New Chocolate Documentary: The Chocolate War

Posted on by valeriebeck

Hi there!

I hope you are well and eating great craft chocolate!

An excellent new documentary about child slave labor in cacao is out. It’s called The Chocolate War, and it features my friend Terry Collingsworth, the human rights lawyer fighting Nestle and Cargill in court on behalf of children who were trafficked and enslaved on cocoa farms that provide cocoa beans to those corporations.

I watched this well-made film last night, created by our filmmaker friend Miki Mistrati; as a formerly practicing lawyer, I love seeing law in action for fairness! Watch for yourself and see the appalling, heartbreaking, and solvable situation some of us have been talking about for years.

The Chocolate War

Trailer:

Film info: 

https://www.thechocolatewarfilm.com/

Reviews: 

https://www.screendaily.com/reviews/the-chocolate-war-cphdox-review/5169055.article

https://variety.com/2022/film/global/the-chocolate-war-cphdox-1235210974/

Film to rent or buy:

https://letterboxd.com/film/the-chocolate-war-2022/

How about a screening and ethical chocolate tasting, held live or virtually? In any case, I’d love your thoughts on the film!

Click for scenes from a craft chocolate tasting

One of the questions I am often asked is how to tell which chocolate was made with child slave labor. Here are the 3 steps I recommend:

1. Big brand = child slave labor. 

  • Large corporate brands admit they have child slave labor in their supply chains.
    • Child slave labor on cacao farms in Cote d’Ivoire, West Africa, is confirmed by the UN, the US Department of Labor, and other observers.
    • Big brands say what happens on cacao farms in Cote d’Ivoire is out of their control; we say it’s completely within their control: pay farmers a fair price and kids won’t be vulnerable to trafficking and enslavement and can go to school instead of the fields.
      • So, almost all of the brands in the grocery store and other mass outlets are tainted. That’s why the bars cost $5, $2, or $1: child slaves earned no money for harvesting the cacao in those chocolate bars.
        • Do you think grocery stores and other sellers like Walmart and Amazon should also be held accountable for selling products made with child slave labor? I do.

2. Cacao country of origin listed = things are looking up!

  • If you saw a bottle of wine with no origin listed, no picture of an estate in France, or no reference to a vineyard in California or the like, you might have some questions about that wine. 
  • Yet chocolate brands get away with not telling us where their cacao was grown. Have you ever seen an origin indication on industrial chocolate? After all, cacao is not grown in Belgium, Switzerland, Hershey Pennsylvania, or a Snickers factory! What are the corporate brands hiding? Child kidnapping and slavery; see 1. above. 
  • So, if you see a small craft chocolate brand with the cacao country of origin listed on the label —
    • such as Ecuador, Madagascar, Tanzania, or other countries —
      • or if you see the cacao collective listed —
        • such as our friends at Zorzal of the Dominican Republic, Pangoa of Peru, Semuliki Forest of Uganda, or other origins — 
    • this origin information generally indicates that the chocolate maker bought through one of our direct trade transparent supply chains, so that you know where the cacao came from and can trace it back to the specific source to see that farmers earned proper money and kids were not exploited.
      • A statement of origin generally means the chocolate makers bought traceable cacao and did not buy cacao through the non-transparent bulk supply chain, where cacao from thousands of farms is mixed together and at least some of the cacao is certainly tainted with child labor as is standard in bulk cacao.
  • In other words: traceability is a good sign!

3. Clean ingredients list = another sign of quality and care!

  • If you are buying quality cacao, you wouldn’t want to diminish it with non-quality additives. 
  • What do you need to make chocolate? As my students have heard me say so many times: cacao and sugar, all you need!
    • If you see a chocolate bar ingredients list with lecithin, natural or artificial flavors (and we know that natural flavors are really artificial flavors), or any other synthetics or lab-processed chemicals that harm people and planet, this is a sign that the cacao might also be from a non-clean source, especially if no cacao country of origin is listed.
    • If you see a chocolate bar ingredients list with just traceable cacao and organic cane sugar, plus any real ingredients, this is a good sign, as cacao country of origin + clean ingredients = a traceable clean bar!
    • Examples of chocolate bars made from traceable cacao and clean ingredients only:
      • Crackle & Crunch quinoa and almond milk chocolate bar from Xocolatl Small Batch Chocolate of Atlanta, made with Nicaragua cacao; I gifted this and other Xocolatl bars recently to a dear family who loved everything! (The link in this bullet point also shows a bar made by VAICACAO with Nicaragua chocolate plus organic sugar; all you need! : )
      • Bouquet Vert Lime chocolate bar by Askanya Chocolate of Haiti, made with Haiti cacao, Haiti artisanal sugar, and Haiti limes; this bar and other treats from Askanya were a hit at a Valentine’s Day party I held for my mom’s neighbors last month!
      • Click to see many more of my favorites!
      • Scroll here for some wonderful retailers who carry ethical chocolate and will ship to you!

Clean, green, and ready for St. Patrick’s Day! : ) Happy March!

The brands I work with — and the bars I eat every day! — meet my 5 Ss of first-class craft chocolate:

  • slavery-free
  • soy-free / synthetic additive-free
  • sustainable and soil-regenerative
  • small-batch
  • scrumptious!

Golden Age of empathy and equality, courage and compassion, liberty and love, for children and for us all, here we come!

Onward and upward!

