The Chocolate Life - Discover Chocolate and Live La Vida Cocoa!

Discover Chocolate and Live La Vida Cocoa!

A community for chocophiles - and aspiring chocophiles - to explore, learn, and share.

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Content on TheChocolateLife posted by Clay Gordon is published under a Creative Commons non-commercial, share-alike, with attribution, license.

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Photos

IMG_1059

by Eve

IMG_1058

by Eve

Videos

Child labour and pesticide usage in Cameroon

Added by Samantha Madell
Dessert Professional presents America's Ten Best Pastry Chefs 2009

Added by Clay Gordon

Latest Activity

Jeff Stern added a blog post

Ecuadorian Chocolate-What You Need To Know

2 hours ago

mazhar badruddin, Jere' Cassidy, Carol Scheel and 1 more joined The Chocolate Life

7 hours ago

Ashish Kumar Mishra replied to Mindy Fong's discussion 'Basics for Panning Chocolates'

hi mindy,,,, if u take it in wrong way then i want to say sorry!!! but actually i want to your response about my website.....Chocolates... and i also know about Panning Chocolates. Thanks and waiting your response..... Ashish

8 hours ago

Mindy Fong replied to Mindy Fong's discussion 'Basics for Panning Chocolates'

Don't know exactly how you're a solution for me, but thanks anyways.

11 hours ago

Mindy Fong updated an event

Los Angeles Chocolate Salon at Pasadena Convention Center

October 11, 2009 from 11am to 5pm

Hi All Just wanted to let everyone know of the 3rd Annual Los Angeles Chocolate Salon on Sunday, October 11th, 2009 at the Pasadena Center. My company, Jade Chocolates, will be participating in this event. There will be over 35 chocolatiers, choc...

12 hours ago

Mindy Fong updated an event

Las Vegas Chocolate Salon at The Venetian

September 19, 2009 from 11am to 5pm

Jade Chocolates, among other Chocolatelife members' businesses, will be participating in the 1st Annual Las Vegas Chocolate Salon occurring on Saturday, September 19th, 2009 at the Venetian Hotel. Las Vegas CHOCOLATE SALON participants include ch...

12 hours ago

Clay Gordon replied to helmut placek's discussion 'Death by Chocolate'

This is a duplicate of this earlier post. Please add comments to the linked to post, not this one.

12 hours ago

Samantha Madell commented on Samantha Madell's blog post 'Pesticide usage in the cocoa industry'

Tom - Thanks very much for sharing your first-hand experience.

13 hours ago

Tom Neuhaus commented on Samantha Madell's blog post 'Pesticide usage in the cocoa industry'

I travel to Cote d'Ivoire every August and visit villages in the Daloa, Issia, and San Pedro areas. I always ask villages the same question: "if there's one thing I could bring you that would make your life easier, what would it be?" Every single ...

13 hours ago

Eve commented on Eve's blog post 'Last days before opening'

Thanks! We opened quietly at 11 AM today and had a pleasant day. The street traffic was much greater than we anticipated and for a soft opening, it was a very successful.

14 hours ago

helmut placek added a discussion

Death by Chocolate

I would like to share the article below, which I received today by e-mail for everybody's consideration working with large chocolate melters. ============================================= A factory worker died after accidentally falling into a c...

14 hours ago

Carol Scheel commented on Eve's photo 'IMG_1045'

Awesome picture and great sign!!!

15 hours ago

Samantha Madell commented on Samantha Madell's blog post 'Pesticide usage in the cocoa industry'

Thanks for your feedback John! Regarding Fair Trade in Ghana - have you heard that "Cadbury plans to sell Britain's biggest selling chocolate brand Dairy Milk under the Fairtrade logo in Britain and Ireland, which should help tens of thousands of...

18 hours ago

Theo brominum replied to Samantha Madell's discussion 'Worker dies after falling into vat of chocolate'

It's a shame that such things are still possible in this era. What about safety precautions?

