explored. Use all of your senses as you discover and discuss this magical botanical wonderland of flavors, tastes, smells, touch and sights. "Chocolate!" is a fun and entertaining experience. A great teambonding appreciation event for your team.

HAVE YOUR CAKE AND EAT IT TOO! really capitalizes on your team's creativity and sweet tooth. This is great event to do before or after a meal and can be enjoyed in lieu of your dessert--or in addition to dessert. You can even take these cake masterpieces back to the office!

Teams design and decorate cakes to reflect their team, their company and more. This event can be done completely with chocolate from the layer cakes to icing to decorations!

Want more insights into chocolate, chocolate news, recipes? Check out my Blog: Dying for Chocolate.

Chocolate Challenge

Everyone loves Chocolate! What could be more tempting than building a structure completely from chocolate? In this case, chocolate and chocolate related foods. TeamBuilding has never been so sweet!

Maybe Julie Barker from Meetings Industry Megasite explains it best:

Meetings Industry Megasite

Entertain with Chocolate by Julie Barker

On the West Coast, Janet Rudolph runs a Berkeley, CA, company called TeamBuilding Unlimited that features a "chocolate challenge." She divides the group into teams of four or five people, furnishes chocolate-covered graham crackers, M&Ms, chocolate Gummy Bears, Hershey bars—"anything you can think of that is made of chocolate. We go for different shapes, sizes, and textures, not high-end chocolate."

Groups then compete to build a structure. One HMO firm had its teams build their ideal hospitals. Another group set its teams to designing resorts. The result "has to stand up on its own and, except for the white cardboard base, has to be completely edible," says Rudolph. Teams are given about an hour to design and build, and then they have to present the results. "Half the fun is explaining why they did what they did," she says.

For more info on this and on our High End Chocolate Tasting, contact Janet Rudolph or Frank Price at TeamBuilding Unlimited/Murder on the Menu.

Halloween Chocolate Cemeteries

Halloween is one of my favorite holidays. And, I'm always "dying... for chocolate."

These spooky Halloween cupcakes are fun to make and eat. Use any one of the following decorating ideas on its own, or put several together to create a tray of different treats. Easy to bake, you can use any devil's food cake recipe.

To make a cupcake cemetery, spread devil's food cupcakes with chocolate icing. Dip the top of each frosted cupcake in crushed chocolate wafers to create the look of dirt, then insert shortbread-cookie tombstones, piping them with scary messages like "Boo!" or "R.I.P." in royal icing.

Top more devil's food cupcakes with chocolate ganache and chocolate-wafer "dirt," make a hole in the center of each cupcake with your finger, and position half a gummi worm to look like it's slithering out of the hole.

Happy Halloween! Boo!!!

Let's play two!

Let’s Do Two!

The great Hall of Fame baseball player, Ernie Banks, loved baseball so much that he said, "It's a beautiful day for a ballgame... Let's play two!" Yesterday was a beautiful day, and I had two separate events at two different locations. It was a beautiful day.

The Promotional Event

The Hilton Hotel Family contacted Murder on the Menu/TeamBuilding Unlimited because they were hosting a special regional multi hotel HR department meeting at the DoubleTree Hotel in San Jose, and they needed creative, interactive entertainment. Their budget was on empty. We were willing to showcase our creativity in a shortened promotional format. They will see the possibilities.

We wanted to grab their attention, sustain the energy and end with something that would make them remember our strong points. Customized and creative pacing, energy, and interactive entertainment, are all about who we are and what we do. Suspense in different forms creates a dynamic tension among the participants.

Three activities were selected, The Arresting Cop, the Wacky Mini-Olympic Games and the Chocolate Tasting Seminar. Each activity requires different types of preparation, presentation, timing and interaction.

The Cop enters the room armed with information, ideas and relevant gifts for the suspects. It’s a surprise. Tension begins to build as he walks slowly around the room. The impenetrable wrap-around sunglasses give him a slightly tough look. He asks for a specific suspect. The hush in the room is broken by a gasp and pointing fingers spotlight the female suspect who is unaware she is about to be given a customized running shoe with her San Francisco Marathon time on the label. The laughter begins. The woman wonders how the cop would know that information. Nobody else in the room, including the contact, knows this bit of running history.

The pace quickens when next the participants are divided into teams to take part in the Wacky Mini-Olympic Hilton Family Games. From the first activity to the last all of the guests are engaged and determined to win. The Duffle Bag Relay brings out laughter and their competitive nature. The culmination is when each member of the winning team accepts his or her own customized first place bottle of champagne.

