California Valentine: Chocolate Tasting for East Sacramento Rotary Club

Posted on by valeriebeck

Happy Valentine’s Day!

What a pleasure to hold a virtual craft chocolate tasting for the East Sacramento Rotary Club!

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 —

— 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 Festival
With 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!

Your friend in chocolate, 

Valerie
Valerie Beck

Chocolate Uplift Founder 

Professor Valerie Beck Tutoring and Coaching

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valerie@chocolateuplift.com

With some of Team Xocolatl Chocolate, including co-founders Elaine Read and Matt Weyandt (right) at the Good Food Awards

A Chicagoan in LA: No Car, Much Chocolate

Posted on by valeriebeck

Hello and happy new year!

I’m commuting between Los Angeles and Chicago this winter, to teach a class at UCLA Extension on International Business Law, to promote craft chocolate like local LA small-batch wonder Letterpress Chocolate, and to thaw out from Chicago winters!

I don’t drive, and LA is a very car-focused city as you know, so this adds a layer of adventure!

You can check out my new blog about it all, called A Chicagoan in LA: Valerie Beck Car-free in the City of the Freeway, at https://achicagoaninla.blogspot.com/.

Coming soon: details of my visit to Letterpress Chocolate’s new retail and production space!

Meanwhile, I hope your 2019 is off to a delicious start!

Your friend in chocolate,

Valerie

Chocolate and Fruit: Nemzer Chocolate

Posted on by valeriebeck

Chocolate and Fruit: Nemzer Chocolate

Feeling tropical: chocolate and pineapple
Feeling tropical: chocolate and pineapple bar by Nemzer Chocolate

Think about this any time you need a lift: chocolate comes from fruit!

Chocolate is of course made from cocoa beans (cacao), which are the seeds of the fruit of the cacao tree. The seeds are harvested, dried, fermented, roasted, ground, and fashioned into chocolate.

Organic Ecuadorian cacao
Organic Ecuadorian cacao

Why is cacao so loaded with health benefits, that it’s considered a superfood? Because it’s plant-based. It comes from fruit. It can reduce the risk of heart disease and stroke, it’s a metabolism booster and anti-inflammatory, and it’s filled with valuable vitamins and minerals.

So how delightful to discover a new brand from California, Nemzer Chocolate, which incorporates freeze dried fruit into dark chocolate. Since chocolate comes from fruit, these chocolate bars are basically a fruit salad!

Chocolate and banana bar
Chocolate and banana bar in action

Chocolate and raspberry
Chocolate and raspberry

Founder Roman Nemzer bases his chocolate on a French recipe, and the flavors are nicely balanced, with a mild and chocolatey 65% cacao.

French flair, freeze dried fruit, California cool. That’s a fruit salad!

Your friend in chocolate,

Valerie

Valerie Beck

Chocolate Expert, Speaker, Consultant

www.valeriebeckchocolateuplift.com

chocolateuplift@gmail.com

“Uplift Through Chocolate!”