Before speaking at the Ottawa Chocolate Show, October 2024
Hello, bonjour!
That is, “hi” Ottawa style, as friendly greetings in Canada’s capital city tend to encompass the English-speaking and Francophone approaches.
I have visited the beautiful country of Canada approximately a dozen times. At least four visits were during family vacations from Chicago when I was a child; the drive from Chicago to the Canadian border at Sault Ste Marie, Michigan, takes around seven and a half hours. My mother told me today, when I asked for her recollections, that for my first visit, before I was one year old, she bought me a fluffy pink snowsuit to wear. She added that later, I waded in Lakes Ontario, Huron, and Superior from the Canadian sides, just as at home I splashed in Lake Michigan. My love of the immense saltless seas that are the glorious Great Lakes began early and expanded, just like my love of Nature’s perfect food: chocolate!
I visited Canada most recently to speak at the Ottawa Chocolate Show in October 2024, and to rent a lake house in the woods of the Laurentian Mountains north of Montreal for six weeks after that! (Two summers ago, I visited Canada accidentally for fifteen minutes during a harmless mishap at the Minnesota border; a story for another day! : )
The Ottawa Chocolate Show consisted of an impressive array of Canadian craft chocolate makers, confectioners, and chocolate enthusiasts. I felt honored and grateful to be part of the event and the excitement by speaking on how to make ethically conscious chocolate choices, and sharing delicious chocolate from both sides of the border! Here are the slides from my talk, as I promised my fantastic audience members.
I hope you will enjoy scrolling below for text and photos describing and depicting moments from awesome Ottawa and captivating Canada.
Thank you!
Valerie (Valérie en français)
Part I. At the Ottawa Chocolate Show with Canada Friends / Chocolate Wizards
What did I find at the Ottawa Chocolate Show? An almost incredibly large abundance of top-notch craft chocolate made in Canada, and a heart-warming plentitude of top-notch Canadian and other friends old and new!
It was a delight to see my dear friend and first-class bean-to-bar chocolate maker Taylor Kennedy of sensational Sirene Chocolate at the Ottawa Chocolate Show, where he shared his exquisite new Nootka Rose dark milk chocolate bar. Yes: edible flowers are involved! Taylor crafts the chocolate from Semuliki Forest Uganda cacao, and adds flavor and petals from wild roses native to Vancouver Island. The chocolate has a pleasing complexity and is easy to eat; here come some of my signature non-flavor-related tasting notes:
The Sirene Nootka Rose bar tastes like a Golden Age pink-tinged afternoon dream in the dynamic yet comforting verdant heart of Nature.
The aroma brings out pink geraniums and roses on a sun-splashed windowsill.
A bar to love!
I was also thrilled to catch up with dear Christine Blais of refined yet down-to-earth Palette de Bine (who generously allowed me to present the world premiere of her deeply rich new Hawaii chocolate to my Ottawa audience; perhaps I will write a separate post about my visits to her bean-to-bar chocolate production space and shop).
And I loved chatting with second-meeting-friend Vince of sophisticated yet fun Kasama Chocolate (could I stop eating Kasama’s unique Moreyna Muscovado “Tanned” White Chocolate with Roasted Cacao Nibs? I could not); and with online-turned-in-person-friend Serge of ultra-creative Vaka Chocolate (could I stop eating the tahini+ fig + sea salt dark/white chocolate bar? I could not)!
At the Ottawa Chocolate Show with Taylor Kennedy of Sirene Chocolate of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, and Christine Blais of Palette de Bine of Mt. Tremblant, Quebec, Canada; thank you to both for allowing me to share your scrumptious chocolate with audience members at the talk I gave at the Show!With Vince Garcia of Kasama Chocolate of Vancouver, Canada, at the Ottawa Chocolate ShowWith Serge Savchuk of Vaka Chocolate of Ontario, Canada, at the Ottawa Chocolate ShowCCC on my tote bag = Cacao, Chocolate, and Community, or Curiosity, Character, and Contribution — the 3Cs either way!
