Delicious craft chocolate made from ethical Kokoa Kamili Tanzania cacao, and Kokoa Kamili cacao nibs, gathered in my kitchen
Thinking of Earth Day, and dreaming of global health systems that work for people and planet, I’m excited to share an inspiring article in Saveur on cacao from the innovative Kokoa Kamili cacao social enterprise in Tanzania.
How one Tanzania chocolate company is helping farmers grow better cacao—and demand a better price.
Hilary Hueler
April 7, 2020
Working with 4,000 farmers in the lush Kilombero Valley, Kokoa Kamili ferments and dries the cacao, providing quality cacao to many of the craft chocolate makers I work with — such as those whose chocolate bars are pictured here and below — and uplifting growers with higher pay in the process!
The cacao and the resulting chocolate meet my 5 Ss:
slavery-free
soy-free and industrial additive-free
sustainable
small-batch
scrumptious!
Additional wonderful craft chocolate brands I work with who buy cacao from Kokoa Kamili (also gathered in my kitchen)
Enjoy this wonderful article with excellent descriptions and photos of the cacao process and of the beautiful local environment, and keep eating real chocolate that supports people and planet!
Your friend in chocolate,
Valerie
Introducing Kokoa Kamili co-founder Simran Bindra (back right) to Lan (front right) and Brian (back left) of 9th & Larkin Chocolate, who had already purchased his cacao and made delicious chocolate from it, at the Northwest Chocolate Festival in Seattle
Valerie Beck
Founder/CEO Chocolate Uplift
Craft Chocolate Brokering, Consulting, Distribution
Normally I sell craft chocolate wholesale to stores, and lately I have also been asked to sell it direct to you because some stores have had to close — only temporarily we hope — due to the current virus situation. To help our dear chocolate makers, cacao growers, and other small businesses, as part of the #stayhomewithchocolate initiative launched by our community, and to help you get the best chocolate from around the world without leaving home, here you go!
Until or unless I get a shopify page or the like set up, you can order as follows:
Choose your chocolate bars from below my signature, and pay via my Paypal link.
Prices are as listed, or choose 4 bars for $50, or 10 for $100.
Free shipping at $50+.
Philanthropy partner tbd.
You can also email me or send me a Zelle payment at chocolateuplift@gmail.com, or
Let me know your mailing address, or the mailing address of your gift recipient and any note for a gift card, and I look forward to sending your chocolate!
All of the chocolate I represent is slavery-free, soy-free and lecithin-free, sustainable, small-batch, and scrumptious!
Also as part of this initiative, I’ll be doing a fun Instagram Live presentation, which will be posted to YouTube, on *Chocolate For Breakfast: Surprising Health Benefits and How-Tos,* Wednesday, March 25, 2020, at 11:00 am central time. Details to come here and wherever #stayhomewithchocolate is used! : )
Thank you, keep eating real chocolate, and I wish and send you courage and compassion!
Your friend in chocolate,
Valerie
Valerie Beck
Founder/CEO Chocolate Uplift
Craft Chocolate Brokering, Consulting, Distribution
Let me know your mailing address, or the mailing address of your gift recipient and any note for a gift card, and I look forward to sending your chocolate!
All of the chocolate I represent is slavery-free, soy-free and lecithin-free, sustainable, small-batch, and scrumptious!
**Update: three wonderful craft chocolate bars made with Caribbean cacao, by 9th & Larkin Chocolate, Crow & Moss Chocolate, and Sirene Chocolate, are in the April 2020 issue of Luckbox Magazine in a clever piece on rum, chocolate, and cigar combinations, along with chocolate tasting notes by yours truly; click for the digital edition and see pp. 36 – 38! Thank you LuckboxMag and TastyTrade! **
Yes, they all meet my 5 Ss of first-class craft chocolate in that they are:
slavery-free
soy-free and additive-free
sustainable
small-batch and
scrumptious!
In addition, they are all made from cacao grown in the Caribbean!
When you think of food and drink of the Caribbean, maybe you think of excellent rum, cane sugar, jerk chicken. Cacao and chocolate also have important and delicious roots in Caribbean soil.
