In the meantime: cacao and chocolate are priceless!
I baked Golden Age Cookies to share with my audience, using Crow & Moss Chocolate of Petoskey, Michigan — India chocolate, and Violet Sky Chocolate of South Bend, Indiana — Bolivia cacao nibs. The value of chocolate is exponential!
Rotary International’s values of environmental protection and peace have always resonated, and the East Sacramento club’s anti-trafficking projects parallel anti-slavery work in cacao. Thank you to club President Jim Fritzsche for inviting me!
Quick notes from “backstage”:
For millennia, chocolate has been associated with matters of the heart, health-wise and love-wise.
The Aztecs, Maya, and other indigenous people understood cacao’s physical and emotional benefits.
Contemporary studies have identified compounds in cacao that protect the heart and elevate the mood.
Sometimes one taste is all it takes to uplift our outlook.
Slides — see the comments section for links, videos, and information.
See photo above for the menu, including two made-in-California bars, and here for links to the chocolate makers —
9th & Larkin Chocolate of San Francisco, California: 72% Tanzania Kokoa Kamili and corresponding cocoa bean https://www.9thandlarkin.com/
Xocolatl Chocolate of Atlanta, Georgia: Love & Happiness 60% Peru Pangoa and corresponding cacao nibs https://xocolatlchocolate.com/
Dick Taylor Chocolate of Eureka, California: Chocolate Dipped Strawberries & Cream bar on 72% Belize https://dicktaylorchocolate.com/
— and remember to Look, Sniff, Taste to identify and enjoy craft chocolate that is: slavery-free, soy-free and synthetic additive-free, sustainable and soil-regenerative, small-batch, and scrumptious!
Here I am with Lan Phan of 9th & Larkin Chocolate (front), whose Kokoa Kamili bar we tasted today, plus her husband Brian and Kokoa Kamili Tanzania grower Simran (back, left to right) at the Northwest Chocolate FestivalWith Dustin Taylor, Adam Dick, and Deanna Dick of Dick Taylor Chocolate at the Northwest Chocolate Festival
Here’s to an East Sacramento Rotary Club motto: “We are serious about what we do, but not always serious while doing it.” Onward and upward!
Chicago Stories: Candy Capitalpremieres on Friday, October 27 at 8:00 pm on WTTW and streaming on the PBS app and wttw.com/chicagostories.
Taping was last winter, and if I can figure out how to get the behind-the-scenes photos I took from my old phone, I shall share!
In the meantime, an oldie but goodie for you: here is a sizzle reel of clips from some of my TV appearances during the Chicago Chocolate Tours days — the first company I founded, and the first chocolate tour company in the world, based on an idea I developed when I was 19, though I didn’t found the business officially until some time later! I founded the original, official, business in 2005, and opened in additional cities starting in 2009. I still have media from our Philadelphia Chocolate Tours, Boston, etc., too
Do you know that my fabulous team of Tourguides, Managers, and other amazing indiviuals — collectively, the Choc Stars! — grew to 50 people, in multiple cities, and that we operated around 22 tours in Chicago per week, 15 tours a week in Philadelphia, and 5 in Boston, with seasonal or special-event tours in New York, DC, and Beverly Hills? I remain proud of the team, honored to work with our vendors, and grateful for our customers — the Tourguests.
Oh the fun we had! And the chocolate!
Thank you to the WTTW team for additional fun, and history, in the form of the new documentary!
What a blast to hold a special event for innovative Chicago attorney and dear friend Daliah Saper’s exciting Saper Law Immersion Program https://www.saperimmersion.com/, during which a bright and motivated cohort of high school and college students hear from lawyers in different specialties and work environments — including lawyers-turned-entrepreneurs like me!
Note: I’m offsite on a small organic berry farm in Minnesota – scroll down for photos – and can’t seem to hyperlink text from the app on my phone; please forgive that the URLs in this post are spelled out, which I hope you won’t find too distracting.
We sampled three exquisite craft chocolate bars as I shared legal experiences from three eras:
* before practicing law (while in college and law school), paired with Sirene Chocolate https://sirenechocolate.com/ of Canada Dark Milk 65% on Guatemala cacao,
*while practicing law (at big firms and in-house), paired with OBOLO Chocolate https://obolochocolate.cl/ of Chile 70% dark chocolate with sea salt on Pangoa Peru cacao, and
We also discussed how to identify ethical chocolate, like the chocolate I chose for us, which is free of child slave labor or deforestation. Tips: in general, a) look at the label to make sure a cacao country of origin is listed, as this tends to demonstrate transparency, and b) look for small brands, as big brands are complicit in abuses.