22 hours ago

John M Rossini commented on Samantha Madell's blog post 'Pesticide usage in the cocoa industry'

Nice job Samantha - Good detail and research. On a a related note, organic and fair-trade certification must be rare for Ghana, as I have never seen any. Mars, Nestles, and Hersheys has the Ghana cocoa bean market tied up, and could care less abou...

yesterday

Andrea replied to Andrea's discussion 'Vanilla Beans'

No, I never tried it both ways, but I will try it with my next batch and compare it with the one I just made, same recipe. I'm curious also. Andrea

yesterday

Events

July 18

Saturday

Grand Opening Sweet Paradise Chocolatier

July 18, 2009 at 6pm to July 19, 2009 at 7pm – Waikoloa Beach Resort, Big Island, Hawaii

July 20

Monday

Raw Chocolate Demo in Greenwich

July 20, 2009 from 10am to 1pm – Greenwich Whole Foods

July 29

Wednesday

Chocolate from Bean to Bar Fundraiser

July 29, 2009 from 7:30pm to 9:30pm – 561 Broadway

September 4

Friday

The Chicago Luxury Ice Cream Festival 2009

September 4, 2009 to September 6, 2009 – At Event spaces and restaurants throughout the city

September 19

Saturday

Las Vegas Chocolate Salon

September 19, 2009 from 11am to 5pm – The Venetian

October 11

Sunday

Los Angeles Chocolate Salon

October 11, 2009 from 11am to 5pm – Pasadena Convention Center

November 7

Saturday

Chocolate Festival of Texas

November 7, 2009 from 10am to 5pm – Sheraton Hotel North Houston

Save the dates - ChocolateLife Adventures for 2010

Discover Chocolate and Live La Vida Cocoa in 2010! Let's face, 2008 was no fun and 2009 doesn't promise to be funner. So you owe it to yourself to have something to look forward to in 2010.

Join me in early-to-mid January in a trip to the Beni region of NE Bolivia. Our host will be ChocolateLife member Volker Lehmann of Rainforest Exquisite Products. Highlights of the trip will be our time at the Hacienda Tranquilidad and the opportunity to work with the beans (we're arriving at the start of peak harvest) used to make Felchlin's Cru Sauvage. Estimated cost, not including r/t airfare to Santa Cruz, Bolivia, will be about US$2750 p/p. Maximum group size is just 8, and a US$250 deposit will be required to reserve a spot.

If Bolivia does not grab your fancy or January doesn't fit your schedule, in late May to early June I am leading a trip to Bahia State in Brazil. Our host will be ChocolateLife member Jim Lucas, owner of Fazenda Venturosa. Highlights of the trip will be our time at the Fazenda (also at peak harvest), a day hike through 500 acres of rain forest preserve, visits to local small chocolate factories, meetings with Brazilian cacao experts working to combat the devastating witches' broom, visiting the oldest European city in Brazil (Salvador), and time to relax on some of Brazil's most fabulous beaches. Estimated cost, not including r/t airfare to Salvador, BA, Brazil, will be about US$2500/pp. Maximum group size is just 12, and a US$250 deposit is also required to reserve a place.

If you are interested in either or both these trips, get your reservations in ASAP as space is very limited.

Forum

Basics for Panning Chocolates 7 Replies

Started by Mindy Fong in Tips, Tricks, and Techniques. Last reply by Ashish Kumar Mishra 8 hours ago.

Death by Chocolate 1 Reply

Started by helmut placek in News. Last reply by Clay Gordon 12 hours ago.

Ethical and Delicious Unsweetened Chocolate? 4 Replies

Started by MichaelKeshet in Tips, Tricks, and Techniques. Last reply by Rodd Heino 21 hours ago.

Worker dies after falling into vat of chocolate 1 Reply

Started by Samantha Madell in News. Last reply by Theo brominum 22 hours ago.

Vanilla Beans 2 Replies

Started by Andrea in Micro-Batch "Homebrew" Chocolate. Last reply by Andrea 1 day ago.

What types of chocolates best in World???

Started by SofiaRaj Chocolates in Top 10 Lists 1 day ago.

Cocoa butter and cocoa solids 48 Replies

Started by Olorin in Tasting Notes. Last reply by SofiaRaj Chocolates 1 day ago.

Trader Joe's 72% Chocolate Bars... 31 Replies

Started by jonny in Opinion. Last reply by Roxanne Browning 1 day ago.

Sole Propriator vs LLC? What do you do? 9 Replies

Started by J Y in Allow Me to Introduce Myself. Last reply by Zeke Mandel 1 day ago.

Question About Renting Kitchen Space 1 Reply

Started by jake in Uncategorized. Last reply by Heidi Ash (Zaslasky) Jul 5.

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Blog Posts

Ecuadorian Chocolate-What You Need To Know

Arriba Chocolate

In a previous post, I discussed the definition of "Arriba" chocolate and beans-while there's no legal definition, Arriba can be used to denominate either beans of the Nacional variety from the "Arriba" or upriver area of the Guayas River Basin in the lowlands of southwestern Ecuador, or chocolate made from those beans. So is Arriba a chocolate or a type of bean? It can be both, depending on with whom you are speaking. Growers may call their beans Arriba variety, and chocolate m… Continue

Posted by Jeff Stern on July 10, 2009 at 12:00pm

Pesticide usage in the cocoa industry

I am a vocal advocate of organic agriculture, so I was more than a little bit surprised to receive an email recently from Gatewick, inviting me to submit a competitive tender for the procurement of insecticides for the Ghana Cocoa Board.

