Featured Blog Posts (17)

To All Members of TheChocolateLife:

I was thinking this morning about the ways in which the ChocolateLife community might be able to aid in Hurricane Sandy recovery efforts. And not just aid ChocolateLife members who make their livings making chocolate, but also people whose lives have been been tossed upside down and inside out who are in need of assistance.

After all, I know that there are ChocolateLife members up and down the East Coast that were within the path of the storm…

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Hi all,

This is Rob Monahan from ProfessorChocolate.com  

We are trying to raise funds through Kickstarter to complete the next two books in our NYC Chocolate Walking Tour series... The Uptown Guide and The Hot Chocolate Guide.  These books are meant to bring the 'consumers' to the chocolate!  100% of the money raised will be used for production and marketing of the books.  

 

Thanks!

http://kck.st/fXw7Ie

 

Review: Chocolate tour of Paris with David Lebovitz



http://www.davidlebovitz.com/tours.html

(note that he is not currently giving private tours but he is doing a

week-long, small group "Paris Chocolate Adventure")

In 2003 my wife and I made our own chocolate wedding cake from a recipe from David's book "Room for Dessert." In 2005 I had an exhibition in Paris and in our research on where to…

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Last November Canadian Competition Bureau began investigating Canadian divisions of Hershey, Cadbury, Nestle, and Mars on suspicion of price fixing. Last week, the German Federal Cartel office raided the offices and seized documents from the German headquarters of Nestle, Kraft, and Mars, for the same reason.



Read more on BBC and ABC… Continue

Originally posted on chocophile.com in May 2004.



Although more commonly known as the City of Lights, the Yellow Pages for the city of Paris contain nearly two full pages of listings for confiseries et chocolateries, organized alphabetically by arrondissement. Even this lengthy list is not complete (several very well-known players are not included), often because they are best known for their pastries and not their chocolates and are therefore in another part of the… Continue

http://www.news-leader.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080204/BREAKING03/80204033

Those lucky Swedes! :)

A panel of experts recommend that more countries be recognized as fine

or flavor cocoa producing countries in order to provide new

opportunities for trade.



The suggestions were put forward by industry experts during a review of the International Cocoa

Agreement, 2001, which recognizes 17 countries as producers of either

exclusively or partially fine or flavor cacao.



The aim of this agreement is to promote… Continue

Cooking intensely delicious food

with one of People magazine's "Sexiest Men Alive," could be a reality for five

creative home chefs.



Green & Black's®, the organic chocolate brand, announced today a call-for-entries for the Green & Black's Chocolate

Challenge. Home chefs across the country are invited to showcase their love of

organic chocolate by submitting an original five ingredient… Continue

COCOA: Cadbury seeks to reverse production declines by investing in areas where it gets crop.

According to this report, Cadbury Schweppes PLC plans to spend millions during the next few years to boost cocoa yields and to improve the lives of cocoa farmers, a move intended to…

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The chocolate enjoyed around the world today had its origins at least 3,100 years ago in Central America not as the sweet treat people now crave but as a celebratory beer-like beverage and status symbol, scientists said on Monday. Researchers identified residue of a chemical compound that comes exclusively from the cacao plant -- the source of chocolate -- in pottery vessels dating from about 1100 BC in… Continue

Blommer Chocolate, North America's largest processor of cocoa beans and ingredient chocolate products, announced recently the expansion of the company's sustainable farming initiatives with a new program in West Africa. This program (called CIFOB) will focus on cocoa farmers in Cote d'Ivoire.



According to Peter Blommer, COO of the company, "CIFOB is introducing programs to farmers focused on teaching… Continue

Chocolate Landmarks Food Network Challenge Feb 10th at 8.00pm. Watch Fritz and Torben Bang compete amongst the best in the chocolate industry. The show also airs Feb 11th 3.00am, Feb 13th 9.00pm, Feb 14th 12.00am, Feb 16th 2.00am, Feb 17th 7.00pm.

Fritz's throwdown with Bobby Flay will also be aired on Food Network the same night at 10.30pm. The show also airs Feb 11th 1.30am, Feb 19th 9.30pm, Feb 20th 12.30am and Feb 23rd 4.30pm

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When it comes to learning about the history of chocolate, most people never look past the excellent book, The True History of Chocolate by Sophie and Michael Coe. I have to say that the timing of the publishing of this book (1996) was instrumental in my quest to become a chocolate critic. While I am sure that the Coe's did a fair amount of primary research, much of what they wrote was gleaned from the writings of others, which can be confirmed by taking a look at the… Continue

If you look across the navigation tabs, you'll see that I have moved the search widget from the left-hand column after the Latest Activity section to its own page. I did this to speed up page loads.. The widget searches for text, images, and videos related to chocolate and aggregates them all on one page of search results.



What makes this widget cool is that I get to train it by specifying sites that are related to chocolate and giving it keywords that define the "tag cloud" or "buzz… Continue

Hold on to your hats everyone, rumor has it that Starbucks will be getting into the "artisan" chocolate business in a big way pretty soon. Given the number of doors (that's the technical term that people use when they talk about the number of stores) in the Starbucks franchise it stretches credulity to believe that the chocolate will actually be made using artisan production methods. When I know more I will let everyone know what I find out.



In the meantime, take a moment to post your… Continue

The majority of the growth in the premium chocolate business in the US over the past several years has come as a result of an increase in interest in artisan confections. This has led to dramatic growth in the number of artisan chocolatiers capable of commanding premium prices for their goods.



Less dramatic, but no less interesting, has been the growth of artisan chocolate makers in the US. In 2005 the list contained one name: Scharffen Berger Chocolate Maker.



Their success,… Continue