Your friend in chocolate — shown here judging World of Chocolate, an AIDS Foundation of Chicago fundraiser, February 2023,

Valerie

Valerie Beck

Chocolate Uplift Founder 

Professor Valerie Beck Tutoring and Coaching

LinkedIn | Instagram

valerie.beck@post.harvard.edu

valerie@chocolateuplift.com

Harvard Club of Chicago & Harvard GlobalWE Presentation

Posted on by valeriebeck

Hi! Happy 2022!

I am excited to have been invited to present a virtual chocolate talk and tasting for two of my alumni clubs together, the Harvard Club of Chicago, and Harvard Alumni for Global Women’s Empowerment (Harvard GlobalWE)!

Here are my presentation materials and links:

The Joy of Chocolate – From “Bean” to Bar

~ Preview — Welcome! Let’s talk about:

  • the process of turning cacao into chocolate,
  • the people — including women! — behind the purpose-driven craft chocolate movement and behind the history of chocolate, and
  • how to know if you’re choosing chocolate that’s good for people and planet!

~ Personal bio — chocolate-obsessed before, during, and after Harvard

Looking ahead: always bringing chocolate for the new generation
Looking back: during a semester in Paris, age 19, chocolate on my mind
cacao pod from Ecuador
with an open cacao pod in Ecuador

~ People and process behind specialty cacao and craft chocolate — including some amazing women around the world

  • Cacao growing, harvesting, and post-harvest steps, by the women and men of COAGRISCAL in Honduras, who prepare the products for woman-owned Good King Cacao [farm to snack]
  • Cacao collaboration, buying, and transport by woman-owned Askanya Chocolate of Haiti, and chocolate making in Haiti by the women of Askanya [video]
  • Valerie opens a cacao pod [video]
with Kim Wilson of Good King Cacao of Seattle; the products are made with Honduras cacao
with Corinne Joachim Sanon Symietz (right) of Askanya Chocolate of Haiti
with Lan Phan of 9th & Larkin Chocolate of San Francisco (front), her husband Brian (left), and Simran Bindra of Kokoa Kamili cacao of Tanzania
[photo from dieline]
craft…
…chocolate
with Kate McAleer of Bixby Chocolate, who is both a chocolate maker and a chocolatier
[Photo from Mark Gerrits of OBOLO Chocolate]
bean to bar
bean to cup

~ Purpose-driven businesses — from Chicago Chocolate Tours to Chocolate Uplift, consulting to and distributing other purpose-driven brands

  • from ancient tradition to…
  • …contemporary social impact
  • chocolate chooses us!
  • cacao and chocolate as portals forward to a Golden Age of empathy and equality, nourishing people and planet
Belu Cacao before and after, and Belu from tree to bar [video]
Developed 3 sizes of Belu, each with 2 ingredients: cacao and sugar — all you need!
with Emily of Belu Cacao and her husband Carlos

~ Purity of craft chocolate — tasting techniques to perceive and enjoy nuance

  • mindfulness: look, sniff, taste
  • also: listen, touch, think
  • breathe
  • repeat!
Yes: I ate the whole thing. In 2 sittings, but I did it! And it was made with Askanya Chocolate of Haiti, at The Vig Chicago. What’s in your restaurant’s dessert?

~ Power of people and planet — recognizing ethical chocolate, which means it is free of human rights abuses and environmental harm

  • Tip: all of the big brands are complicit in human rights abuses and environmental harm; they don’t deny it
  • Tip: look for small brands, then look on the label for the cacao country of origin, and a clean ingredients list
  • Tip: the best chocolate (wine, coffee, diamonds, silk scarves) is not usually found at a standard grocery store, but use the 2 points above to discover any exceptions
  • More on classmate David Coale’s podcast where I talk about ethical chocolate and our power of choice
Chocolate is love. Taste is memory. What is your earliest memory of tasting and loving chocolate?

~ And, after all those Ps, my 5 Ss of first-class craft chocolate:

  • slavery-free
  • soy-free / industrial additive-free
  • sustainable / soil-regenerative
  • small-batch
  • scrumptious!
Golden Age Cookies: organic oatmeal salted craft chocolate chunk cookies topped with cacao nibs; I created them because I wanted to eat them

Thank you! Keep eating real chocolate!

Valerie

Valerie Beck

Founder, Chocolate Uplift

retail: chocolateuplift.etsy.com

wholesale + blog: chocolateuplift.com

instagram: @chocolateuplift

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/valeriebeck/

email: valerie@chocolateuplift.com

Wholesale

Posted on by valeriebeck

Welcome to Chocolate Uplift craft chocolate brokering, consulting, and wholesale distribution!

New —

Here are the links to the CocoaTown webinar I was honored to hold on How to Work with a Distributor:  Webinar and About Valerie Beck [videos]

Details:

How to Work with a Distributor — webinar as part of the CocoaTown series:

Join Valerie Beck, Founder of Chocolate Uplift, called the Chocolate Auntie, as she takes us through the ins and outs of finding the right distributor and building a relationship that works for you and your business. She will guide us through the processes step by step.

Date: Saturday, September 11, 2021
Time: 10:00 am – 12 Noon Atlanta time (-4 GMT)
Topic: Working With a Distributor
Presenter: Valerie Beck, Founder of Chocolate Uplift, called the Chocolate Auntie 

Link to register – https://forms.gle/LYUvdDoax6wf1CcH8

Update — here are the slides from my webinar! I placed a great deal of information into the notes sections, so be sure to click Show Speaker Notes under View if you want to see everything!

Here I am, Valerie Beck, “the chocolate Auntie,” dancing at home in Chicago with craft chocolate bars I featured in my birthday box and at my virtual birthday party last year!