Bonus: see new documentary The Chocolate War, in which my friend human rights lawyer Terry Collingsworth takes on Big Choc! Trailer: https://youtu.be/tzlG1WoKfao
Thank you to dear Brook of Yahara Chocolate https://yaharachocolate.com/ in Wisconsin for sending my chocolate selections to Saper Law Firm in Chicago and to me 500 miles north of the city while I’m volunteering on a solar-powered organic farm near Lake Superior.
[Update: a German nuclear scientist friend and former UCLA Extension student of mine think we have discovered why I got what I call electrical poisoning on the farm – I experienced headaches, muscle cramps, nausea, hair loss, eyebrow loss, loss of appetite, more. The solar panel inverters, which convert DC electricity to AC, were all housed in one space, concentrating the electricity. The dangers of such concentration are known, which is why electrical power plants have substations, to spread out the energy. My cabin was near the utility room, and the electrical buzz was audible and palpable. I’ve learned lots; a topic for another day. For now, I am happy to report that immediately after leaving the location, I felt better, and my hair and eyebrows are growing back!]
Thank you to dear Taylor of Sirene and dear Mark of OBOLO for crafting delicious and ethical chocolate.
And thank you again to Daliah for including me even though I couldn’t be there in person this time, and to the very impressive students for participating!
By the way, here are the videos and blog post I designated as backup just in case internet went out at my beautiful and remote Northwoods location:
Latham & Watkins Summer Tasting Event July 20, 2023
What a pleasure to hold a special chocolate tasting for a wonderful Women Lawyers Group, plus amazing summer associates, at esteemed Chicago law firm Latham & Watkins, especially as I am a former lawyer myself!
Click for my slides, and be sure to see the notes section under each slide for info, videos, and other links and resources.
Menu:
Xocolatl Small-Batch Chocolate of Atlanta, wife-husband owned: Peru Pangoa 70% squares and accompanying cocoa bean from the same origin
Askanya Chocolate of Haiti, woman-owned: Paradis 47% Dark Milk mini bars
Askanya Chocolate of Haiti, woman-owned: Bouquet Vert 65% Dark with Lime mini bars
9th & Larkin Chocolate of San Francisco, woman-owned: Dominican Republic Dark Chocolate 72% disks with Candied Yuzu
Cocoa & Co. of Chicago, woman-owned: Dark Salted Caramel bonbons in Valrhona 72% Araguani Venezuela
My “Women in Chocolate” presentation covered the history and health benefits of chocolate by tracing women’s participation and leadership in the global story and process of cacao and chocolate:
Ancient cacao:
Women were the chocolate makers in the ancient world of the Maya and other cultures because they knew about plant pharmacology and how to create medicinal beverages.
European colonizers wanting to bury indigenous cultures called these native Central American experts “cacao witches,” but today the women’s knowledge of the health benefits of chocolate is coming back.
We’ll talk about some of these health benefits and how to make sure your chocolate contains them, and we’ll taste some delicious chocolate that does!
Cacao today:
Women are cacao growers on many farms today, and are paid less in some parts of the world while in other places they are paid fairly and run cacao cooperatives like the Pangoa Peru collective.
We’ll talk about how chocolate is made and what roles women play as it goes from cocoa bean to chocolate bar.
We’ll also discuss how to know what kind of cacao is in your chocolate and whether it has an ethical provenance. (Hint: make sure you see a cacao country of origin on your chocolate.)
We’ll taste Pangoa Peru cocoa beans and award-winning chocolate made with their cocoa beans by wife-husband owned Xocolatl Small Batch Chocolate of Atlanta.
Chocolate forever:
Who buys most of the chocolate sold? Women! Why?
Some of it is science: chocolate reacts with a woman’s and a man’s brain chemistry differently, and we’ll discuss the chemistry of chocolate and why we love it, while we taste more of it, such as from woman-owned brands Askanya of Haiti or 9th & Larkin of San Francisco, plus bonbons made by Chef Meg Galus for woman-owned Cocoa & Co. chocolate shop in sweet home Chicago!
What chocolate do we choose: we can vote with our dollars for the kind of chocolate we want to see more of.
Ultimately, chocolate is about uplift!
Thank you to Latham attorneys and team for making the event possible. I am thrilled we had a fun, fascinating, and delicious time!
Thank you also to dear Laine DeLeo of Fast Lane to Health superfood snacks for helping at the event!