Cacao from Guatemala……in a small-batch grinder for 72 hours, to become chocolate.
The Caribbean islands became a major part of the cacao industry in the 1500s, after European colonizers brought cacao from native lands in South America to the islands for cultivation and export to Europe. Spain controlled most of the trans-Atlantic cacao trade from South America, so by growing cacao in the Caribbean, the English — and Dutch pirates — were able to compete. Slave labor was often used, and when slavery was abolished in Puerto Rico in 1873, profits went down, and commercial cacao-growing in the Caribbean became less important to Europe, especially as West African farms were being exploited and people there were finding themselves slave laborers.
Today, 2.1 million children work on cacao farms in Cote d’Ivoire, most in slavery or hazardous conditions, generally without schooling and often away from their family homes, so that we can have cheap chocolate in the west. The big brands are complicit, as articles and more articles reveal.
Good news: the rise of artisanal bean-to-bar chocolate made from ethical, traceable, single-origin cacao, provides a new opportunity for growing cacao in the Caribbean, in a way that supports people and planet.
For example, Reserva Zorzal in the Dominican Republic is a sustainable cacao farm plus bird sanctuary, where plants and animals live in a mutually beneficial ecosystem. The cacao is grown for quality, not quantity, and you can taste this in a chocolate bar like the one made by Crow & Moss Chocolate of Northern Michigan. The chocolate bar contains just 2 ingredients: cacao and sugar — all you need to make chocolate! My tasting notes:
Deep notes of cherry, caramel, and cinnamon, opening into earthy fudginess, and coming up to conclude on a lightly grape-meets-fennel finish. Long finish. Some complexity, yet relatively straightforward, with clarity, without muddiness. True to the bean. No bitterness. Ultimately interesting, balanced, accessible.
Those flavors are all from the cacao, and from how Mike Davies, founder of Crow & Moss and a professional baker and hobby farmer, roasts and grinds the cacao into chocolate in his 2,000 square foot manufactory.
Tasting the Caribbean through chocolate is exciting, and let me know if you’d like to travel with me to the source, as I am talking with Zorzal founder Chuck Kerchner, a PhD in forestry, about special upscale agri-tours to his cacao estate in the Dominican Republic.
My brief tasting notes on these bars: *Crow & Moss Chocolate, Zorzal Dominican Republic 70% — fruity, rich, complex, fudgey. *Sirene Chocolate, Lachua Guatemala 73% — fruit notes open to herbal, gentle spice, and caramel notes; a very sophisticated bar. *Bixby Chocolate, Guatemala 70% — grape and raisin notes, deep, solid feel. *9th & Larkin, Dominican Republic Oko-Caribe 72% — bright notes, subtle, precision-focused.
In the meantime, you can find selections of the four brands featured here at stores like these:
9th & Larkin — The Grail Cafe, Totto’s Market
Bixby Chocolate — Beacon Hill Chocolates, Honeycreeper Chocolate, Rare Bird Preserves, Spilt Milk Pastry, Yahara Chocolate
Crow & Moss Chocolate — The Grail Cafe, Totto’s Market
Here I am (left) with Chef Kate McAleer of Bixby Chocolate, at last year’s Sweets and Snacks Expo in Chicago. My dress just happens to match the brand. Kate matches on purpose.
Valerie Beck
Founder/CEO Chocolate Uplift
Craft Chocolate Brokering, Consulting, Distribution
Three beloved bean-to-bar brands I shared at my talk at the Northwest Chocolate Festival were highlighted in the New York Times this month: Dandelion Chocolate, Dick Taylor Chocolate, and Fruition Chocolate.
It’s all about love, and I love this recent New York Times article:
…bean-to-bar chocolate makers obsess over the character and ethical origins of their beans.
This is in marked contrast to mainstream industrial chocolate, in which the beans are a commodity product, bought in bulk for price, not quality.
…
The best bean-to-bar chocolate makers (also called craft or micro chocolate makers) choose beans the way chefs choose tomatoes — obsessively, often visiting the farms where the beans are grown. They roast and grind the beans themselves before making them into chocolate bars.