Chocolate brands that I broker (drop-shipping directly from the chocolate maker) or distribute (I stock and ship) or consult to (getting them ready for distribution, upgrading packaging and labeling, or other services) — for some brands it’s all of these — are generally the brands I also feature in the virtual or in-person chocolate tastings I hold, and for other special events including IG Lives or other videos, as well as in special blog posts. And they’re the brands I feature on my Instagram, along with the retailers who carry them!

All photos there, and here, are by me!

Please contact me at valerie@chocolateuplift.com with any questions or for the latest prices, and scroll down for more details, photos, testimonials, and ideas. Thank you!

It’s all about uplift!

As a chocolate distributor and broker and all-around chocolate collaborator, I help bean-to-bar chocolate brands get onto shelves. Before that, if needed, I help them get ready to get onto shelves.

I sell wholesale, and arrange for upscale retailers, coffee shops, and chefs to purchase wholesale and to carry top ethical craft chocolate brands made in the US or elsewhere.

Here are my bios, in case you’d like to know about my background, Harvard education, past career as a lawyer, and how I came to be a chocolate services professional such as by founding Chicago Chocolate Tours [video montage!] and more over 15 years ago! I have loved and studied chocolate all my life.

45244331_1849065741890284_16525084368704

If you are a craft chocolate maker, depending on your goals,

  • I can help you get your chocolate into the right shops and boutiques or onto the right websites for online sales.
  • I can also help you get ready for distribution or for access to stores that match your ethos, with my consulting services such as
    • writing and proofreading,
    • brand strategy,
    • US import assistance, or
    • package redesign.
  • It’s important that you know where your chocolate goes, and that we have a fit on all sides. My work is not transaction-based but relationship-focused.
  • This relationship approach is why some makers call me “the chocolate Auntie” : ) and I feel very honored that they do!

Testimonial:

“We love working with Valerie and Chocolate Uplift as distributor and representative of everything OBOLO in the market.    We have shared people-centered values focusing on highest quality chocolate, fairness and sustainability.  Valerie goes the extra mile to make sure our chocolate is in the best retail locations and well represented.”

Testimonial:

“Valerie’s advisory has been of tremendous value for us! Her work ethics, moral values and broad knowledge + expertise on many and diverse aspects ranging from specialty cacao and fine-chocolate, to marketing and content creations, as well as her great understanding of the bureaucracy and regulations to import chocolates to the USA, and not least her awesome distribution network, makes her a great candidate for anyone seeking help from a consultant on these matters! We feel very fortunate to count with her as an active special advisor on our team!” 

Testimonial:

“Valerie is an exceptional human being that has taken the endeavor of promoting the chocolate craft movement based on her 5 S principles, Slavery free, Soy free, Sustainable, Small batch and Scrumptious!   Her vast experience in the field of bean-to-bar movement and her personal charm has helped many small batch producers from small countries, like myself (El Salvador), improve and reach global quality.” 

If you are a retailer, whether brick-and-mortar, online, or both,

  • I’ll create and maintain your chocolate program, or
  • provide multiple brands or just a brand or two if that’s what you need, 
  • for your specialty market, cafe, wine shop, coffee shop, or other retail concept, or your hotel or other hospitality venture.
  • You’ll have products by top chocolate makers, that align with your brand, and that your customers or guests will feel uplifted to discover!
  • New: if you’re in Chicago or the area, you can pick up certain orders from me through free “curbside pickup” and receive additional free samples as a thanks for coming by, plus any of my Golden Age cookies I may have baked that day : ) Contact me at valerie@chocolateuplift.com to arrange.

Testimonial:

“Valerie provides everything that I could ask for from a broker/distributor. Her customer service is exceptional and I greatly appreciate her alerts to new brands and products that she knows I may like based on my quality standards and items that sell well with my customers, plus she wholeheartedly understands and respects my quality standards. Her response time to questions is quick and her responses are very thorough. I always gain insightful information when talking with Valerie and working with her is a pleasure.“

Testimonial:

“Valerie is amazing for her dedication to discovering world class chocolate from all over the world while maintaining the highest ethical standards for economic empowerment, sustainability, and health.“

Special packages or promotional opportunities include:

  • Displays for Holiday, Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day (the “Big 3” times of year for artisan chocolate!) —
Valentine’s Day chocolate love!

  • Chocolate from specific places, or made from cacao from specific countries such as Ecuador, Mexico, or Peru, or regional displays like this Midwest Moments selection —
Midwest magic!
  • Woman chocolate maker displays —
Women in chocolate!
  • New product launches, or promotions to support places like Haiti or a specific cause —
New product launch by woman-owned Askanya of Haiti

  • Retailer and brand promotions —
Gotham Chocolates at SPACE519

  • Seasonal or color-themed displays —
Orange zing!
Purple power!
Yellow burst!
Greenery!

Autumn celebration
Giftable tins for Holiday and beyond

Don’t forget: hot chocolate is a huge seller in winter!

  • Recipe ideas —
Chocolate chip pecan fruit pie, with craft chocolate, of course!

The brands I work with meet my 5 Ss of first-class craft chocolate:

  • slavery-free
  • soy-free
  • sustainable
  • small-batch
  • scrumptious!
ritual mountain line.jpg
48403917_10216533797671591_1217955834978
48360277_10216492030787445_8682254007789
41329198_10215797452263416_5470297616380
45171695_1849065521890306_23302438437037
belu cocoa almond butter.jpg

I represent award-winning or otherwise high-reputation small-batch brands including those pictured here and more, at the same price to you as buying direct, but with my troubleshooting, recommendations, streamlined ordering of multiple brands, new product introductions, and social media support to provide exposure and drive demand. 

