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!
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!
Optional chocolate tasting kit for the the virtual craft chocolate tasting I’ll hold May 25 at 7pm CT forthe Imerman Angels Spirit Week 2021 Gala! Register for this free event and others at imermanangels.org/gala, and for the optional kit send $50 to me via paypal at chocolateuplift@gmail.com (includes US shipping). Proceeds will go to Imerman Angels. (Hat and jacket not included; these are mine and you can get yours here!)
I’m honored to serve on the board of Imerman Angels, a nonprofit started by my dear friend Jonny Imerman, where the mission is “to provide comfort and understanding for all cancer fighters, survivors, previvors and caregivers through a personalized, one-on-one connection with someone who has been there.”
Essentially, that means one-on-one mentorship for anyone affected by cancer, free of charge. I love the uplifting human-to-human work that Jonny and his team do, around the world.
Here I am modeling my Imerman Angels hat, which was made by CLOZTALK and is available here with other merchandise!
And, I’m honored to support the Imerman Angels Spirit Week 2021 Gala, a series of free online events in May, by holding a special chocolate tasting on Tuesday, May 25, at 7:00 pm CT! Having founded the world’s first chocolate tours years ago from an idea I had when I was 19, having grown the business to 50 team members in 4 cities, and now focusing on craft chocolate distribution, consulting, and tastings, what a joy it is for me to put together this virtual chocolate tasting. (Click if you’re curious about my bio or “sizzle reel” [video])!
Our topic will be: How to Identify Sustainable Craft Chocolate, and we will have a fun, fascinating, and delicious time! Cacao has anti-cancer and anti-inflammatory properties, as well as being an immune-boosting superfood, so a chocolate tasting to support a cancer mentorship organization just makes sense, beyond the fact that chocolate always makes sense, right! : )
You can register for the chocolate tasting and any of the other events at imermanangels.org/gala, and if you’d like to purchase chocolate to enjoy during the tasting, with proceeds going to Imerman Angels, you may do so by sending $50 to me via PayPal at chocolateuplift@gmail.com or paypal.me/chocolateuplift. The price includes US shipping. Please include your mailing address.
Here is the chocolate I’ve selected for our tasting — all made by wonderful clients of my craft chocolate distribution business, Chocolate Uplift — while quantities last:
Official Imerman Angels craft chocolate kit!
Crow & Moss Chocolate of Petoskey, Michigan: India Anamalai 70%. This delicious dairy-free chocolate bar is made from just 2 ingredients — cacao and sugar, all you need! The cacao is grown on a family-owned farm in India, and the chocolate bar gives notes of mango, lime, and honey, all from the cacao. This exciting new brand, created by a young couple in Northern Michigan — chef-turned-chocolate-maker Mike Davies and graphic designer Danielle Davies — just had to be in my line-up because Jonny Imerman, founder of Imerman Angels, is a University of Michgan alum, as are several of the team members and board members. (My mother grew up on a small family farm in Michigan, so it’s all connected!)
Dick Taylor Chocolate of Eureka, California: Hazelnut Milk Chocolate 55%. Made from single-origin Brazil cacao, Oregon hazelnuts, and old-fashioned A2/A2 milk from a local Northern California family farm, this is a sophisticated, non-sweet, and truly sumptuous milk chocolate bar that dark chocolate lovers love too. Founders Dustin Taylor and Adam Dick chose A2/A2 milk because it contains enzymes that are said to be more digestible. Like most of the brands and bars I work with, this chocolate bar is organic, so it contains no GMOs, no herbicides or pesticides, and cane sugar instead of refined sugar. Plus, it is just so tasty, it is one of those can’t-stop-eating-it bars!