The pastry chef and author David Lebovitz, who wrote “The Great Book of Chocolate,” compares bean-to-bar chocolate to natural wine. “It’s exciting and alive in a way that even really great regular chocolate isn’t,” he said. “It can surprise you.”
Beloved Taza Chocolate was also a favorite in the New York Times, and on a route of my Boston Chocolate Walking Tours back in the old chocolate tour days.
Onward and upward!
Your friend in chocolate,
Valerie
With Leah Hammerman and Paul Primozich of Dandelion ChocolateWith Dahlia Rissman Graham and Bryan Graham of Fruition Chocolate
With Dustin Taylor and Adam Dick of Dick Taylor Chocolate
Valerie Beck
Craft Chocolate Brokering, Consulting, Distribution
Romance Around the Corner, by yours truly, is a spiritual and practical guide to attracting the man of your dreams! Pairs well with chocolate!
It’s all about love:
Here’s the book I wrote in 2005 on how to attract the man of your dreams, Romance Around the Corner; it still works ; ) — I used to give seminars on the 8 steps in the book and we saw 6 marriages and many relationships happen due to the program — and I find it pairs well with Xocolatl Chocolate‘s exquisite Love & Happiness bar, which consists of raspberries and blood orange-infused olive oil swirled into ethically-made 2-ingredient dark chocolate (cacao and sugar, all you need)!
Find the book on Amazon (it’s part spiritual growth guide, part practical how-to, part mini-memoir), and find delicious Xocolatl Chocolate bars at @ammasumma, @theavondalecoffeeclub, @cocoaandcochi, @honeycreeperchocolate, @rarebirdpreserves, @reprisecoffeeroasters, and @yaharachocolate!
Onward and upward!
Your friend in chocolate,
Valerie
Cheers with hot chocolate, to love and chocolate!
Valerie Beck
Craft Chocolate Brokering, Consulting, Distribution
Before bean to bar: chocolate comes from cacao, which is full of health benefits and which makes chocolate healthy — if done right. Good King makes spiced snacking cacao, in a variety of flavors from sweet to savory to spicy, to eat like any other nuts or as trail mix, and it is healthy and delicious!
Is all dark chocolate created equal?
Does all dark chocolate provide health benefits?
Find the answers to these questions and more in the excellent new blog post “Healthy Dark Chocolate” by dear Kim Wilson of Good King, a woman-powered social enterprise that makes delicious trail mix-style snacking cacao!
For example, see myth #3 in the article to find out why a higher cacao percentage doesn’t automatically mean more antioxidants, which popular or so-called premium brands are made in a way that decreases antioxidants by nearly 80%, and which brands will give you the health benefits you’re looking for.
Thank you, Kim, for busting myths and sharing facts, because knowledge is power!
The blog article is here, and you can buy delicious Good King snacking cacao online at the link here, or at Totto’s Market in Chicago.
Enjoy!
Good Food Award-winning Good King snacking cacao, at glorious Totto’s Market, in sweet home Chicago!
Your friend in chocolate,
Valerie
With amazing Good King founder Kim Wilson (right) in sweet Seattle, where she is based, during the Northwest Chocolate Festival. And yes: we match!
Valerie Beck
Founder, Chocolate Uplift — Chocolate Activism, Brokering, Consulting, Distribution
Her article gives information about the terrible human rights and planetary problems in the chocolate industry, such as child labor and deforestation — Ivory Coast has lost 90% of its forests due to bulk cacao cultivation using environmentally harmful methods — which we see in the commoditized cacao supply chains used by big chocolate brands that are found in grocery stores and other large outlets.
Happily, the article doesn’t stop at the problem as some other stories on these grave topics do; Simran shares some exciting solutions or alternatives in the form of slavery-free, sustainable chocolate options for Valentine’s Day and beyond, made from ethically-sourced specialty cacao that so many of us rave about (and that I love to put on my grapefruit : ) .