Contact me for more information or the full Chocolate Uplift portfolio and price lists.

​

45085098_1849083678555157_36211179541013
45210338_1849065718556953_74528076105808
pink bars.jpg
38921019_10215589339620730_4759115860398
39075636_10215601316120135_8365211509252
dick taylor bar.jpg
wm chocolate new packaging.jpg

If I don’t love the quality, sustainability, or ingredients of a brand, I don’t represent it or recommend it. I share with you only what I love and trust in terms of flavor and source, so that you and your customers can love and trust it too.

45050188_1849065641890294_33715723741545
obolo chocolate.jpg
sirene new packaging.jpg
48379825_10216547439492628_4105398305821

​Backstory if you’re curious: my distribution and brokering started very organically. Running the original chocolate tours in cities across the US [video!], I started getting asked by chocolate shop and cafe owners on my tour routes to let them know of any interesting chocolate brands I came across that might be a good fit for their stores.

I also started meeting more and more chocolate makers who had an excellent product and needed introductions to top retailers, plus wholesaling, consulting, storage, and delivery.

By connecting retailers and makers, and driving demand with social media and email marketing, Chocolate Uplift brokering and wholesale distribution contains elements of consulting, to make sure the right bars are on the right shelves, to delight your customers, meet your goals, and enhance your brand, always with mutual respect and a win-win attitude.

​

45124434_1849065901890268_32375050902689
45167990_10216186893839212_8395490629257
45482589_10216218301704389_6958095741076
sample set.jpg
endorfin foods.jpg
wm chocolate.jpg
xocolatl hearts.jpg
potomac bons.jpg
fruition ginger and tea.jpg
dandelion costa rica.jpg
dick taylor and taza almonds.jpg
xocolatl rainbow.jpg
44838535_10216142860858415_6433542752331
45376340_10216208641702895_5733238413344
chequessett variety.jpg
dandelion with book.jpg
red packaging.jpg
ritual.jpg
taza discs.jpg
chequessett in the air.jpg
fruition bars.jpg
gotham wild.jpg

I look forward to discussing what I can do for you!

A peek at some of my shelves!
I’m a lifelong true chocolate lover, and even decorate with chocolate wrapper art that I frame myself! : )
With a freshly opened cocoa pod on a small family cacao farm in Ecuador

​

At home in Chicago, sweet Jorji the Cat is our sometime recycling coordinator and cacao pod investigator!
Can you spot the Dick Taylor Chocolate print behind Jorji?
A favorite breakfast of mine: fruit, cacao nibs, chocolate!

You can contact me any time at valerie@chocolateuplift.com with thoughts or questions. I’d love to hear from you!

Your friend — or Auntie! — in chocolate,

Valerie

Valerie Beck

Founder/CEO Chocolate Uplift

valerie@chocolateuplift.com

Instagram @chocolateuplift

Cacao Harvest with OBOLO Chocolate

Posted on by valeriebeck
In the rainforest: OBOLO Chocolate visits a Pangoa, Peru, cacao harvest

Hello!

Isn’t it nice to find authenticity? Authentic chocolate, made from authentic cacao, traded authentically, nourishing people and planet.

OBOLO Chocolate founder Mark Gerrits is originally from Milwaukee and is a long-time resident of South America, where he has focused on environmentalism and most recently cacao and chocolate. He and his family live in Santiago, Chile, and he visited the Pangoa cacao collective in Peru this summer, which is where he buys the cacao from which he and his team make their award-winning chocolate in Chile. Exciting news: Mark is now the godfather of a new baby born to Pangoa growers!

As a US importer and distributor of awesome OBOLO Chocolate, I video chatted with dear Mark today, and told him how much I enjoyed the photos and videos he posted from his recent trip. He told me he is the first visitor to the Pangoa collective since the current global situation began, and that he believes not only in maintaining and strengthening relationships but also in showing the world that he means what he says: his partnership with Pangoa is authentic; his cacao is truly traceable, and ethical, as it is grown with no child labor and it is organic.

As you may know, all of the brands I work with meet my 5 Ss of first-class bean-to-bar chocolate:

  • slavery-free
  • soy-free
  • sustainable
  • small-batch
  • scrumptious!

Mark gave me permission to re-post his Pangoa photos, and you can see more on OBOLO’s Instagram.

You can purchase selections of OBOLO bars at

Tell them Valerie sent you!

OBOLO Chocolate on the shelves at Cocoa & Co. in Chicago

You can also see more about OBOLO in my posts here (including video) and here. And, at the bottom of this post I’m sharing OBOLO-focused photos I took at the Craft Chocolate Experience in San Francisco in March 2020, where I got to spend time with Mark — and so many other chocolate makers and chocolate lovers, plus photos from my own little distribution center and staging area here in sweet home Chicago!

Enjoy this photo-journey to a cacao harvest in Peru, where you’ll see the opening of a cacao pod, and fermenting, drying, and sorting the cacao, and Pangoa families!

Your friend in chocolate,

Valerie

With Mark and team member Brayan at the Craft Chocolate Experience, San Francisco, March 2020

Valerie Beck

Founder, Chocolate Uplift — Craft Chocolate Services

Wholesale, Retail, Consulting, Speaking

valerie@chocolateuplift.com

Instagram: @chocolateuplift

OBOLO tote bags possibly coming soon to the online retail boutique! I get so many compliments on mine! : )

Online Boutique

Posted on by valeriebeck


VAICACAO 100% Ceremonial Cacao Drinking Chocolate, available in my new online boutique!