I’m honored to hold a talk and tasting at the 6th annual DC Chocolate Festival, April 29, 2023!
[Update: event photos are at the bottom of this email! Slides are still in the middle; info in comments to slides!]
Preview of some of what we’ll sample at my tasting! Does this remind you of our #chocolateandcherryblossoms events back in the old chocolate tour days?
My topic:
What’s In Your Chocolate: Explaining Labels, Exploding Myths, Exploring History, Experiencing Flavor: Learn how to decipher chocolate bar labels while we taste our way through chocolate history to the cutting edge of craft chocolate, in this upbeat talk and tasting presented by chocolate expert Valerie Beck.
Click for my slides, which are mainly a resource; see the notes section of the slides for information and links pertaining to what will be mainly a spoken presentation with plenty of chocolate and a few theatrics! : )
📅 Mark your calendar: Saturday, April 29, 2023 ⏰ Time: 10:30am – 5:30pm ET 📍 Location: La Maison Française, Embassy of France in the U.S., Washington, DC, 4101 Reservoir Rd NW 20007 🍫Hosted by: The Chocolate House — @dcchocolatefestival 🎟️ Get your tickets now at www.DCChocolateFestival.com (Charming emoji-filled listing adapted from Glenn of @chocotastery)
Onward and upward!
Your friend in chocolate — and cherry blossoms,
Valerie
With a detail of my favorite sculpture, the monumental Calder (Untitled, 1976), at the National Gallery in Washington, DC
I hope you are well and eating great craft chocolate!
An excellent new documentary about child slave labor in cacao is out. It’s called The Chocolate War, and it features my friend Terry Collingsworth, the human rights lawyer fighting Nestle and Cargill in court on behalf of children who were trafficked and enslaved on cocoa farms that provide cocoa beans to those corporations.
I watched this well-made film last night, created by our filmmaker friend Miki Mistrati; as a formerly practicing lawyer, I love seeing law in action for fairness! Watch for yourself and see the appalling, heartbreaking, and solvable situation some of us have been talking about for years.
Big brands say what happens on cacao farms in Cote d’Ivoire is out of their control; we say it’s completely within their control: pay farmers a fair price and kids won’t be vulnerable to trafficking and enslavement and can go to school instead of the fields.
So, almost all of the brands in the grocery store and other mass outlets are tainted. That’s why the bars cost $5, $2, or $1: child slaves earned no money for harvesting the cacao in those chocolate bars.
Do you think grocery stores and other sellers like Walmart and Amazon should also be held accountable for selling products made with child slave labor? I do.
2. Cacao country of origin listed = things are looking up!
If you saw a bottle of wine with no origin listed, no picture of an estate in France, or no reference to a vineyard in California or the like, you might have some questions about that wine.
Yet chocolate brands get away with not telling us where their cacao was grown. Have you ever seen an origin indication on industrial chocolate? After all, cacao is not grown in Belgium, Switzerland, Hershey Pennsylvania, or a Snickers factory! What are the corporate brands hiding? Child kidnapping and slavery; see 1. above.
So, if you see a small craft chocolate brand with the cacao country of origin listed on the label —
such as Ecuador, Madagascar, Tanzania, or other countries —
or if you see the cacao collective listed —
such as our friends at Zorzal of the Dominican Republic, Pangoa of Peru, Semuliki Forest of Uganda, or other origins —
this origin information generally indicates that the chocolate maker bought through one of our direct trade transparent supply chains, so that you know where the cacao came from and can trace it back to the specific source to see that farmers earned proper money and kids were not exploited.
A statement of origin generally means the chocolate makers bought traceable cacao and did not buy cacao through the non-transparent bulk supply chain, where cacao from thousands of farms is mixed together and at least some of the cacao is certainly tainted with child labor as is standard in bulk cacao.
In other words: traceability is a good sign!
3. Clean ingredients list = another sign of quality and care!
If you are buying quality cacao, you wouldn’t want to diminish it with non-quality additives.
What do you need to make chocolate? As my students have heard me say so many times: cacao and sugar, all you need!
If you see a chocolate bar ingredients list with lecithin, natural or artificial flavors (and we know that natural flavors are really artificial flavors), or any other synthetics or lab-processed chemicals that harm people and planet, this is a sign that the cacao might also be from a non-clean source, especially if no cacao country of origin is listed.
If you see a chocolate bar ingredients list with just traceable cacao and organic cane sugar, plus any real ingredients, this is a good sign, as cacao country of origin + clean ingredients = a traceable clean bar!