I put Kokoa Kamili cacao nibs (this ethical Tanzania cacao supplier with a zero-tolerance child labor policy is featured in the new Epicurious article) and Xocolatl Madagascar 2-ingredient chocolate onto organic grapefruit, for a glorious superfood breakfast! These Kokoa Kamili cacao nibs, pure and sugar-free and packed with health benefits, were sourced and roasted by Dandelion Chocolate.
For example, the article highlights the delicious Dick Taylor drinking chocolate in my photo at the top of this post — made from just 2 ingredients: organic cacao and organic sugar, all you need! — plus other choices by chocolate makers I’m also honored to call clients or friends!
You know that all of the craft chocolate brands I represent as a broker, consultant, or distributor meet my 5 Ss:
slavery-free
sustainable
soy-free and lecithin-free
small-batch
scrumptious!
Enjoy Simran’s excellent article. Chocolate is love!
Ethical chocolate bars come from ethical cacao: these delicious bars are by 9th & Larkin of San Francisco and Manoa Chocolate of Hawaii, using Kokoa Kamili cacao.
Congratulations to dear friends and client Xocolatl Small Batch Chocolate of Atlanta on their 5 delicious and meaningful years in business!
Cacao and sugar: all you need!
This family-owned brand exemplifies the values our craft chocolate community stands for, such as transparency, human rights, planetary regeneration, and first-class flavor! To put it another way, Xocolatl meets my 5 Ss because their chocolate is
slavery-free
soy-free and lecithin-free
sustainable
small-batch and
scrumptious!
Click for a fabulous article about how dear founders Elaine and Matt got started, and about how an ethical chocolate supply chain works.
It is a pleasure to represent Xocolatl, and you can find their chocolate at amazing retailers
Amma’s Umma
Avondale Coffee Club
Brew Brew Coffee & Tea
Cocoa + Co.
Goods LA
Gourmet Boutique
Honeycreeper Chocolate
Rare Bird Preserves
Reprise Coffee Roasters,and
Yahara Chocolate.
Onward and upward!
Your friend in chocolate,
Celebrating at the Good Food Awards where Xocolatl’s Pangoa Peru bar was a winner!
Summer and fall seem to be dancing together today in Chicago, as warm sunshine mingles with crisp air. As we enter a new season filled with new abundance, two dear craft chocolate maker clients are new at Totto’s Market (which is also new), and, they are in the news!
Gotham Chocolates is a sophisticated bean-to-bar brand by acclaimed chef Ron Paprocki of Michelin-starred Gotham Bar and Grill in New York City. Chef Ron converted a corner of his pastry kitchen into a chocolate manufactory to make pure, clean, flavorful craft chocolate for bars, bonbons, and desserts. Click here to read about Chef Ron’s background and vision; what a coincidence that he and I each lived in Germany for some years. When I first met Ron and tasted his chocolates in NYC a few years ago, I was thrilled with the exquisite precision and beauty of his work, and I’m thrilled with the new Artisan line that he has launched since, using a variety of specialty cacaos!
ÓBOLO Chocolate (the name means gift or small contribution in Spanish) is an inventive bean-to-bar brand by Midwesterner Mark Gerrits who moved to Chile for adventure after college and is still there. He founded his chocolate company in 2013, and ÓBOLO has gained B-Corporation status reflecting standards for social and environmental justice. I tasted the chocolate for the first time last year, and loved its lively use of Peru cacao. This year Mark updated his packaging, bar thickness and mould, and added a new Flavors of Chile line of bars, sharing a confident and unique new presentation in the world of craft chocolate. Click here for a story on the brand’s use of biodynamic Chilean inclusions such as herbs that grow in the Atacama desert or berries from Patagonia.
You can find a selection of Gotham Chocolates at these wonderful upscale retailers: Hannah’s Bretzel, Honeycreeper Chocolate, and Totto’s Market. Find ÓBOLO Chocolate at wonderful upscale Cocoa + Co. and Totto’s Market.
Congratulations to these two elegant and artistic craft chocolate brands as autumn begins in the Northern Hemisphere including in New York for Gotham and here in Chicago, and as spring begins in the Southern Hemisphere including in Santiago for ÓBOLO!
Wishing you a delicious season, whichever one is blowing in where you are,
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!
Chocolate Uplift 