Welcome!

Here is where you’ll find specific craft chocolate items that you’ll find nowhere else in Chicago, or nowhere else in the US!

https://www.etsy.com/shop/ChocolateUplift

I’ve curated an elite selection of products from my larger catalogue of brands that I import or distribute.

Why? Because customers from the chocolate tours days ask when I’m going to open a chocolate shop, which is so kind.

Because chocolate makers and wholesale buyers and I sometimes find that there are items that aren’t conducive to wholesale sales.

Through my online boutique, I can return to retail sales, with no conflict of interest with my wholesale sales. And, I can offer you exclusive items that I hope you will love as much as I do.

Everything in the boutique of course meets my 5 Ss of first-class chocolate:

  • slavery-free
  • soy-free (and industrial additive-free)
  • sustainable (and soil-regenerative)
  • small-batch and
  • scrumptious!
Chocolate Almond Spread from Belú Cacao, which I import into the US from El Salvador, made with no oils and no dairy, just almonds, cacao, and artisanal panela sugar!
This set of 2 elegant 9th & Larkin Chocolate bars is made from 2 different Vietnam cacaos, for 2 different flavor experiences.

Thank you and enjoy!

Your friend in chocolate,

Valerie

Valerie Beck

Founder, Chocolate Uplift

Distribution, Online Boutique, Virtual Tastings

valerie@chocolateuplift.com

@chocolateuplift on Instagram

Child-labor abuses in the global supply chain, and Food of The Gods: Simran Sethi articles

Posted on by valeriebeck

Hello!

Here are two excellent articles by my friend Simran Sethi, whom I met in 2014 on Vicente Norero’s original Camino Verde cacao farm in Ecuador when she was researching her excellent book Bread, Wine, Chocolate: The Slow Loss of Foods We Love.

The first article below is about the US court case we’ve been following for 15 years, filed by former child slaves in West Africa who escaped.

The second article below shows you how chocolate goes from bean to bar and some of the people involved in the craft chocolate community.

Onward and upward!

1.

Can U.S. chocolate companies be liable for child-labor abuses in the global cocoa supply chain?

by Simran Sethi

06.02.2021

“One-third of children in Ghana and Ivory Coast’s cocoa-growing regions are involved in child labor.”

Full article here.

2.

Food of the Gods

with recipes by Alice Medrich

Your friend in chocolate,

Valerie

Valerie Beck

Founder, Chocolate Uplift

Distribution, Online Boutique, Virtual Tastings

valerie@chocolateuplift.com

@chocolateuplift on Instagram

Chocolate Uplift and HLSWA

Posted on by valeriebeck

**Update 12/16/2020: What a fun, fascinating, and delicious chocolate tasting we had today via video conference! Thank you for your awesome participation, or for visiting this page even if you didn’t have the chance to join the call!

As promised, here are links to shop the craft chocolate bars from the different sets, plus links to retailers who buy wholesale from me and where you can find multiple craft chocolate brands including many of the below; please note that not all bars are available in all countries at the current time:

Brands in our sets

9th & Larkin Chocolate of San Francisco, woman-owned, Lan puts her husband to work roasting cacao sometimes

Baiani Chocolates of Brazil, wife/husband-owned, wife Juliana is the chocolate maker

Crow & Moss Chocolate of Michigan, husband is chocolate maker, wife does their graphic design

Dick Taylor Chocolate of Eureka, California

Honest Chocolate of Cape Town, South Africa

Manoa Chocolate of Hawaii

Xocolatl Chocolate of Atlanta, wife/husband-owned, signatory to the Nestle and Cargill v Doe amicus brief linked below

VAICACAO of Italy, wife/husband-owned, both are chocolate makers

US retailers who will ship anywhere

Cocoa & Co., woman-owned in Chicago

Gourmet Boutique, woman-owned in Boston

Honeycreeper Chocolate, woman-owned in Birmingham, Alabama

Rare Bird Preserves, woman-owned in Oak Park, Illinois

Yahara Chocolate of Wisconsin, possibly the most extensive selection of craft chocolate anywhere

Please tell any of the brands or retailers I sent you!

I’d love to hear what you choose or what your favorites were from your set, or your thoughts on Nestle and Cargill v Doe, or thoughts or questions on anything else.

Thank you!

Valerie

chocolateuplift@gmail.com

Feel free to follow me or say hi on Instagram at @chocolateuplift!

**

Hello!

I am excited and thankful for a special virtual chocolate tasting for the Harvard Law School Women’s Alliance, with my sister alumnae!

Below is the welcome letter going out with the craft chocolate tasting kits, and below that is information on the chocolate bars in the kits, and on how to recognize ethical chocolate, as well as updates on Nestle and Cargill v. Doe, a case about child slave labor in Big Chocolate brands in which the US Supreme Court heard oral arguments earlier this month.

Thank you, and enjoy!

Valerie

Valerie Beck (HLS ’96)

Founder/CEO Chocolate Uplift

Craft Chocolate Distribution and Consulting

Click for more about me, including bios and video!

Welcome Letter

Hello and welcome to our virtual chocolate tasting!

The craft chocolate bars I’ve selected are enclosed, and we’re going to have a fun, fascinating, and delicious time!

Here is our plan:

1. Anticipation: Please don’t eat the chocolate yet! (Step 1 is the hardest!) We can taste it together during the Final 2020 Chapters Call:

Date:  Wednesday, December 16

Time:  10:15 AM (PDT) / 1:15 PM (EDT) to 11:30 AM (PDT) / 2:30 PM (EDT)

Dial-in: Details to arrive electronically

2. Storage: I recommend storing your chocolate in a cool, dry place, and not in the refrigerator where the moisture can cause the chocolate to “bloom,” or develop chalkiness. 

