In With The New: Northwest Chocolate Festival

Posted on by valeriebeck

by Valerie Beck, chocolate broker, chocolate consultant, sweet speaker

A mere fraction of what I brought back from the NW Chocolate Festival in Seattle.
A mere fraction of what I brought back from the Northwest Chocolate Festival in Seattle, founded by Brian Cisneros.
Pure ingredients on display, along with delicious chocolate and beautiful packaging, by Xocolatl at the NW Chocolate Festival
Pure ingredients on display, along with delicious chocolate and beautiful packaging, by Xocolatl of Atlanta at the NW Chocolate Festival. Cacao, sugar, here a little spice. Pure, delicious, healthful.

“You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.” ~ Buckminster Fuller 

Chocolate makers, entrepreneurs, professionals, and customers at the Northwest Chocolate Festival came together in Seattle earlier this month to celebrate craft chocolate, or bean-to-bar chocolate, which means chocolate made with ethical cocoa beans, a short supply chain, and a lot of hands-on work. The results:

  • infininitely better flavor than industrial chocolate bars,
  • real health benefits, and
  • social justice for cacao growers and consumers.
Exquisite Sirene Chocolate, a NW Chocolate Festival award winner
Exquisite Sirene Chocolate of Victoria, Canada, a NW Chocolate Festival award winner, made with just 2 ingredients, cacao and sugar, for purity of flavor plus luscious smoothness. Just as a wine maker controls the process to deliver different flavors depending on the grape, soil, casks, and more, the chocolate maker creates a flavor story depending on the cacao and the soil, plus the fermentation, roasting, and grinding of the cacao, and more.
Loved meeting and sampling with instagram friends Map Chocolate and Letterpress Chocolate: each creative, unique, delicious.
Loved meeting and sampling with instagram friends Mackenzie of Map Chocolate of Oregon (above) and David of Letterpress Chocolate of Los Angeles (below). Creative, unique, delicious.

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As I ask audiences at my Chocolate Wellness talks: you know where your cup of coffee this morning came from, whether Ethiopia, Colombia, or elsewhere, and you know where your glass of wine last night came from, right down to the name of the vineyard in California or the estate in France, but where did your chocolate bar that you packed in your child’s lunch or that you had after dinner come from?

If the label doesn’t tell you, it speaks volumes, because 2/3 of the world’s chocolate is made from cocoa beans harvested by child slaves in West Africa. There are many ways to solve this abominable human rights problem, one of which is to choose craft chocolate made with cacao from farms that grow healthy and delicious cacao in an ethical manner. Look for labels that tell you the origin of the cacao, whether Ecuador, Madagascar, Venezuela, Bolivia, Tanzania, the Dominican Republic, Vietnam, or elsewhere – even Hawaii!

Venezuelan cacao from Cacao Marquez, which the owner gave me at the Festival, to sample for and with clients, after we'd connected on instagram
Venezuelan cacao from Cacao Marquez, which the owner gave me at the Festival, to sample for and with clients, after we’d connected on instagram.

With ethical cacao, farmers make money, kids go to school, craft chocolate makers exercise their artistry, and we all enjoy delicious and sustainable chocolate that is better for foodie, farmer, and field.

That’s what we did at the NW Chocolate Festival, which consisted of an “un-conference” for craft chocolate makers to share best practices, an awards ceremony to recognize some of the best chocolate on Earth, an expo for the public and the trade to sample and shop amazing chocolate, and workshops for everyone to learn and share more about the endlessly fascinating world of cacao and chocolate.

Favorite workshop: “one bean, six makers,” where six different chocolate makers, who had been given the same cocoa beans from Belize, explained their very different processes – such as the many many multiple steps and custom tools and devices by delicious Dick Taylor Chocolate – and sampled their very different end result chocolate bars. That’s the magic of craft chocolate!

Marvelously silky and flavorful Madre Chocolate of Hawaii, made from Hawaiian cacao and sugar.
Marvelously silky and flavorful Madre Chocolate of Hawaii, made from Hawaiian cacao and sugar.
Woman-owned Fresco Chocolate: love the bright zingy flavor and smooth texture of the Madagascar 89%.
Fresco Chocolate from Washington state: love the bright zingy flavor and smooth texture of the Madagascar 89%.
Spectacular Seattle: festival with a view.
Spectacular Seattle: festival with a view.

My favorite part of the Festival overall – aside from sampling exquisite chocolate and filling the extra suitcase I brought to take it all home – was connecting with old friends and existing clients, meeting in person people I’d connected to on instagram, and coming away with new friends in the chocolate world who are as kind as they are talented.

Had a blast at the very impromptu first annual Chocolate Uplift dinner at the NW Chocolate Festival, with (left to right) Marc of Teuscher Beverly Hills, Courtney of TSG Birmingham and an aspiring chocolate maker, my new friend Dipa from the plane, yours truly, Phil of Teuscher Beverly Hills, ___ and ___ of Bisou Chocolate, and Taylor of Sirene Chocolate.
Had a blast at the very impromptu first annual Chocolate Uplift dinner at the NW Chocolate Festival, with (left to right) Marc of Teuscher Beverly Hills, Courtney of TSG Birmingham and an aspiring chocolate maker, my new friend Dipa from the plane, yours truly, Phil of Teuscher Beverly Hills, Eli and Tracey of Bisou Chocolate, of Berkeley, CA, and Taylor of Sirene Chocolate.
Chocolate all day, chocolate all night: loved sampling Bisou Chocolate at dinner.
Chocolate all day, chocolate all night: loved sampling Bisou Chocolate at dinner.

Onward and upward! Enjoy more Festival photos below, and keep eating real chocolate as we move ever deeper into the new chocolate model!

Your friend in chocolate, 

Valerie

With dear friend Ricardo of Cao Chocolates, and instagram friends Tyler of 5150 and Roger of Cacao Prieto, at the NW Chocolate Festival awards reception.
Cheers to chocolate: With dear friend Ricardo of Cao Chocolates, and instagram-now-in-person friends Tyler of 5150 of Florida and Roger of Cacao Prieto of Brooklyn, at the NW Chocolate Festival awards reception.

Valerie Beck

CEO / Founder Chocolate Uplift

chocolate brokering and consulting services, and sweet speaking

www.valeriebeckchocolateuplift.com 

chocolateuplift@gmail.com

@chocolateuplift on instagram, twitter, and Facebook

Uplift Through Chocolate!

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Cao Chocolates, Pixie Dust Chocolates, Videri Chocolate, Mar out Chocolate. See you next time, sweet spectacular Seattle!
Clockwise from upper left: Cao Chocolates (exciting Miami truffles), Pixie Dust Chocolates (artistry from Washington state), Videri Chocolate Factory (from Raleigh, NC, their Big Fig bar was my designated in-flight snack on the way home), Marou Chocolate (made in Vietnam from Vietnamese cacao, elegant packaging matches elegant flavors). See you at next year’s NW Chocolate Festival, sweet spectacular Seattle!