Gotham Chocolates of New York City: Independent 70%. Award-winning pastry chef Ron Paprocki started this craft chocolate brand in the kitchen of Michelin-starred Gotham Bar & Grill, in order to have just the chocolate he wanted for desserts in the restaurant. Now the chocolate has taken on a life of its own — or taken over some lives, as chocolate will do, I’m happy to confirm! — and Chef Ron with Gotham owner Bret Csencsitz have created a precision-focused brand, wrapped in art inspired by Ellsworth Kelly, one of whose works hung near the restaurant kitchen. This 2-ingredient bar (remember — cacao and sugar: all you need!) is made from a blend of 2 cacaos, estate-grown in Ecuador and wild in Bolivia, and gives complex notes of whisky and wine; you may want to pair this bar with the wines in the wine tasting event that will also be part of Spirit Week, for a like-with-like tasting experience!
Xocolatl Chocolate of Atlanta: Dark & Salty 80%. Are you concerned that an 80% dark chocolate bar might be bitter or dry? This bar shows that 80% can be smooth, silky, and flavorful, with quality cacao, and quality chocolate-making! The cacao in this bar was grown in Uganda by the Semuliki Forest collective of around 1,000 family farmers, and I love the warm rich notes of cinnamon and fig on a core note of straight-ahead chocolate — all from the cacao and how it is turned into chocolate. The chocolate itself is made from — you guessed it, cacao and sugar: all you need! — and Xocolatl wife-husband owners Elaine Read and Matt Weyandt and team add some vanilla bean-infused sea salt for a bright dash of zing. This is Team Xocolatl’s newest and current favorite bar, and I also just had to choose it because our Jonny Imerman is a fan of 100% chocolate bars (= no sugar, just cacao), and this easy-to-love 80% bar was as close as I thought I could get to 100% and still have absolutely everyone love it (100% bars are totally loveable too, just perhaps more of an acquired taste! : )
First-class craft chocolate
What exactly do these bars have in common? They are all created by incredibly kind people I’m honored to call friends and clients, and they all meet my 5 Ss of first-class craft chocolate:
slavery-free
soy-free
sustainable
small-batch
scrumptious!
We’ll talk more at our virtual event about how to identify ethical craft chocolate bars like these. Whether you purchase the chocolate kit (or would rather just watch me eating it haha!) I hope you’ll join the Imerman Angels Spirit Week 2021 Gala!
By the way, someone asked me how long I’ve known Jonny Imerman; I just joined the board this past year, but Jonny and I have been friends for more than a decade, and have always admired each other’s work, and here’s an old photo (of a photo) of us from 2007!
That’s us in the upper left in 2007! How do we still look the same today after all these years? Must be the chocolate! : )
Update: here are the slides from my talk on The Full Chocolate: Where Chocolate Comes From and What’s in Your Chocolate, at an exciting and delicious event held August 2, 2019, at amazing Yahara Chocolate in sweet historic Stoughton, Wisconsin! As always, please see the comments section of each slide for the juicy info and video links!
In addition, below are some photos from the event; more are on my Instagram under hashtag #WisconsinAugust2019. Thank you and hope to see you next time!
*****
Hello!
Are you a chocolate lover in the Madison, Wisconsin, area? I’m excited to give a talk on The Full Chocolate — how chocolate goes from bean to bar — with craft chocolate tasting at Yahara Chocolate in Stoughton, WI, Friday 8/2/19 at 7pm, and to host informal tastings there Saturday 8/3/19 from 10am to 3pm!
We’re going to have around 10 different chocolate bars to sample, plus cacao beans, nibs, and pulp! Details are here for Friday, and here for Saturday. Hope to see you there!
Here is some of the scrumptiousness I’m bringing to Yahara Chocolate for dear Brook, the store owner, who is assembling an amazing collection of craft chocolate, wouldn’t you agree!
I’m also bringing the outrageously delicious new Mint Brownie bar by Violet Sky Chocolate; Brook selected it at his daughter’s insistence!
Fun side note: my first-year dorm at Harvard College and the town where Yahara Chocolate is located are both called Stoughton! Here are some photos from my return to Stoughton (the dorm) to serve as a Convocation Marshal and welcome the new first-year students last fall (I brought chocolate to that too, for the new students in my old dorm, and for my alumni friends). It’s all connected!
Meanwhile, see you in Stoughton, Wisconsin, if you’re around!