3.  Tasting: During the call, I’ll walk us through a guided tasting so that we can talk about the history and health benefits of chocolate, how to recognize ethical chocolate, and a related recent Supreme Court case, and so that we can simply enjoy craft chocolate and a festive gathering!

For more information in advance about the chocolate bars in your kit and on craft chocolate in general — such as about my 5 Ss of first-class chocolate: slavery-free, soy-free, sustainable, small-batch, and scrumptious — please see www.chocolateuplift.com/hlswa. 

I look forward to our virtual chocolate tasting, and am grateful to HLSWA for hosting this special event!

Thank you, and happy holidays!

Valerie

Valerie Beck (HLS ‘96)

Founder/CEO Chocolate Uplift 

Craft Chocolate Distribution and Consulting

www.chocolateuplift.com

P.S. Here is my favorite Aztec-inspired hot chocolate recipe; feel free to sip during our presentation:

4 tablespoons drinking chocolate mix or finely chopped chocolate bar

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/8 teaspoon ground cardamom

1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1/8 teaspoon sea salt

1/8 teaspoon orange zest

Whisk dry ingredients with up to 1 cup hot water or your favorite milk, top with orange zest, and enjoy!

*****

Cacao pod from Ecuador

Ethical Chocolate

Commercial chocolate / big-brand chocolate comes from a supply chain with child labor, forced labor, and deforestation and other environmental degradations.

How to recognize and choose craft chocolate instead, which nourishes people and planet?

Look for my 5 Ss of first-class chocolate:

*slavery-free — Look for the cacao country of origin on the label. If you see none, chances are you have non-traceable bulk cacao, which comes from tainted supply chains.

*soy-free — Look for the presence or absence of soy lecithin or other processed ingredients on the label. These indicate industrial chocolate and also have negative health effects.

*sustainable — Does the brand tell you about the cacao they sourced, and about their packaging?

*small-batch — The big brands are all complicit in child labor, farmer poverty, deforestation, and overuse of chemical pesticides. Look for small brands making a difference.

*scrumptious! — Chocolate is about enjoyment!

Cacao nibs
In the grinder
Chocolate goes with everything!

*****

Tasting kits for our HLSWA virtual event

Chocolate bars in most US Mainland tasting kits:

  • @crowandmosschocolate Bolivian Rose Salt chocolate bar, made from Colombian cacao plus cane sugar, with a gentle sprinkling of Bolivian pink salt. This fruit-forward bar reminds me of childhood visits to Michigan, where my mom spent part of her childhood on a small family farm!
  • @dicktaylorchocolate Brazil, made in Eureka, California, is sophisticated and rich, and reminds me of the years I lived in Europe, where the idea to create the world’s first chocolate tours came to me, as a chocolate-obsessed exchange student in Paris in 1989!
  • @xocolatlchocolate Kissed Mermaids, made in Atlanta, is light, bright, and topped with cacao nibs, and you know how excited I get about cacao nibs, and about blue and white! A cheerful bar! Plus, this is the first batch on Uganda cacao (instead of Costa Rica), grown by the Semuliki Forest collective of around 1,000 family farmers, and I love the rich notes of warm spice on a core note of straight-ahead chocolate!

Alternate bar in NY/NJ kits:

Chocolate bars in a San Francisco tasting kit:

Photo by 9th & Larkin Chocolate

Craft chocolate brand in Hawaii tasting kit:

Photo by Manoa Chocolate

Craft chocolate brand in Brazil tasting kit:

Craft chocolate brand in Europe tasting kits:

Craft chocolate brand in South Africa tasting kit:

Photo by Honest Chocolate

*****

Cacao

Info on Nestle and Cargill v. Doe

Washington Post article

Video debrief featuring the attorney who made the recent argument before the Supreme Court, and other attorneys involved

Amicus brief filed by craft chocolate makers (including Xocolatl Chocolate, which we are tasting in our US Mainland kits)

Symposium of articles about the case from Just Security, based at the Reiss Center on Law and Security at New York University School of Law

*****

Thank you and keep eating real chocolate!

Chocolate Gift Set and Virtual Birthday Party

Posted on by valeriebeck

Hello! Happy December!

What do these craft chocolate bars have in common? They are the beautiful and delicious bars in a special set I’m assembling to celebrate my birthday on December 10!

Be among the first to purchase the set, and I’ll invite you to join a Google Meet birthday party with me that weekend, to talk about the chocolate bars and more! (Party hats optional!)

The sets will ship the week of my birthday, and you can shop now, for yourself or for gifts, by sending $51 (why that number? Haha! : ) to me via PayPal at chocolateuplift@gmail.com or paypal.me/chocolateuplift. The price includes US shipping. Please let me know where to send the chocolate.

