Thoughts (and chocolate) for Loving Day and Juneteenth

Posted on by valeriebeck

Hello! Happy solstice, a day to mark planetary shifts!

Below are a couple of my social media posts on two other big days in June — Loving Day, and Juneteenth — plus chocolate to go with them!

Enjoy!

Valerie Beck is in Chicago, Illinois.
June 11 at 2:19 PM ·

Happy Loving Day tomorrow, June 12!

No, it’s not another Valentine’s Day, though it could be! Loving Day celebrates interracial marriage, by marking the anniversary of the unanimous US Supreme Court decision in 1967 in the case of Loving v Virginia, which said no state can make interracial marriage illegal, and that blacks and whites and anybody else can legally marry each other or anyone of any background. This recognition of freedom to marry who you choose also underpins the later 2015 US decision recognizing same-sex marriage, so happy Pride Month too!

It always seemed like common sense or basic human rights to me, to live as you choose and love whom you choose, without interference from government, oligarchs, vigilantes, or anyone else. Maybe that’s in part because as you may know, I come from a mixed race and mixed religion family! In case you’re curious, this post in another one of my blogs, Diary of My Disastrous Law Career, gives you a bit of background on my family, plus fun vintage photos!

So, I’ve gathered here today some delicious craft chocolate that explicitly represents love — Chocolatasm‘s Hawaii salt chocolate hearts, the Xocolatl Small Batch Chocolate Love & Happiness raspberry orange olive oil chocolate bar, and the Violet Sky Onward & Upward Love rose and pistachio chocolate bar on which I collaborated, plus Love-themed snacking cacao by Good King Cacao — to say happy Loving Day, and here’s to our human birthright of love, liberty, and unity! May we deepen and expand these elements in our hearts and in our world, for the Golden Age of empathy and equality!

#lovingday

Valerie Beck is in Chicago, Illinois.
Yesterday at 1:10 PM ·

Hello! Happy #Juneteenth!

This date [June 19] marks the ending of (1st-wave) slavery in the United States. President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, during the Civil War over slavery, yet enslaved people achieved liberation over an elongated period of time, culminating on June 19, 1865, in Texas.

But wait, you or people of the future may ask: aren’t all people born free, as expressions of the One Great Soul, and isn’t it true that no political or social (or tech-med) structure shall violate the fundamental principles that people are to care for people (e.g. love thy neighbor) and exercise their own liberty and free will while respecting that of others?

Of course!

To celebrate eternal inviolable liberty, how about a delicious liberation brunch of Crow & Moss Chocolate of Michigan, and Xocolatl Chocolate cacao nibs, on cinnamon toast with berries, all organic?

But wait, you may ask: what makes this a liberation brunch? Here comes one of my it’s-all-connected stories : )

My mother often made cinnamon toast for us kids when we were growing up, so I always think of her when I make it! She spent part of her childhood in Michigan, on a small family farm in a township that had been illegally racially integrated since its founding in the 1860s. That’s not a typo: racial mixing was illegal in the US, mixing of the One Human Family, in the North too. But people in Mom’s area did it anyway because it was ethical and practical, sending their black children and their white children to the same school for example. When my mother spent a summer with relatives in the South as a little girl in the 1950s (the time of 2nd-wave slavery: brutal “Jim Crow” apartheid), she was horrified by the abuses against black people. Now the laws have changed, and segregation is illegal, yet it happens in many ways including incarceration where prisoners work for the state or corporations for little or no pay (part of 3rd-wave slavery), or consider West Africa where over 2 million black kids work in hazardous or slavery conditions on cacao farms so corporations can sell cheap chocolate.

Mom never bought Aunt Jemima “slavery syrup,” and doesn’t buy slavery chocolate. Voilà! @ Chicago, Illinois

Your friend in chocolate,

Valerie

Valerie Beck

Founder/CEO Chocolate Uplift

Craft Chocolate Activism, Brokering, Consulting, Distribution

www.chocolateuplift.com

chocolateuplift@gmail.com

IG: @chocolateuplift

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

Shop: #stayhomewithchocolate

Posted on by valeriebeck

chocolate for breakfast

Hello!

I hope you are well!

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
  • send me a message on Instagram @chocolateuplift.
  • 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 blowing kiss

Valerie Beck

Founder/CEO Chocolate Uplift

Craft Chocolate Brokering, Consulting, Distribution

http://www.chocolateuplift.com

chocolateuplift@gmail.com

IG: @chocolateuplift

 

Welcome to the Chocolate Uplift #stayhomewithchocolate Shop!

Obolo Chocolate

Made in Chile

$11

obolomaqui

obolo maqui ingredientsobolo earl grey

obolo

Obolo PeruObolo Peru backobolo gift frontobolo gift backobolo murta

obolo merken murtaobolo muna ricavalerie with mark and brayan

 

Belu Cacao

Made in El Salvador

$6 full-size

$3 half-size

$1 mini

$16 cocoa almond butter

Screenshot_20190712-092046
Cacao and sugar — all you need!

Screenshot_20190712-092115
The ingredients are grown in El Salvador, and the chocolate is made in El Salvador.

Screenshot_20190712-092011

belu cocoa almond butterbelu butter ingredientsbelu butter pourbelu spread

Screenshot_20190712-091416

 

Sirene Chocolate

Made in Canada

$10

sirene assortmentsirene 100

sirene in hot chocsirene with croissantsirene jam croissantsirene chabilsirene chabil backsirene chabil bar

sirene fleur de selvalerie and taylor

 

Violet Sky Chocolate

Made in South Bend, Indiana

$11

pine and citrusp and cp and c on grapefruit halfp and c on grapefruit

maple and vanillam and vviolet sky m and v

 

Chocolatasm

Made on Cape Cod, Massachussetts

$8

chocolatasm hot pinkchocolatasm hot pink detailChocolatasm hot pink labelchocolatasm hot pink ingredients

chocolatasm and obolo pinks

 

Bixby Chocolate

Made in Rockland, Maine

$10

bixby smoothie barsbixby matchabixby matcha backbixby matcha detailvalerie and kate

 

Raaka Chocolate

Made in Brooklyn

$6

raaka banana bananaraaka banana detailraaka banana ingredientsraaka banana back

 

You can order as follows:

  • Choose your chocolate bars, 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
  • send me a message on Instagram @chocolateuplift.
  • 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!

Thank you!

Onward and upward!

choc and mangochoc croissant jamchoc figs banana

Repost NYTimes article: Everything You Don’t Know About Chocolate

Posted on by valeriebeck

Happy Valentine’s Day!

dandelion dick taylor fruition
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:

Everything You Don’t Know About Chocolate

The beloved bar has come a long way in quality and complexity. Here’s a primer on how it’s made, and how to choose the best and most ethically produced. 

By Melissa Clark

 

A snippet:

…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.”

 

Journalist Melissa Clark also notes that her favorite craft chocolate bars include Dandelion Chocolate, Dick Taylor Chocolate, Fruition Chocolate, and Taza Chocolate, four of the brands I am honored to represent!

Here’s to brands that meet my 5 S’s:

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

taza rounds on zig zags
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 and paul at dandelion
With Leah Hammerman and Paul Primozich of Dandelion Chocolate

with dahlia and bryan
With Dahlia Rissman Graham and Bryan Graham of Fruition Chocolate

 

with dustin and adam
With Dustin Taylor and Adam Dick of Dick Taylor Chocolate

Valerie Beck

Craft Chocolate Brokering, Consulting, Distribution

http://www.chocolateuplift.com

chocolateuplift@gmail.com

Instagram @chocolateuplift