I’m enjoying stepping back in time in Harvard Yard, where I – and so many before me and after me – spent so much time, and moving forward in time with the relatively new colorful chairs sprinkled about, which encourage people to linger in the Yard and take their time! Of course, we used to sit on the Widener Library steps for community time, and on the Henry Moore sculpture outside Lamont Library, sometimes while eating chocolate, naturally. Such time was very important indeed!
#HarvardAutumn2017
What a happy visit to home sweet Harvard, plus Boston and Cambridge sweet spots!
Itinerary:
- give a talk at my alma mater Harvard Law School – on alternative careers for lawyers – and connect with students,
- scout awesome chocolate nearby,
- chat with great local retailers, including some we used to visit on my chocolate tours in Boston,
- visit the Taza Chocolate factory,
- see fabulous old friends and new, and
- visit beautiful old favorite spaces and new!
I always feel so happy to be back among these red bricks where I went to college and law school!
Scroll for the story through photos, and “keep eating chocolate!”
Valerie
Valerie Beck
Founder/CEO Chocolate Uplift
Craft Chocolate & Cacao Distribution
Wholesale & Retail, Subscription Box & Tours
www.valeriebeckchocolateuplift.com
Chocolate scouting…
… at Tatte Bakery in Harvard Square …
… across from Widener Library, one of many favorite Harvard spots where I spent a lot of time back when!
Aztec revivalism: Mexican hot chocolate at L.A.Burdick’s in Harvard Sq, an old favorite sip at an old favorite cafe!
New and old: thoroughly exquisute Castronovo Chocolate at #cardullos, a super special #harvardsquare shop I’ve been visiting since freshman year when I would buy the chocolate bars that were available then! What a treat to connect with the new owner of this classic shop, over new chocolate, an ancient delicacy! And yes I took off my scarf and took this picture; standard operating procedure! : )
Brunch recap, at amazing #aldenandharlow in #harvardsquare: loved this fabulous, inventive, and warm cinnamon roll, with berries, pistachios, and white chocolate – plus the cleverly named “ubiquitous kale salad” which was creatively freshened with creamy pistachio dressing, and all the other delicious not-shown food we ate! – while catching up with a very dear friend from college! The restaurant is in the same location as beloved former Casablanca cafe, next to the Brattle Theater which still shows classic and independent films on its single screen; so much fun to go back to school and to old places and old-spaces-turned-new!
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My message to these high-achieving super-professional students: follow your passions and goals, not someone else’s. And if your passion is BigLaw, have a back-up passion, because today only 19% of equity partners are women, and they are paid 80% of what the men receive.
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Entrepreneurship is an exciting alternative, and has been a meaningful and delicious one for me!
It was fun and an honor to share war stories from my law firm days, and origin stories of my original chocolate tours business, to chat afterward with such wonderful and thoughtful students about what is on their minds, and to share Chocotenango chocolate bars which were enormously popular!
Taza Chocolate factory tour – from bean to bar!
Scrumptious Taza souvenir – not shown: all my many other scrumptious Taza souvenirs!
Some of the smaller stone grinders at Taza Chocolate in Somerville, outside of Boston, home of stone-ground sustainable slavery-free soy-free chocolate!
Chocolate love at Taza HQ
Macaron Cafe now available at Gourmet Boutique in Boston, former chocolate tour stop
Chequessett Chocolate available at Beacon Hill Chocolates, down the hill from where I lived during law school
Chocolate scouting in Boston’s Copley Square; chocolate tour guests used to pose on the steps of the Boston Public Library in between chocolate stops!
I’ve passed every season here, multiple times, and it’s always fresh to be back, to be forward!
#HarvardAutumn2017
And every night! From home sweet Harvard, back to sweet home Chicago!
Chocolate Uplift 