For my birthday set, I’ve selected four bars that I love and that have special meaning for me:

  • @crowandmosschocolate Bolivian Rose Salt chocolate bar, made from Colombian cacao plus cane sugar, with a gentle sprinkling of Bolivian pink salt. This fruit-forward bar reminds me of childhood visits to Michigan, where my mom spent part of her childhood on a small family farm!
  • @dandelionchocolate Costa Esmeraldas, Ecuador 70%, made in San Francisco from just 2 ingredients — cacao and sugar, all you need! — and with a precision-focus on flavor. Ecuador is the first place I visited cacao farms, and I also love that the bars are wrapped in upcycled Indian cotton!
  • @dicktaylorchocolate Brazil, made in Eureka, California, is sophisticated and rich, and reminds me of the years I lived in Europe, where the idea to create the world’s first chocolate tours came to me, as a chocolate-obsessed exchange student in Paris in 1989!
  • @xocolatlchocolate Kissed Mermaids, made in Atlanta, is light, bright, and topped with cacao nibs, and you know how excited I get about cacao nibs, and about blue and white! A cheerful bar! Plus, this is the first batch on Uganda cacao (instead of Costa Rica), grown by the Semuliki Forest collective of around 1,000 family farmers, and I love the rich notes of warm spice on a core note of straight-ahead chocolate!

What else do these bars have in common? They are all vegan, US-made, created by incredibly kind people I’m honored to call friends and clients, and of course they meet my 5 Ss of first-class craft chocolate:

  • slavery-free
  • soy-free
  • sustainable
  • small-batch
  • scrumptious!

For every set sold, I’ll donate a meal to CREER, a rescue center in Cote d’Ivoire for formerly trafficked kids including those trafficked onto cacao farms that supply Big Chocolate brands that rely on forced labor.

If you choose my birthday set, thank you! Let’s have some fun! Onward and upward!

#chocolatedistributor
#chocolateconsultant
#sweetspeaker

#ChocolateUplift

Your friend in chocolate,

Valerie

Valerie Beck

Founder/CEO Chocolate Uplift

Craft Chocolate Consulting, Distribution, Speaking

www.chocolateuplift.com

chocolateuplift@gmail.com

IG: @chocolateuplift

Update: in my Ecuador “birthday party hat” at my virtual birthday party!
Update: dancing at my virtual birthday party!

Rad Dads: Men Who Craft Chocolate and Equality [video, shopping links]

Posted on by valeriebeck

Hello!

Click for my chat with “rad dad” bean-to-bar chocolate makers Matt Weyandt of Xocolatl Chocolate of Atlanta, and Mark Gerrits of Obolo Chocolate of Santiago, Chile, about craft chocolate and crafting equality [video on YouTube, recorded from our Instagram Live broadcast] and scroll down to the end of this post to shop.

Happy June!

This is the month of the Solstice, and of liberation celebrations such as Loving Day and Juneteenth, which all represent types of awakenings. June is also the month of Father’s Day, which could represent an awakening to equality and to what leadership could look like reimagined for an enlightened society.

For example, if we believe that Black Lives Matter, don’t we also agree that Black African lives matter, that it is monstrous that 2.1 million Black African children work as cacao farmers in hazardous conditions in Cote d’Ivoire so that big chocolate brands can take the local cacao and sell cheap global chocolate, and that these big brands and their sales and distribution channels must immediately stop using child slave labor? This is the #ChocolateFreedomProject I talk about: bringing awareness and an end to child slave labor on West African cacao farms that supply cocoa beans for 70% of the world’s chocolate.

Similarly, if we believe that white people should not have power or privilege over black or brown people (I would change words like white and black, by the way, to more accurate terms, less fraught with metaphor; any suggestions?), don’t we also believe that masculine should not have power or privilege over feminine, and, going further, government officials and corporate oligarchs should not have power or privilege over people; going all the way: no one should have power or privilege over anyone.

Implementing true respect for all in the human family necessitates a reimagining of not just individual relationships, but also of economic and government structures and of the patriarchal colonial capitalist oligarchy in which our world operates. Why not a new Golden Age of empathy and equality, where we care for people and planet, and believe in equal participation?

Maybe I should have warned you that when I put Equality in the title of this blog post, I meant it, all the way!

To explore our theme of equality, I invited two dear craft chocolate maker friends and clients of mine — Mark Gerrits of ÓBOLO Chocolate, and Matt Weyandt of Xocolatl Chocolate — to chat with me on Instagram Live as part of the Stay Home With Chocolate festival, Father’s Day edition. Thank you to these gentlemen-supermen for sharing their time and thoughts! Click for a low-tech video-of-a-video version of our IG Live, on my YouTube channel! [video on YouTube, recorded from our Instagram Live broadcast]

Craft chocolate gives us a delicious view into an equitable way of life, because it involves a supply chain and products that meet my 5 Ss of ethical chocolate:

  • slavery-free
  • soy-free and industrial additive-free
  • sustainable
  • small-batch and
  • scrumptious!
Set-up on my kitchen counter for our Instagram Live chat.

Click for a low-tech video-of-a-video version of our IG Live, and click below to shop:

[video on YouTube, recorded from our Instagram Live broadcast]

Xocolatl Chocolate — use code HEALTHY20 for 20% off

Yahara Chocolate of Wisconsin — online ordering for shipment anywhere, use code chocolateuplift for 10% off ÓBOLO Chocolate, Xocolatl Chocolate, or other brands

Xocolatl and Obolo are also available at these retailers who are open as of the time of writing:

As always, if you are looking for a specific bar or brand or general type of craft chocolate, you can use my free Chocolate Finder service: just send me a message and I’ll help you find what you’re looking for!

As you may know, I typically don’t sell retail; instead my business Chocolate Uplift sells and distributes craft chocolate bars like the ones listed above wholesale to retailers, and I also provide consulting services to chocolate makers and cacao farm owners, and speaking engagements to the public and for meetings and events.

Thank you, and keep eating ethical chocolate!

Onward and upward!