Saving the sweet for last, the high end Chocolate Tasting Seminar gets them in a quiet place. I always wonder which chocolate will they like the most. They enjoyed it all.

In only one hour, I’m able to fill them with energy, knowledge, and great chocolate. I leave ready to start again.

I quickly pack my bags and head off to the SUN Microsystems campus for a murder mystery dinner for 115 World-wide Finance Team participants.

The Mystery Dinner

Setting up the sound and light, putting out the clues, rehearsing with the actors, coordinating with the catering staff, the contact at SUN, distributing the programs to the guests are just part of my excitement. Because we integrate the language and jargon of this group at SUN, we get their attention. Our contact gives me some extra last minute jargon, the actors use it and the mystery takes off. Guests read clues into the microphone and ask questions of the actors and accuse some of their fellow workers. Our detective, fedora, badge and trenchcoat arrives and the real fun begins. He has “secret” information about some of the guests, and he shares it with dramatic flare. The roar of laughter, the self-deprecating corporate humor gets everybody involved. The entire show builds throughout the dinner and ends when all of the crimes are solved. Corporate suspects take the stand and are found innocent of all crimes even though their peers believe them to be guilty. Another mystery solved by our special detective, Frank T. Lawman. The winning team receives prizes and the evening winds down.

I pack up all of the materials and equipment, and I am on the road again. It was a beautiful day…Let’s play two.

Dying for Chocolate

Murder on the Menu/TeamBuilding Unlimited does an awesome chocolate tasting that I blogged about last week. We usually give our clients all the chocolate that's leftover after a tasting, and we bring bags to make it convenient. No sticky hands or gooey purses or pockets. Nevertheless, even though we do our best to give chocolate away, our office always seems to be filled with lots--from 40% to 90% cacao-- from many different chocolate companies and regions.

So yesterday I decided to make use of some of that left over dark chocolate. I found a very easy fantastic recipe for a flourless chocolate cake. Thought I'd share it. By the way, Murder on the Menu isn't a catering company or a restaurant. You have no idea how many people have asked that. Would you hire a caterer or go out to dinner at a place called Murder on the Menu. Who knows what you'd get. But that's another story.

Dying for Chocolate!

Ingredients
4 ounces (or more) fine-quality chocolate (not unsweetened, 70% cacoa or more)
1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter
3/4 cup sugar
3 large eggs
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

Preparation
Preheat oven to 375°F and butter an 8-inch round baking pan. Line bottom with a round of wax paper and butter paper.

Break chocolate into pieces. In a double boiler or metal bowl set over a saucepan of barely simmering water melt chocolate with butter, stirring, until smooth. Remove top of double boiler or bowl from heat and whisk sugar into chocolate mixture. Add eggs and whisk well. Sift 1/2 cup cocoa powder over chocolate mixture and whisk until just combined. Pour batter into pan and bake in middle of oven 25 minutes, or until top has formed a thin crust. Cool cake in pan on a rack 5 minutes and invert onto a serving plate.

Dust cake with additional cocoa powder or powdered sugar and serve with ice cream or whipped real cream.

I used vanilla ice-cream and scattered fresh strawberries on the plate. Unbelievable and so easy.

Awesome Chocolate Tasting for California Women Lead

Who doesn't like chocolate? Murder on the Menu/TeamBuilding Unlimited does Chocolate Tastings with Frank Price, our VP of TeamBuilding Unlimited. Frank spent three years in Cote d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast) where he was upclose and personal with the growing and harvesting of cacao. Cote D'Ivoire is the largest growing cacao country.

California Women Lead recently hired us to do a chocolate tasting at their Sacramento Summer Networking event. We had 8 different high end chocolates from European and American boutique chocolate companies--each with different proportions of cacao, ranging from 40% to 85%. It was all about smell, sound, taste--mostly about taste-- as Frank and three other chocolate mavens answered questions and gave instructions on how best to taste chocolate. It's like a wine tasting... only better because it's all about chocolate!

California Women Lead is a nonpartisan, nonprofit or organization dedicated to providing leadership and campaign trainings, networking opportunities, and policy discussion forums for women interested in or who hold elected and appointed offices. Their motto is Engage, Empower, Elect. Maybe after this Chocolate Tasting, they'll add Eat, Enjoy!

Murder on the Menu does two types of Chocolate Tastings. One is seminar style (more like a wine tasting... only about chocolate) and the other features chocolate stations. It all depends on the type of event you're planning and how you like your chocolate.