According to the document I was sent (attached below), the Ghana Cocoa Board has allocated a budget this year for 1,000 drums, plus 2,000 cartons, plus 165,000 litres of insecticide:… Continue

Posted by Samantha Madell on July 7, 2009 at 12:52am — 4 Comments

Why Isn't Aequare Chocolates Organic?

Aequare Chocolates gets frequent inquiries as to why we're not organic. It's not because we don't want to be, or don't support organic. It's because we simply can't, for all practical purposes, be organic.

Organic Chocolate For Bars And Organic Couverture

First off, all organic chocolate actually produced here in country is shipped abroad and almost none of it is for sale here. It's shipped abroad directly by its producers because there is a market for it abroad. Consumers in North America and… Continue

Posted by Jeff Stern on July 6, 2009 at 2:30pm — 1 Comment

Food Fete NYC, June 2009

I arrived in NY Saturday evening from Ecuador-no delays and no hitches. Customs went through my chocolates in Miami but they seemed more curious than anything, and after a brief inspection let me on my way. Sunday was the behemoth Fancy Food Show, which was no less than the size of 20 supermarkets in one place, with thousands of food items being displayed. I gorged on Grana Padano Parm and Prosciutto while waiting to meet people- I was lucky enough to be able to squeeze in meetings with all the… Continue

Posted by Jeff Stern on July 6, 2009 at 2:20pm

Last days before opening

The sign painter was still working on the windows at 8 last night. I guess he didn't go to the fireworks either. Tom and I were making lists.

The soft opening date is now Wednesday. The city signed off Thursday afternoon, thank goodness. We started moving the packaging and shipping… Continue

Posted by Eve on July 5, 2009 at 10:00am — 3 Comments

Are French chocolates (apart from a few) terribly overrated?

I was in the South West of France for a few days and of course paid a visit to the local chocolate shops. All of them a great disapointment selling same things as 10 years ago (mostly pralines)and regional or house specialties bought in from Francois Doucet (potatoes, quail eggs, chocolate in shape of beans, olives etc etc). Most people used Barry Callebaut which did not help. Quality of the bonbons was poor and marshmallows were like bike tyres. Makes me wonder if French chocolates (apart from… Continue

Posted by Artisan on July 5, 2009 at 9:53am — 3 Comments

* TROPICAL CHOCOLATE CO. * New chocolate store in San Luis Obispo, CA

" It's indeed an art to create a handmade chocolate. The Chocolatier who creates Tropical Chocolates devotes personal attention to the design by beautifully decorating the chocolates. Impeccable ingredients originating with 100% Hawaiian grown cacao beans are paired with exotic flavors to present a fresh, new twist on chocolate. " Come visit us at our site: www.tropicalchocolateco.com

Posted by P B Marshall on July 3, 2009 at 5:15pm

AoC: The Conclussion

For those of you that have been following my dramas with the AoC (your numbers are stunning! I had no idea!)... it is time for me to wrap it all up.

After requesting once again that they forward me their alleged evaluations and once again receiving no reply... how long does it take to compile notes? I wrote them a rather less polite letter. This time I stated that I wished for my money to be returned as they had failed to fulfill their end of our agreement. I told them that I did not believe an… Continue

Posted by Robert Shea on July 3, 2009 at 4:51am — 1 Comment

A Visit to Some Javan Cocoa Farms

Friday afternoon I still had a few hours to kill. So I paid $30 for a tour company to supply me with a driver who spoke minimal English. Fortunately, Iva and Dani (president of the company that hosted my talks) came along, so communication was not an issue. We drove around in the Yogyakarta area, where there are mostly smallholders growing a variety of crops: vanilla, cloves, cocoa, rice, and bananas.… Continue

Posted by Tom Neuhaus on June 26, 2009 at 12:39am

A morning at Monggo Chocolates

THURSDAY, JUNE 18

I had an entire morning ahead of me with no responsibilities! I ate an early breakfast, then visited the gifts store on the first floor. There, among other things, I found some local chocolates. I took the chocolate bars to the hotel front desk and asked them where the factory was. Within 10 minutes I was off across Yogjakarta in search of Monggo Chocolates. I found it in the old part of town, in the silver district known as Kotagede.… Continue

Posted by Tom Neuhaus on June 25, 2009 at 1:13am