Chocolate Basil? The search continues...

eww

Is chocolate basil some kind of urban garden myth? I went over to Gardenweb.com and found a thread on this dating back to 2005. It looked like the posters gave up after researching many suggested resources. If it doesn't exist, someone should start a breeding program. Not me, I don't know enough about it.

myth, mystery, fantasy, obsession…

You kids are cracking me up.

If you settle down I will send you all a Boquet of chocolate basil for valentines.

Ok now you guys have me looking.

Post on Tarotforum.net in 2003

It'll never pass for Hershey's Chocolate, but yes, there's a slight chocolate taste to it. It's a light flavor and I think meant for desserts, where you put some leaves on sherbet or fruit combos. If you have any basil types at the plant nurseries, try nipping off the edge of a leaf and tasting it, right there, you'll get an idea of the range some of these things have! The chocolate one has been around Wisconsin for sale in the last 3 years, so it may be new. The leaves are a darker green with brown tinge, but the name is based on the taste of it.

Ah-ha! More evidence! It's not a myth you naysayers!

Yah, except LOOK at the name of that website. TAROT! ROFL. Maybe she's just reading the cards about this plant!

Oh, pooh!

Ha. I think it's so funny.
"I see a green plant in your future…"

An "hour late and a dollar short" as usual.

On Jan 24,2009 Fairchild Tropical Botanical Gardens in Coral Gables, Fla had a chocolate festival that advertised "chocolate basil" plants for sale. If anyone has contact with these folks they might check it out and solve this for us.

ok, message sent to the marketing department. V, did YOU see this ad?

MRS_ED,
I did-Thanks
I am not sure we are not chasing another Loc-Nessie---LOL

Found a message on Yahoo this evening...poster said he (or his brother – can’t remember) has it growing in his greenhouse. The message was posted yesterday.

I have sent a query to the poster.

NEWS FLASH:

A naaaaybor of critter just called me and stated he had seen 1 acre of chocolate basil growing in her garden---This was about the same time she started this thread and right after Sasquatch ate all of mine.

My garden doesn't have 1 acre of anything. Nice try!

Jasmerr, I've got my fingers crossed!

V - don't you mean loch-nestle??

This is starting to remind me of that commercial with Santa and the M&Ms. Where they see each other say "you do exist" and then both faint dead away.

Keep going brave explorers! We will track this thing down yet!

OMG, Loch Nestlé! Too funny.

jassmerr,
if he has it I'll be booking my flight........a little to far to ride.........

LOL! I'll post IF I hear from him...it's not someone I have had contact with before.

LOL--"Loch Nestle"---wish I had thought of that

mjsponies, Coral Gables isn't that far from you. Saddle Up! Westward Ho!

mjsponies, You and I could go over to Fairchild Botanical Garden together, except I'd have to take my car or the little truck, since I don't have a ponie or even a Corgi, oh wait, and I don't live in Florida anymore. Nev-v-v-v-er Mind.

Well, I hate to tell you this, but I heard back from Alina Balean, the marketing contact over there, and she said that they did NOT run an ad for Chocolate Basil on their list of plants for sale.

LOL.

I emailed back thanking her and explaining the quest. Haven't heard back.

Way to go, Mrs_Ed!
Well, that narrows things right down, doesn't it?
So, what's the deal with the "ad", Vortrekker?

Chocolate basil, chocolate basil, my heart yearns for you,
Forever together, just us two.
Far and wide, I searched the lands and seas.
To finally touch and smell your sweet leaves.

Many a soul, I've beseeched during my quest.
To show me the way, what a daunting test.
For without you, my dear
Life will not be complete
I must have this Herb,
The Ultimate Treat.
;-)

This message was edited Feb 11, 2009 4:30 AM

Stay tuned, a new development out of Coral Gables.

Is this going to rhyme? (Is it stashed in the stables?)

If we all get together and do a planned email rush ( it has to be all planned out so we do not all email at same time and crash servers. I would prob go to jail for starting it) to one place like Burppe or a site that specializes in herbs, we might get someone to actually try to get it for us. Who could resist getting a couple hundred emails for the same plant?

Well, let's see, I have 6 different email addresses I could use!

Burpee's is probably not a good bet, but maybe a smaller specialty nursery like Fragrant Fields? or Chocolate Flower Farm?

Well the problem is — try to get it from WHERE? We should clearly have found something by now. Major growers like Ball should be "in the know" about new developments on the horizon and would have something like this on their radar. We've contacted major herb seed specialists too. That of course is the mystery. I'm sure that places like Richter's and Cook's Garden would add this in a heartbeat if it was available.

ah but Burpee has the ability to set in motion the creation of chocolate basil if it no longer exists anywhere. Then we can get a smaller more friendly place to get it and buy from them. There is always a method to my madness.

"the creation of"

LOL. Yah, probably take like 10 years or something, with our luck.

I saw it at Walmart a couple years ago or so. Walmart carries Bonnie plants. That is the only time I have ever seen it. It was not chocolate mint because they also carried choclate mint. My daughter and I were having fun that day pointing out different kinds of herbs and discussing the potential of making vegetables sound like like candy so her kids would eat them.

I saw the ad a Fairchild Botanical Gardens myself, and it definitely offered chocolate basil.

Here's a link to the .pdf for the event. Go to page 4; it clearly says "chocolate basil" under plant sales: http://www.fairchildgarden.org/uploads/docs/Events/Chocolate%20Festival/Chocolate%20program%2009%20low%20res.pdf

yep, sure enough... "Plant Sales include cacao trees, chocolate basil, Oncidium “Sharry baby” orchids and black sapote."

Maybe the brochure writer for the event just got carried away?

Cheaters! They just don't want to share! How dare they deprive us?

A festival in Coral Gables
Lists chocolate basil on its sale tables...

Thanks jass and critter--I was just converting that ad from pdf to Word so I could send "proof"

I live near Bonnie Farms and know one of the owners--I will do some checking with them

And from Alabama'she comes, (around the montain I am not sure,
but one thing I know for sure,
Chocolate Basil will be the death of us,
And I'm Sure that's not the end of the fuss....................
Ok.....what can I say....you guy's just set me up for this.................

VORTREKER, I expect my Chocolate Basil substitute in the mail at anytime, I'm in the address exchane.!!!! hEY YOU said it..........................and I bet bigfoot is trasping around your yard at this very moment....................