Your friend in chocolate,

Valerie

With Mark of ÓBOLO (left) and Scott of Totto’s Market
With Matt of Xocolatl (right) and team

Valerie Beck

Founder/CEO Chocolate Uplift

Craft Chocolate Activism, Brokering, Consulting, Distribution

www.chocolateuplift.com

chocolateuplift@gmail.com

IG: @chocolateuplift

Women Entrepreneurs Making Social Impact [slides, chocolate ordering links]

Posted on by valeriebeck

Hello!

harvard women chocolate presentation
A selection of women-made or -led ethical chocolate brands

What a blast to give a zoom presentation for an amazing group of my Harvard College women classmates today about *Women Entrepreneurs Making Social Impact,* and to share my journey and mission of Uplift Through Chocolate!

Here is the link to my slides; be sure to open them all the way to see the information and links in the Notes sections! Enjoy, and scroll down this page for online shopping links to woman-owned retailers and woman-owned or -led brands!

20180902_182005
We are Harvard and proud: outside my former dorm Stoughton (left in photo) a couple of years ago for Convocation. Here are the slides to my talk today for Harvard women classmates.

We are celebrating the 100-year anniversary of women’s right to vote here in the US, and I applaud my classmates who organized a video chat series for us featuring stories of women’s activism! Our college reunion next month was canceled due to the coronavirus situation (stay well, and keep perspective: 11 million people die each year from poor diet — including from heart disease, cancer, and diabetes caused by eating industrial Big Food — that’s 1 in 5 deaths globally and that’s 50 times more than have died from covid-19, so why haven’t we shut down Big Food and the outlets like Amazon that sell it?), and we are moving forward with our own events, virtually!

I gathered beautiful and delicious craft chocolate bars shown here from woman-owned or -led brands, to wave around on-screen, along with the fascinating book 1491 (click for a related article by the book’s author in The Atlantic) about life in the Americas before Columbus — we can learn a lot from the societies of indigenous people, like the one that had a grandmothers council of wise women to approve or reject political plans — which includes information about the role of cacao and chocolate.

Also recommended: the excellent documentary Setting the Bar, which gives insights into the role of women in a cacao-growing region today and features several of my dear clients and friends, and an awesome article called “The Chocolate-Brewing Witches of Colonial Latin America!”

(Those links are also in my slides.)

ecuador cacao pod
Cacao: immunity-boosting superfood!

 

Mother’s Day is coming! Where to buy the amazing craft chocolate bars I discussed in my presentation, which meet my 5 Ss of

  1. slavery-free (remember to look for the cacao country of origin)
  2. soy-free / industrial additive-free
  3. sustainable
  4. small-batch, and
  5. scrumptious:

 

Woman-owned retailers, carrying woman-owned or -led craft chocolate brands, order online or by phone and tell them I sent you

Beacon Hill Chocolates in Boston

    • Look for:
      • Bixby Chocolate of Maine
      • Ritual Chocolate of Utah

 

Cocoa + Co. in Chicago

    • Look for:
      • Xocolatl Chocolate of Atlanta

 

Gourmet Boutique in Boston

    • Look for:
      • Askanya Chocolate of Haiti

 

Rare Bird Preserves in Oak Park, Illinois

    • Look for:
      • Bixby Chocolate of Maine
      • Ritual Chocolate of Utah

 

Direct from woman-owned brands, order online and tell them I sent you

  • Askanya Chocolate of Haiti, ships from New York City, use coupon code ASKCHOCO2020 for 20% off
  • Fresco Chocolate of Washington State
  • Good King snacking cacao from Honduras and Indonesia, ships from Seattle, free shipping

 

Male-owned retailer, carrying some great woman-owned brands, order online and tell him I sent you

Yahara Chocolate of Wisconsin

    • Look for:
      • Belú Cacao of El Salvador
      • Chequessett Chocolate of Cape Cod, Massachusetts
      • Fruition Chocolate of New York State
      • Xocolatl Chocolate of Atlanta

 

Male-owned retailer, carrying some great woman-owned brands, open for walk-ins, tell him I sent you

Totto’s Market of Chicago

    • Look for:
      • 9th & Larkin of San Francisco
      • Chocolate Tree of Scotland
      • Good King snacking cacao of Honduras and Indonesia by way of Seattle

 

Most of the women chocolate makers and retailers I spoke with the other day in preparation for my presentation basically said the same thing: any income still coming in goes to their employees during these days of virus pandemonium. So whether you shop with a retailer or directly with a brand, you are helping their (mostly women) employees!

 

womenmade incountry chocolate
A selection of woman-made in-country chocolate: the chocolate bars were made in the same country where the cacao was grown, which means more profit and pride for local teams than if the cacao were exported without making a finished product

As you may know, my business Chocolate Uplift generally doesn’t sell chocolate to the public since closing the subscription box part of the business; instead, I sell and distribute craft chocolate bars like the ones listed above wholesale to retailers like the ones listed above, and also provide consulting services to chocolate makers and cacao farm owners, and speaking engagements to the public and for meetings and events.

I also operate a free “chocolate-finder” service: if there’s a type of chocolate or a flavor or a brand you want, and you don’t know where to order it, ask me and I’ll find out and tell you!

Thank you, and keep eating real chocolate!

Onward and upward!

Your friend in chocolate,
Valerie

valerie chocolate hug
Sending you a chocolate hug, as we move toward a world that nourishes people and planet! That’s Uplift Through Chocolate!

Valerie Beck

Founder/CEO Chocolate Uplift

Craft Chocolate Brokering, Consulting, Distribution

http://www.chocolateuplift.com

chocolateuplift@gmail.com

IG: @chocolateuplift