Examples of chocolate bars made from traceable cacao and clean ingredients only:
Crackle & Crunch quinoa and almond milk chocolate bar from Xocolatl Small Batch Chocolate of Atlanta, made with Nicaragua cacao; I gifted this and other Xocolatl bars recently to a dear family who loved everything! (The link in this bullet point also shows a bar made by VAICACAO with Nicaragua chocolate plus organic sugar; all you need! : )
Bouquet Vert Lime chocolate bar by Askanya Chocolate of Haiti, made with Haiti cacao, Haiti artisanal sugar, and Haiti limes; this bar and other treats from Askanya were a hit at a Valentine’s Day party I held for my mom’s neighbors last month!
~ People and process behind specialty cacao and craft chocolate — including some amazing women around the world
Cacao growing, harvesting, and post-harvest steps, by the women and men of COAGRISCAL in Honduras, who prepare the products for woman-owned Good King Cacao [farm to snack]
Cacao collaboration, buying, and transport by woman-owned Askanya Chocolate of Haiti, and chocolate making in Haiti by the women of Askanya [video]
with Kim Wilson of Good King Cacao of Seattle; the products are made with Honduras cacaowith Corinne Joachim Sanon Symietz (right) of Askanya Chocolate of Haitiwith Lan Phan of 9th & Larkin Chocolate of San Francisco (front), her husband Brian (left), and Simran Bindra of Kokoa Kamili cacao of Tanzania[photo from dieline] craft……chocolatewith Kate McAleer of Bixby Chocolate, who is both a chocolate maker and a chocolatier[Photo from Mark Gerrits of OBOLO Chocolate]bean to barbean to cup
~ Purpose-driven businesses — from Chicago Chocolate Tours to Chocolate Uplift, consulting to and distributing other purpose-driven brands
from ancient tradition to…
…contemporary social impact
chocolate chooses us!
cacao and chocolate as portals forward to a Golden Age of empathy and equality, nourishing people and planet
Belu Cacao before and after, and Belu from tree to bar [video]Developed 3 sizes of Belu, each with 2 ingredients: cacao and sugar — all you need!with Emily of Belu Cacao and her husbandCarlos
~ Purity of craft chocolate — tasting techniques to perceive and enjoy nuance
mindfulness: look, sniff, taste
also: listen, touch, think
breathe
repeat!
Yes: I ate the whole thing. In 2 sittings, but I did it!And it was made with Askanya Chocolate of Haiti, at The Vig Chicago. What’s in your restaurant’s dessert?
~ Power of people and planet — recognizing ethical chocolate, which means it is free of human rights abuses and environmental harm
Tip: all of the big brands are complicit in human rights abuses and environmental harm; they don’t deny it
Tip: look for small brands, then look on the label for the cacao country of origin, and a clean ingredients list
Tip: the best chocolate (wine, coffee, diamonds, silk scarves) is not usually found at a standard grocery store, but use the 2 points above to discover any exceptions
More on classmate David Coale’s podcast where I talk about ethical chocolate and our power of choice
Chocolate is love. Taste is memory. What is your earliest memory of tasting and loving chocolate?
~ And, after all those Ps, my 5 Ss of first-class craft chocolate:
slavery-free
soy-free / industrial additive-free
sustainable / soil-regenerative
small-batch
scrumptious!
Golden Age Cookies: organic oatmeal salted craft chocolate chunk cookies topped with cacao nibs; I created them because I wanted to eat them
Welcome to Chocolate Uplift craft chocolate brokering, consulting, and wholesale distribution!
New —
Here are the links to the CocoaTown webinar I was honored to hold on How to Work with a Distributor: Webinar and About Valerie Beck [videos]
Details:
How to Work with a Distributor — webinar as part of the CocoaTown series:
Join Valerie Beck, Founder of Chocolate Uplift, called the Chocolate Auntie, as she takes us through the ins and outs of finding the right distributor and building a relationship that works for you and your business. She will guide us through the processes step by step.
Date: Saturday, September 11, 2021 Time: 10:00 am – 12 Noon Atlanta time (-4 GMT) Topic: Working With a Distributor Presenter: Valerie Beck, Founder of Chocolate Uplift, called the Chocolate Auntie
Update —here are the slides from my webinar! I placed a great deal of information into the notes sections, so be sure to click Show Speaker Notes under View if you want to see everything!
Here I am, Valerie Beck, “the chocolate Auntie,” dancing at home in Chicago with craft chocolate bars I featured in my birthday box and at my virtual birthday party last year!