It was also wonderful to meet Instagram friend and artist Cyndi Clement of @canadianchocoholic, and to catch up with legendary cacao importer Juan Gonzalez of The Mexican Arabica Bean Co., both based in Canada!
With cacao-inspired artist CyndiClementWith Juan Gonzalez of MABCO – the Mexican Arabica Bean Company
Part II. Sweet Speaker: My Talk at the Ottawa Chocolate Show, and a Few More Thank-Yous, Plus More Chocolate
I felt fortunate to speak to amazing chocolate lovers and hold a presentation on “Exploring Chocolate from Bean to Bar: Making Conscious Chocolate Choices.” We discussed how to identify ethical chocolate by looking for the cacao country of origin and a clean ingredients list on the bar, and by considering my 5 Ss of first-class chocolate:
slavery free,
soy- and synthetic-free,
sustainable and soil regenerative,
small-batch,
scrumptious!
We tasted some amazing chocolate as I shared chocolate history, health benefits, and hopes, and as we had a fun, fascinating, and delicious time during an upbeat almost-hour!
Staged after the show; some of what I shared at my talk during the show: Sirene Chocolate of Canada, Palette de Bine of Canada, Potomac Chocolate of the US (which is made by dear Ben Rasmussen near the US capital of Washington DC, and which I brought to Canada’s capital city of Ottawa to represent cross-continental friendship. : ) Not shown: the Golden Age cookies I baked for the audience (though photos of some Golden Age cookies I baked later in Quebec are below), plus cacao from Zorzal of the Dominican Republic by way of Crow & Moss Chocolate of the US.
Thank you to Erik Hansen of (exquisitely precise and delicious) DesBarres Chocolate and Joanne Mutter of (gorgeous chocolate shop) JoJo Coco for co-founding and organizing such a marvelous show, and for kindly including me — a Chicagoan in Canada! Thank you too to the volunteers who kept the Show running and the samples at my presentation organized and circulating, and to the fantastic Canadian craft chocolate makers and chocolate lovers!
With Erik Hansen of DesBarres Chocolate and the Ottawa Chocolate Show, and (my fellow American) Barb Genuario of DC Chocolate Society. Barb and I didn’t get the chance to chat at the Show, and I still need to ask her what she was doing there : ) With Joanne Mutter of JoJo Cocoa and the Ottawa Chocolate Show
Keep scrolling down for:
the links and slides from my talk, as incorporated into an email with Erik,
followed by more photos from the show,
photos of Ottawa, and
photos I staged of chocolate from the show after the show —
plus photo montages of Thanksgiving and Holiday 2024 at the lake house I rented in the Laurentian Mountains 1 hour and 40 minutes north of Montreal!
(and a funny customs / border crossing moment at the end, before a few more photos, that is : )
*****
Part III. Pre-Show Email, with Links to Videos and Slides
Hi Erik,
Thanks for the helpful information! I’m excited for the show.
Valerie Beck is a graduate of Harvard Law School and Harvard College; a chocolate services entrepreneur who founded Chicago Chocolate Tours and grew the business to 5 cities with 50 employees; a consultant through Chocolate Uplift to small-batch chocolate makers and growers in ethical cacao supply channels; a mentor of students who seek to follow their own paths; and a believer that we are creating a Golden Age of empathy and equality, courage and common sense, justice and joy, liberty and love.
I’m all set with Sirene Chocolate from Taylor and still need to finalize Palette de Bine with Christine, plus I am bringing Potomac Chocolate from the Washington DC area, for a taste of craft chocolate in the Canadian capital from near the US capital, in a show of cross-border chocolate friendship : ) And, I’ll bring some Zorzal beans and some Venezuela or Bolivia nibs (and a dried cacao pod to show). So how about this for a title:
Exploring Chocolate from Bean to Bar: Making Conscious Chocolate Choices
And a blurb if helpful:
*****
Chocolate can be a standardized bulk ingredient in an industrial product with a tainted supply chain, or an exquisite and ethically created specialty that delivers complexity, flavor, and health, while uplifting people and planet. Enjoy a tasting trip from cocoa bean to chocolate bar, focusing on the rise of “craft” or “bean-to-bar” chocolate, and spotlighting Canadian and other chocolate makers. We’ll look at how cacao is harvested, fermented, dried, roasted, ground, and more, and at how to choose chocolate consciously, as we peer back into the history and ahead to the future of one of the most beloved foods in the world.