The head of the Chicago chapter asked if I could speak on chocolate and gender, and in fact this is a topic with interesting historical aspects. For example, would you be surprised to know that Aztec emperor Montezuma drank chocolate before visiting his wives, or that today much of the work on specialty cacao farms that grow some of the best cacao in the world is done by women?
Click here if you’re curious to see slides I shared during our delicious afternoon (my notes or video links to various relevant YouTube videos are in the comments to each slide)!
Chocolate tasting at Hannah’s Bretzel! Join me in Chicago February 1 or 2, 2019!
Hello there!
Happy Valentine’s Day season! To celebrate, I’m holding seated chocolate tastings, and I hope you’ll join me!
Details for Chicago chocolate tastings:
What: This Valentine’s Day season, tour the world of chocolate without leaving your seat, during this 90-minute chocolate tasting led by chocolate expert and original chocolate tours founder Valerie Beck. Why is chocolate associated with love? Why does it lift our mood? We’ll focus on the answers, and on sustainable bean-to-bar chocolate. And we’ll taste a lot of top craft chocolate brands at this fun, fascinating, and delicious seated chocolate tasting! Great for couples, singles, or girls’ day out!
When: Friday and Saturday, February 1 and 2, 2019, 2:00 pm – 3:30 pm.
Cost: $45 per person, or $35 per student or senior. Includes chocolate samples. You can purchase tickets for the chocolate tastings directly through Valerie’s PayPal link.
Details for Los Angeles chocolate tasting, including Letterpress Chocolate micro-factory tour:
What: This Valentine’s Day, explore the world of chocolate at LA’s local small-batch artisan chocolate manufactory, Letterpress Chocolate, during this 90-minute chocolate tasting event led by chocolate expert and original chocolate tours founder Valerie Beck. Why is chocolate associated with love? Why does it lift our mood? We’ll focus on the answers, and on sustainable bean-to-bar chocolate made onsite. And we’ll taste a lot of luscious Letterpress Chocolate at this fun, fascinating, and delicious chocolate tasting and factory tour! Great for couples, singles, or girls’ night out!
Cost: $50 per person, or $45 per student or senior. Includes chocolate samples. You can purchase tickets for the chocolate tastings directly through Valerie’s PayPal link.
See bean-to-bar chocolate being made at Letterpress Chocolate, and taste the finished products! Join me in Los Angeles on Valentine’s Day, 2019!
I miss you, and won’t this be a fun and tasty way to celebrate the holidays and new year! This is just from December 17 through January 6, and after that we’ll see!
You’re the first to know: I might have some Los Angeles dates after that; let me know if you’re interested!
Here are the links:
Seated chocolate tastings – a fun, fascinating, and delicious tour without leaving your seat –
The first time I had French pastries in France was as a 19-year-old Harvard College senior studying abroad in Paris.
Paris love, age 19
That trip put me on a mission to spread fine chocolate and pastry, led to my founding of the original Chocolate Tours in Chicago and beyond, and – after closing the chocolate tours earlier this year – still continues to inspire me as I speak and consult about chocolate.
Pastry peek at Alliance Patisserie
Chef Peter Rios has opened a little bit of Paris in Chicago, with his new Alliance Patisserie. Pastry followers worldwide may know Chef Peter as the owner of Alliance Bakery, also in Chicago, known for innovative specialty cakes and more, or may know him through one of his many incarnations as pastry chef superstar.
Scenes at Alliance Patisserie…
Chef Peter told me it has always been his dream to open a shop focusing on French pastry, ever since he graduated from Kendall College and later studied with pastry giants such as the great Pierre Herme in Paris.
His dream came true, and Alliance Patisserie now helps the dreams of others come true, whether by sharing some of the best macarons or classic French pastries outside of Paris, or by serving as the romantic site of a marriage proposal, which I was thrilled and honored to facilitate for a lovely couple after a chocolate tasting I led for them in the shop!
I arranged with the groom to tuck the ring into the pastry case…
Chocolate Uplift 