Chocolate brands that I broker (drop-shipping directly from the chocolate maker) or distribute (I stock and ship) or consult to (getting them ready for distribution, upgrading packaging and labeling, or other services) — for some brands it’s all of these — are generally the brands I also feature in the virtual or in-person chocolate tastings I hold, and for other special events including IG Lives or other videos, as well as in special blog posts.And they’re the brands I feature on my Instagram, along with the retailers who carry them!
All photos there, and here, are by me!
Please contact me at valerie@chocolateuplift.com with any questions or for the latest prices, and scroll down for more details, photos, testimonials, and ideas. Thank you!
It’s all about uplift!
As a chocolate distributor and broker and all-around chocolate collaborator, I help bean-to-bar chocolate brands get onto shelves. Before that, if needed, I help them get ready to get onto shelves.
I sell wholesale, and arrange for upscale retailers, coffee shops, and chefs to purchase wholesale and to carry top ethical craft chocolate brands made in the US or elsewhere.
Here are my bios, in case you’d like to know about my background, Harvard education, past career as a lawyer, and how I came to be a chocolate services professional such as by founding Chicago Chocolate Tours [video montage!] and more over 15 years ago! I have loved and studied chocolate all my life.
If you are a craft chocolate maker, depending on your goals,
I can help you get your chocolate into the right shops and boutiques or onto the right websites for online sales.
I can also help you get ready for distribution or for access to stores that match your ethos, with my consulting services such as
writing and proofreading,
brand strategy,
US import assistance, or
package redesign.
It’s important that you know where your chocolate goes, and that we have a fit on all sides. My work is not transaction-based but relationship-focused.
This relationship approach is why some makers call me “the chocolate Auntie” : ) and I feel very honored that they do!
Testimonial:
“We love working with Valerie and Chocolate Uplift as distributor and representative of everything OBOLO in the market. We have shared people-centered values focusing on highest quality chocolate, fairness and sustainability. Valerie goes the extra mile to make sure our chocolate is in the best retail locations and well represented.”
Testimonial:
“Valerie’s advisory has been of tremendous value for us! Her work ethics, moral values and broad knowledge + expertise on many and diverse aspects ranging from specialty cacao and fine-chocolate, to marketing and content creations, as well as her great understanding of the bureaucracy and regulations to import chocolates to the USA, and not least her awesome distribution network, makes her a great candidate for anyone seeking help from a consultant on these matters! We feel very fortunate to count with her as an active special advisor on our team!”
Testimonial:
“Valerie is an exceptional human being that has taken the endeavor of promoting the chocolate craft movement based on her 5 S principles, Slavery free, Soy free, Sustainable, Small batch and Scrumptious! Her vast experience in the field of bean-to-bar movement and her personal charm has helped many small batch producers from small countries, like myself (El Salvador), improve and reach global quality.”
If you are a retailer, whether brick-and-mortar, online, or both,
I’ll create and maintain your chocolate program, or
provide multiple brands or just a brand or two if that’s what you need,
for your specialty market, cafe, wine shop, coffee shop, or other retail concept, or your hotel or other hospitality venture.
You’ll have products by top chocolate makers, that align with your brand, and that your customers or guests will feel uplifted to discover!
New: if you’re in Chicago or the area, you can pick up certain orders from me through free “curbside pickup” and receive additional free samples as a thanks for coming by, plus any of my Golden Age cookies I may have baked that day : ) Contact me at valerie@chocolateuplift.com to arrange.
Testimonial:
“Valerie provides everything that I could ask for from a broker/distributor. Her customer service is exceptional and I greatly appreciate her alerts to new brands and products that she knows I may like based on my quality standards and items that sell well with my customers, plus she wholeheartedly understands and respects my quality standards. Her response time to questions is quick and her responses are very thorough. I always gain insightful information when talking with Valerie and working with her is a pleasure.“
Testimonial:
“Valerie is amazing for her dedication to discovering world class chocolate from all over the world while maintaining the highest ethical standards for economic empowerment, sustainability, and health.“
Special packages or promotional opportunities include:
Displays for Holiday, Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day (the “Big 3” times of year for artisan chocolate!) —
Valentine’s Day chocolate love!
Chocolate from specific places, or made from cacao from specific countries such as Ecuador, Mexico, or Peru, or regional displays like this Midwest Moments selection —
Midwest magic!
Woman chocolate maker displays —
Women in chocolate!
