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!
**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
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.
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!
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 nibsIn the grinderChocolate 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:
Chocolate Uplift 