*****
A question for you: will internet and equipment be available to show a few video clips or slides? I’d love to show bits of a few clips from YouTube for example:
Founder Valerie Beck in the news
The Chocolate War documentary trailer
Ethical cacao farm
And I often have these slides on hand at talks, not to go through them all but to be able to pull up the appropriate one if someone asks about cadmium or what a ripe cacao pod looks like or if you can bake with craft chocolate; here they are in case handy to have attached to this email:
Part IV. More Photos: More Ottawa Chocolate Show, Capital City Ottawa, Art, Chocolate, More Chocolate
With César Aguilar of Cacaitos, of Colombia and Toronto, at the Ottawa Chocolate ShowChocosol hot chocolateCanada Parliament from Major’s Hill ParkFairmont Château LaurierCanada’s capital city, Ottawa, sits at the confluence of the Ottawa, Rideau, and Gatineau rivers. The latter two flow into the Ottawa River, which is a main tributary of the St. Lawrence River, into which the Great Lakes, an inland saltless sea, thunder and form an immense estuary, past Montreal, where dolphins and whales are among the abundant life. The word “river” does not begin to encompass the St. Lawrence, as the word “lake” does not approach expression of the enormity of this massive freshwater system, as you know if like me you live or have traveled in our glorious Great Lakes region on the US or Canada sides or both. Inside the National Gallery, Ottawa, with Earth and Sky (2008, 2012) by Shuvinai Ashoona and John Noestheden overheadA.Y. Jackson and Clarence Gagnon paintings at the National Gallery of Canada in OttawaTom Thomson tree portrait paintings at the National Gallery of CanadaEuropean and Indigenous works meet at the National Gallery of CanadaStaged after the Ottawa Chocolate Show: here is another view of some of the chocolate I shared in my talk at the Show; yes, I brought chocolate from near the US capital (Potomac Chocolate of Occoquan, Virginia, 20 minutes from Washington DC) to my talk in the Canadian capital because: international chocolate friendship!I loved baking Golden Age cookies with Canadian craft chocolate at the Canada lake house that I rented, located around 1 hour and 40 minutes north of Montreal, in the province of Quebec.
More Canadian chocolate I brought to and enjoyed at the lake house:
Brisk Quebec weather called for cozy Sirene Chocolate-topped oatmeal!
Part V. The House in Quebec (Montage 1)
Part VI. A Border Crossing Moment
As promised, a funny customs / border crossing moment: I flew from Chicago to Ottawa, and the Canadian customs officer looked me intently in the eye as customs officers do, and asked:
“What is the purpose of your trip?”
I looked him intently in the eye, as I do, and replied:
“Chocolate.”
“Oh!” he said. “What do you mean, chocolate?”
“I’m excited to speak at the Ottawa Chocolate Show.”
The officer asked: “Where is it being held?”
Pause.
“Oh! That’s a good question. I don’t know, a college, but I can’t remember which one!” (Sorry Algonquin, you were great, and I couldn’t have handled the videos and slides without student Kent, an A/V star!!)
The officer let me into Canada, to find the chocolate show, and voilà!
Part VII. The House in Quebec (Montage 2)
I am already looking forward to my next trip to fantastic Canada (Canada again-ida :)!
Part VIII. More Photos; Keep Eating Real Chocolate!
En route to charming Ottawa, Canada, from sweet hometown Chicago, as my latest Canadian adventure began in Fall 2024! I didn’t know until after this trip that for my first trip to Canada, when I was an infant, my mother dressed me in what she called a “fluffy pink snowsuit;” here I am now in a pink era again. Onward and upward as the spiral of life continues into the (evidently pink-tinged!) Golden Age!
Chocolate Uplift 