New product launches, or promotions to support places like Haiti or a specific cause —
New product launch by woman-owned Askanya of Haiti
Retailer and brand promotions —
Gotham Chocolates at SPACE519
Seasonal or color-themed displays —
Orange zing!Purple power!Yellow burst!Greenery!Autumn celebrationGiftable tins for Holiday and beyondDon’t forget: hot chocolate is a huge seller in winter!
Recipe ideas —
Chocolate chip pecan fruit pie, with craft chocolate, of course!
The brands I work with meet my 5 Ss of first-class craft chocolate:
slavery-free
soy-free
sustainable
small-batch
scrumptious!
I represent award-winning or otherwise high-reputation small-batch brands including those pictured here and more, at the same price to you as buying direct, but with my troubleshooting, recommendations, streamlined ordering of multiple brands, new product introductions, and social media support to provide exposure and drive demand.
Contact me for more information or the full Chocolate Uplift portfolio and price lists.
If I don’t love the quality, sustainability, or ingredients of a brand, I don’t represent it or recommend it. I share with you only what I love and trust in terms of flavor and source, so that you and your customers can love and trust it too.
Backstory if you’re curious: my distribution and brokering started very organically. Running the original chocolate tours in cities across the US [video!], I started getting asked by chocolate shop and cafe owners on my tour routes to let them know of any interesting chocolate brands I came across that might be a good fit for their stores.
I also started meeting more and more chocolate makers who had an excellent product and needed introductions to top retailers, plus wholesaling, consulting, storage, and delivery.
By connecting retailers and makers, and driving demand with social media and email marketing, Chocolate Uplift brokering and wholesale distribution contains elements of consulting, to make sure the right bars are on the right shelves, to delight your customers, meet your goals, and enhance your brand, always with mutual respect and a win-win attitude.
I look forward to discussing what I can do for you!
A peek at some of my shelves!I’m a lifelong true chocolate lover, and even decorate with chocolate wrapper art that I frame myself! : )With a freshly opened cocoa pod on a small family cacao farm in Ecuador
At home in Chicago, sweet Jorji the Cat is our sometime recycling coordinator and cacao pod investigator!Can you spot the Dick Taylor Chocolate print behind Jorji?A favorite breakfast of mine: fruit, cacao nibs, chocolate!
You can contact me any time at valerie@chocolateuplift.com with thoughts or questions. I’d love to hear from you!
In the rainforest: OBOLO Chocolate visits a Pangoa, Peru, cacao harvest
Hello!
Isn’t it nice to find authenticity? Authentic chocolate, made from authentic cacao, traded authentically, nourishing people and planet.
OBOLO Chocolate founder Mark Gerrits is originally from Milwaukee and is a long-time resident of South America, where he has focused on environmentalism and most recently cacao and chocolate. He and his family live in Santiago, Chile, and he visited the Pangoa cacao collective in Peru this summer, which is where he buys the cacao from which he and his team make their award-winning chocolate in Chile. Exciting news: Mark is now the godfather of a new baby born to Pangoa growers!
As a US importer and distributor of awesome OBOLO Chocolate, I video chatted with dear Mark today, and told him how much I enjoyed the photos and videos he posted from his recent trip. He told me he is the first visitor to the Pangoa collective since the current global situation began, and that he believes not only in maintaining and strengthening relationships but also in showing the world that he means what he says: his partnership with Pangoa is authentic; his cacao is truly traceable, and ethical, as it is grown with no child labor and it is organic.
As you may know, all of the brands I work with meet my 5 Ss of first-class bean-to-bar chocolate:
slavery-free
soy-free
sustainable
small-batch
scrumptious!
Mark gave me permission to re-post his Pangoa photos, and you can see more on OBOLO’s Instagram.
You can purchase selections of OBOLO bars at
Cocoa & Co. in Chicago or online to ship anywhere,
OBOLO Chocolate on the shelves at Cocoa & Co. in Chicago
You can also see more about OBOLO in my posts here (including video) and here. And, at the bottom of this post I’m sharing OBOLO-focused photos I took at the Craft Chocolate Experience in San Francisco in March 2020, where I got to spend time with Mark — and so many other chocolate makers and chocolate lovers, plus photos from my own little distribution center and staging area here in sweet home Chicago!
Enjoy this photo-journey to a cacao harvest in Peru, where you’ll see the opening of a cacao pod, and fermenting, drying, and sorting the cacao, and Pangoa families!
Your friend in chocolate,
Valerie
With Mark and team member Brayan at the Craft Chocolate Experience, San Francisco, March 2020
Chocolate Uplift 